The Philips PUS8556 (also known as ‘The One’) was released in 2021, alongside the Philips MiniLED TV which is much more expensive. While the latter is undeniably fantastic, the PUS8556 is known as The One because it apparently is “The One that has everything”. While it may be on the cheaper side, this TV does indeed have a lot to unpack.
- Manufacturer: Philips
- Model: PUS8556
- Year Released: 2021
- Resolution: 4K
- USB Ports: 2
- HDMI Ports: 4
- Bluetooth: Y
The One boasts the following features:
- 3-sided Ambilight for an immersive glow
- Vibrant HDR picture with other format options including Dolby Vision, HDR10, HDR10+ and HLG
- Low latency for all games consoles
- Remote Control with QWERTY keyboard for easy text input
- Voice Control and Alexa compatibility for easy control and Google navigation
- Play-Fi compatibility for easy music access throughout the home
Available sizes: 43″, 50″, 58″, 65″, 70″, 75″
The design is fairly unique by Smart TV standards. It’s made of shiny, silver chrome and is extremely slim so it can provide you with a lot of space. There is also a bezel which makes the TV swivelable making it great for being viewed from different angles.
If fragility is a cause for concern, it is a firm TV which will not flex even when under pressure, but the panel is not protected by any layered material sadly.
In terms of ports and connectivity, the TV has 2 USB, 4 HDMI, Headphone Jack, Ethernet-LAN RJ-45, Service Connector, Digital Audio Out, Satellite connector, and holes for wall mounts. The HDMI plugs include 2 ports that support HDMI 2.1, and all ports supporting Audio Return Channels.
The picture quality of the PUS8556 is pretty good, its P5 picture perfect engine is able to upscale content and provide a visually good experience for a wide variety of content types. Visual displays contain realistic textures and shadows, and colours are vibrant and accurate for the scenes in question.
One slight issue with the TV is its underwhelming peak brightness of 400 nits. This means that the display will lose quality when being viewed in extremely bright or dark rooms. In addition, turning the TV to the side does take a bit of a toll on the colour quality but at least it has a swivel for that!
Movement is stable with the picture remaining sharp during even fast panning scenes. Handling HDR content is a breeze thanks to its wide colour gamut and the micro dimming pro feature also gives the scenes good contrast.
The remote here is a rather one-of-a-kind remote with its QWERTY keyboard on the back, and the keys being pretty responsive. The front however is nothing special: it has lots of keys such as your standard pause and rewind buttons, number keys and home buttons. The remote has shortcut buttons for Netflix, Prime Video, Rakuten TV, and a button for Ambilight.
There are two bottom-firing speakers which can reach a maximum power of 20W, which is to be expected with a midrange TV such as this one. The sound quality is coherent and clear but it’s probably not going to satisfy those with a fondness for detailed, quality music and sound. If picking up an external sound device isn’t too much inconvenience for you, this won’t be a big deal.
The home UI is neatly organised with a search bar at the top, a row featuring popular apps close beneath, and streaming shows and movies are arranged neatly in columns below for easy access. The menu operates with great fluidity and no stutter. There is also an app store containing over 5,000 apps. But, besides some good streaming platforms, there’s a lot of mediocre stuff, especially in the games department.
In Conclusion: The PUS8556 is a very impressive TV that can rival OLED TVs in some aspects, and for a modest price too! Even if it doesn’t quite match other TVs in terms of performance, its slick chrome design, unique exclusive Ambilight features, convenient ports, and QWERTY remote are great strengths to have. If these features sound promising, this might just be “The One” for you.
Author: Jason MacMillan