Philips 50PUS6272

What would you expect from a £500 TV? 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 offers 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 TVS, which are calibrated to look good as soon as you get them out of the box, the 50PUS6272 looks dreadful. The two main culprits are an eco picture mode that isn’t in the main Eco menu, but hidden in Advanced Settings, and a Noise Reduction feature that has a strange habit of turning things green. The good news is that deactivating those two ‘features’ fixes the flaws, but you still need to do a lot of work.

Dynamic display

It’s a much brighter and more dynamic picture than we’ve come to expect from TVS at this price, and it does a great job with the opening of

Drop down to Full HD, via Blu-ray or broadcast (satellite and Freeview Play are built-in), and the performance is again a success.

But all of the above assumes you’re sitting fairly straight-on to the telly, as its viewing angles aren’t great.

With sound, the Original preset is the one to stick with; and, despite the claims, the ‘Incredible Surround’ mode is neither incredible nor surround for that matter. Amazon Video works in 4K (but not HDR), while Netflix gives you the full 4K HDR package. All four of the main catch-up apps are also present, and you can stream pay-as-you-go blockbusters from Rakuten.

Ultimately, any shortcomings are minor in the face of this TV’S performance.