Philips MLED920 / MLED910 vs XIAOMI S Mini 2026 (55"-75") 60Hz

Philips MLED920 in our measurements in static tests even reached around 900 nits, which for a mid-range model is quite an impressive result. In practice, this translates to a lot of satisfaction during viewing – in scenes rich in bright light, such as the first, third, or fifth test patterns, the screen was able to generate around 700 nits, which is sufficient to feel the real "HDR effect". However, it cannot be denied that the limited number of backlight zones and the typical mini-LED compromises in dimming algorithms reveal their flaws in more demanding scenes. In sequences with small light sources – like the moon or a scene from the film Sicario 2 – the television clearly prioritises maintaining deeper blacks at the expense of the brightness of these small elements. For most viewers, this is still a reasonable compromise, as the dark background looks much better, although it should be noted that the details themselves may not dazzle with intensity. The question of colours also leaves a bit to be desired. Although the employed PFS filter (the equivalent of quantum dots known from QLEDs) does its job and the colours appear quite vibrant, the coverage of the DCI-P3 colour space reaches "only" 90%. In everyday viewing, this will be sufficient, but in extremely colourful productions – like the latest Disney animations – one can notice that some tones are not as vivid as they could be in other constructions.

When it comes to HDR, the Xiaomi S Mini 2026 performs really well, especially given the segment this model sits in. The TV can reach around 1000 nits of brightness without much difficulty, so in bright scenes it can deliver a very pronounced HDR effect. The sun, highlights or very brightly lit parts of the picture can be intensely bright and at times really hit you with their intensity. It’s a bit different in dark scenes, though. Very small light sources surrounded by black are rendered at much lower brightness, so they lack the pinpoint intensity seen on the best TVs. That’s not unusual for a Mini LED. The local dimming algorithm reduces the backlight in those cases to preserve as deep a black as possible, which in such scenes matters more than a few extra nits.

HDR colours

Colour reproduction also fares well. Xiaomi markets the S Mini 2026 as a QLED TV, although the solution used here is in practice based on a PFS phosphor. What matters is the result, and that is pretty good. Measured DCI-P3 gamut coverage was around 94%, while in the much wider BT.2020 colour space it was about 74%. That means the TV can show most of the colours used in HDR movies with suitably high saturation. Its limitations are most noticeable with very intense shades of green, where the colour range begins to run out.

Like every Philips TV we've tested, the MLED920 was primarily assessed in Filmmaker mode – the so-called "most honest" mode, designed for films and to faithfully convey the intentions of the creators. Indeed, in terms of colour accuracy, it performs best among all the modes available on the TV, but it is not without flaws. The first thing that stands out is the white balance. The image has a slight tendency towards purple-pink tones, giving it a somewhat unnatural character. However, an even bigger problem turned out to be what we mentioned earlier – image clipping. Just looking at the gamma or EOTF charts reveals that the line deviates significantly from the norm, dropping below a value of 1.8. In practice, this means "bleeding" of the brightest whites, where the image becomes almost milky. Fortunately, most of these issues can be corrected – the MLED920 responds to calibration, and with a few adjustments, image quality can be significantly improved.

We tested the Xiaomi S Mini 2026 (55–75 inch models) in Film mode, which compared with the other presets offered the most accurate colours. That did not mean the image was correctly set up straight away. In our unit the white balance was noticeably shifted toward warmer tones. There was too little blue and too much red, giving whites and greys a slightly warm cast. The TV also tended to brighten darker parts of the image too much. This was due to the gamma, which instead of staying around 2.4 fell in places to about 2.0. That made shadow detail more visible, but the image lost some depth. So the factory settings weren't bad, but they still needed some adjustment to reproduce the picture accurately.

After calibration, we managed to largely tame the white balance – to the extent that the average viewer will not be able to detect colour inaccuracies. The characteristic pink-purple glow that previously disrupted the naturalness of the image has also disappeared. The colour palette has been organised, and the colours appear more cohesive and neutral. The gamma in SDR content looks really good after calibration – there’s no sign of the earlier “bleeding” effect in bright scenes. The image has become more contrasty and free from the milky effect that previously severely affected the viewing experience. In the case of HDR content, the improvement is also noticeable, although here it is still evident that the television goes “its own way”. The EOTF curve cannot be fully adjusted, as Philips simply does not offer tools for precise control of this parameter in its settings. In many films, the television still exposes the image “in its own way”. Despite these limitations, calibration has brought a lot of good – the majority of colour inaccuracies have been minimised and the overall image balance has significantly improved. However, one must remember that certain barriers arise from the very hardware construction and simply cannot be overcome.

