AV SYSTEMS TV/BLU-RAY PLAYER/SURROUND SOUND/SET-TOP BOX
SYSTEM 2: MID-PRICE
1 Philips 65OLED805 (£1800) 2 Panasonic DP-UB820EB (£299) 3 Sony STR-DN1080 (£429) 4 Q Acoustics 3010i 5.1 Cinema Pack (£895) 5 Sky Q
TOTAL: £3423 plus Sky Q monthly cost
O
ur midranking system in this AV trio brings together a complete set of five 2020 What Hi-Fi? Award winners. And it really is as impressive a team as those individual components ought to make it sound.
The face of this quintet is Philips’ vast and vastly talented 65in OLED – winner of our Best 65in TV over £2000 Award. As you can see here, it is available at the time of writing for comfortably under that price – so this is a true bargain of a premium set now.
While most TVs offer either Dolby Vision or HDR10+, Philips is one of a handful of manufacturers (Panasonic is another) to offer both. While HDR10+ is certainly less desirable than Dolby Vision, it is slowly becoming more popular (it’s the favoured dynamic HDR format for Amazon Prime Video, for example), so having both is reassuring.
The OLED805’s sharpness and detail are its greatest strengths. From close-ups to wide-angled aerial shots, everything is rendered with a crispness and solidity that few rivals can match.
The colour reproduction is excellent, too. 1917’s palette is muted but not lifeless, and the OLED805 happily finds a sweet spot, ensuring that green fields are verdant without being vivid, and faces are flushed without being artificially rosy.