Philips PUS8209 vs Dreame S100

Unfortunately, this is where the problems begin. A maximum brightness of 280 nits is definitely too low to feel the true effect of HDR. In practice, the image resembles standard SDR more, so it’s hard to speak of deeper visual experiences. On the positive side, the colour gamut coverage is commendable – 91.4% DCI-P3 is a score that will be sufficient for most films. It must also be said that the image is stable and there are no issues with sudden changes in brightness or colours. Overall, HDR on this television is more of a formality than an actual added value. If we are looking for genuine HDR thrills, this model may not meet expectations.

The Dreame S100 is a relatively bright television. In movie mode, the brightness we measured reached around 600 nits. This is a really good result, although not the highest when considering the competition at this price point. In fullscreen scenes, it is evident that the television can produce an image that impresses with its brightness. Unfortunately, when more complex scenes appeared on the screen, the local dimming algorithm in this model primarily focused on maintaining the deepest blacks. However, this came at the expense of HDR performance – and in a drastic manner. In such scenes, the brightness of bright elements dropped below 100 nits, which is a frankly tragic result, far from any HDR effect. One can improve this aspect, but not without a "however." It is simply necessary to change the local dimming setting in the television's menu, but then the blacks in such scenes simply become grey. It's a pity that Dreame couldn't better refine the local dimming algorithms, and the S100 is another example that the sheer number of local dimming zones does not always translate to a better image. As a consolation, it is worth adding that the Dreame S100 is advertised as a "QLED" type television, although in reality it uses a PFS LED filter. As a result, the colours are appropriately saturated, and the colour gamut coverage of DCI-P3 we measured exceeded 94%.

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 clear problems. In the case of HD content, the white balance is characterised by a strong dominance of red, which causes the picture to be significantly warmer than it should be in reality. The brightness characteristic (gamma), although correct in the mid-tones, has serious issues at the beginning and end of the curve. Drops in the shadows cause a loss of detail in the dark areas, and blowouts in the bright areas make some elements look unnatural.

For high-quality 4K HDR content, the situation reverses. In this case, blue dominates, leading to an artificial enhancement effect, reminiscent of unnatural retail settings. Such an image looks unattractive and inconsistent with the creators' intentions. An additional problem is the EOTF curve, responsible for brightness in HDR materials. It deviates significantly from the reference chart, causing the image to appear too dark, robbing the depth and detail of HDR content.

Against this backdrop, errors in the Color Checker test and deviations in colour palette reproduction are exceptionally large, which further negatively impacts the overall image quality. The Filmmaker mode, although the best among the available options, requires substantial corrections to fully convey the director's vision.

We tested the Dreame S100 in 'movie' mode and we definitely recommend using this setting for watching all types of content. Interestingly, within the deeper settings of the television, we also find a dedicated 'Filmmaker' mode, which is now available from almost every manufacturer. However, in the case of the Dreame S100, we do not recommend using it – it blocks all settings related to the picture and does not allow for any configuration in the menu - even motion smoothing. So, how do the factory colours of the S100 fare? Not too badly, but also not the best. The television itself was quite heavily tinted with blue components, which is clearly visible in our white balance measurements. This made the picture artificially brightened, and the colours had a slight bluish tint. This is confirmed by the Color Checker palette, which showed how the colour samples tend to drift towards blue, generating quite significant colour errors. The picture in HDR mode looked definitely better, where the colour errors were not as prominent, although they still fell far from perfection. Here, the white balance was also shifted too much towards blue, causing considerable errors in colour reproduction.

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

The Dreame S100 has proven to be a device very amenable to professional calibration. In its menu, we found a plethora of advanced options that allowed us to effectively correct factory errors. Thanks to advanced white balance correction – both in SDR and HDR content – we completely eliminated the excess blue components. The image immediately became much more natural and pleasant to the eye. After fully tuning the colours, the errors in the Color Checker test dropped below Delta E values of 2-3. For the average viewer, this means that any colour distortions have become nearly impossible to perceive with the naked eye. This is truly a pleasant surprise, as new brands in the television market often encounter significant issues with the correct implementation and functioning of sliders in the calibration menu. Here, everything worked as it should. The only thing we must criticise is the way the television manages its brightness in HDR. Due to the specific nature of the local dimming algorithms, anomalies can be seen on the EOTF curve we measured. Where high highlights should appear, there is a slight boosting of the curve above the reference line. In practice, this causes an unnatural brightening of some of the brightest elements in films or games. Despite this minor flaw, professional calibration brings about a huge, very positive change in this model.

