Philips PUS8209 vs Philips PUS7000

Unfortunately, this is where the problems start. A maximum brightness of 280 nits is definitely too low to experience the true effect of HDR. In practice, the image resembles standard SDR more, so it's hard to talk about deeper visual experiences. On the plus side, the colour gamut coverage is 91.4% DCI-P3, which will be sufficient for most films. It's also worth noting that the image is stable and there are no issues with sudden brightness or colour changes. Overall, HDR on this television is more of a formality than an actual added value. If we're looking for genuine HDR emotions, this model may not meet expectations.

Unfortunately, the PUS7000 is not suitable for watching HDR content. This screen is simply too dark. A brightness level of 200 nits is insufficient to display this format correctly. Even if a HDR signal message appears on the screen, the image will resemble a standard SDR recording. Therefore, it’s better to stick with the latter format to avoid errors in displaying bright scenes, as you will read below. The situation is worsened by the fact that this is a classic LCD model without additional layers that improve colours, such as QLED or PFS. As a result, colours in HDR may seem washed out. Ultimately, this provides a worse effect than in the standard SDR format, which is simply better suited to the capabilities of this panel.

Philips PUS8209 offers many picture modes, but the best of them, without a doubt, is the Filmmaker mode. Despite its proud name, it has its distinct problems. For HD content, the white balance is characterised by a strong dominance of red, causing the image to be significantly warmer than it should be in reality. The brightness characteristic (gamma), although correct in mid-tones, has serious issues at the beginning and end of the graph. Drops in shadows result in a loss of detail in dark areas, and spikes in bright areas make some elements look unnatural.

For high-quality content in 4K HDR, the situation reverses. In this case, blue dominates, leading to an artificial image boost effect, reminiscent of unnatural retail settings. Such an image looks unappealing and does not align with the creators' intentions. An additional problem is the EOTF curve, responsible for brightness in HDR materials. It deviates significantly from the reference graph, causing the image to appear too dark, stripping depth and detail from HDR content.

Against this backdrop, the errors in the Color Checker test and deviations in colour palette reproduction are exceptionally large, which further negatively affects the overall image quality. The Filmmaker mode, while the best among those available, requires substantial corrections to truly convey the full vision of the director.

We tested the television in movie mode, which theoretically should provide the best and most natural colours. And indeed, this mode is quite correct; however, when we connected the calibration equipment, its biggest flaw became apparent. The PUS7000 has significant shortcomings in displaying reds. Poorly tuned white balance and too low saturation of this colour cause the image to appear too cool. As a result, one might get the impression that the displayed content lacks vibrant colours. The situation is worsened by the fact that both SDR and HDR content are excessively brightened. This is confirmed by the gamma curve and EOTF graphs, which show that the television displays the image brighter than it should. This causes scenes to lose their depth and can make them seem slightly washed out. Fortunately, in the Philips menu, we find plenty of features to improve these aspects, so we immediately proceeded to calibration to see what we could extract from this screen.

After calibration, the white balance for HD and 4K content has significantly improved. While we haven't achieved a perfectly flat characteristic, the result is definitely better than before. The image on the television no longer appears either artificially warm or overly cold, which significantly enhances the naturalness of the displayed content. The brightness characteristic (gamma) has also been adjusted – the most significant issues at the beginning and end of the graph have been mitigated. The EOTF curve, which is responsible for brightness in 4K HDR materials, has been stabilised, eliminating problems with excessive dimming of the image. In the colour palette test, some imperfections can still be seen due to the average coverage of the wide colour gamut, which is a limitation of the hardware itself. Nevertheless, the final result is clearly better than pre-calibration – the image looks more natural and approaches the expectations for Filmmaker mode.

