Philips 49PUS6412: the successor to the Philips 6401 with a VA panel!

Presentation

We went to the Boulanger store in Ivry-sur-Seine to test the Philips 49PUS6412 television, which succeeds the Philips 43PUS6402 passed by our laboratory last year. These two models share the same characteristics with one difference, and which matters: the type of slab. Indeed, this model 6412 swaps the IPS panel of 6402 for a VA panel. Still 8-bit, this 49-inch panel displays an Ultra HD definition of 3,840 x 2,160 px and benefits from a native refresh rate of 50 Hz. For the rest, the Philips 49PUS6412 TV includes two 10 W speakers, '' Ambilight on two sides, Android TV with Google Cast compatibility, 16 GB of built-in memory, Bluetooth and 802.11n Wi-Fi.

The Philips 49PUS6412 TV is sold for around € 800, but it is regularly offered as a promotion at a lower price. Attention, the 55 inch model that we also saw in store, the Philips 55PUS6412, is in turn well equipped with an IPS panel.

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Image quality

We thought that all Philips LCD TVs had an IPS panel and we were wrong, since this model therefore has a 49 inch VA panel. This type of panel offers good contrast at the expense of viewing angles. We have measured a loss of brightness of up to 64% on the 45 ° sides. In addition, the anti-reflection filter is not very effective; care should therefore be taken to position the television in the living room.

The contrast ratio of 4000: 1 is excellent for an LCD model. It allows you to enjoy deep blacks, even in the dark. We have measured the maximum brightness at 406 cd / m², a good figure for an entry-level Ultra HD TV, but one that will not make the most of HDR content. Philips is still playing the Ambilight card to increase the perceived contrast, but this is not useful with this VA panel which already has very good contrast.

The average gamma is 2.1, slightly below the target value (2.2), but the curve is relatively stable across the spectrum. All of the levels are very slightly overexposed.

The average color temperature, at 6,910 K, is quite close to the 6,500 K reference, but the curve is sorely lacking in stability and the dark grays appear a little too cold on the screen.

ISF Night mode does not give the same image as on the Philips 43PUS6402 which was very well calibrated. The average delta E here stands at 4.8 across the spectrum. Knowing that the eye perceives the color differences when the delta E is greater than 3, this television cannot be regarded as really faithful, in particular on the blue, cyan, and brown hues. The scaling engine of the Philips 49PUS6412 is identical to that of the 43PUS6402. It respects the original source with a rather gentle interpolation creating few artefacts. The weak point of this TV is rather to look for in the afterglow: measured at 20 ms, it is too high to provide a sharp image in movement. The motion compensation motor changes nothing and the backlight scanning is ineffective with this 50/60 Hz panel.

In cinema mode, the delay in display is only 41 ms, an encouraging value, especially when high-end televisions show a delay in display of 100 ms. In game mode, this input lag logically decreases to reach 30 ms. The television thus displays less than two images of delay compared to the source. If the remanence and the delay with the display can be suitable for the casual players, they are too high for the competitive players, in particular the followers of nervous FPS.

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Clouding

This Philips TV is equipped with a Direct Led backlight system composed of several LEDs distributed behind the panel. This system is less expensive than an Edge Led system, but it is more bulky and thus increases the thickness of the television. Unlike a Full Led backlight system, it does not manage micro-dimming and the different LEDs cannot be extinguished individually. The Direct Led system is however less sensitive to shocks during transport than an Edge Led system. This model is therefore very little subject to clouding.

In terms of consistency, this TV is quite average. The average difference in white homogeneity is 15% on the entire screen, a figure less than 20%, a value beyond which the human eye perceives a difference in brightness. This figure is quite disappointing for a model equipped with a Full Led backlight.

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3D

This TV is not compatible with 3D.

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Ergonomics

The design of the Philips 49PUS6412 is simple, but elegant. The edges of the screen are quite thin and only the projection containing the logo illuminated on the front punctuates the refined outline of the panel. For information, the light intensity of the logo can be adjusted to three levels and even to zero.

This model opts for a very clean aluminum central leg which frees up space on the TV stand. The foot is still quite wide and it is necessary to provide a piece of furniture at least 90 cm wide.

This TV is quite thick, which is not really surprising for a model equipped with a Full Led backlight system. On the side, you can see the Ambilight light system in operation. As always, the floor space is dependent on that of the foot, which is 26.6 cm deep here.

The connection is rather classic: four HDMI 2.0 ports compatible HDCP 2.2, two USB ports including a USB 3.0, an Ethernet port, an optical digital audio output, a headphone output, a mini-jack input, a common PCMCIA interface port, component input (YUV), TNT tuner (DVB-T / T2), Satellite (DVB-S / S2) and cable (DVB-C), Wi-Fi 802.11 b / g / n and Bluetooth. Compared to the Philips 43PUS6401, the Philips 49PUS612 gains Bluetooth, but loses the SCART socket and the composite input.

Philips trusts Google and Android TV for the software part of its televisions. So here we find a well-honed interface, common to TVs Philips, Sony and now TCL. It is clear and rather reactive, especially for an entry-level TV. Google Play still provides access to a large catalog of applications. Obviously, all the flagship applications are available there: YouTube, Netflix, Deezer, Spotify, the various Replay services of French channels, etc. The big weak point is the absence of a microphone on the remote control. All research is therefore done using the virtual keyboard, which quickly becomes boring.

The media player is quite effective. It supports FAT, FAT32 and NTFS devices as well as many video formats. Obviously the ISOs are still not there. On the other hand, access to Google Play offers access to other multimedia players, including VLC, but the functioning of third-party applications suffers from the poor performance of the processor integrated into this entry-level television. Finally, the TV is compatible with Google Cast without having to buy a Chromecast.

Ambilight improves image immersion and Philips has also added several new Ambilight modes. Among them, the Game mode, which offers an improved LED response time; a music mode, which varies the light according to the sound and no longer according to the image - very useful with Spotify or Deezer, for example, where the image is fixed; or an Ambilight + Hue mode. The latter allows to associate Hue bulbs so that their light varies according to the image displayed on the television. This original system is only found on Philips TVs and it is a real differentiator compared to competitors.

The 49PUS6412's remote control is classic, but offers some subtleties. For example, the manufacturer has moved the numeric keypad to the bottom of the remote control - which is not always practical. At the very top, we find the multimedia keys and access to specific functions: search, Ambilight mode, TV guide (EPG) or even the choice of source. The rubber keys are pleasant to the touch and make no noise. As said before, the big weak point of this remote control is the lack of microphone which drags the use of Android TV.

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Audio

Tested in store, this TV could not go through our audio laboratory, but a brief listening shows that it does not work miracles. The two 5 W speakers deliver just decent sound for TV broadcasts. The voices are well reproduced, but it is necessary to make a cross on the bass, the low mids and even a part of the high spectrum. As usual, to get the most out of this TV, you have to turn to external speakers, such as a sound bar, a home cinema system or even PC speakers.

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Consumption

The Philips 49PUS6412 consumes 70 W, a relatively high relative consumption of 106 W / m², higher than the average of the TVs tested (100 W / m²). With the Ambilight system on, consumption does not vary much and only increases by a few watts.

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Conclusion

We expected a good surprise thanks to the presence of a VA panel, but unfortunately, the Philips 49PUS6412 is not as well calibrated as the Philips 43PUS6401 from last year. It remains a good TV, especially for those who want to taste Android TV and complete a Philips Hue installation.

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