Philips 55PUS6401 review: Price
Even the top-of-the-range 55in model on test here costs only £649 from Argos. That’s £150 below Philips recommended price of £799. The 49in model is only £499 from Argos, and the smallest 43in version – the 43PUS6401 – costs £399. See our list of the best TVs to buy
Philips 55PUS6401 review: Features and design
And they all look decidedly upmarket, too. The bezel of the 55-inch 55PUS6401 reviewed, while not ultra narrow, has a distinguished gunmetal grey finish, with a so-called ‘pinch’ stand, basically two bolt-on A-frame feet. The look is classy, not cheap. Rear connections comprise four HDMIs, two of which are labeled ARC and one MHL, plus three USBs, including a fast 3.0 input. There’s also a SCART, component with phono audio, Ethernet and digital audio output. It should be noted that only two of the HDMIs support HDCP 2.2, which is required for 4K content sources like UHD Blu-ray and set top boxes. Tuner choice is Freeview HD or generic satellite. The remote control is a standard IR pointer. The Android TV smart platform isn’t as rough as it once was, although it’s still prone to tedious software updates and moments of failure. The Home page features Google’s Play and Games offerings, as well as BBC iPlayer, Vimeo, Netflix (which supports 4K streams), Wuaki.tv, Chili Cinema, DailyMotion, Deezer and casual games. Picture quality warrants a thumbs up, with UHD detail and colour vibrancy outstanding. There’s genuine precious metal to be enjoyed during the rise of the Golden Army in Hellboy II (Blu-ray), but our titular hero does verge a little on the orange rather than his trademark hellish red. In many ways, the set proves a great partner for Sky UHD. Ultra HD movies played from a Sky Q Silver, look superb. The screen relishes the detail! Philips Pixel Plus HD image processing supposedly aids definition, allied to a Natural Motion processor. The latter doesn’t use its algorithms to maintain motion clarity though, more it smoothes out horizontal picture judder. Although HDR compatible, the 6401 is unable to offer an extended range of peak brightness. Philips specifies brightness at 350 nits, which is some way off high-end HDR (1000 nits) sets. But while the TV lacks the chops to pop at high brightness, in context images have a pleasing dynamic balance. When viewing HDR content (available from 4K Blu-ray and Netflix), picture presets change from standard options to, specific HDR modes: you get HDR Personal, HDR Vivid, HDR Natural, HDR Standard, HDR Movie and HDR Photo. This set is unusual in that it also offers a low lag HDR Game mode. Owners of the Xbox One S take note. Colour, sharpness and contrast settings are all adjustable while watching HDR content. There’s no significant difference in fine detail performance between the various HDR presets. There are demerits though. Backlight uniformity is relatively poor. There’s clearly light pooling around the edge of the screen and black levels are limited. Behind the glass is Philips Micro Dimming Pro system, which uses software to analyse 6400 zones. However, in a fully dark room, the screen struggle to approximate true black. During normal viewing these light leaks tend not to be noticeable. Audio quality borders on adequate. There’s 20W of amplification onboard, but you’ll definitely want a soundbar. The set doesn’t support 3D.
