It was announced back in January, but Philips has finally confirmed the launch of its flagship OLED 4K TV – the OLED+959. And you can have the 65OLED959 in any size as long as it’s 65in – it’s only available in that one size.
The 65OLED959is going on sale from Richer Sounds in the UK for £3999 during October with other vendors to be confirmed.
It’s an incredible-looking TV that I’ve had the privilege to check out a couple of times – once at Philips’ January launch in Barcelona and yesterday during an event at Abbey Road Studios where availability for the TV was officially announced. Philips’ audio buddy Bowers & Wilkins has a long-standing relationship with Abbey Road.
As with all recent flagship Philips OLEDs, a Bowers and Wilkins-designed audio system is an essential part of the package. Here everything has been carefully packaged into a 5.1.2 arrangement including two upfiring Dolby Atmos units with a total output of 102W. And it is stunning to listen to – we were treated to some lossless tunes from Apple Music (in Dolby Atmos) and Tidal as well as dialogue and action from Blade Runner 2049. You simply can’t believe that such excellent sound is coming from the TV as opposed to a physically-larger system.
The 65OLED959 is super-bright – and boasts peak brightness of up to 3000nits. It uses the latest-gen Meta 2.0 OLED panel with an upgraded version Micro Lens Array (MLA) tech, here referred to as Micro Lens Array Plus technology. Once again Philips P5 picture processor is used but has been further tweaked for HDR footage, enabling it to adjust to the ambient light level in the room.
Philips’ Ambilight tech is 20 years old this year 2024 and the 65OLED959 has an enhanced version of the tech which, unsurprisingly, is called Ambilight Plus (at least it wasn’t Ambilight Pro). It’s a bit of a busier experience than Ambilight has given in the past, using additional lenses to create a larger effect and create different patterns on the wall. It’s certainly a different direction for the tech and we’ll see how it responds when it comes to our review.
We’ve already reviewed Philips’ other key Ambilight TV launches this year including the OLED+909 (available in 55, 65 and 77in screen sizes with four-sided Ambilight) and the OLED809 series (available in various sizes from 42in right up to 77in). These have LG OLED EX panels (as in the LG G4) and three-sided Ambilight.