Is the Philips Ambilight TV Series Worth It?

You are probably aware of how TV plays a big part when it comes to having a nice movie session at home. The right one makes everything look immersive, sets the mood and captivates attention. Want to stay in on a Friday night or impress guests at a house party? Your TV will be your best friend.

Well, ever wondered just how much more can you make your home cinema experience feel like the actual cinema? Maybe you should consider your ambience, and that’s what Philips aims to provide with their TVs.

Philips is internationally well-known for its lighting solutions be it for homes or offices. So it comes as no surprise that Philips is also known as one of the most trusted brands for TV.

But did you know? Philips is also a leader in the health industry! They are recognised for image-guided therapy, health informatics, consumer health and home care.

Now you might be wondering, “Why should I care if Philips is a leader in health, TV and lighting?”

After 6 months of testing, we’re excited to finally conclude our experiences; how this one single feature on Philips’ TVs changed the way we enjoyed TV at home.

Today, we’re talking about Philips Ambilight TVs; an Ambient Light solution for your home entertainment needs.

So, what are “Ambient Lights”?

Essentially, the lighting of your ambience plays a part in determining the mood of your home entertainment space. Therefore, ambient lights exist to spruce up your TV sessions whether it’s for movies, gaming or sports.

Back to Philips. Literally, this is an advanced ambient light feature currently exclusive to Philips TVs.

Officially called “Ambilight”; the feature is a system of intelligent LEDs at the back of the Philips TV that cast hues matching the screen’s content, and then splash them onto the walls.

How Are Ambient Lights for TV Useful?

You might think this feature can seem distracting, but we promise it isn’t. In fact, it benefits eye health a lot.

Recognising the health concern for a viewer’s eyes, Philips offer their Ambilight TVs not just as a catchy entertainment option but also as a solution to reduce eye-straining.

So how it works is that the feature, at a glance, softens overly-saturated content since it spreads out and blends soft colours into your room in real-time. And this is all done without making the colours of your TV content look pale.

The feature essentially doesn’t overload colours and strain your eyes, but also gives you a far more immersive and memorable experience.

It is also pleasant and suitable for whatever content you are viewing, be it watching movies, playing games, listening to music or even just chilling with the lounge lights.

Philips Ambilight vs Third-Party Lights

Some might have seen this technology before. It’s where you can purchase LED strips separately, hook them up to a camera and have them sit on or under your TV screen. Together with the camera, the strips will then do their best to cast colours by reading the TV’s content be it static or motion.

The problem here is that it doesn’t always work for all TV sizes and is especially true for larger ones. Moreover, latency here is not really the best which can break the immersion and spoil your mood.

With Philips’ Ambilight TVs, everything is done in real-time and in an instant. No additional cameras or accessories are needed; just raw input coming from the TV itself.

Different types of ambient lights on Philips Ambilight TV

As far as the type of Ambilight modes that Philips’ TVs go, they are available on Philips’ LEDs, OLED and, MiniLED screens, equipped with either 3-sided lights or 4-sided lights.

While you can choose to match the motion hues with your on-screen content, you can also opt to have static colours. There are many Ambilight Styles to choose from which might psychologically help to better your viewing experiences, according to your preferences.

You can even customise how responsive you want the Ambilights to be:

Off
Follow Video
Follow Audio
Lounge Light
Follow Flag
Follow App

As you can see, the TV offers you a plethora of viewing pleasures.

No matter which mode you choose, each Ambilight style makes every moment feel intimate and exciting. The intelligent LEDs around the edges of the TV work to elevate the viewing experience and give you an enhanced immersion.

Want to channel your fan moments for your sports team? Try the Follow Flag option. Just want to enjoy music? Use the Follow Audio Mode. And if you want more convenience, there’s a Philips Ambilight mobile app that lets you set your Ambilight preferences easily.

More: About Philips Ambilight Series

Through the brand’s experience in providing the perfect lighting experience, they’ve dished out some interesting contenders with these Ambilight TVs.

In a sea of TV brands that are emphasizing the biggest and clearest image quality, these Ambilight TVs focus on bringing joy and will please just about any type of TV viewer, without sacrificing picture quality.

Whichever Philips Ambilight models you get, most of their latest offerings come with updated connectivity ports, operating systems, the newest Image Processing engines (P5 Perfect Picture Engine) and cinema-quality stereo sound systems.

Here are some of the best Philips Ambilight TV models to get.

Philips OLED706:

Click to watch our video editor’s review!

If you want the best of the best from a Philips TV, a model like the Philips OLED706 is a strong contender in the market.

Philips’ OLED models are designed to provide the best HDR content so you can easily travel within different sceneries from just your living room. Besides HDR, these panels support 4K content and also have the latest HDMI ports, making them great for console gaming too.

Philips 9506 MiniLED TV:

Click to watch our video editor’s review!

Want to admire colours that look just as if they were right in front of you? Look to a model like the Philips 9506 MiniLED.

Here, the TV’s screen utilises MiniLED technology; Philips’ take on OLED screens. Essentially, said technology comprises a backlight that uses thousands of tiny LEDs which are grouped into 1,000 zones.

With each zone being able to turn off automatically, the panel provides more organic colours with better contrasts in comparison to LED screens.

Philips 8516 - 4K UHD LED TVs:

If you prefer to have reliable technology that still displays beautiful colours, consider the Philips 8516 TV which is optimised with Dolby Vision and Ambilight.

For those who are particular about getting professional picture quality should go for the Philips 8516 due to its P5 Perfect Picture Engine processor. With the processor, it delivers more in-depth details, vivid colours and crisp visuals.

Philips 7906 4K UHD LED TVs:

Like the Philips 8516 4K UHD LED TV, another great option is the Philips 7906.

Taking a step above regular LED TVs, this bang-for-buck option is great for those who do not want to compromise on picture quality. The TV is optimised with Dolby Vision, and Ambilight to let you have a viewing experience just as immersive as higher-end OLED TVs. This TV model is also equipped with a higher resolution than most LED screens to display clearer pictures.

ProductNation’s experience

Overall, Philips’ Ambilights are a feature that’ll definitely change the way you view your content. Once you start using it, you won’t want to stop.

In our video team’s experience, the Ambilight feature was a lot of fun to have, especially for viewing entertainment content such as movies & gaming. Touching on the latter; triple-A titles with vast sceneries just felt so much more immersive.

As a matter of fact, our video editor switched back to the regular old TV and felt something was amiss. Without Ambilight, it impacted the viewing experience much more than they thought it would, with content looking notably duller.

Of course, experiences vary from person to person. So if possible, we recommend experiencing the TVs in person at least once before any purchases.

Conclusion

Takeaway? The Philips Ambilight TV is immersive without hurting the eyes which means being able to experience a more life-like picture unlike any other.

There are many instances that this TV will shine. They are great to enjoy games with elaborative stories, sceneries that are far away from your home, or even a concert by your favourite artists.

In a nutshell, those who want an entertainment unit unlike any other can look into owning a Philips Ambilight TV. It is truly an immersive piece of home entertainment unit that’ll change the way home entertainment fans as well as anyone that watches TV.