Surprisingly, the Xiaomi S Mini 2026 responds quite well to calibration. After our adjustments we were able to noticeably improve the white balance and the picture stopped leaning toward overly warm tones. In SDR material the result is really good, with the TV able to reproduce such content very accurately and hard to fault for colour reproduction. We made similar adjustments in HDR, although not everything could be corrected there. Colours look better than on the factory settings, but the TV still tends to display the picture a little brighter than it should. You can see this from the EOTF curve, which sits above the reference. In practice this means some HDR scenes are brighter than the creators intended. It's a quirk of this TV and we can't do anything about it.

The manufacturer has equipped this model with several features that improve signal quality, and although we usually approach such “enhancers” with caution, here they prove to be really helpful. The key option is called “distortion reduction” – it works best at a medium level because, on one hand, it effectively smooths out unwanted steps and colour transitions, and on the other, it doesn’t excessively cut details, meaning the image still looks natural.

It’s a bit worse when it comes to upscaling. Lower quality materials – such as the test video with the model – appeared soft and lacking sharpness. Of course, it can be partially adjusted with the sharpness slider in the menu, but the result still falls short compared to what competitors offer at a similar price. Philips still needs to work on this aspect because, in light of the successful improvement of tonal transitions, the upscaling simply comes off weak.

The MT5896 processor handles digital image processing in the Xiaomi S Mini 2026. Unfortunately, in this respect the TV is fairly average. Low-resolution content isn't upscaled very well, and its limitations become obvious on a large screen. The picture looks quite digital, and the TV can't pull out many extra details. You also can't turn off overscan for low-resolution content. The handling of posterisation smoothing is even worse. On the smaller models there's not even a separate setting to reduce the visible banding between similar shades. So if those imperfections are already present in the source material, Xiaomi effectively doesn't mask them.

Philips MLED920 features a 144 Hz panel, which immediately suggests that we shouldn’t complain about motion smoothness. And indeed – for a VA panel, the motion blur is relatively low here, and while you can sometimes notice slight issues on darker backgrounds, they’re not something that will catch the eye of most people during regular viewing.

A big plus is also the presence of a motion smoother called “Motion Style.” It allows you to adjust the smoothness to your own preferences – if someone prefers a more “theatrical,” almost television-like character of the image, they can increase the sliders, and if they want to maintain the natural “judders” of a cinematic frame, they just need to set lower values. This way, everyone can find a happy medium.

The smaller variants of the Xiaomi S Mini 2026 use a 60 Hz panel, and that's their biggest limitation when it comes to motion. For films and TV series this isn't yet a major problem, because the TV has a classic motion interpolator for 24/30 fps material. So you can reduce the characteristic judder and adjust motion to your own preferences. Sports and other 50/60 Hz material fare worse, because there’s no additional feature to improve smoothness. In such content we’re therefore limited by the panel itself.

In terms of motion blur the TV performs fairly typically for a VA panel. The most trailing is visible behind objects moving against a dark background, while in brighter scenes the effect is noticeably smaller. It’s not at a level that completely ruins the perception of motion, but in dynamic scenes you can see that the panel isn’t one of the fastest.

For gamers, the Philips MLED920 is truly a complete tool. The manufacturer has taken care of everything that is now considered standard in televisions for consoles and PCs. It has ALLM, so the console automatically switches the screen to game mode, there’s VRR and a 144 Hz refresh rate that ensures smooth gameplay even in fast-paced titles. All key HDR formats are supported – including HGiG and Dolby Vision Gaming for Xbox – which means that regardless of what you’re playing and on which console, the television will be able to extract the maximum potential from the image. In everyday gaming, the Game Bar proves useful too – a relatively simple implementation by Philips, but a functional panel where you can quickly check image parameters, enable VRR, or adjust details without leaving the game. It’s not as elaborate as the competition, but it does its job without any complaints. And finally, something that sets Philips apart from the competition – Ambilight. The three-sided LED backlighting can make a huge impression in games, especially in the evening. It’s also a way to slightly 'expand' the screen and create a greater sense of immersion. And since coloured LEDs have recently become almost an essential element of a gamer’s room, the MLED920 fits perfectly into this trend.

In the larger sizes the Xiaomi S Mini 2026 becomes a far more interesting option for gamers. The panel runs natively at up to 144 Hz, so when you connect a PC you can use the high refresh rate even at 4K. At lower resolutions the TV can go even further, reaching up to 288 Hz. It also offers ALLM, automatic switching to Game Mode, and a Game Bar that keeps the most important settings within easy reach. Of course, the TV has two full-bandwidth HDMI 2.1 ports. So in terms of smoothness the difference compared with the 55–75 inch versions is substantial and particularly easy to notice when using a PC or console. However, not everything works perfectly. As with the smaller variants, we have reservations about the HGiG implementation. The HDR setup screens on the PS5 and Xbox don't precisely reflect the TV's actual capabilities, so if you set the console according to those prompts the brightest parts of the image can be blown out and lose some detail.