After professional calibration, it’s evident that the PUS7000 responds well to image adjustments. In this price range, that’s not a given. The effects are best evaluated in two scenarios, depending on the content we plan to watch. SDR performs the best. After our adjustments, the image looks really good. Most colour errors have dropped below level 3, which is the threshold at which discrepancies usually become visible to the naked eye. Movies, series, sports, and regular television present naturally, without unpleasant deviations. If someone mainly watches classic channels or streams in HD quality, the difference after calibration will be noticeable straight away. However, it must be said clearly that the PUS7000 is still not a television suited for proper HDR, and calibration doesn't change much in this regard. The reason lies in the hardware: colours remain too unsaturated. The television lacks solutions that widen the colour gamut, such as PFS filters or a quantum dot layer, so the panel simply cannot display the intense colours required by HDR. This is most evident in reds, which still look washed out. This limitation cannot be circumvented through menu settings, as it stems from the design of the backlighting and the panel itself.

The television offers a “Distortion Reduction” feature that effectively improves the gradation of tonal transitions, particularly when set to the minimum level. Unfortunately, this comes at a cost – the feature also smooths out details like material textures. On the plus side, it’s worth noting that the operation of this option does not negatively affect the film grain, which remains intact.

As for image scaling (upscaling), the television generates a plastic, soft image that generally looks pleasant. However, in the background, issues with aliasing of certain elements, such as branches or small details, can sometimes be noticed, which may decrease the quality of the reception. Despite these minor imperfections, the overall experience of scaling is satisfactory.

The PUS7000 handles digital image processing quite well. The distortion reduction feature deserves praise, as it effectively smooths unwanted tonal transitions even at a low setting. However, it has its downside: with too aggressive operation, it can introduce undesirable artifacts on the screen. It would be a good idea to experiment with this setting to find the golden mean between a smooth image and the clarity of details.

The upscaling, or enhancing the quality of lower materials to 4K, is decent. The image after processing is very "soft," which is typical of almost all Philips TVs. The edges are plastic and smooth, making the image look cohesive. If someone finds it too soft, it can always be adjusted with the sharpness slider in the menu for a more pronounced effect.

The 60 Hz panel in the Philips PUS8209 is mainly suited for watching movies, but here you can also feel a certain shortcoming. The television does not offer any motion smoothing that would allow you to adjust the fluidity of the picture to individual preferences, which for some users may be disappointing.

In this regard, we actually have no good news. It might seem that the biggest downside is the lack of a 120 Hz panel, but in this price range, that's actually the norm, and it's hard to expect more. However, the worst part is that the television has no motion smoothing features. There are no supporting systems in place for either movies or sports. We have to come to terms with the fact that the image on the PUS7000 is processed "raw." This means that during dynamic scenes or fast camera movements, motion can appear choppy or unclear. We have no option to enable any smoothers that could alleviate this effect.

Philips PUS8209 offers basic features useful for gamers, such as variable refresh rate (VRR), automatic low latency mode (ALLM), and Game Bar, which makes managing settings easier.

Unfortunately, due to the 60 Hz panel, the TV will not meet the expectations of more demanding gamers who are looking for higher fluidity and precision of image. Additionally, this model does not support any HDR mode dedicated to gaming, such as HGiG or Dolby Vision, which further limits its capabilities in this regard.

Even though the PUS7000 isn’t marketed as a gaming TV, it doesn't perform as poorly in this category as one might expect. True, it doesn't support 120 Hz refresh rates, which is understandable at this price point, but the manufacturer has included several important features that significantly improve the console gaming experience. The most important of these are VRR and ALLM technologies. VRR is responsible for synchronising the screen with the number of frames generated by the console. This means the image doesn't "tear" and remains consistent even during sudden drops in frame rates while playing. On the other hand, ALLM is a solution that automatically switches the TV to a mode with the lowest latency immediately after detecting a signal from the console. All these parameters are easily accessible thanks to the Game Bar feature. This is a special control panel for gamers that can be brought up on the screen at any time. It allows for a quick view of current settings and connection status without interrupting gameplay, which is a very convenient solution.