PRISM+ Q65 Ultra Review
PRISM+ has been developing an increasing presence in the Australian market over the past few years. They started with a small range of excellent monitors, with capable features at a keen price point, that then rapidly expanded to cater for just about every need. More recently, PRISM+ introduced their first televisions to Australia, and again they impressed with an excellent balance of quality and features at a very affordable price. If there is one thing that I have learnt about this brand, it’s that they don’t rest on their laurels. Continued innovation and development is embedded in the brand DNA… as is delivering impressive equipment at competitive prices. The new PRISM+ Q65 Ultra is their latest offering for the Australian market let’s check it out!
Disclosure: PRISM+ provided Blog of Dad with the PRISM+ Q65 Ultra and other products mentioned for the purpose of review and ongoing use. Any thoughts expressed about PRISM+ products in this article are based on my own experiences. For more information, visit my disclosure statement. All photos in this article have received minor editing, in order try and accurately reflect the experience of using the PRISM+ Q65 Ultra.
PRISM+ Q65 Ultra Review
A 65 inch, QLED panel is a fantastic foundation on which to build a spectacular television. In the PRISM+ Q65 Ultra, PRSIM+ have taken this base and added a plethora of excellent features, including Dolby Vision, HDR10+, Filmmaker Mode, Dolby Atmos, DTS TruSurround, Google TV… the list goes on. This television has thoroughly impressed me in all aspects of viewing, yet from PRISM+ I have come to expect nothing less.
I might well be spoilt now, but 4K, Dolby Vision content on the PRISM+ Q65 Ultra has set the gold standard for viewing in my book. When combined with Dolby Atmos audio delivered through the PRISM+ Symphony Soundbar, it’s as close as I’m going to get to a cinema experience within my own living room, without spending A LOT more money on a dedicated home theatre.
Pros
QLED panel
4K Ultra HD
Dolby Vision / HDR10+
Filmmaker Mode
Dolby Atmos
Google TV
Fast, well designed remote
Cons
Inbuilt speakers lack bass
PRISM+ Q65 Ultra – First Impressions
Debates around the appropriate size for a living room television will never end, but the consensus amongst most of my dad mates seems to be that 65 inches is about the sweet spot. Don’t get me wrong – a 55″ display such as the PRISM+ Q55 PRO QE that has hung on my wall for the past 6 months is a wonderful thing, and I certainly haven’t been disappointed by the experience. But I have also found myself wondering if the extra 10 inches of diagonal screen space might just make that viewing experience even better (SPOILER ALERT – the extra 10 inches does make everything even better!!!).
The size of the PRISM+ Q65 Ultra was apparent from the moment it arrived on my doorstep. While the box itself is fairly subtle and understated, the sheer size of the cardboard slab in front of me made me feel like a kid on Christmas morning!
There was no point even trying to coax the PRISM+ Q65 Ultra out of its box by myself. Setting up the television safely is a two-person job. That being said, it was extremely easy to do with the help of my wife, and within the space of a few minutes we had the subtle, slimline legs firmly attached and the TV on its stand. The Q65 Ultra isn’t overly heavy to carry, but it’s magnificent size demands that care is taken in this process.
Once the Q65 Ultra was in position on my entertainment unit, I took some time to sit and admire it. PRISM+ have consistently done a great job of allowing their panel quality to do the talking, with slimline, understated bezels a common feature throughout their products. From front on, the PRISM+ Q65 Ultra is a sleek and spectacular slab of black with a thin metallic strip, some subtle branding and the trademark PRISM+ notch adding subtle points of interest along the base of the display. That notch contains sensors, on/off lights and the microphone array for the hands-free voice control with Google Assistant. There is also a physical mute switch for the microphone located just underneath.
That enormous, almost bezel free display just begs to be switched on and appreciated! But before I could do that, I had to take some time to check out what else was on offer around the outside of the display.
The PRISM+ Q65 Ultra offers three HDMI 2.0 ports (one with the all-important ARC), a LAN connection, digital audio out, two USB ports and an antenna connection. There’s nothing particularly revolutionary here, but enough options for connecting several key devices. In fact, in my setup I only take advantage of the one ARC-enabled HDMI port and the antenna, as the rest of my peripherals connect through the excellent PRISM+ Symphony Soundbar.
While the front of the PRISM+ Q65 Ultra is super sleek, the rear contains a significant bulk which houses all of the goodness that is required to make the display run. This bulk is not overbearing, and a cleverly tapered design does a good job of disguising it unless closely observed from the side. Sure, a premium OLED display is going to be slimmer overall, but PRISM+ deserve credit for developing an LED display that looks this good from all angles.
