Philips BDM4350UC
Another 4K HDTV in PC-monitor drag? Not quite...
Buying a new HDTV? Then you’d be crazy not to pick up a 4K-capable screen. 4K HDTVs are now so cheap, they’re giving ’em away in boxes of Wheet-Bix! Well, almost. But does a big 4K screen necessarily make sense for your PC?
4K TVs don’t always make for good PC monitors. Early 4K TVs juddered along at 30Hz when connected to a PC. That’s been solved with more recent screens, thanks to the addition of HDMI 2.0 and support for 60Hz refresh at 4K resolutions. But problems remain.
For starters, HDTV panels tend to be of the VA variety, in terms of panel. The net result is uber-saturated colours, which is great for an HDTV but less suitable for PCs, where accuracy is at a premium. Input lag and signal processing anomalies thrown up by the cheap electronics used in affordable 4K TVs only make matters worse.
With all that in mind, what to make of the new Philips BDM4350UC? First impressions are unsettling. At 43 inches and with fixed HDTV-style legs, rather than a stand with some kind of adjustability, the thing screams “HDTV”. But then you spot that the panel tech is IPS (rather than VA) and has a full complement of video inputs, including DisplayPort, it looks a lot more promising.
Fire her up, and the basic quality of that huge IPS panel is obvious enough. Philips already offers a 40-inch HDTV-derived 4K monitor in the BDM4065UC. But that model uses a VA panel, and the difference is marked. The BDM4350UC’s colours are much more natural. We’re also pleased that the extra three inches haven’t detracted tangibly from sharpness or clarity.
Sure, it’s the same 3,840 x 2,160 pixel grid as its 40-inch sibling, but the 102ppi is still only marginally worse than a 27-inch monitor with a 2,560 x 1,440 native resolution. With a rated response time of 5ms, the BDM4350UC is reasonably rapid, too. From here, however, the screen turns a little sour.
The panel puts a serious premium on viewing angles when used as a PC monitor. You sit much closer than you would when using such a large panel as a TV. That means the edges of the display are at quite an oblique angle, but also at a dramatically different angle to the centre of the panel. The upshot is a noticeable drop off in brightness in the corners of the screen.
We noticed just a little input lag, too. It’s not a major issue — nothing like as bad as seen on those notoriously laggy early PVA monitors from around a decade ago — but it will be enough to bother fans of hair-trigger online shooters. There’s also some slightly odd image borkiness, which initially looks like plain old banding, but is more likely signal interference associated with the image processing electronics. This is something that the BDM4350UC’s 40-inch sibling also suffers from.
All of this makes for a mixed result for the new Philips BDM4350UC. The glories of the 43-inch IPS panel are undeniable.
4K is a beautiful thing on such a huge, high-quality screen. With that, however, come issues that would be hard to swallow on a $300 panel, let alone something over $1,000. But if you understand the issues, and think you can live with them, then we are happy to give this panel a qualified thumbs up.