Introduction

Koninklijke Philips Electronics, better known as just Philips, has been selling TVs since 1949. The Dutch electronics manufacturer released their 5000 series televisions this year, which are economically priced smart TVs, and guess what? They aren't bad.

The 55PFL5706 (MSRP $1,200) is the largest of the company's 5000 series models. Sporting an uninspired design that is more Uncle Phil than King Philip, we would be remiss to judge this figurative book by its cover. This Philips had some solid performance scores, especially when it came to its superb viewing angle and above-average audio for a TV. The menu interface is easy on the eyes and simple to use. Even the smart platform on this TV, called Net TV, was actually decent, which was a pleasant surprise.

The 55PFL5706 did have its share of pitfalls. The motion performance wasn't great and the power consumption was pretty bad. The worst sin that this Philips commits is the poor infrared signal that it emits, which means that the remote has to be pointed directly at the IR sensor for it to function. This is actually a very frustrating problem to have on a TV. Regardless, the Philips 55PFL5706 is a good TV, especially for the price of admission.