Philips 50PUS6272
FOR Punchy, dynamic picture; price; good apps; Ambilight AGAINST Poor viewing angles; needs careful calibration
What would you expect from a TV costing around £500? Maybe a small 4K screen, or a slightly bigger one without 4K – and surely HDR is unlikely. If that sounds right, it’s time to reset your expectations: the Philips 50PUS6272 is 50in and has 4K, HDR and even Ambilight, all for £530. What’s more, it goes beyond specs by oering a performance that’s genuinely superb for the money.
However, when you first turn the Philips on, you could be mistaken for thinking you’ve bought a dud. Unlike most modern TVS, which are calibrated to look pretty great as soon as you get them out of the box, the 50PUS6272 looks dreadful.
A green light
The two main culprits are an eco picture mode and a Noise Reduction feature that has a strange habit of turning things green. Don’t believe us? Leave the TV on its defaults and check out Joseph Gordonlevitt’s face at the start of Looper. Yep, that green mass is supposed to be stubble.
The good news is that deactivating those two ‘features’ fixes the obvious flaws, but you still need to do a lot of tweaking to get the TV looking its best. We would always recommend calibrating the picture by running a THX Optimizer disc, but this is a particularly arduous set-up. Once completed, it’s a much brighter, more vibrant and more dynamic picture than we’ve come to expect from TVS at this price. It does a great job with the opening of
Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol.2. You can almost feel the warmth of the dusky Missourian landscape in the film’s first few scenes, and the woods where Ego takes Meredith are lush and verdant. The TV doesn’t artificially boost colours, and the presentation is far more sophisticated than expected, combining those vibrant elements with natural skin tones and fairly nuanced shading.
Contrast is very good, too, with clouds better defined here than they are on the more expensive Panasonic TX¦50EX750B (£850). The Philips' picture is also sharper, and the image more obviously layered. Each object, from the T-top Mustang to Rocket’s periscope gun, is solid and three-dimensional, where many rivals at this price look flat and uninviting. We switch to Planet Earth II on 4K HDR Blu-ray, and it is again a bright, vibrant and punchy performance, with sharply drawn edges and loads of detail. Distant mountains that are a blur of snow and rock on the Panasonic have clear outcrops on the Philips. Again, it’s that solidity and definition, and the combination of vibrancy and realism to the colours, that make the Philips’ HDR performance such a pleasure.
Punch and vibrancy
Drop down to Full HD, via Blu-ray or one of the tuners (satellite and Freeview Play are built-in), and the performance is again a success, albeit a slightly more qualified one. Post-calibration, the set isn't as bright as some of its rivals, but the trade-off is more subtlety in bright elements. Lights that are simple, large balls of bright white on some sets are smaller, pure blooms that emanate gradually diminishing shades, and reflect off the objects around them. The lamps in Joe’s apartment in Looper, particularly in the scene that sees him return after it’s been ransacked, are great examples.
A low Sharpness setting avoids the sub-4k pictures looking artificially enhanced, but results in an image that’s a bit softer than some rivals. Black detail is lower, too, although the deficiency is really noticeable only in side-by-side comparisons. Overall, the picture is natural and likeable, with good black depth, well judged colours and plenty of detail. Motion handling is convincing throughout, only suffering a little, perfectly acceptable, judder with the processing turned off.
The Philips even does an admirable job with standard-def. The picture is a bit soft, but colours are nicely controlled, detail is good and motion impresses again. Gamers will also appreciate the Philips’ input lag of around 27ms and, if they’re playing on an HDR console, its punch and vibrancy.
But whatever you’re watching (or playing), the three-sided Ambilight is as joyous as ever. Extending the on-screen action onto the wall behind and around the telly via coloured LEDS, Ambilight not only looks spectacular (the orange of an open fire in Marco Polo extending up the wall, for example), it also draws the eye in and makes the whole screen seem bigger.
But all of the above assumes you’re sitting fairly straight-on to the telly, as its viewing angles aren’t great. Move a little off-axis and things wash out fairly quickly. It’s no worse here than with Samsung’s much more expensive 2017 QLEDS, but it is worth bearing in mind.
Given the 50PUS6272’S approach to picture settings, it’s no surprise that it has an abundance of audio options. However, the default Original preset is the one to stick with – and despite the claims, the ‘Incredible Surround’ mode is neither incredible nor surround for that matter. The one mode that is worth using is Clear Sound – and that’s enabled as standard.
By TV standards, this is a relatively clear and dynamic audio performance. It lacks a bit in weight, there’s not a great deal of detail, and subtler effects can get lost, but sound is projected well and you’re never left trying to translate a murky mumble. It isn't subtle, but for the money it’s fine, though as always, we’d recommend a separate sound solution. If spending loads on a speaker to go with a budget TV like this seems daft, the JVC THW513B (£60) would still be an improvement.
Minor shortcomings
On the app front, the Philips is pretty well appointed. Amazon Video works in 4K (but not HDR), while Netflix gives you the full 4K HDR package. The main catch-up apps (iplayer, ITV Hub, All4 and Demand5) are also present, and you can stream pay-asyou-go blockbusters from Rakuten. Google Play Movies & TV would be preferable, of course, but the Philips has covered most of the bases in terms of content.
Unlike Philips’ higher-end TVS, such as the 55POS9002 OLED, the 50PUS6272 doesn’t run on Android TV, instead it has a Linux-based operating system. We’re not huge fans of Android TV, but this Linux system is undeniably worse to use. Sluggish, basic and somewhat ugly, the OS makes it a bit of a chore to get to the content you’re after. Deleting the apps you’ve no intention of using will streamline operation in the long run.
The search function is poor, leaving you unsure whether it has searched and found nothing or just isn’t working at all, and the EPG is rudimentary (although there is a ‘Recommended’ tab that looks much nicer). The remote has a dedicated Netflix button, allowing you to skip past the GUI, but it’s an otherwise rather poor zapper, with a cluttered arrangement of spongy buttons.
Ultimately, though, these shortcomings are minor in the face of a performance that’s much better than the low price would suggest. Yes, it can be difficult to use, it’s a real pig to get performing at its best, and viewing angles aren’t that good. But those issues are well worth putting up with for a picture this good at such a reasonable price.
“It has a much brighter, more vibrant and more dynamic picture than we would expect from a TV at this price”