Philips 276E6ADSS
Is quantum dot colour tech as cool as it sounds?
Most monitors produce colour that almost anyone would be happy with, but if you’re serious about your Photoshop work, video editing, page layout or any other media design creation, you shouldn’t settle for average. Philips says this new 27-inch display in its E-Line range reproduces ‘99% of Adobe RGB’, the colour space that’s relied on by media pros.
This focus on colour reproduction means it doesn’t have any extra features; there are no pass-through USB ports or built-in speakers, but it does have a pass-through audio jack if you connect using HDMI. It’s a moderately elegant-looking device, with a white bezel around the 27-inch LCD panel, and rests on a slim curved aluminium base. There’s 25-degree range of tilt, although only five of those are leaning back from vertical. The specs state a viewing range of 178 degrees both vertically and horizontally; in other words, what’s on the screen looks the same until you’re so nearly edge-on that it’s pointless.
Philips says this is the first monitor with quantum dot colour technology, using nanomaterial that produces more precise colour control. That ‘quantum dot colour technology’ is, at heart, LCD tech, but changes the way it displays colours by using blue light. The quantum dots themselves are tiny crystals — think smaller than the width of a human hair — that react to light, and have a long shelf life. In fact, they won’t change or distort over the course of their lifetime, making them very appealing if you want a screen with longevity.
That ‘99% Adobe RGB’ claim is a bold one; there are monitors that do achieve this, but the vast majority resolve the colour range of the more basic sRGB. We tested the display with Datacolor’s SpyderElite and found that our model achieved 98% of Adobe RGB — a negligible variance.
But it isn’t all roses. The gloss-white plastic casing looks good, but it’s rather thin and prone to bending if you grip the top or the sides. It also creaks and pulls slightly away from the actual LCD panel when you tilt it forward or back, somewhat undermining the display’s credentials as a high-quality device. It’s also only a 1080p display, and considering the inevitable creep towards 4K, it’s a little disappointing that it isn’t pulling put 1440p.
The buttons for power, displaying on-screen controls and configuring them are touch-sensitive spots underneath the screen’s front edge. There’s absolutely no tactile element here, so you’ll have to look very carefully to be sure you tap the right part of smooth plastic.
So what you have is a very high-quality LCD panel that achieves almost 100% Adobe RGB colour rendering, better than almost anything in its class. The image quality is not matched by the build, though; the case is thin and flexible, and the on-screen display controls are awkward.
So what to do? Well, if you want a screen purely for gaming, look elsewhere. This isn’t responsive enough for the asking price, but for professional photographers and those in areas that need high-colour accuracy, this is worth checking out.