American consumers can now buy a Philips-branded TV with the company’s iconic Ambilight mood lighting technology for the first time.
The tech can be found on the newly launched Philips Roku TV Featuring Ambilight, which is available to buy now exclusively at Sam’s Club, with four sizes to choose from: 43-inches, 50-inches, 55-inches and 65-inches, with prices starting at the low price of just $229 (around £170).
Obviously, with that price tag you are not looking at fancy OLED or Mini-LED display technology here. Rather, the Philips PUL7875 (to give it its official model number) is a mid-range LCD TV that sacrifices lifelike image quality for affordability, but it seems reasonably good for the price range. The 60Hz LCD panel features a direct LED backlight that supports HDR10 content and provides access to major streaming services such as Netflix, Disney+, HBO Max and Amazon Prime Video.
Like many American TV models, it’s powered by the Roku OS software platform, which also provides access to more than 500 live TV channels, as well as Roku Originals – shows created by Roku itself. Users can also connect their iPhone to the TV and mirror content from that device, if they have one, via Apple AirPlay 2.
But the real headline here is that this is the first ever Philips TV sold in America to come with the fancy Ambilight mood lighting technology, which has become a standard feature on European Philips-branded TVs.
In case you’re unaware, Ambilight is a system of colourful LED lights that are baked into the rear of the TV. They project a light show onto the wall behind the TV to try and create a more immersive viewing experience. The lights and the colours are synchronised to follow the on-screen action, so that if you’re watching a movie or playing a video game, the colours appear to extend beyond the TV screen, into your living room. It’s an altogether more atmospheric experience that has plenty of fans, with many saying that it makes the TV display appear to be bigger than it actually is.
The technology is also easy on the eyes, and according to some, it can help to enhance the contrast of the on-screen pictures, too. Uniquely for this model, Ambilight integrates with Roku’s Backdrops, which is a gallery of screensavers. As such, Ambilight will function even when the TV is in standby mode.
Now, Ambilight isn’t a new technology. It made its debut on some European Philips TVs way back in 2004, but it has never appeared on a U.S. Philips TV, until now. The reason for this is that Philips doesn’t actually manufacture televisions anymore. In Europe, it licenses the Philips brand to a Dutch company called TP Vision, which created and owns the Ambilight technology. In the U.S., the Philips brand is licensed by Chinese TV maker Skyworth, and until now it has never been able to use the Amibilight tech.
According to TechRadar, that appears to have changed. The Philips PUL7875 TVs were manufactured by TP Vision on Skyworth’s behalf, with the Chinese company simply distributing to the U.S. As such, they’re the first U.S. Philips televisions to have Ambilight built-in. It’s a pretty big deal, because while it’s possible to buy lightstrips and gadgets such as Nanoleaf's 4D mood lighting system or the Philips Hue Play Sync Box to recreate an Ambilight-like experience on any kind of television, native Ambilight is so much more convenient. It’s also a lot more feature-rich than any workaround.
What isn’t clear at this stage is if the launch of the Philips Roku TV Featuring Ambilight marks the beginning of a broader alliance between TP Vision and Skyworth. Most likely, the two companies are just testing the waters, but if Ambilight goes down well with Americans, then they might think about other possibilities, such as bringing Ambilight to more advanced models, or even perhaps selling TP Vision’s premium OLED and Mini-LED TVs with Ambilight to the U.S. If that happens, it would be great news for Americans, who have always had more limited options compared to Europeans when it comes to high-end TVs.
Only time will tell if that happens, but if you’re American and you’d like that possibility to come to fruition, then you might consider picking up a Philips PUL7875 TV from Sam’s Club, where they’re available to buy now.
The smallest, 43-inch model costs $229, while the 50-inch, 55-inch and 65-inch models are priced at $259, $329 and $389, respectively.
