Philips The One (PUS8959 / PUS8919 / PUS8909 / PUS8949 vs LG OLED C6 (WOLED)

The luminance chart for Philips PUS8959 shows that the television can achieve around 550 nits of brightness, which can be considered a satisfactory level. This brightness allows the effects of HDR to be felt, particularly standing out in more demanding scenes. In the tested patterns, the television performed quite well, even in challenging sequences like those from "Sicario 2". Due to the lack of local dimming, the television does not dim small bright elements, and they shine with the full "power" of the television but at the cost of the silverish blacks we mentioned in the paragraph about blacks. It is also worth praising Philips PUS8959 for its good coverage of the DCI-P3 color palette, which amounts to around 94.5%. This makes the colors vivid and close to the creators' intentions, further enhancing the quality of HDR effects and the viewing experience of high dynamic range content.

The HDR effect on the LG C6 is really very good. LG Display's new WOLED panel primarily brought a significant increase in brightness. In our unit we measured around 1,500 nits and, importantly, the TV can show similar values in many normal movie scenes. That gives HDR the proper impact. Bright highlights, lamps, or sunlight can be really strong, and most HDR movies simply look very impressive. Of course it's still an OLED, so brightness drops in scenes with a lot of white. The fifth scene of The Meg illustrates this well, where the C6 reached about 600-700 nits. That's still a very good result, but it also shows the new panel hasn't removed all the limitations typical of OLEDs.

Colors

When it comes to color, there is also little to complain about. The C6 covers about 99% of the DCI-P3 gamut and roughly 75% of BT.2020. In practice the colors are very saturated and, importantly, stable regardless of the scene. That's worth emphasizing, because not every TV behaves the same in this respect. In some RGB Mini LED models color saturation can depend more strongly on image brightness. Today a wider color gamut is mainly offered by QD-OLED TVs and new SQD models with a new generation of quantum dots. However, the C6 still performs very strongly here and is able to generate appropriately saturated colors in most movie scenes.

The Philips PUS8959 television was tested in the best, theoretically most precise picture mode – Filmmaker. Although the name suggests cinematic quality, it unfortunately falls far short of the ideal. The biggest issue in this mode is white balance, both in HD and 4K content. It is characterized by a significant dominance of the red color and dips in the green level, resulting in an unnatural color reproduction. For example, white elements of the image have a distinctly pinkish hue, and the green is less intense, causing the overall image to lose its naturalness and color balance. The ColorChecker test confirms these errors – it is clearly visible how the color samples "deviate" from the correct values, which can be best observed on the sample squares that should accurately reproduce colors. The lack of accuracy in this regard affects the realism and fidelity of the image, which is particularly undesirable in Filmmaker mode.

Regarding brightness characteristics, the gamma chart resembles a real roller coaster – with small elements displayed on the screen, the brightness is excessive, causing details to become overly highlighted. Meanwhile, at higher gamma values, the image loses contrast and becomes too dark, making the overall appearance look less dynamic. Similar issues can be noticed in the EOTF characteristics – the television is unable to correctly reproduce the brightness level, negatively affecting the overall image quality.

Right out of the box the LG C6 is pretty well set up, especially if you choose Filmmaker mode. In SDR material the white balance is decent, although as brightness increases it starts to lack a bit of red. The picture becomes a little cooler as a result, but it’s not such a big difference that it stands out during normal viewing. More happens in the brightness response itself. Gamma is a bit low and instead of holding at 2.4 it sits closer to 2.1–2.2 over much of the range. In practice the C6 slightly brightens midtones. Shadows are therefore more readable, but the image loses some depth compared with how it should look in a dark room. In HDR the situation is a bit more interesting. The start of the grayscale looks very good, but from about 20–30% brightness the white balance starts to drift more and more. As brightness rises there’s more red and a noticeable lack of blue. In the brightest highlights the difference is already significant and also affects reproduction of some colors. The EOTF curve itself is handled fairly well over most of the range. The C6 only has a tendency to slightly brighten the image, which we also saw during our film comparisons. The largest deviation appears around the brightest highlights, where the TV begins to adapt the signal to the panel’s capabilities. So the out-of-the-box Filmmaker mode in HDR isn’t perfect, but overall it performs well. The biggest room for improvement is the white balance, especially at high brightness.

After calibration, the Philips PUS8959 television shows a significant improvement in color reproduction, especially in HD content. The white balance is exceptionally even, and the Delta E error values are below 1, which can be considered an outstanding result. Additionally, the gamma, which is responsible for brightness in lower-quality materials, performs very well, maintaining a stable level at 2.4, leading to an appropriate balance between bright and dark areas of the image.

Regarding 4K HDR materials, a significant improvement is also noticeable. The white balance, although not as perfect as in HD content, no longer shows issues with excessive red exposure, making the image appear more natural and harmonious. Unfortunately, in the EOTF characteristics, it is difficult to speak of any significant improvement, due to the design limitations of the television that prevent significant enhancement in this aspect.

Nevertheless, the overall performance is much better after calibration, making the Philips PUS8959 one of those televisions where it is truly worth spending time on precise calibration to achieve satisfactory image quality.

