Philips OLED909 vs Philips OLED910

Philips OLED909 impresses with its HDR effect quality, achieving up to 1500 nits of peak brightness in tested scenes. This is an excellent result, placing this television among the best OLED models on the market. The MLA panel, also used in models like the Panasonic Z95A and LG G4, plays a crucial role here, allowing for exceptionally bright and detailed reproduction of dynamic scenes. However, it is worth noting that in the most demanding scene from the film The Meg, brightness drops to around 700 nits. This is a typical phenomenon in OLED technology, where intensely bright full-screen images cause a reduction in luminance. Nevertheless, the HDR effect still looks very good, and the television performs better than most competitors under similar conditions. The wide colour gamut coverage also deserves praise. The OLED909 offers 95% coverage of DCI-P3, ensuring that the television guarantees the ability to display vibrant and realistic colours.

OLED910 is simply an absurdly bright television for an OLED. All thanks to the new panel from LG Display, the Tandem RGB OLED, which Philips has branded as "META OLED". It is this panel that allows for over 2000 nits of brightness in films, which not long ago was completely unachievable in OLEDs. The way the television handles full-screen scenes flooded with bright light also deserves high praise. Usually, in OLEDs, brightness drops significantly, but here it remains at a great level – around 1400 nits. These values are almost reference-level, and combined with excellent colour reproduction at 99% DCI P3 and 82% BT.2020, it gives us an HDR effect that can confidently be called one of the best in the world.

Like other TVs, the Philips OLED909 has been tested for colour reproduction in factory modes. The best mode was found to be Filmmaker Mode; however, despite its name, it is not without faults.

The biggest problem is the white balance. In both HD and 4K HDR content, there is a noticeable dominance of green and red hues, resulting in a clear yellow tint on the screen. This effect is particularly visible in test materials, for example, in a scene with Tom Cruise in the foreground, where the difference compared to a calibrated image is very clear.

As for the brightness characteristic, in HD materials, the gamma was excessively boosted - it was below the reference value of 2.4, giving the image a “milky” filter and impacting overall clarity. For 4K HDR content, we observed the opposite phenomenon – at the beginning of the EOTF curve, there is a noticeable drop, indicating issues with reproducing the smallest details in dark scenes. Although Filmmaker mode offers acceptable quality, noticeable errors in white balance and brightness characteristics show that the TV requires additional calibration to fully realise its potential in colour reproduction.

Unfortunately, when it comes to colour reproduction straight out of the box, the Filmmaker mode on the OLED910 really falls short. The television overemphasises the blue colour and at times it looks almost like a shop mode. It gives the impression that the manufacturer hasn't quite calibrated the device properly. The result is that colours appear unnatural, and the overall look resembles a slightly exaggerated display from a store showcase. HDR content looks much better, where apart from a slight loss of detail in blacks, there’s hardly anything to complain about. The problem is that in everyday viewing, it’s actually SDR materials that matter the most – and on the OLED910, they just look poor and significantly deviate from what we would expect from a television of this class.

Philips OLED909 offers tools for image calibration, significantly improving its quality. After calibrating the Filmmaker Mode, the television displays a much more natural colour reproduction. The white balance after calibration looks very good. Although we noticed slight blue tint deviations in HD content, the errors fall within acceptable limits, and the picture is significantly better than in factory settings. The brightness characteristics, including gamma and EOTF, have also been clearly improved. The television no longer has issues with excessive brightening or dimming of the image. Both dark and light details are now rendered correctly, making the picture look very good in every scene. After calibration, Filmmaker Mode on the Philips OLED909 offers excellent picture quality that will meet the expectations of even the more demanding users. The calibration fully utilises the potential of this model.

Fortunately, it quickly turned out that it wasn't the panel causing the problems, but the way Philips factory-tuned the OLED910. After calibration, the television showcased its full potential, and only then could we see what the new panels from LG Display were truly capable of. We primarily corrected the white balance and brightness characteristics, successfully taming the excessive blue and giving the image a natural look. The final effect can be described as excellent. Errors on the Color Checker palette rarely exceeded a value of 3, which in practice means an image close to ideal and colours presented in line with the creators' intent. In SDR content, the effect was stunning, and in HDR, the improvement was even more noticeable – gradients became cleaner, and colours fuller and more accurate. After calibration, the OLED910 transformed from a disappointing television into equipment that can be confidently referred to as reference-grade in terms of colour accuracy.

