Philips goes for those users for whom
size is just about everything
Philips are one of those companies who
either hit the technological nail on the head, or miss it by a country mile.
Having had use of this E-Line 273E3LH LED monitor for some days now, I'm still
not sure which of these categories it best falls into.
Initially I was impressed because, in terms
of big-screen-entertainment, this panel appears to have it all covered. The
first obvious plus is the size. At 27" this is a screen that you don't
have to be on top of to watch, although I'm not sure many people have a desk
that's sufficiently deep enough to use it as a work monitor. At this scale I'd
hoped that it might support modes above 1080p resolution, but that's the
natural ratio and there is no mode higher.
Where it really shines however is in the
color representation, which is the best I've seen on a TN panel, ever. It's not
in the bright colors that this is best revealed, but in the subtle hues and
pastel shades this monitor can reproduce. It's actually better than many IPS
panels, although it can't match the vertical viewing angles of that technology.
The real contrast ratio is one of the highest I've encountered and, possibly a
bit higher than the quoted 1:1200.
It's also a rather clean and smart looking
design, with all three standard video inputs, both audio in and out, and for a
panel this large it is also a svelte 8.2Kg. So how could it go wrong, when most
of this product is so right?
In the documentation that comes with this
screen it claims a response time of 1ms, which is remarkably quick. Most
monitor makers exaggerate a 5ms or 3ms response level, so Philips is really
pushed the boat out here.
However, my testing strongly suggest that
the response time here is actually much slower, which doesn't make it ideal for
fast paced video games. Some of the issue is the fancy modifications that
Philips have introduced under the 'Smart' branding. They've got SmartContrast,
SmartImage and SmartResponse, so you get to choose new and unusual ways to muck
up the operations of the screen.
The worst of these is SmartResponse and
it's 'overdrive' mode, which does things that no sane person would want to see
on their monitor. Once this is active, instead of improving the response time
it actually generates ghosting, where the image contains not only the current
image but remnants of the one that proceeded it. As such if you pan around in
an FPS game you find that heavily contrasted edges suddenly develop a ghost
trail. Surely someone in the engineering department at Philips noticed this, or
did they not see it as important? It appears not.
There are many great things to like about
this screen, not least the size and the excellent colors, but it's not a model
gamers should consider, given the response issues it so patently has. I've
quoted the Philips own RRP price of $480, which would be rather steep if you
couldn't pick it up elsewhere for much less. There might be a place for this
product with those who work with still images or graphics design, I hope.
The massive screen size doesn't make
up for other issues, unfortunately
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Details
Price: $480
Manufacturer: Philips
Required Spec: PC or output device with VGA, HDMI or DVI
connectors
Specifications
·
27in LCD monitor
·
1920 x 1080
·
TN technology
·
Matt anti-glare finish
·
LED lighting
·
0.31mm pixel pitch
·
2ms response time
·
1200:1 specified contrast ratio
·
300cd/m2 specified brightness
·
DVI-D, HDMI, VGA inputs
·
Stero speakers
·
642 x 440 x 227mm (with stand)
·
8.2kg
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