LG OLED B5 vs Philips PQS9011 / PQS9001 (The One 2026)

The LG B5 is a moderately bright OLED television. Regardless of the scene, it can generate around 500 nits of peak brightness. Interestingly, it achieves this even in full-screen shots saturated with white, where most OLEDs typically struggle. So is this screen suitable for HDR films? Indeed – and very much so, because such brightness allows you to truly feel the magic of HDR effects. However, it is worth noting that compared to last year's B4 model, the new B5 is darker – by about 100 nits. It may seem like a small amount, but at such average peak values, it makes quite a significant difference. Fortunately, the television compensates with another advantage – excellent coverage of the DCI-P3 and BT.2020 colour gamut. As a result, HDR films look really colourful, vibrant, and impress even in more demanding scenes.

Philips PQS9000 is a moderately bright TV. In our HDR scenes it reached roughly 450 to just over 500 nits. That's enough to notice a difference compared with SDR. Reflections of the sun, lamps or flares have a bit more sparkle than on basic TVs, whose brightness often tops out around 300 nits. However, it is not a level at which bright elements make a particularly strong impression. The biggest limitation remains contrast. Without local dimming, when the TV brightens a bright object it also raises the black level around it. There is therefore no clear separation of strong highlights from a dark background, and it is that contrast that can show what HDR can do. The PQS9000 offers more than the cheapest models, but despite decent brightness the effect remains fairly basic.

Colours

Philips deserves praise for the colours. Although the manufacturer calls this model QLED, in reality a PFS phosphor is used here instead of quantum dots. That choice does not prevent the TV from achieving good results. On both test patterns and in measurements of film scenes we recorded about 94% coverage of DCI-P3 and 75% of BT.2020. For this class of TV that is really good. In practice this means that the vast majority of colours used in HDR films and series will have appropriate saturation. Vibrant green or intense red are not much of an issue and add appeal to the picture. Limitations are easier to notice in some games and in rarer content that use the most saturated shades of the wide BT.2020 gamut. In such situations, displays with wider colour coverage, such as SQD or RGB LED, can show more. In its price bracket, however, the PQS9000 has nothing to be ashamed of.

We tested the B5 in Filmmaker mode and... we would love to see more TVs like this straight out of the box. Truly. The white balance is set very well – there's practically nothing to complain about. Well, if one were to nitpick, one might notice a slight deficiency in blue, which makes the overall image seem slightly yellowish. But that’s just our editorial quibbling. Most of you probably wouldn’t even notice it. We also have minimal reservations about brightness management in HDR format. The EOTF curve – which is responsible for how the TV distributes brightness in a scene – is slightly below ideal. In practice, it may happen that the darkest parts of the image are displayed too dark and simply… disappear. But these are details that only come out in measurements. Generally: we are impressed. However, we also know that LG TVs respond very well to professional calibration. You can achieve almost reference-quality picture from them, so – while it's already very good out of the box – we allowed ourselves to go a step further and refine everything to perfection.

Unfortunately, the factory picture settings for Film mode on the PQS9000 need refinement. In SDR the most noticeable problem is an excess of red in the white balance, which makes whites, greys and skin tones too warm, sometimes even slightly pinkish. On top of that the gamma runs below the reference across most of the range. The TV therefore brightens midtones and highlights, making the overall image look flatter than it should.

In HDR the white balance itself is much better. Apart from minor deviations the RGB components track closely, so there is no pronounced colour cast as in SDR. However, the EOTF curve shows a slight brightening of parts of the image, and the biggest issue appears in measurements of the wide colour gamut. Many hues deviate significantly from the target, with errors reaching levels of 8–9. The good gamut coverage we praised earlier therefore does not mean the TV hits specific colours equally well. It can display a wide colour range, but out of the box it does not use it very precisely.

We must admit that we didn't have much work with the LG B5. It's one of those televisions that look good right from the start, but after calibration… they can really impress. The white balance was brought to almost perfect levels – to the point of errors that are invisible to the human eye, unless you are a professional colourist with a magnifying glass at the screen. We also managed to master the tendency of the television to slightly dim the darkest details, particularly in HDR scenes. After proper tuning, everything looks cohesive: black remains deep but does not consume information. Highlights maintain their natural sparkle, and colours align with the director's vision. This is truly one of those models that shows you don't have to spend a fortune to have an almost reference-quality picture. If you can opt for professional calibration – it’s definitely worth it in the case of the B5.

Calibration brought a significant improvement, especially in SDR material. We managed to even out the white balance and remove the previous colour cast, and the Color Checker measurements now look really very good. Colours are much closer to what should be on screen, so with ordinary TV or SDR films we can be satisfied with the outcome. Unfortunately HDR somewhat spoils that result. On the one hand it is limited by the panel itself, because calibration won't improve contrast or replace local dimming. On the other hand there remain colour errors that we couldn't correct because the CMS settings, that is the colour management controls, were greyed out and inactive. That costs Philips points with us. The white balance can be fine‑tuned, but without access to wide‑gamut adjustments it's not possible to order HDR colours equally well. It's a shame, because the SDR results show the potential is there, but we weren't allowed to make full use of it everywhere.

