Philips PUS8209 vs Samsung R85H / R86H

Unfortunately, this is where the problems begin. A maximum brightness of 280 nits is definitely too low to feel the true HDR effect. In practice, the image resembles standard SDR more, so it's hard to speak of deeper visual experiences. On the plus side, the color gamut coverage is commendable – 91.4% DCI-P3 is a result that will be sufficient for most films. It must also be noted that the image is stable and there are no issues with sudden changes in brightness or colors. Looking at the overall picture, HDR on this TV is more of a formality than an actual added value. If we are looking for true HDR emotions, this model may not meet expectations.

If it’s about brightness, the R85H performs really well. In most of our test scenes the TV reaches around 800 to 900 nits, and with larger bright elements it can break 1000 nits. These aren't, of course, levels on par with the most expensive Mini-LEDs, but they're more than enough for watching movies and TV series in HDR, and the effect can be quite noticeable. The problem shows up again in more demanding scenes where there's a small bright element on a very dark background. Here the TV can significantly reduce its brightness so it doesn't illuminate too much of the screen. In our measurements such small highlights dropped to around 200 to 250 nits, so you can see that a limited number of local dimming zones combined with the specific behavior of the algorithm has its consequences. Fortunately, it's not something that bothers you all the time. In typical mixed HDR scenes the R85H looks good and can deliver appropriate image dynamics. You just can't expect the same punch from very small points of light as you get with TVs that have many more zones or with OLEDs.

Philips PUS8209 offers many picture modes, but the best among them, without a doubt, is the Filmmaker mode. Despite its proud name, it has its clear issues. In the case of HD content, the white balance is characterized 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 the midtones, has serious problems at the beginning and end of the graph. Drops in the shadows lead to a loss of details in dark areas, and highlights in bright areas make some elements look unnatural.

For high-quality 4K HDR content, the situation reverses. In this case, blue dominates, leading to an effect of artificial image enhancement, reminiscent of unnatural store settings. Such an image looks unappealing 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, making the image appear too dark, robbing the depth and detail of HDR content.

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

In Filmmaker mode our R85H sample performed adequately in SDR, but a few things immediately showed up in the measurements. In the white balance, as brightness increased more red crept in while blue decreased. As a result, the brighter parts of the image had a slightly too warm tint. On top of that, gamma only held to the target value at the start. It then gradually fell, making most of the image a bit too bright. The combination of the two also affected colors — errors grew especially in the brighter, more saturated samples. It didn’t look bad, but for Filmmaker mode we expected a bit more accuracy. Interestingly, in HDR our unit handled things noticeably better. White balance was much more even and, for most of the range, the individual RGB components stayed close together. Only in the brightest areas did red begin to fall short, causing the white point to shift slightly. The EOTF curve looked very good, tracking the target luminance values across almost the entire range. That doesn’t mean HDR colors were perfect. The ColorChecker still shows some deviations, particularly in some of the more saturated hues, but the errors are clearly smaller than in SDR.

After calibration, the white balance for HD and 4K content has improved significantly. Although we did not achieve a perfectly flat characteristic, the effect is definitely better than before. The image on the television no longer appears artificially warm or overly 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, which is responsible for brightness in 4K HDR material, has been stabilized, eliminating problems with excessive dimming of the image. In the color palette test, some imperfections can still be seen due to average coverage of a wide color gamut, which is a limitation of the hardware itself. Nevertheless, the final effect is clearly better than before calibration - the image looks more natural and approaches the expectations for the Filmmaker mode.

After calibration the R85H shows it has impressive color reproduction capabilities. It performed best in SDR, where the white balance was brought almost perfectly into line and the gamma stays very close to the target across most of the range. That also translated into very low errors in the ColorChecker, so there's really little to fault here. HDR also shows a clear improvement, although some issues can't be corrected as well. At peak brightness the character of the backlight itself starts to show and the individual components of the white balance begin to diverge. The same goes for the most saturated colors, which don't always land exactly where they should. Despite these limitations, overall the image is significantly more accurate than on the factory settings, and the biggest difference is clearly in SDR. However, there's one thing calibration can't fix. With highly saturated elements, color can subtly bleed onto adjacent bright parts of the image. It's easiest to notice this on white, which can pick up a slight tint from a neighboring hue. It doesn't occur in every scene, but when the content is demanding the effect can be visible. This is more a characteristic of the way the RGB backlight works than an issue with picture settings.

The television offers a "Distortion Reduction" feature that effectively improves the gradation of tonal transitions, especially when set to the minimum level. Unfortunately, it comes at a price – the feature also smooths out details like the texture of materials. On the plus side, 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, one can sometimes notice issues with aliasing on some elements, such as branches or fine details, which can lower the quality of the reception. Despite these minor imperfections, the overall experience of scaling is satisfactory.

In the R85H, image processing is handled by the Micro RGB AI Processor. The name is new, but in terms of upscaling lower-quality content, the TV’s behavior remains very similar to what Samsung has shown before. And that’s not a bad thing, since the company has handled this aspect quite well for years. Low-resolution material is displayed cleanly, edges don’t become overly soft, and the TV doesn’t try to artificially extract details at any cost. The result is simply balanced, and with regular TV or older recordings the R85H performs as you would expect from a Samsung at this level. The only minor drawback is overscan, which can’t be completely turned off at the lowest resolutions. A separate issue is the additional processing of weaker sources. The R85H can smooth posterization and tidy up heavily compressed footage a bit, but it’s worth stressing that it does so relatively aggressively. At stronger "noise reduction" settings it starts removing not only compression artifacts but also fine details and natural film grain. It’s best to use it only when the material actually needs it.

The 60 Hz panel in the Philips PUS8209 is mainly suited for watching movies, but there is also a certain sense of dissatisfaction here. The TV does not offer any motion smoothing feature that would allow adjusting the smoothness of the picture to individual preferences, which may be disappointing for some users.

R85H has a 144 Hz panel, so motion is really smooth here. Just remember that the extra hertz above 120 will mainly be used when connected to a PC, so in this category we don't treat them as a particular advantage. For movies and TV, what's more important is that the panel is fast enough to provide access to an advanced motion-smoothing feature, "Motion Clarity", which lets us set motion from more film-like to very smooth. The panel's response time is a bit weaker. Because this is a VA panel, fast-moving objects can leave a slight trail. On bright backgrounds that's not very noticeable, but the darker the scene, the more visible the smearing becomes. That's a typical characteristic of this type of panel, and it's easiest to spot in dark scenes.

The Philips PUS8209 offers basic functions 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 fluidity and precision of the image. Additionally, this model does not support any HDR mode dedicated to games, such as HGiG or Dolby Vision, which further limits its capabilities in this regard.

Samsung has been steadily expanding its gamer-focused features for several years, and the R85H really lacks nothing important in that area. The TV supports 4K at 120 Hz, VRR and ALLM, so you can easily take advantage of the capabilities of the PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X. HGiG also works correctly, so with the right HDR settings on the console games retain proper brightness and you don't unnecessarily lose detail in the brightest parts of the image. The only major omission is Dolby Vision Gaming, which Samsung doesn't support on any of its TVs.

Game Bar is also very useful, a handy menu you can bring up without leaving the game. You can quickly check the frame rate, VRR operation, or change the most important picture-related settings. Samsung also adds a few less obvious features, such as the ability to change the aspect ratio or Game Motion Plus, which can further smooth games running at 30 or 60 fps. Of course, this comes at the cost of higher input lag (around 55 ms), but for slower-paced titles it may be an interesting option for some players.