Philips PUS8079 vs Samsung DU8002 (IPS)

The maximum brightness in content with a wide tonal range at 202 nits is extremely low and practically prevents watching movies and series on streaming platforms in the highest quality. It's worth mentioning that in this case, using the HDR format equipped with dynamic metadata won't help either. Why won't it help? Because the only such format implemented in the television is HDR10+, which is extremely unpopular, and films recorded in this format are scarce. It’s also worth noting that PUS8079 uses WLED backlighting, which unfortunately is not the best solution, resulting in coverage of only 80% of the wide DCI-P3 colour gamut. The effect of this reality is significantly less intense colours in HDR content.

The HDR effect on the DU8002 television leaves much to be desired. A brightness level of 300 nits is unable to provide a true high dynamic range experience, making the content viewed resemble more standard SDR than impressive HDR. Scenes that should dazzle with brilliance and detail appear muted and lack depth. Nevertheless, the television deserves praise for its high coverage of the DCI-P3 colour palette at 92%. This allows for vibrant and saturated colours, which may please viewers who prefer rich tones, even if the HDR effect does not fully meet expectations.

The best factory mode in terms of colour reproduction and fidelity to the director's vision was "Film". While it was the best of the predefined modes, it still had significant discrepancies between what the filmmaker wanted to convey and what the tested television displayed. In both SDR and HDR materials (though to a lesser extent in the latter), the white balance, which is the most fundamental element responsible for image purity, turned out to be somewhat of a repeat of the vibrant mode, with a blue tint reminiscent of what you see in retail displays. Moving directly to the SDR materials and what affects contrast, namely gamma, we see it being severely reduced. This leads to cutting off already minimal contrast resources and brightening the entire image. In the EOTF curve, responsible for the increase in brightness pace in HDR materials, we instead see a strong drop below the reference line, which, given the limited light output of the television, significantly impacted the perception of those contents, which were even more dimmed. We won’t separate the quality assessments of the colours themselves since, in both cases, they achieved astronomical deltaE values, being simply completely different from what they should be.

DU8002 offers a Filmmaker mode, which is supposed to provide authentic image reproduction in line with the creators' intentions. Unfortunately, despite its promising name, the effects are far from ideal. The white balance in this mode shows significant drops in blue colour, leading to a noticeable yellowing of the image, as seen in our comparison photo. Colour Checker tests confirm these errors. Regarding brightness, the gamma characteristic is too low compared to the reference line of 2.4, resulting in excessive screen brightness. A similar problem occurs with 4K content – the EOTF responsible for brightness in 4K materials shows significant increases above the reference line, leading to overly bright small light elements. As a result, the Filmmaker mode in DU8002 does not meet expectations and instead of providing high quality, presents an image full of tonal and colour inaccuracies.

Luckily, Philips implements advanced image correction tools in all of its TVs. SDR content has benefited the most here, and the huge deltaE errors have been significantly corrected, with both white balance and gamma being substantially reworked. While we can't say it's reference-quality image, it's definitely better, and you can watch a movie or series without causing a headache, especially for your eyes. Naturally, HDR materials, due to the very low luminance of the TV, could not be corrected to the same high degree as those with a standard colour palette, but we managed to roughly straighten out the EOTF curve and the white balance. Unfortunately, that was all we could squeeze out of our unit, although it's worth noting that each unit is different and has entirely different errors, whether minor or major.

Samsung is one of those companies that offers advanced tools to enhance picture quality in its televisions, including a 20-point white balance adjustment. Even in the budget model DU8002, after proper adjustments, surprisingly good results can be achieved. The white balance, especially for HD content, performs really well – tests on the Colour Checker palette confirm accuracy levels of 2–1.5, which indicates the significant capabilities of this television in colour reproduction. In 4K content, although not as perfect as in lower quality material, the overall picture looks much better.

The gamma brightness has also been significantly adjusted, meaning the image is not overly brightened and appears more natural. What about the EOTF curve? At first glance, it seems fine, but upon closer inspection, especially in film tests, it's clear that the television struggles due to its low-contrast panel. And the EOTF drops below the reference line. Nevertheless, the DU8002 is an example of a budget model where investing in calibration is worthwhile. Although construction flaws, such as the type of backlighting, cannot be completely eliminated, colour accuracy is surprisingly good, especially considering its price.

We will return once again to the issue of tonal transitions, but in the context of overall image quality improvement. As we can observe in the photo on the left, the gradation enhancement feature works brilliantly. Furthermore, it offers several settings, and each of them, even the lowest, provides a beneficial effect, and, what’s more, does not soften the film grain effect. We will repeat once again that this feature is the biggest advantage of the tested television.

Secondly, we will look at image scaling. Here, the tested television performed worse. We can notice, above all, the strongly jagged fine details and the characteristic white glow around figures. We must not forget about the significant artificial sharpening of the image.

Smoothing tonal transitions on the DU8002 television leaves mixed feelings. Although the menu has an option for smoothing tonal transitions, in practice it yields no results and can even generate unwanted side effects.

Nonetheless, the television handles upscaling, or digital image processing, exceptionally well. The test pattern with the model looked really good – the image isn't overly jagged, and the overall presentation is decent and pleasing to the eye. This is definitely good news for those planning to watch traditional television on this model.

This paragraph, unlike the others, will be extremely short. The reason for this situation is the lack of implementation of even the most basic motion smoothing function, which was to be expected given the price of the device. We also note that we are dealing with a VA panel, whose sharpness will not be the best under the sun. This type of panel is mainly associated with high contrast, which goes hand in hand with a relatively slow response time, as we can clearly read from the panel analysis results. As you can see, from the images captured in quick motion, the picture is blurred, typical for this type of panel. Although it may not be the ideal option, it can conditionally be used for watching sports, although one must keep in mind the less than optimal sharpness in motion. It's worth mentioning that movies will exhibit stuttering, as the television does not have any, not even the simplest, motion smoother.

The DU8002 with a 60 Hz panel is a television that performs better for watching movies than for intense gaming. The motion smoothing feature acts as a fluid enhancer, smoothing out movement and giving scenes a more fluid appearance, which is useful for movie sessions. In the context of gaming, this model is likely only suitable for occasional entertainment.

Philips PUS8079 offers only the most basic support for gaming in the form of ALLM, VRR, and Game Bar. The most important information is that thanks to the implementation of the feature responsible for dynamic refresh rate adjustment, the image is actually quite smooth for this price range and does not 'tear' the image.

A slightly greater nod towards gamers is the introduction of the Game Bar, allowing for settings adjustments 'on the fly'. This means we won’t have to exit the game to make any changes to the image. Importantly, it hasn’t been stripped of options known from higher models. We can find features such as shadow enhancement for better visibility in shadows and a colour filter for players with visual impairments.

DU8002 is a television that is mainly suited for casual gamers. The 60 Hz panel won't provide the highest motion fluidity, so in dynamic games, you might miss that extra smoothness of the image. On the plus side, it has ALLM and HGiG functions, which automatically adjust the picture settings for HDR games, enhancing the gaming experience. Unfortunately, the TV only comes with HDMI 2.0 ports, so we have to forget about more advanced features like VRR or support for 4K at 120 Hz. Choosing this equipment means we will have to make do without a full set of gaming features.