Philips 43PUS6401
FOR Decent 4K image; HDR support; Ambilight; price AGAINST Lacks brightness; poor sound; lacks black depth
Not all 4K TVS are created equal, so when considering a 43in 4K HDR set for less than £400, you have to be prepared to make some compromises. The Philips 43PUS6401 embodies the word, delivering exactly what you might expect at its price. But is that enough to make it worth your cash?
It certainly doesn’t waste too much of your money on a flashy design – opting for a simple but stylish slim silver bezel and two aluminium feet.
There is a somewhat hidden trick up the PUS6401’S sleeve. It packs two-sided Ambilight, shining a little added light on proceedings. It’s easily toggled on or off from a dedicated menu button, but we enjoy it when watching movies (setting it to follow the on-screen picture works best for us). The solid white light option also proves handy for softer bias lighting, which is particularly useful because we find the PUS6401’S panel to be quite reflective.
Watching TV in our well-lit testing room, we are able to see our own reflection quite clearly, which is distracting to say the least, especially during darker scenes. Turning the light down helps, as does positioning the set away from direct light.
There’s one remote control in the box, a regular Philips handset, with no QWERTY keyboard. It’s well laid out, but it’s not the most responsive – it needs to be pointed directly at the TV and the buttons pressed with conviction for your command to be registered on first try.
Philips also has one of our least favourite menu systems, so this can make the rather unintuitive lists of menus and options even more of a headache to navigate. In particular, be aware of the unconventional wording of things – for example, there are several different “contrast” options, each buried in a different section of the menu, which is confusing to say the least.
For this reason, setting up the Philips isn’t as straightforward as we might like, but you’ll certainly want to dive into the picture settings to get things looking better than they do out of the box.
A good first step is turning off all of the processing so you’re working with the raw picture. Eco settings tend to default to on, so you’ll want to ensure they’re turned off for the best results.
Not enough nits
The Philips 43PUS6401 doesn’t carry the UHD Premium badge the Samsung does, not least because it has a maximum brightness of only 350 nits (a UHD Premium set needs at least 1000 nits).
HDR is still technically possible on this set, but you’ll need to make sure you have the most recent firmware update. Once you do, the PUS6401 will recognise an HDR source automatically and tweak its settings to suit, though annoyingly Philips TVS still don’t support HDR on Netflix or Amazon content.
Connectivity wise you’re fairly well covered, with four HDMIS (two support HDCP2.2), three USBS and single component and analogue ins. There’s even a SCART for older connections and a single optical out for outputting your TVS sound to a soundbar.
There’s wi-fi or ethernet for hooking up to your home network, and once you’re online, you’ll be able to access the TV’S on-board Android TV system. It’s not our favourite user-interface by a long shot (it’s a hybrid alongside Philips’ own menus and EPG, so feels a little disjointed), but it is slowly improving.
With apps for Netflix, Amazon and iplayer, it ticks many boxes, but we’d like to see more UK catch-up services. The ability to cast from portable devices helps, but Android TV is still behind its rivals when it comes to choice.
Once set up, the Philips’ lack of brightness compared to the Samsung is noticeable in its more subdued picture performance and colour palette.
On the whole, colours lack the same level of accuracy, with reds looking a
touch orangey while blues and greens are overly bold. It’s not unexpected at this level, but something we weren’t able to balance out with the regular settings.
Murky scenes
The PUS6401 is at its best in brighter scenes. Even then with standard definition material (including broadcast programmes) there is a noticeable drop in detail from the Panasonic TX40DX700B, and a much smoother overall picture that lacks the same clarity and detail you see in better sets. It’s not unwatchable, but it shows the upscaler is not a strong point here and means the picture lacks the same sense of depth.
With a 4K Blu-ray signal this improves by some stretch, but the picture is still not as insightful as those from either the Panasonic or Samsung sets.
HDR pictures lack the punch in colour and brightness to really get the usual benefits of the technology across. You’ll see a touch more subtlety and sparkle in highlights compared with regular SDR
“When considering a 43in 4K HDR set for under £400, be prepared to make some compromises. The Philips 43PUS6401 embodies the word”
content, but it isn’t capable of hitting home with the same intensity.
It’s in dark scenes where the picture is most lacking, with the set not capable of deep enough blacks, nor shadow detail, to give a murky scene much impact.
Missing some sparkle
Watching in a darkened room helps, but emphasises the rather poor backlight uniformity that can become noticeable in darker scenes. The set ultimately lacks a good grip on contrast – introduce a bright element to a dark scene and it will struggle to balance out the two. And outlines could be better etched.
With no motion processing employed, fast-moving pans look a little unnatural. Setting the Philips Natural Motion settings to minimum (any more will worsen the picture elsewhere) helps.
You’ll want to consider investing in a soundbar or external speakers, as the internal speakers aren’t up to much. It’s a small, enclosed sound that lacks detail, and can be quite hard to listen to for longer periods of time. We would hope for more, even at this price.
So can you really get a decent 4K HDR TV for £400? There’s no doubt it’s a tempting proposition, but overall we’re not sure you will see the benefits of 4K on this set, and certainly not of HDR.
4K Blu-ray pictures will benefit the most from the capabilities of this set, but it struggles with darker scenes and, even with its price tag in mind, the overall lack of brightness takes the sparkle off a little.
‘Compromise’ is the word here, and there’s plenty of those to be made with this set. You may find saving up a touch more means fewer compromises where it really matters.