There has never been a better time to buy a television.

Technologies such as 4K Ultra HD and HDR (high dynamic range) provide extraordinary clarity, contrast and colour representation. And we are blessed by the availability of one of the greatest breakthroughs for TV picture quality yet: OLED.

An OLED TV, such as the Philips 55POS901F, available at Philips.co.uk, provides unparalleled black levels, incredible colour representation and yet retains a superthin design, where outer bezels and thickness are both as minimalist as we've ever had.

The technology outperforms LED in many areas, providing the absolute best when it comes to viewing experiences.

Here then are the reasons why OLED is the bees knees when it comes to TV tech.

Black levels

Unlike LED TVs, that require a backlight to work, OLED televisions are capable of reproducing black levels that look as good when the TV is on as when it is switched off.

This is because each pixel of the Philips 901F and other OLED TVs is self-illuminating, so you get no light bleeding from one pixel to another. If an area of the screen is meant to be blacked out, it remains so. Yet other areas of the image are as vibrant, bright and colourful as they are meant to be.

Wider colour gamut

OLED offers a wider colour gamut than LED, rendering colours more accurately and vibrantly.

This is again because there is no light leakage between pixels on an OLED set. The individual pixels therefore show colours exactly as they are meant to be viewed. This is improved with HDR (high dynamic range) content, which offers a wider colour gamut for broadcasters and content providers to play with, but still looks outstanding even with standard television programming and films.

Check out the Philips 901F with a Blu-ray of Guardians of the Galaxy and you'll see what we mean.

Philips 901f Oled Tv image 3
Philips

Contrast

Thanks to the superbly deep blacks detailed above, OLED TVs offer superb contrast levels, with a massive difference between the darkest and brightest areas of an image.

The 55-inch Philips 901F OLED TV, for example, has a peak brightness of around 650nits, which means it is capable of searing whites that share the same screen as deep, immersive black levels.

Response time

OLED TV technology has a near instantaneous response time, with the Philips 901F TV having a refresh rate of as little as 0.01ms - 100 times faster than an equivalent LCD panel.

That means it is not prone to dark smearing artefacts like many LCD/LED panels.

Wide viewing angles

Viewing angles are considerably better with an OLED TV like the Philips 901F over an LED or LCD equivalent. You can nigh-on watch an OLED screen from a right-angle to the set.

The Philips TV has a viewing angle of 178-degrees, which means a whole family can be strewn around a living room, sitting wherever they like and still see an excellent picture.

Pictures on LED TVs generally fade and discolour the wider the viewing angle.

Philips 901f Oled Tv image 2
Philips

Superthin

As OLED doesn't require a backlight, the panel itself is superthin - capable of a much smaller footprint than other TV technologies.

In addition, it requires a far slimmer bezel around the picture, which allows technologies such as Ambilight on the 901F to expand the experience almost seamlessly.

Ambilight is Philips' proprietary lighting system that is housed along the top and both sides of the 901F OLED TV. It uses LEDs that react exactly to the action on the screen, so the light show projected behind the television is a direct extension of what you are watching, making for a more immersive experience.

The slim bezels mean that you almost cannot see where the on-screen picture ends and the light show begins. Superb.

Check out the Philips 55POS901F OLED TV and other excellent televisions with Ambilight at Philips.co.uk.