Philips Brilliance 328P6
Not only a terrific value monitor but a great allrounder. If you want 4K with trimmings, choose the 328P6
SCORE PRICE £458 (£549 inc VAT) from box.co.uk
Philips has embraced the idea of docking monitors with gusto, with both its “P Line” monitors here including an RJ-45 Ethernet port along with four USB-A ports: as long as you have a laptop that will charge via the 60W USB-C connection, you can reduce the clutter on your desk to that one wire. If you aren’t too fussy about aural output, you should also be happy with the pair of 3W speakers; they’re far from audiophile quality, but are fine for background music and videoconferencing.
You can even make the argument for this screen to act as a TV (you can add a TV stick into one of the two HDMI ports and then power it via USB), because the Brilliance does live up to its name: while a peak brightness of 460cd/m2 in general use is more than enough, this monitor’s VESA DisplayHDR 600 certification means that it can hit 600cd/m2 highs when playing suitable material. Sure enough, HDR-enabled videos on Netflix pack high-contrast punch that edge towards OLED territory.
Philips provides a number of “SmartImage” presets that you can select via the OSD, ranging from EasyRead to Office to Movie. The idea is that the monitor analyses what’s onscreen and then adjusts properties such as sharpness and contrast to “enhance” the displayed image. So, in the Game preset, it will activate the overdrive circuitry (to give 4ms grey-to-grey response times), while the Office mode sharpens text and reduces brightness.
Alternatively, you may want to dig into the more advanced controls, which is where the touch-sensitive buttons can befuddle as much as they sometimes help; pressing the down button sometimes activates a double-hit, for instance, so you zoom past the setting you want. Also note that Philips doesn’t offer a huge amount of control, with your options being sRGB, user-defined and six selectable colour temperatures from 5000K to 11500K.
These are approximate figures rather than promises, however, with our colorimeter measuring the 6500K setting at 5995K and 7500K at 6870K. But this doesn’t have a material effect on image quality, with this VA panel offering the high contrast ratios we expect – 3,061:1 in sRGB mode – and an excellent range of colours.
You can tie it down to sRGB, where it returned coverage and volume figures of 94.6% and 95.1%, but in its default mode it stretched to 145.8% of the sRGB space and was almost perfectly matched to the DCI-P3 gamut with figures of 97.1% and 103.3%. Add in an average Delta E of 0.6 and this can only be described as an excellent panel; the sole disappointment were its brightness uniformity figures, but we suspect these were deliberately boosted at the edges to counteract some of VA’s natural drop-off.
Despite the Game option in SmartImage, we wouldn’t recommend the Brilliance to gamers. It can reach 75Hz but only at lower resolutions such as 1,440 x 900, and there’s no support for syncing technology such as AMD’s FreeSync. You’re far better served by dedicated gaming monitors such as the MSI Optix MPG341CQR overleaf.
It’s also clear that Philips is going after the business buyer with this monitor’s black and silver tones, and while creative professionals should also look elsewhere if they want guarantees of colour spaces, Philips does provide a calibration report
“In its default mode it stretched to 145.8% of the sRGB space and was almost perfectly matched to the DCI-P3 gamut”
with each monitor and guarantees a Delta E of less than two. It’s an office-friendly stand too, with height adjustment of 180mm, pivot support and the ability to swivel 340°.
What you don’t get is the feeling of luxury that comes from buying the likes of an Eizo, with the Philips Brilliance 328P6’s fit and finish not up to that of the FlexScan EV2785, for example. The stand is a good example of this: while they share similar specs, the Eizo’s is almost like a work of art where the Philips’ is far more functional. Nor do you get the long warranty of the Eizo (three years rather than five years), while Philips’ policy on pixel defects is much less generous.
But – and this is the crucial point – that’s reflected in their relative prices. You can very nearly buy two Philips Brilliance 328P6 monitors for the price of one Eizo FlexScan EV2785. It may not be as beautiful, or as tweakable, but Philips has invested its budget in all the areas that matter to create yet another brilliant monitor for a great price.