Two new Philips flagship OLED TVs with B&W soundbars

The two new 9-series flagship Philips TVs combine OLED technology with soundbars developed bu Bowers & Wilkins. OLED934 has up-firing speakers for Dolby Atmos.

Better picture and sound
OLED984 was unveiled last month and at IFA 2019 Philips has unveiled an additional flagship model in the form of OLED934, which is the first from TP Vision's Philips with up-firing speakers for Dolby Atmos.

The two new models represent the in picture and TV audio from Philips, the company said. As the model names imply, both are based on OLED technology. This year, the company is adding support for Dolby Vision and a third-generation P5 video processor. TP Vision points out that the new TVs are some of the only models to support HDR10, HDR10+ and Dolby Vision. The TVs feature 4K resolution.



In terms of audio, Philips is expanding its partnership with B&W. Last year, B&W optimized and tuned the speakers in Philips TVs. This year, the company has been involved throughout the full design process. The B&W soundbars now also support Dolby Atmos. OLED943 features a 3-channel (left, center, right) soundbar while OLED934 has a 2.1.2-channel system with up-firing units to lift the Dolby Atmos listening experience. This speaker serves as a table stand but both models can also be wall-mounted. An external subwoofer can be connected to both TV models.

- "In addition to four 30mm mid-range drivers, two decoupled 19mm titanium tweeters and a centrally mounted, Flowport-ported 80mm subwoofer, the OLED+934 - as Philips first 2.1.2-specification Dolby Atmos-enabled TV - also has twin 50mm upward-firing Dolby Atmos elevation units mounted on the top of the enclosure to give extra scale, height perception and immersion to the audio reproduction of films, games and sports broadcasts," the company said.



A comprehensive OLED portfolio
The company is also adding less expensive OLED models to its 2019 line-up. OLED804 and OLED854 were unveiled earlier this year and will launch officially at IFA. And with OLED754 Philips is bringing OLED technology to its affordable 7 series.

From the 8 series and up the TVs run Android (version 9 Pie), whereas OLED754 runs the company's in-house Saphi platform. TP Vision stresses that it is still fully committed to Android. However, it is worth noting that Android spans fewer models that just a few years ago.

All five OLED models come equipped with Ambilight. OLED984 has 4-sided Ambilight while the other models feature 3-sided Ambilight. The Ambilight system can integrate with Hue, console games, Spotify, and more.

With the launch of the new TVs, Philips has an OLED line-up almost as expansive as LG's. The company is not yet ready to move to 8K and HDMI 2.1 but it is confident that it's European design, Ambilight, and latest picture and audio technologies will help to create a compelling package. The 9-series TVs will be marketed as OLED+ but they use the same LG Display panels as competing TVs.

984 will be available only in 65 inches, while 943 will be available in 55 and 65 inch sizes. The company has not announced OLED models larger than 65 inches. The TVs will start rolling out in Europa this month. FlatpanelsHD is chasing pricing details at IFA.