Philips' OLED panel beater

As the eagerly awaited successor to the multi-award-winning Philips OLED806 series (see HCC #323), the new OLED807 arrives burdened with the heavy weight of expectation. Can the manufacturer effectively evolve its OLED technology yet again? The answer to that, it turns out, is yes - this range usurps its illustrious predecessor in at least three major ways. But we're getting ahead of ourselves...

- John Archer

Let's begin where anyone's relationship with a new telly starts: the design. Our set, the 55in 550LED807, looks quite different to last year's model. For starters, it swaps out the blade-style feet for a centrally mounted, polished chrome 't-bar' desktop stand, which is attractive and raises the TV enough to potentially tuck a soundbar underneath. The finish is somewhat reflective though (not necessarily ideal in a movie room) and very susceptible to fingerprints. The mammoth 77in version of the OLED807 keeps the feet - for obvious reasons while 48in and 65in iterations also get the 't-bar' pedestal.

The set's bezel is significantly narrower than that of the OLED806, which itself was pretty slinky. This is made possible by Philips switching to one of the latest EX type of OLED panels. The frame is so skinny, in fact, that it plays beautifully with Philips' Ambilight system, making the coloured illumination that comes from all four sides feel even more connected with the images you're watching.

The TV gets all the usual Ambilight features, including the ability to track the colours of the picture on the screen; connectivity with a Philips Hue lighting system; and a new Aurora mode that ties Ambilight to a library of still and moving images that you can call up as 'screensavers' when you're not watching the TV in earnest.

Start your engines