Philips OLED909 offers a distortion reduction feature designed to smooth tonal transitions. Unfortunately, the effectiveness of this feature leaves much to be desired. Setting it to "Medium" achieves some effects, but it comes with the risk of blurring important details in the image. For this reason, we do not recommend using this option unless you are looking to soften visible artifacts at the expense of detail.

As for image scaling, the TV presents a very pliable image, which may appeal to viewers who prefer a softer picture. Those expecting sharper clarity will also find a solution, as image scaling can be adjusted to individual preferences in the settings.

The previously visible colour connections can be largely mitigated thanks to a feature called "distortion reduction." Similar to the OLED820, it’s best to set it to medium level, as it then provides quite decent results – smoothing unwanted tonal transitions while not taking away too many details from the image. Although at times the effect may be a bit too aggressive, in everyday viewing, this function can be considered useful.

When it comes to image scaling, the OLED910 performs really well. The test material with the model showcased a characteristic soft look typical of Philips – at times almost too soft – but at any moment this can be adjusted with the sharpness slider to tailor the image to your own preferences. It’s also a plus that the television has no issues with overscan, which still occurs in some competitors' models. It’s a minor detail, but it’s pleasing as it means that all content, even the oldest, is displayed as it should be.

The Philips OLED909 with a 144 Hz panel offers excellent image fluidity, which should satisfy both movie lovers and gamers. Additionally, the TV is equipped with a motion smoothing feature called "Motion Style," which allows for precise adjustment of image fluidity according to personal preferences. In the settings, we find two sliders: "Fluidity," which adjusts the smoothness of motion in films, and "Motion Blur Reduction," which helps eliminate minor artifacts and distortions in dynamic scenes. This feature works well, ensuring that even quick movements on the screen are clear and readable.

OLED910 is a TV with a refresh rate of 144 Hz. It’s a bit of a shame that Philips didn’t opt for 165 Hz, as we know that the matrix used in it is capable of that. On the other hand, such a bonus will mainly benefit PC gamers, as for everyday use, the most important thing is the 120 Hz refresh rate, which is fully sufficient. Combined with the advantages of the OLED matrix – lightning-fast pixel response times and the absence of motion blur, the picture is impeccably sharp and fast, even in dynamic action scenes. The traditional motion smoother from Philips called “Motion Style” also deserves praise. We can easily adjust it to our own preferences: the “Smoothness” slider is for movies and allows you to choose between a more “framey,” cinematic character and a smooth, theatrical image. Meanwhile, the “Motion Blur Reduction” slider is intended for sports; here, it’s worth setting it to the maximum value so that the image is clear and sharp during very fast shots.

Philips OLED909 is a TV that meets practically all the requirements of gamers. Equipped with ALLM (automatic low latency mode), VRR (variable refresh rate), and support for Dolby Vision, it guarantees an excellent gaming experience. Additionally, the TV offers very low input lag, ensuring that the response to player movements is instantaneous, which fans of dynamic games will particularly appreciate.

The TV effortlessly supports any resolution at 120 Hz, and even higher refresh rates. The HGiG function, responsible for correctly displaying HDR content in games, works as it should, making the picture in game mode balanced and aligned with console manufacturers' guidelines.

The OLED909 is also equipped with a Game Bar feature, which allows for quick preview and adjustment of gaming settings. Although the interface of this solution seems less visually appealing than that of competitors, it serves its purpose by offering all the essential options in one place.

The OLED910 is fantastic for gaming. It supports 144 Hz, so if someone has a powerful PC, they'll easily make the most of that potential. For consoles, the most important thing is still 120 Hz, and everything works smoothly here. It has VRR, an automatic game mode, and even Dolby Vision in games along with HGiG mode, so we pretty much get a full package of gaming features. Philips also added a Game Bar, which is like a quick menu that shows basic information and allows you to enable a few handy features. It might not look as modern as the competition, but it works and does its job. The only downside is the number of HDMI 2.1 ports. There are only two, which can be quite disappointing in this class of television. If someone connects two consoles and something extra to the eARC - like a soundbar (which doesn't really make sense in this model, but more on that in the sound section), they'll have to do a bit more figuring around. Other than that, though, the OLED910 has everything we expect from a gaming TV.