Whatever else you may think of Philips, you certainly can’t deny that the brand is a true innovator. It’s always been that way to some degree, but Philips’ R&D department seems to have been in overdrive this year, and over the past few months has splurged on us with such goodies as new, ultra-powerful picture processing, a debut TV with LED backlighting and most recently a heavily refined version of its Aurea Light Frame technology.
But you know, for all the cleverness, quality and sheer extravagance of some of those earlier TVs, the new ‘Essence’ 42PES0001 is, to me, the brand’s most successful innovation to date. Why? Because it blends elegance with cold yet brilliant practicality so effortlessly that it has to be seen to be believed.
The key to what I love about this TV is that every single inch is designed to make it the ultimate hang-on-the-wall TV. This might seem rather odd when I tell you that the TV actually comes attached to a neat desktop stand, but trust me: the Essence takes the basic ‘hang it up’ concept and twists it in increasingly typical Philips fashion on 11′.
First off, the 42PES0001’s screen is surprisingly slim; only 38mm deep to be precise. What’s more, this stunning slimness isn’t compromised by unfortunate large, sticky bits like those found in JVC’s ‘Super Slim’ 42DS9 sets. It’s also worth mentioning that the 42PES0001’s screen weighs less than 17 kg.
The “price” for this is the fact that the screen has no built-in tuners. Instead, the usual digital and analogue tuners are housed in an external media receiver box that comes with the screen along with all the TV’s connections.
But far from being a downside to the 42PES0001, I’d argue that external receiver box is actually a good thing. For starters, if you’re serious enough about hanging your TV on the wall to have the best part of two grand squirted onto one essence, the last thing you want is to have to deal with tons of cables, who stick out it. An external connection box with only a single cable running to the screen is much tidier.
In fact, the Essence outperforms Pioneer’s KRP-500A plasma TV in this regard because while the Pioneer system required separate power cords for its screen and media box, this Philips brings power, video and audio from the media receiver to the screen in just a ” Umbilical cord”.
The external media receiver’s body doesn’t hurt either, as it’s beautifully designed, with a glossy dark finish that looks almost as futuristic as the screen. Of course, the glossy finish of the receiver also matches the rich black finish of the exceptionally thin display bezel – a bezel that barely extends half an inch wide around the entire screen; a space-saving design reminiscent of Toshiba’s Picture Frame LCD models.
In fact, the TV’s bezel is so thin that there’s just room for a tiny Philips logo at the bottom and a “pin-hole” power indicator.
Speakers are always a touchy subject with extremely thin TVs, especially if you have wall mounting in mind. But again, Philips has found a remarkably elegant solution in the form of a really elegantly designed speaker bar which – but only if you want to use it in place of a separate audio system – can be secured to the bottom edge of the TV with a simple two-screw bracket . Additionally, this speaker bar connects to the TV’s audio output via a small row of touch-sensitive pins built into the mounting bracket, eliminating the need to fiddle with audio cables last year. Refined.
The Essence has already gone further than the vast majority of flat screen TVs to make wall mounting an absolute no-brainer. But we still haven’t gotten to what is arguably its most inspirational touch: its wall mount. The special thing about it – apart from the fact that it is included in the scope of delivery and not as an optional extra! – is the fact that it’s curved, allowing the TV to move around that curve until you want it to snap into place. This makes it infinitely easier to get the TV level on your wall because if you don’t drill the mounting holes perfectly level you can simply slide the TV around the bracket curve until you correct your drilling error. As a man who is what Barry White was to the marathon I really can’t overstate how brilliant I think this wall mount is.
At this point, I’d probably break in some bad news just in case you think my excitement is starting to get the best of me. While the Essence is undeniably beautiful, slim and practical, it also can’t ‘glow’ in the way virtually all other mid-to-high-end Philips TVs do these days. That’s because the thinness of the TV’s frame has made it impossible for Philips to house its eye-catching Ambilight technology, which sees relaxing, immersive pools of colored light pour out of the TV’s back and sides.
It’s a real shame because Ambilight generally works best in a wall-mounted environment. Also, the extreme slimness of the Essence’s frame would have meant there would have been less physical ‘barrier’ between the image and the Ambilight ‘pools’. But if push comes to shove, if losing Ambilight is the price to pay for the Essence’s stunning on-wall practicality, then so be it.
