Philips has an 88-inch 8K OLED TV – but you can't buy it yet

(Image credit: Future)

With OLED tech maturing, the only way is up for the television format – and by 'up', we mean upping the resolution count. 

Philips, which until now has been happy to finesse its top-notch 4K OLED panels, is now working on an 8K OLED set, which we can confirm we've seen in action, albeit incredibly briefly.

Revealed at a press event in Amsterdam, the Philips screen however isn't yet ready for the public – and as such, has a spec-sheet shrouded in mystery, no firm release date, nor even a hint of a final price.

8K Ambilight

So, what do we know? We know that the screen will be available at least in an 88-inch size – being the model that we saw in a preview room. 

We can also assume that it'll be making use of Philips newly-announced 4th-generation P5 picture processing engine, which uses AI algorithms to improve the fidelity of images on the fly – this could be particularly important for upscaling lower-resolution sources to the dramatic 8K standard the TV's panel sets. 

Content is also one of the reasons we're unlikely to see the screen commercially realized anytime soon, either – as a Philips source told TechRadar, there's simply not enough 8K content for their to be a viable audience for the screen yet, despite other manufacturers chasing to be the early dominant manufacturers in the area.

What we can say however is that, based on a minute-long clip we saw running on the Philips 8K OLED TV, it could be something very special, as a nighttime cityscape showed a crisp and vivid glimpse of the fidelity Philips' processing engine can bring to the 8K realm. Throw in the immersive behind-the-screen Ambilight tech that sees colors bloom beyond the panel itself, and you've got a potentially-dreamlike viewing experience. We'll keep you posted on Philips' progress in the coming months.

After something a little more attainable in the near future? Check out the newly announced, AI-powered, OLED805 and OLED855 models, too.

Gerald Lynch

Gerald is Editor-in-Chief of iMore.com. Previously he was the Executive Editor for TechRadar, taking care of the site's home cinema, gaming, smart home, entertainment and audio output. He loves gaming, but don't expect him to play with you unless your console is hooked up to a 4K HDR screen and a 7.1 surround system. Before TechRadar, Gerald was Editor of Gizmodo UK. He is also the author of 'Get Technology: Upgrade Your Future', published by Aurum Press.