LG TVs have been very receptive to calibration for years, and the C6 is no exception. After adjustment the white balance was set almost perfectly, and most color errors dropped to values below 3, often even around 2. In practice this means very accurate color reproduction in both SDR and HDR. An interesting detail appeared only with the HDR brightness characteristic. On a classic EOTF chart everything looks nearly ideal, and at first glance it would be hard to find fault. Only when we measured the TV’s behavior using filters based on actual movie scenes did it become clear that the C6 has a slight tendency to artificially boost image brightness.

It’s not a huge difference and many people may even see it as a positive, because HDR looks a bit more impressive this way. From the standpoint of fidelity to the source material this isn’t ideal — some scenes are simply a touch brighter than the filmmaker intended. Interestingly, this is somewhat unusual for LG. In previous generations, the brand’s TVs typically stuck very closely to the reference tone curve after calibration. With the C6 we’re still very close to the standard, but that subtle boost in brightness is indeed noticeable in films and series.

When it comes to smoothing tonal transitions, the "Distortion Reduction" function at the minimal setting performs quite well, effectively smoothing tonal transitions without excessive influence on other elements of the image. In tests, I did not notice that the reduction negatively affected the image structure, such as film grain or object details – everything remains in place, which is a big plus for users who appreciate the natural look of film materials.

On the other hand, regarding digital processing, the image looks quite good, although it is characterized by very softened contours, giving it an almost "misty" quality. This effect can evoke mixed feelings – some users may enjoy the fluidity and delicacy of this type of presentation, while others may find it too gentle, losing detail. It is a matter of individual preferences, but it must be admitted that the Philips PUS8959 provides quite subtle yet effective tools for improving tonal transitions without excessive interference in the natural character of the image.

The LG C6 has taken a really big step forward here. The TV uses the same processor found in the flagship G6, and in terms of image processing the two models are very similar. That’s a big plus, because in this area LG’s processor this year performs excellently. The "Smooth Gradation" feature works especially well. With heavily compressed material it can effectively hide ugly tonal transitions and artifacts that often appear, for example, in lower-quality streaming. It’s best to leave it set to "Low." Then the improvement is clear, and the TV doesn’t yet start blurring fine details. Higher levels smooth the image more, but can already remove some of the natural texture of objects on the screen. The upscaling itself also performs very well. Lower-resolution content is sharpened properly, edges look clean, and the processor quite effectively rebuilds fine details. In this regard the C6 is already very close to LG’s best TVs, and the differences compared with the G6 are small.

Philips TV PUS8959 is equipped with a 120 Hz panel, which should satisfy more demanding users, especially those who love watching dynamic sports broadcasts or playing games. Such a high refresh rate allows for a significantly smoother image, being a key aspect during dynamic scenes and fast actions.

For those who prefer watching movies, the TV offers an additional motion smoother that allows adjusting the frame rate of the film according to personal preferences. The Philips PUS8959 has a 10-step adjustment for the functions called "Smoothness" and "Motion Blur Reduction." The "Smoothness" function is responsible for increasing the number of frames through interpolation, making motion on the screen smoother, resembling the effect of so-called "soap opera." Meanwhile, "Motion Blur Reduction" focuses on minimizing blurring and improving motion sharpness, which is particularly noticeable in dynamic sequences, such as action scenes or fast sports shots.

The LG C6 features a panel with a maximum refresh rate of 165 Hz, which is great news especially for gamers using a powerful PC. For movies, sports, or consoles we'll of course use up to 120 Hz, but even then it's hard to fault the motion clarity. As you'd expect from an OLED, the panel's response time is almost instantaneous. Moving objects therefore don't leave the characteristic smears you still see on LCD TVs. This is particularly noticeable in sports and fast-paced games, where the picture remains very clean even during dynamic motion.

For movies and TV, LG also provides the TruMotion motion-smoothing system. In the user settings you'll find two separate sliders. De-Judder is mainly for low-frame-rate content, that is primarily 24 fps films and series. It can slightly reduce the characteristic judder, or be set higher if you want a much smoother image. De-Blur is useful for higher-frame-rate material, mainly sports broadcasts and 50/60 fps television.

Philips PUS8959 is a television that will certainly satisfy gaming enthusiasts. It supports most modern technologies useful during gameplay, such as HGiG, allowing for better HDR effect reproduction in games. As a result, the image is closer to what the game developers intended to achieve.

The television also supports 120 Hz image display, ensuring smoothness and dynamism, which is particularly important during action games and sports broadcasts. The Game Bar feature provides quick access to game settings, making it easier to adjust the image according to user preferences without interrupting gameplay.

Unfortunately, the Dolby Vision mode does not offer low input lag, which may be noticeable during dynamic scenes. Nevertheless, thanks to the HGiG feature and high refresh rate, the Philips PUS8959 remains an attractive choice for gamers, offering good image quality and appropriate smoothness during gameplay.

LG has focused heavily on gamers for years, and the C6 really lacks nothing important. The TV supports 4K at 120 Hz from consoles, and when connected to a PC it can run up to 165 Hz. It also offers VRR from 40 to 165 Hz, ALLM, and properly working HGiG. A big plus is Dolby Vision support for games, so the Xbox Series X can use that format without sacrificing game mode. The package is rounded out by a Game Bar that lets you quickly check key signal parameters and change settings without leaving the game. In terms of features, the C6 is one of those TVs that’s really hard to find fault with. Whether you play on PlayStation, Xbox, or PC, practically everything you could expect from a modern gaming TV is available here.