Coming back to the media receiver, I notice that I haven’t really addressed its connections yet. So there you go: it includes three HDMIs, a USB port, a DLNA-certified Ethernet port for PC networking, component and VGA PC inputs and a digital audio output – as well as the usual SCARTs and so on.
In an ideal world, a fourth HDMI might have been nice, but it’s hard to be grumpy when the box manages to offer such an unusual level of multimedia flexibility. Finally, its USB and Ethernet ports can handle MP3, .alb (slideshow), MPEG1 and MPEG2 files, as well as the usual JPEGs, while the Ethernet port supports a huge list of media server applications, including Windows Media Player 11 , PacketVideo Twonky Media 4.4.2 and Nero 8.
The Media Receiver from The Essence also has some pretty important things “under the hood”. Because the chipset of the latest video processor Perfect Pixel HD Engine from Philips is hidden there. We won’t go into great detail here as we’ve already covered it extensively in other recent Philips reviews. But essentially, it’s designed to improve color, contrast, detail levels, motion rendering, and video noise levels. The same, of course, applies to countless other video processing engines from competing manufacturers. But we’ve found time and time again that the Philips motor is significantly more aggressive and powerful than any of its competitors.
In conclusion, I can’t help but admire the Essence’s extraordinarily practical yet beautiful design. Actually, all I have to say about the images produced by its screen is that they are not in the slightest negatively affected by the screen’s super-flat status. The pictures of the Essence are among the finest in the world of flat screen TVs.
I refer you to recent reviews of the Philips Aurea II and in particular the 42PFL9703 for a full description of how the Essence’s pictures break down. But in summary, if you love exceptionally dynamic yet authentic colour, incredibly sharp detail and sharpness, and some of the best black levels in the LCD world (outside of LED backlighting, at least) then the Essence will do just fine.
Of course, the usual Philips tab applies here. Indeed, if you want to get the most out of the Essence, you’ll need to spend far more time tinkering with the numerous settings it offers than you would on a ‘normal’ TV. If you don’t do this – and get at least a basic understanding of what all the picture options actually do – you can end up with issues like obvious glitches in fast motion, overused edges, and even some overcooked colors.
Particularly controversial is the HD Natural Motion processing, which reproduces movement with an intriguing fluidity but also tends to introduce some fairly aggressive glitches even at the minimum setting. Some people can’t tolerate this feature at all, although personally I think it’s fine for regular TV shows and only becomes problematic for sports, HD movies, and console games.
But in any case, the key point about this feature – and one that many other reviewers seem to forget – is that you can disable it entirely if you don’t like it. And even if it does, the increased jerking only slightly spoils the still absolutely brilliant LCD images.
We suspect you could argue that paying for a high-spec feature like HD Natural Motion that you ultimately don’t use isn’t great. But while the Essence is certainly very expensive for a 42-inch LCD TV, to me the uniqueness of its offering and the extent of its innovation justifies the cost with or without HD Natural Motion.
Finally, if we turn to the speaker bar that comes with the 42PES0001, it’s good without being truly brilliant. On the other hand, it’s capable of good volume levels and the soundstage remains amazingly open and detailed even when pushed very loud. On the downside, there’s not enough bass to provide a truly satisfying counterpoint to the high-frequency enthusiasm. But let’s be fair here; In the context of the sound produced by many regular flat-screen TVs, let alone one that’s only 40mm or so thick, the Essence’s efforts are actually pretty good.
“‘Verdict”‘
On paper, I think the Essence’s claim to fame as the easiest TV to ever hang on the wall probably sounds a bit dull compared to things like LED backlighting and the Aurea Light Frame. But in reality, the extremes to which Philips has pushed its wall-hanging goals with the Essence, while maintaining a firm grip on aesthetic beauty AND performance standards, has resulted in a product that, dare I say it, touches at least a little seems to be genius.
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Used as the main TV during the period
Tested over a week
Tested with industry calibrated tools, discs and real world use
Tested with broadcast content (HD/SD), video streams and demo discs
points in detail
functions 9
value 7
picture quality 9
draft 10
sound quality 8
characteristics
| size (inches) | 42 inches |
| display type | LCD |
| maximum resolution | 1920×1080 |
| digital tuner | DVB-T |