LG B5 really positively surprised us in terms of handling lower quality content. Thanks to the enhancement and smoothing features, materials in HD resolution or even SD gain a second life. Importantly – when this option is activated at the "low" or "medium" level, we do not feel that the image is artificially softened or smoothed out unnecessarily. Details remain intact, film grain does not disappear, and the edges of objects do not look washed out 😉. This is truly a useful tool – especially if you are watching terrestrial television, archival materials, or content from YouTube in lower resolutions. The image is clear, coherent, and simply pleasant to the eye.

Scaling as such works very well – even content of poor quality is reproduced with surprising fidelity. Unfortunately, there was a slight hiccup. Although the menu contains the option to disable overscan, the television still has issues with correctly displaying images of very low resolution. It may seem like a detail, but when watching older materials – it can be irritating.

Digital picture processing in the Philips PQS9000 performs well, though we have a few reservations. The "Distortion Reduction" function helps to smooth tonal transitions in lower-quality material, but it works rather unevenly. It can improve one part of the image, only to seem to lose its effect a moment later, still in the same scene, and show banding between shades again. A plus is that it doesn't remove film grain or fine noise, so the image retains its texture. We found the 'Medium' setting worked best and we recommend it. The upscaling to 4K itself is acceptable, although the image is very soft. Edges are heavily smoothed, which may leave some viewers feeling the picture lacks definition. In that case, it's worth slightly increasing the sharpness in the TV's menu, as this will make edges appear more defined. However, don't overdo the sharpening slider, otherwise artificial halos may appear instead of an improvement.

LG B5 is a television with a 120 Hz OLED panel. It may not sound as impressive as the marketing claims of “144 Hz” or “165 Hz” found in gaming monitors, but honestly? The smoothness is excellent nonetheless. The picture is sharp, fluid and simply enjoyable to watch – even when there is a lot happening on screen. The organic panel does its job – the pixel response time is almost instantaneous, meaning there’s no sign of smearing or blurring that can spoil dynamic shots. Sport, fast-paced games – everything looks clear and distinct.

We also have the classic LG smoothness enhancer, TruMotion. This allows you to smooth out films shot at 24 frames per second – which, to put it bluntly, is most of what you watch on Netflix or from Blu-ray discs. If you set lower values on the “De-Judder” slider, you’ll get a picture closer to a cinematic look – with a slight judder, but without any artificiality. Higher settings? A soap opera effect is guaranteed. Fortunately, LG gives you the option to tune everything to your liking.

In terms of motion handling the Philips PQS9000 performs exceptionally well for an LCD TV. It's not just the 144 Hz refresh rate, but above all how quickly the panel itself responds. At 120 Hz there are virtually no typical trailing smears behind moving objects. What is particularly pleasing is that this also applies to darker scenes, where many VA panels clearly struggle. Here motion remains clear and, in this respect, Philips pleasantly surprised us.

The "Motion Styles" feature lets you adjust how motion is displayed. It includes two sliders: "Smoothness" and "Blur Reduction", allowing you to tailor the effect to the content you're watching and your own preferences. Our suggested settings are shown in the photo. Treat them as a starting point and try to find the level of smoothing that suits you best.

There are already a few televisions on the market with the label “for gamers” that, in practice, don’t understand what that means. The LG B5 is not one of them. Everything here is spot on – there are four HDMI 2.1 ports, it has 120 Hz, VRR, and ALLM, and it even has a Game Bar that is actually useful, not just looks good in the brochure. You connect your console – it works. You set 4K at 120 Hz – it works. You have an Xbox and want to play in Dolby Vision – it works too. And this is not in the sense of “theoretically supports”; it really turns on, looks good, and you don’t need to fiddle with the settings for half an hour. Additionally, there’s the HGiG picture mode that LG implemented correctly – which means HDR in games doesn’t turn the screen into a flash lamp, but shows exactly what it should. There are no surprises here, no strange limitations, no “buts.” And you know what? That’s how it should be. Cheers to the LG B5!

Gaming features

In terms of gaming features, the Philips PQS9000 has a lot to offer. Four HDMI 2.1 ports let you connect several devices without having to choose which one gets the full-capability port. Consoles can use 120 Hz at Full HD, 1440p and 4K, while a PC can also make use of 144 Hz at 4K or 240 Hz if you drop to Full HD. There's also VRR, which matches the refresh rate to the frame rate and prevents screen tearing. Its range is 48 to 240 Hz, with the upper limit applying in Full HD mode.

ALLM is present, so the TV automatically switches to game mode, and HGiG works properly, which is useful when setting HDR on a console. There's also a Game Bar for quick access to settings and signal information. The list even includes Dolby Vision gaming, but it's hard to enjoy this option because of very high input lag. Aside from that caveat, the feature set is really solid.