The Philips 221S3UCB/00 is one of the
simplest monitors you can buy. It requires no additional power, has no control
buttons, and hooks up to a PC via a single USB cable.
If you’re using a laptop with a small
screen, or you simply want to boost productivity with some extra desktop space,
a USB monitor can be a good plug-and-play solution. This is especially true
when you don’t have any spare monitor connectors. The monitor itself appears
unremarkable, with plain styling and sound build quality. It includes an
ergonomic tilt-and-swivel stand, which also offers up to 70mm of height
adjustment.
Philips
221S3UCB/00
Its housing creates the illusion of
slimness by being much thinner at the edges, with a square bulge in the middle,
like well-stuffed ravioli. While many LED-based monitors are thinner
throughout, this is achieved through an external power brick.
The 221S3UCB/00 offers no control or
switches of any kind – there isn’t even a power button. This makes the Philips
easy to use, but you’ll have no control over brightness, contrast or colour.
The monitor uses DisplayLink technology, which requires a driver to be
installed on the PC. Our 64bit Windows 7 PC detected the display and
automatically installed drivers.
Connecting the display to a three-monitor
system was less successful. While the automatic installation started as normal,
we were soon met by a BSoD; following a restart only two monitors were working
correctly, and with no Windows Aero effects.
The product manual states that OS X isn’t
supported, although the DisplayLink website suggests it is under development.
The
performance varied with the video content; at times faint colour banding was
visible in moving video, which would then disappear when the action paused.
The supplied USB cable has two connectors,
which should be plugged into separate USB ports on your PC. If this isn’t
possible, Philips sells an external power supply.
In general use, the 221S3UCB/00 performed
completely. You’re unlikely to notice that it’s working over USB until you hit
it with something taxing such as HD video.
So that’s exactly what we did, and we were
pleasantly surprised to find the Philips could make a good stab at it. Although
the motion wasn’t smooth, it was no slideshow either.
The performance varied with the video
content; at times faint colour banding was visible in moving video, which would
then disappear when the action paused. The DisplayLink monitor driver software
includes an ‘Optimise for video’ option, but this made no visible difference.
We wouldn’t recommend this monitor for use
where fast-motion performance is important, but it’s perfectly acceptable for
text and other office applications.
The viewing angles aren’t great, but
overall colour reproduction and contrast are better than we would have expected
from a budget USB monitor. If you like yours turned up bright, perhaps to
compete with sunlight from a window, you may find the fixed brightness to low.
We had to measure the power consumption
drawn by the whole PC, first with the monitor connected and then without; the
difference was the power needed by the display. We measured power consumption
at a pleasing low 10W.
The maximum contrast in our checkerboard
test was 700:1, and the 221S3UCB/00 could reproduce 74 percent of the Adobe RGB
gamut and 94 percent of sRGB.
Verdict
if you don’t have a standard monitor
connection or a mains outlet available, the Philips 221S3UCB/00 will make a
convenient second display. Don’t rely on it work seamlessly with every PC,
though, since it requires special drivers. Note that standard 21.5in screens
are much cheaper.
Specification
21.5in monitor; 1920x1080; 16.9 aspect
ratio; 0.284mm pixel pitch; matt TN panel; 507x400x220mm; 4.55kg
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Details
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Price: $243
·
Contact: philips.com
Verdict: 3.5/5
·
Build: 3.5/5
·
Features: 3/5
·
Performance: 2.5/5
·
Value: 3/5
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