A VESA mount system on the rear of the PRISM+ Q65 Ultra is a welcome and even necessary addition for many of us dads, who rely on the security of a wall mount to protect against the destructive energy of enthusiastic pre-schoolers.
PRISM+ Q65 Ultra – Viewing Experience
Even though the PRISM+ Q65 Ultra looked great while it was turned off, I wasn’t fully prepared for how incredible it would be when turned on!
The setup was a reasonably quick and easy experience. Being a Google TV, most of the work was done through the Google Home app on my phone.
Once set up, the real fun started! The PRISM+ Q65 Ultra might well be huge, but it offers so much more than just sheer size. The picture quality is amazing, which is not overly surprising given the extensive list of features. I have highlighted some of the best below:
QLED
The inclusion of QLED technology on the PRISM+ Q65 Ultra is probably the most exciting feature, and something that sets the PRISM+ panel apart from similar priced competitors. The “Q” in QLED stands for Quantum Dot, which is an impressive LED-based technology that delivers enhanced colour accuracy, a wider selection of colours on screen and greater brightness levels.
The result of this technology is a fantastic looking picture! The display is vibrant, bright and sharp, and the QLED combined with the glorious 65 inches of screen make for quite an experience! While blacks aren’t quite OLED black, they are deep and enjoyable, while still showing great levels of detail. Check out the sample images throughout this review, even if they don’t fully do justice to the in-person experience.
HDR / HDR10+ / Dolby Vision
HDR (High Dynamic Range) is a must-have technology in new televisions. It pushes video content beyond previous limitations by increasing the contrast between dark and bright, as well as showing more details in the space between. But not all HDR-capable televisions are created equal.
Dolby Vision is a certified and licenced HDR format that uses dynamic metadata to adjust specific brightness levels on a scene-by-scene, or even frame-by-frame basis. On the PRISM+ Q65 Ultra, it delivers 1.07 billion colours. Dolby Vision is increasingly available as a format across streaming services such as Disney+, Netflix and Amazon Prime. This technology certainly contributed to my enjoyment of shows such as The Mandalorian, which switches from dark and gloomy scenes to bright, fast paced scenes regularly. In the past I would have felt like I was staring at an almost black screen in the darkest moment of such shows, but with the PRISM+ Q65 Ultra and its excellent Dolby Vision implementation, I find even the darkest scenes full of clarity and detail.
Sometimes the implementation of Dolby Vision results in a very different experience. I watched the excellent movie Hidden Figures. As a historical biography style movie, it didn’t contain dark and moody or fast-paced action scenes for Dolby Vision to juggle. Instead, the impact was far more subtle. In this instance the combination of crisp 4K ULTRA HD, the massive 65 inch display, Dolby Vision and PRISM+’s QLED implementation so thoroughly immersed and engaged me that I forgot about the television altogether. I actually can’t think of higher praise to give a television! When the vision is so consistently good that the viewing device is forgotten and the story becomes everything… I couldn’t ask for more from a TV.
HDR10+ is a similar technology to Dolby Vision, in that it goes beyond simple HDR by using dynamic metadata to adjust and optimise each frame of the video to match the display’s capabilities. It was developed in collaboration between Samsung and Amazon as an open, royalty-free standard. HDR10+ content can be found on Google Play Movies and TV, Prime Video and Paramount+. I haven’t been able to test this yet as I don’t currently have any of these streaming services, but I’m thrilled that it has been included on the PRISM+ Q65 Ultra because, inevitably, I will come across movies in this format. With any device, the broader the compatibility, the better the versatility and PRISM+ have done well to support both of the cutting-edge vision technologies on the market today.
Regular HDR content is the most widely available content available on streaming services such as YouTube. While this content isn’t as technologically advanced as the other two formats, it is still thoroughly enjoyable, noticeably better than non-HDR content and more readily available. The PRISM+ Q65 Ultra does an admirable job of presenting HDR content. The vibrancy and brightness of the QLED-enhanced panel and the crispness of the 4K ULTRA HD resolution combine to deliver stunning images full of colour, detail and contrast. While QLED will never quite match the depth of black that is on offer with more premium OLED displays, it does offer higher levels of brightness, fewer potential issues with burn in and a thoroughly pleasing picture at a way more affordable price.
Filmmaker Mode
I had never even heard of Filmmaker mode before reviewing the PRISM+ Q65 Ultra, so when the TV arrived and I saw “Filmmaker Mode” proudly proclaimed on the side of the box, I wanted to know more.
