Philips 65PFL5504/F7 Review: A Television That Could Have Been Better

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Philips 65PFL5504/F7: At First Glance

Philips Electronics is best regarded as one of the largest electronics companies since its establishment in 1891. In 2014, this Dutch multinational company came up with its first smart TV and joined the innovative trend of android OS televisions.

Since then, many have relied on the brand for their smart and modern viewing experiences. Fast forward to 2019, the brand has evolved with their various smart TV models which the Philips 65PFL5504/F7 is a part of.

In this review, what you most likely want to know is if this television is worth its $3,000 price tag (as of January 2022). How about you read on to find out?

Philips 65PFL5504/F7: Design, Dimensions and Weight

The design of the Philips 65PFL5504/F7 television is definitely not one of its problems. This television is sure to catch the attention of anyone walking into your living room.

To give some more insights, this smart TV has black slim bezels. These bezels are so slim that it gives the television a screen-to-body ratio of 93.64%.

If you didn’t know, a screen-to-body ratio in simple terms refers to how much of the display surface is present as compared to the entire screen. This means that the display of this television takes up almost 94% of the whole television screen.

The remaining 6% is the black plastic bezels that surround the television’s screen. If we’re to compare that figure with some other smart televisions, this Philips product will be just right.

For example, the LG 65UK6500AUA has a screen-to-body ratio of 93.74% which makes it really close to that of the Philips 65PFL5504/F7. On the other side of the equation is Samsung QA65Q950TSKXXM with a better screen-to-body ratio of 99%.

Apparently, we can say that this Philips smart television is slim and appealing to look at from its front. Speaking of slim, the Philips 65PFL5504/F7 has a dimension of 1457.9 x 101.6 x 840.7 mm.

Looking at other smart TV options, the Philips 65PFL5504/F7 cannot be best described as slim. For example, the Samsung UN65RU7100FXZA has a dimension of 1457 x 58.4 x 838 mm.

Just by looking at the numbers, it’s evident that this Philips television is almost twice as thick as the Samsung television. However, when it comes to height and width, both televisions are very similar – even almost the same.

Still in comparison, the LG 65UK6500AUA has a dimension of 1455.4 x 66 x 840.7 mm. From the look of things, this LG television is closer in dimension to the Samsung television than that of the Philips.

This means that the LG 65UK6500AUA is just as slim as the Samsung UN65RU7100FXZA. Comparatively, Philips 65PFL5504/F7 television is thicker than its competitors.

Away from dimensions, let’s talk about weight. The Philips 65PFL5504/F7 weighs 18098.3 g.

You may be wondering if the weight of this TV is fair. To give you an idea, I will be comparing the Philips 65PFL5504/F7 with some of its competitors.

To start with, the LG 65UK6500AUA which weighs 25990.8 g is a heavier smart TV than the Philips 65PFL5504/F7. Another competing TV that weighs more than the Philips 65PFL5504/F7 is the Samsung UN65RU7100FXZA, weighing 24992 g.

By comparison, it’s interesting to see the Philips 65PFL5504/F7 weighing less than its counterparts despite being the thicker one of all three!

Away from weight, you can tell the brand of this TV with the “Philips” logo at the center of the lower bezel. Also, below the lower bezel, right underneath the television, you will see the ports where you can easily connect the TV stand.

What this means is, if you chose not to wall-mount the Philips 65PFL5504/F7 – you can easily set up this TV on a table using the stands provided by Philips in the pack. These two stands are not “V” shaped as we commonly see in most TVs.

Instead, these stands are flat, making it easy to place this Philips smart TV on a wide and solid table. Speaking of solid, these flat stands are sturdy enough to hold the TV, although, it gets wobbly by a touch.

In brief, the Philips 65PFL5504/F7 is a bulky television that still happens to look appealing. Considering this and other features in this section of the review, the design of the Philips 65PFL5504/F7 is best rated an eight out of ten.

Philips 65PFL5504/F7: Display Features

The Philips 65PFL5504/F7 is said to bring “your TV experience to a whole new level”. The Dutch company planned to achieve that with the display features of this television.

To start off, this television features a massive 65-inch LCD display screen. Furthermore, this 65-inch has a display resolution of 4K UHD (3840 x 2160).

For a 2019 television, you should not expect anything less than 4K resolution and that’s because it’s very common to have this type of resolution. With the rapid advancement in digital trends, many television manufacturers saw the need to enhance display quality.

Following that, 4K resolution came into the limelight and is well-known for providing more details and better clarity to on-screen displays.

To give more depth, 4K is literally four times better resolution than a typical HD resolution. In fact, 4K simply refers to the 3840 horizontal pixels which are almost 4000 pixels.

