Philips PUS8079 vs Philips OLED820

The Philips PUS8079 has a maximum brightness of just 202 nits in content with a wide tonal range, which is very low and makes it unsuitable for streaming movies and series in the highest quality. Additionally, using HDR with dynamic metadata doesn’t improve the situation, as the only HDR format available on this model is HDR10+, which is rare and has limited content support. The TV also uses WLED backlighting, which is not optimal and results in only 80% coverage of the DCI-P3 wide colour gamut. This limits the intensity of colours in HDR content.

When it comes to HDR quality, the Philips OLED820 uses the same class of WOLED panel that we find in its biggest competitors – LG C5 or Samsung S90F. This means we can count on truly solid performance. This year, mid-range OLED panels are capable of exceeding the threshold of a thousand nits, and the model tested reaches around 1300 nits in some films. This is an outstanding result that allows for an extremely precise depiction of the director's vision, as contemporary productions are mastered in such brightness ranges. Of course, there are situations where even the OLED820 has to compromise. Full-screen scenes flooded with white, like those in the movie The Meg, can drop brightness to 400–500 nits, which clearly weakens the effect. This is a characteristic of OLED technology that has not yet been fully eliminated. Despite this limitation, it is hard not to appreciate the HDR in this model – high luminance and wide coverage of the DCI-P3 color gamut at 99% make the picture simply look great.

The best factory mode for colour reproduction and fidelity to the director's vision on the Philips PUS8079 was the "Film" mode. However, this setting displayed significant discrepancies between the filmmaker's intent and the actual output. In both SDR and HDR materials (with HDR being less affected), the white balance was off, showing a blue tint similar to store displays, rather than pure whites. When it came to SDR materials, gamma was notably lowered, cutting into the already limited contrast and brightening the overall image. The EOTF curve in HDR content also showed a significant drop below the reference line, making HDR materials appear even darker. The colour accuracy in both SDR and HDR modes was poor, with high deltaE values indicating that the colours were far from their intended representation.

The color reproduction in the factory settings really surprised us, and positively so. The Philips OLED820, switched to Filmmaker mode, immediately showed that it was quite well tuned in terms of color. The white balance was relatively accurate, though with a slight lack in the blue hue, which sometimes gave the image a slightly yellowish tint. However, this is not a flaw that particularly interferes with everyday viewing. A larger problem arose with the brightness characteristic. The gamma chart clearly deviated from the ideal, with the line being below the expected values, causing the image to be overly brightened, and the colors looked as if they were covered with a light milky filter. This effect was also noticeable in tests using the Colour Checker pattern, where more pronounced errors appeared.

Fortunately, Philips incorporates advanced image correction tools across its televisions. SDR content benefited the most from these adjustments, with significant improvements in deltaE errors, white balance, and gamma. While the image still isn’t perfect, it is much more watchable, making it easier on the eyes during movie or series viewing. HDR content, however, was more challenging due to the television’s low luminance. While the EOTF curve and white balance improved, the corrections weren’t as effective as with SDR materials. It’s important to note that each unit may have different errors, some larger and some smaller, but the adjustments made were a step in the right direction.

After calibration, both the Filmmaker mode and the game mode gained quite a lot. A slight adjustment of the white balance and an improvement in brightness characteristics resulted in excellent outcomes for SDR content – the image looked almost perfect, natural and very close to the reference. In the case of HDR materials, the situation was similar; the colors looked stunning and it was hard to find anything to criticize. However, we noticed a certain feature that we had already pointed out when comparing scenes from the movie Billy Lynn. An analysis of the EOTF curve revealed that the television has a slight tendency to dim details in the blacks, which means that the darkest sections are not always displayed exactly as the director intended. Nevertheless, the effect after calibration is remarkable, and the OLED820 stands out as one of the more interesting screens in its class. It just needs a little bit of fine-tuning, and there's really nothing to be afraid of.

Let us revisit the topic of tonal transitions, this time in the context of overall image quality enhancement. As shown in the photo on the left, the gradation improvement feature delivers excellent results. It provides multiple settings, each offering noticeable benefits without softening the film grain effect. Once again, it must be emphasised that this feature is the standout advantage of the tested television.

On the other hand, the television’s performance in image scaling leaves much to be desired. Fine details often appear heavily jagged, with a noticeable white halo around figures. Additionally, the significant artificial sharpening detracts from the overall image quality.

Fortunately, the earlier effects of the aforementioned posterization can be quite effectively mitigated. The "distortion reduction" feature set to medium handles unwanted color banding, improving the smoothness of tonal transitions. It does happen, however, that it works a bit too aggressively and smooths out some details – such as minor skin imperfections of the actors – but despite this, it can be considered worth using without major compromises. The upscaling in the OLED820 also performs well. The test image with the model is exceptionally soft, sometimes even too much so, although this can be alleviated by slightly increasing the sharpness in the picture menu – it’s a matter of personal preference. The lack of overscan issues with very low-resolution content is also commendable, meaning we don't have to worry that the image will be unnecessarily cropped.

This paragraph will be notably brief due to the absence of even basic motion-smoothing functionality, which is unsurprising given the device's budget-oriented nature. The VA panel used here is not known for exceptional sharpness and is instead associated with high contrast and slower response times, as confirmed by the matrix analysis results. Photos captured during fast motion reveal typical motion blur for this type of panel. While not ideal, the television could be conditionally suitable for watching sports, though viewers should expect less-than-optimal motion clarity. Additionally, films may exhibit noticeable stuttering due to the lack of any motion-smoothing features, even basic ones.

Motion fluidity is an area where OLEDs always shine, and the Philips OLED820 confirms this rule. The panel itself offers a refresh rate of 144 Hz, which will mainly benefit PC gamers, but even with standard television sources or consoles, where 120 Hz is used, the motion is fast, sharp, and simultaneously smooth, without traces of ghosting. This is thanks to the outstanding response time between pixels, which ensures the image retains clarity in every dynamic scene. The manufacturer has also added its own smoothing feature called "Motion Style." In the menu, we find two sliders – the first, responsible for fluidity, allows us to adjust the amount of artificially added frames in movies. This way, we can choose a raw, cinematic character with a clearly visible film frame or a more theatrical image with smooth motion. The second slider is for reducing blurring, especially useful in sports broadcasts. Here, we definitely recommend setting it to the maximum value, as the effect is truly excellent.

The Philips PUS8079 provides only basic gaming features, including ALLM, VRR, and a Game Bar. The key highlight is the inclusion of dynamic frequency adjustment, which ensures a smooth image with minimal screen tearing—an impressive offering for this price range.

A notable benefit for gamers is the presence of the Game Bar, allowing adjustments to be made "on the fly" without needing to exit the game. Importantly, this feature retains options found in higher-end models, such as shadow enhancement for improved visibility in darker areas and a colour filter designed to assist gamers with visual impairments.

Philips OLED820 is one of the most complete televisions for gamers. It practically has everything you could expect: two HDMI 2.1 ports with full bandwidth of 48 Gbps (too bad there aren't four), variable refresh rate VRR, automatic game mode ALLM, support for Dolby Vision in games, and a good implementation of the HGiG mode. The television also handles lower resolutions at 120 Hz without any issues, so you can count on great flexibility when choosing different picture modes on the console. Philips also adds Game Bar – a panel that allows you to change picture modes, add a crosshair, or view parameters. Although it looks quite clunky and is less polished than that of the competition, it serves its purpose. In practice, therefore, the OLED820, besides having a full set of four HDMI 2.1 ports, offers almost everything a gamer might need.