A few minutes of Googling told me that Filmmaker mode is a relatively new standard found on mostly premium new televisions. It was developed by the UHD Alliance as a way of counteracting the tendency for modern television sets to apply smoothing and oversaturated effects to make the displays “pop”. While this might make them look impressive from the moment they are switched on, these effects often have an adverse effect on movies. Filmmaker Mode is designed to remove processing from the television and deliver a viewing experience that is close as possible to the director’s original intentions.
Intrigued, I played around with this setting quite a bit. I quickly realised that Filmmaker mode wasn’t compatible with Dolby Vision content. This is because Dolby Vision deploys its own technology designed to deliver the best possible viewing experience. With Dolby Vision content, the choice was simple – let Dolby Vision do its thing.
I did, however, find that other content definitely benefited from Filmmaker Mode. For example, Super Troopers 2 (don’t judge me) is only streamed in HD on Disney+. Without Filmmaker the image just didn’t seem right, with artefacts and overblown colours distracting from viewing experience. I felt that turning on Filmmaker made an immediate difference.
In the 1997 classic, Starship Troopers, the difference was even more noticeable. Filmmaker Mode did an admirable job of presenting to 1080p movie in the way in which it was intended.
Filmmaker Mode has impressed me so much that I now systematically check that it is on before watching a non-Dolby Vision movie. It’s inclusion on the PRISM+ Q65 Ultra is yet another premium feature that sets the display apart from the competition. I can’t believe that something I didn’t even know existed until a few weeks ago can have such a great impact on my viewing pleasure.
Google TV with Integrated Chromecast
Google TV is the latest version of the long-running Android TV operating system for Smart TVs. I was thoroughly impressed by the Android TV-based PRISM+ Q55 Pro QE, and the Google TV system that powers the PRISM+ Q65 Ultra retains (or even improves upon) the things that I most loved. Google TV on the PRISM+ Q65 Ultra is pleasingly smooth and fast. This responsiveness gives the TV a premium feel. A comprehensive suite of apps are available to quickly download and their position on the home screen can easily be customised.
Being a Google TV, set up is an extremely simple process for anyone with a Google account. A connection is established via the Google Home app, which then proceeds to configure the Internet connection and recommend apps based on user accounts. Each app was extremely easy to configure the first time it was opened, with most opting for the simple code confirmed via the phone app.
Each app is prominently displayed on the home screen and users have the ability to arrange the order in which they appear. Apps can also be easily searched, and those not currently installed on the PRISM+ Q65 Ultra are quickly downloaded when needed.
Content can be discovered in a range of ways, with usage patterns informing suggested content. Initially I set up the PRISM+ Q65 Ultra with a single user profile based on my Google account. This is fine, but it does mean that recommendations start to get a bit whacky when the same profile is used to watch everything from Bluey to Reservoir Dogs. Google know this, which is why they provide the option of setting up separate profiles for individual users. This process was extremely easy and I had a “Kids” profile set up in no time.
Recommendations can be limited by subscription, which means you aren’t constantly being shown content that isn’t available to you. These can be updated at any time, which is great for people like me who frequently alternate between subscription services. I have noticed iView content appearing in the suggested content, but no other free-to-stream providers appear at this stage.
Chromecast is integrated into Google TV and it works just as smoothly as the rest of the television. I was able to cast easily from a number of apps on my phone, including music apps such as Spotify and television apps such as iView.
Free To Air
I rarely bother with free to air television these days, but there are times that I do use it. Almost exclusively, these times are live sporting events. Sure, the Channel 9 app does stream the live NRL these days, but I find the HD free to air broadcast just looks better.
Live TV is easy to access on the PRISM+ Q65 Ultra via a dedicated button on the remote. The television guide is reasonably fast to populate and update while scrolling through the channels, with an occasional short wait of around a second. It’s certainly more responsive than sets that I have used in the past. Shows can even be scheduled, reminded or recorded. External storage can be added for recordings, although if I’m honest, it’s been about five years since I last recorded a show from live TV.
The picture quality on HD channels is very good, with live sports very easy to enjoy. The PRISM+ Q65 Ultra does offer a Sport Mode in the picture settings, which slightly bumps up the contrast and saturation. It certainly makes the colours pop on uniforms and the grass look extra green. I don’t mind the effect, but I also think the standard picture mode does a perfectly good job too.
As for Standard Definition content… stay away from it unless you absolutely have to watch something. 4K televisions have ruined SD free to air television for ever. That is no way the fault of the PRISM+ Q65 Ultra, which does and admirable job of trying to render something remotely watchable, it is more of a reminder of how far our television viewing has come. Beautiful 4K sets like the PRISM+ Q65 Ultra deserve beautiful 4K content, with 1080p the minimum standard.