This large number of pixels means colors on the Philips 65PFL5504/F7 are at their very best. Although, the level of color depth in televisions is not solely dependent on its display resolution.

To be exact, the display type – which is LCD – in the case of the Philips 65PFL5504/F7 also contributes to color depth. Speaking of which, the combination of the 4K UHD resolution and LCD display type of this Philips TV is impressive.

In more descriptive terms, this Philips TV has a good amount of clarity and colors are well defined. Furthermore, the display features of the Philips 65PFL5504/F7 do not end there – there’s an additional feature that makes it even more appealing.

This feature is the HDR 10 and for those who don’t know, HDR stands for High Dynamic Range. With the inclusion of the word “high” in this term, you can pretty much guess the effects it’ll have.

Well, whether or not you know, HDR in simple terms, is responsible for displaying colors more deeply as well as providing more highlights to the on-screen display. Perhaps this is what Philips meant when they stated that they will take “your TV experience to a whole new level”.

Most importantly, having this feature also means that streaming videos on Netflix and Amazon Prime gets even more captivating.

Away from the HDR 10, the aspect and contrast ratio of this Philips TV are two other display features we cannot ignore. To be more exact, the Philips 65PFL5504/F7 has an aspect ratio of 16:9 and a 1000:1 contrast ratio.

Starting with the latter, contrast ratio simply refers to the ratio of the brightest white to the darkest black on a TV. For more clarity, this means that a white image will be 1000 times brighter than a black one.

The next question you’ll probably ask is if this figure is good enough for this television. Well, in the case of the Philips 65PFL5504/F7, we can say that the display is very capable of producing natural-looking images.

Of equal importance, there is the 16:9 aspect ratio of the Philips 65PFL5504/F7. Aspect ratio is best described as the ratio between the width and height of a display.

In case that’s still not clear, I’ll provide a practical example.

Have you ever watched a movie and noticed some black bars on the top or sides of your television display? Yup, that’s the effect of the aspect ratio.

When this happens, it means the movie you’re watching has an older aspect ratio than the current trend. With that said, 16:9 is the current trend for screen displays and you don’t have to worry about those black bars when using the Philips 65PFL5504/F7.

Still on display features, it is unfortunate that the Philips 65PFL5504/F7 despite its high price tag, does not have local dimming technology. To make more sense, local dimming is a display technology that increases the black levels of a display.

A major aspect where you’ll appreciate local dimming is when it comes to watching movies with those dark scenes. So, to the horror movie fans, the Philips 65PFL5504/F7 may not be so delightful in this aspect.

All in all, we cannot hate the display features of this television. Despite the absence of the local dimming feature, it’s good to have the HDR 10.

Considering all these factors, the Philips 65PFL5504/F7 has display features worth a rating of eight in this review section.

Philips 65PFL5504/F7: Sound Features

Without a doubt, sound is definitely one thing you want to get right in a television. In that regard, the Philips 65PFL5504/F7 has two 20-watts built-in speakers, meaning each speaker is actually 10-watts.

If you’ve been seeing a lot of televisions having 20-watts speakers, that’s because it’s a common trend. This also means that this pair of speakers is average in performance.

Despite being the trend, one would expect that this $3000 Philips 65PFL5504/F7 TV would offer a little more than 20-watts speakers. Comparatively, the Samsung UN65RU7100FXZA with its $1000 price tag, has 40-watts speakers which is more than what Philips is offering.

As regards performance, the 20-watts speakers of this Philips TV produce a decent amount of sound that’s enough to fill a fair-sized room. If on the other hand, you intend to use the Philips 65PFL5504/F7 for a large room like that of a conference room – you will need external speakers to enhance its loudness.

Another reason you’ll need external speakers for this television is because of its low-performing bass. As a matter of fact – the Philips 65PFL5504/F7 does not produce bass that’s satisfactory enough to give that rumbling sound.

In a similar light, let’s talk about the sound clarity of these speakers. The sound emitting from these speakers is clear, and it’s all thanks to the Dolby Audio feature in this television.

To emphasize, this Dolby Audio is a built-in audio technology you’ll find in this Philips television. Fortunately, this feature makes dialogues (conversation between actors) very clear.

In addition to providing bliss for movie lovers, the Dolby Audio also makes gaming enjoyable.

From the look of things, the Philips 65PFL5504/F7 has average sound features and that makes it worth a seven in this review section.

Philips 65PFL5504/F7: Ports and Connectivity Features

Next up in this review, I will be talking about the connectivity and ports of this Philips TV. Like most TVs, the Philips 65PFL5504/F7 has essential ports and connectivity features that help you easily connect to other devices.

