Philips’ latest collection of Android TVs brings OLED, HDMI 2.1, more

Ben Schoon | May 26 2021 - 8:28 am PT

The Android TV space is growing considerably and includes TVs of all sizes, types, and prices. This week, Philips has announced a new range of OLED TVs powered by Google’s Android TV that will be coming to Europe.

The Philips 7-Series OLED TVs are certainly high-end TVs, but they’re designed with the cost of OLED in mind. Prices for the series start at $1,300 (£980). That’s roughly in the same ballpark as Vizio, who sells a 55-inch OLED in the US for $1,299 where LG and Sony both head closer to $1,500-$1,800.

Not much is being given up for that price, either. As FlatPanelsHD reports, the Philips OLED706 comes with HDMI 2.1, a 100/120Hz refresh rate, and other features alongside most HDR standards and the brand’s clever built-in “Ambilight,” which skips the need for a lightstrip. A director at TP Vision, the company behind the Philips TV brand explains:

We have enjoyed fantastic improvements in TV performance over the past five years but consistently throughout that time OLED technology has proven to be the best and will it continue to be so for some time to come. So, the consumer can be confident that OLED is the winning technology but that’s not the whole story. With the launch of the new high-value OLED705 TVs, more consumers will be able to enjoy the highest quality PQ processing from our superb P5 processing suite with the unique immersive experience of Ambilight, a combination that the expert media believes gives Philips the very best OLED TV performance.

Both the 55-inch and 65-inch 7-Series OLED TVs from Philips’ latest release run on top of Google’s Android TV operating system, though with the standard UI and not the newer Google TV version. Access to Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, and other services are of course part of the platform.

The OLED705 releases from today in the UK and Germany.