Sound
Sound is half of viewing experience, and to their credit PRISM+ have included onboard speakers that are a cut above some others that I have experienced. These 2x10W downward-firing speakers deliver decent audio, with clear voices in shows and movies at a range of volumes and music that can reach a loud level without distortion – far louder than my comfortable listening level. While clear and easy enough to listen to, the PRISM+ Q65 Ultra speakers (like almost all television speakers) do lack depth, particularly when it comes to bass.
The PRISM+ Q65 Ultra really shines when it is connected to a Dolby Atmos compatible speaker system or soundbar. I connected it to the excellent PRISM+ Symphony Soundbar (previously reviewed) and it was quickly apparent that the two are an excellent match. The PRISM+ Q65 Ultra delivers a top-quality audio signal to compatible devices, including DTS TruSurround and the awesome Dolby Atmos. While watching compatible content on Disney Plus, the Symphony Soundbar automatically detected the Dolby Atmos signal, which it proudly displayed on the digital display.
I used Ford V Ferrari to test out the full Dolby experience on offer with the PRISM+ Q65 Ultra/Symphony Soundbar package. While the soundbar can deliver a great listening experience even at the softest levels, it really shines when cranked LOUD. I found the effect incredibly immersive! Obviously, a top quality audio setup is required to take full advantage of this, but delivering a Dolby Atmos signal is not something that a lot of televisions at this price point can deliver.
Yet another trick up the sleeve of the PRISM+ Q65 Ultra is Bluetooth audio. I was able to connect my excellent EPOS GTW 270 Hybrid Wireless Earbuds to the PRISM+ Q65 Ultra seamlessly on the first attempt. Activating the earbuds automatically switches audio from the Symphony Soundbar to the GTW 270. While this doesn’t deliver Atmos-level audio, it does provide an awesome listening experience, particularly when the alternative is trying to listen to the TV on minimum volume when the kids are asleep.
PRISM+ Q65 Ultra – Remote
I had gotten used to the remote of the PRISM+ Q55 PRO QE over the past few months, so I was initially a little flustered by the all-new layout for the PRISM+ Q65 Ultra. However, I do understand why PRISM+ made the changes and, after a few weeks of use, I think it is actually a better design functionally. For starters, the white direction buttons are easier to find and use in a dimly lit room. This makes sense, because it is often used in a dimly lit room!
Secondly, the fast access button are located at the top of the remote, which again makes them easier to find. The “Google Play” button has also been replaced by a customisable button, which is a brilliant idea. Mine is set to ABC iView so that even the four year old can quickly navigate to Bluey!
The other great inclusion is the dedicated live TV button. This is a small, but useful inclusion that becomes particularly relevant on Thursday and Friday evenings, and Sunday afternoons from March through to about September/October (depending on the capabilities of my favourite football team).
The remote includes a button for Google Voice control. While this isn’t something I have embraced with my television viewing, I did find that it was worth pressing the button. The reason for this is that it set up remote pairing via Bluetooth, which provides a far superior connection to infrared. I had skipped this step in my initial setup of the device as I didn’t want to activate voice control at that time… but now I know. Don’t skip the step! Honestly, it seems like a small deal, but enabling a remote to connect via Bluetooth leads to a far more responsive and enjoyable experience. Scrolling and menu searching is now ridiculously fast and smooth on the PRISM+ Q65 Ultra!
PRISM+ Q65 Ultra – Gaming
4K gaming on a massive 65 inch screen is really quite amazing. In fact, I’m not quite sure how I pulled myself away from the TV for long enough to write this review. The 65 inch screen feels truly giant when perched in front of it with a controller in hand. In Forza Horizon 5, the 4K resolution combined with the glorious colour, contrast and brightness on offer with the QLED panel made for a truly enjoyable experience! The 4K, 60fps resolution pushed my graphics cards to its very limits – be aware that the correct hardware is necessary to squeeze the most goodness out of this display.
PRISM+ Q65 Ultra – Final Thoughts
A 65 inch, QLED panel is a fantastic foundation on which to build a spectacular television. In the PRISM+ Q65 Ultra, PRSIM+ have taken this base and added a plethora of excellent features, including Dolby Vision, HDR10+, Filmmaker Mode, Dolby Atmos, DTS TruSurround, Google TV… the list goes on. This television has thoroughly impressed me in all aspects of viewing, yet from PRISM+ I have come to expect nothing less.
I might well be spoilt now, but 4K, Dolby Vision content on the PRISM+ Q65 Ultra has set the gold standard for viewing in my book. When combined with Dolby Atmos audio delivered through the PRISM+ Symphony Soundbar, it’s as close as I’m going to get to a cinema experience within my own living room, without spending A LOT more money on a dedicated home theatre.