In terms of positioning, all the ports on the Philips 65PFL5504/F7 are not concentrated on just one side of the television. To be exact, you will find some ports on the television’s sides while the rest ports are behind the TV.

One advantage of having ports on different sides of a TV is to avoid too many cables concentrated on one side of the television. Speaking of which, let’s find out what these ports are in the first place.

Starting with ports on the side of the TV, there’s a USB port, an HDMI port, and a headphone jack. Notably, this is the only USB port for this television, and it’s quite disappointing.

This is disappointing particularly because of the television’s cost. For example, a less expensive TV like the Sony X850G selling for around $1,500 – (as of January 2022) features two USB ports!

Therefore, having just one USB port on a $3,000 television like the Philips 65PFL5504/F7 is not commendable.

Away from its disappointing feature, after highlighting the ports on the side, let’s talk about the ports on the back of the TV. These rear-facing ports include two HDMI ports, a composite video input, audio L/R, LAN, digital audio out, and an antenna in port.

Thankfully, it’s good to see that one of the HDMI ports on the Philips 65PFL5504/F7 is ARC enabled. To clarify, ARC stands for Audio Return Channel.

Having an HDMI-ARC port means you can easily connect this television to a soundbar (multiple speakers) via the ARC-compatible HDMI port.

Having mentioned all the wired connections, it’s equally important to mention the wireless connection options of this TV. For wireless connectivity, the Philips 65PFL5504/F7 has Bluetooth version 4.2 and 802.11ac MIMO Wi-Fi.

For the remote control, the Philips 65PFL5504/F7 comes with a basic plastic remote with rubber keys. Its basic looks make it easy to use and prevent it from being chunky to hold.

As for useability, the Philips 65PFL5504/F7 remote has all the necessary keys you would need. There’s the TV’s power button (obviously!) at the top, a full number pad, navigation keys, volume bar, and so on.

One key that will catch your attention here though is the dedicated Netflix button. By just a press, you can easily launch the Netflix app on this television.

On a different note though, the Philips 65PFL5504/F7 is said to have voice recognition because of the Google Assistant feature built-in. However, the television’s remote does not support that feature.

So, if you want to use voice command via a remote, you’ll have to get a compatible remote control.

In a word, the Philips 65PFL5504/F7 does well in the aspects of ports except for the fact that it has just one USB port. Other than that, the connectivity features of the Philips 65PFL5504/F7 are okay.

Taking those points into consideration, the ports and connectivity features of the Philips 65PFL5504/F7 is worth nothing more than an eight in this review.

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Philips 65PFL5504/F7: Smart Features

The Philips 65PFL5504/F7 is a smart TV that runs on Android TV Operating System. More precisely, this smart television runs on the Android Oreo operating system, also known as Android TV 8.0.

Wondering what Android TV 8.0 on Philips 65PFL5504/F7 looks like? For a fact, this operating system has a cool and easy-to-use interface.

Hence, navigating applications on this TV is not a problem. However, some applications like YouTube and Netflix take a few more seconds to load up.

Speaking of applications, this Android Oreo operating system supports a wide array of applications.

These apps are accessible when you download them from the Google Play Store which is already included in the television. Another application already pre-installed in the Philips 65PFL5504/F7 is a web browser.

This web browser allows you to connect to the internet and browse online content with a Wi-Fi connection. Speaking of the internet, you can stream videos and other online content on streaming platforms like Netflix which is already pre-installed in this television.

One notable feature that further makes the Philips 65PFL5504/F7 a smart television is the built-in Google Assistant. This Google Assistant feature makes the use of the Philips 65PFL5504/F7 even more convenient.

By connecting the Google Assistant to other smart home devices like thermostats or smart lights – you can control these devices with this TV.

In summary, the Philips 65PFL5504/F7 does not have super impressive smart features like what you’ll find in the LG ThinQ series. However, this Philips television has the typical smart features of low-budget televisions.

In my professional opinion, this is another reason the price tag of this TV is unacceptable.

Considering the factors, the smart features of the Philips 65PFL5504/F7 are not worth more than a seven in this review section.

Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion

To summarize, the Philips 65PFL5504/F7 does not have features that justify its $3000 price tag (as of January 2022). From its design all the way to the smart features, you will agree with me that there is nothing super impressive about this television.

Unless the Philips 65PFL5504/F7 sells for about $1000, this is a difficult recommendation. As for a recommendation, budget-conscious folks can get the Samsung UN65RU7100FXZA which was selling for about $1000 as of January 2022.

On the other hand, those who are willing to spend more can get the LG 65SK8000PUA. This LG TV is more of an all-rounder and has far more impressive features than Philips 65PFL5504/F7.

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