The television offers a "Distortion Reduction" feature that effectively improves the gradation of tonal transitions, especially when set to the minimum level. Unfortunately, this comes at a cost – the feature simultaneously smooths out details such as the texture of materials. On the positive side, it is worth noting that the operation of this option does not negatively affect 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, one can sometimes notice issues with aliasing on certain elements, such as branches or fine details, which can lower the quality of reception. Despite these minor imperfections, the overall experience of scaling is satisfactory.

For scaling and digital processing in the Dreame S100, the technology that the manufacturer proudly calls Dreamind™ Pro AI is responsible. However, it must be clearly stated that this is not a proprietary processor, but merely a marketing name for a chip made by MediaTek – more precisely, the MT5889 model. Unfortunately, we are talking about a rather outdated unit, from a time when MediaTek lagged significantly behind the competition in terms of performance. This unfortunately has a direct impact on the image as that is what this chip also deals with. The upscaling in the S100 is quite mediocre, and the processor has a tendency to heavily and artificially sharpen edges (fortunately, this can be somewhat tempered with the sharpness slider in the menu). In the options, we also find the "Contour Smoothing" feature, which theoretically is supposed to improve tonal transitions. In practice, it offers almost no improvement – setting it to any level rarely eliminates visible banding of colours, but it can unnecessarily blur elements of the image that should remain sharp.

A separate issue is the phenomenon of overscan (cropping the edges of the frame), which is noticeable here practically all the time. Although there is an option to set the screen to display the full frame in low-resolution materials, this requires activating the previously mentioned Filmmaker mode. And as you know, this mode completely blocks the adjustment of any other sliders in the picture menu. In our test tables, we marked that the television offers an option to disable overscan, as technically such a function exists in the system – however, in everyday use, when maintaining sensible image settings, you will not be able to take advantage of it.

The 60 Hz panel in the Philips PUS8209 is mainly suitable for watching films, but there is still a sense of something missing. The television does not offer any motion smoother that would allow users to adjust the fluidity of the picture to their individual preferences, which can be disappointing for some users.

When it comes to motion fluidity, the Dreame S100 performs really well. It features a panel with a refresh rate of 144 Hz, although in reality, the vast majority of people using it in a traditional way will still be limited to 120 Hz (as this is the maximum supported by today's equipment apart from PCs). Thanks to the high refresh rate, the image in motion remains really sharp, largely thanks to the well-functioning MEMC smoother. In the menu, we find predefined modes that allow the television to efficiently generate artificial frames, which effectively improves the fluidity of dynamic sports scenes, but also eliminates image stuttering in film and series materials recorded at 24 frames.

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

Unfortunately, due to the 60 Hz panel, the television will not meet the expectations of more demanding gamers who are counting on higher smoothness and image precision. 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.

The Dreame S100 seems almost like the perfect screen for a gamer. The television is equipped with 2 HDMI 2.1 ports with a bandwidth of 40 Gbps, which means that functions like automatic game mode (ALLM) and variable refresh rate (VRR) ranging from 48 to 144 Hz work seamlessly on consoles. It also features a well-designed gaming panel (Game Bar), allowing users to continuously monitor important parameters—from active picture modes to the number of frames rendered by the console, and even the option to add a crosshair in the middle of the screen. All of this looks great on paper; however, the biggest problem with the S100 is the implementation of HDR mode in games. The television does not have the HGiG format implemented correctly. As a result, an unsuspecting user may incorrectly configure the console when first using the screen. Poor configuration can lead to an image that is too dark or too washed out (as a guideline: we suggest setting the brightness in the Xbox console menu to around 600 nits, and in the PS5 to 12 clicks). The Dolby Vision format also proves problematic, as it often would not activate at all between the XBOX and Dreame S100. And when it was finally managed to be activated, playing was not possible due to a very high input lag often exceeding 100ms. If the manufacturer can improve the HDR issue in games via an update, the S100 will be truly excellent hardware for gamers. For now, however, compromises need to be accepted.