Philips 276E8FJAB Review
As soon as I unboxed the Philips 276E8FJAB, I was already impressed. It’s a lovely looking monitor, ergonomically designed to fit on most desks with its thin, streamlined design, and a base that won’t take up much room when attached to the monitor (which takes very little time to do). If you’re looking for a monitor that offers a full picture with some wonderfully implemented technology, this one’s a must.
One of the things that stood out when playing a selection of my Steam game library on the 267E8FJAB, was how sharp the colours are, and how they stand out so well. The Quad HD Display offers a 2560 x 1440 resolution, and my God, it’s noticeable. Not only is there a massive range of colours on screen, but the image is sharp, stable, and manages to stand out beautifully, providing one of the nicest looking images on screen I’ve seen through my PC.
The Ultra Wide Color Technology does a fantastic job of making a wide range of colours pop, providing significant definition to colours like green and red, meaning Philips has really made the most out of the colour gamut on offer. Knowing that there was a real focus on stretching the colour palette, I tried watching a multitude of videos on YouTube and Now TV to help get the most out of it, including The Jungle Book and Overwatch gameplay, as they both feature a strong variety of colours. Even my desktop wallpaper features a jungle backdrop, and every leaf and tree within the flora stands out strongly against one another.
The 27” screen plays home to this vibrant display, and with the tiniest of screen borders, the image fills the whole screen with very little standing in its way. It’s a great design choice, as the detail available when playing certain games makes you see the screen more clearly. The IPS LED wide view display also means the image retains its fidelity regardless of the angle you’re viewing from, as it has a 178-degree angle for you to watch from.
There’s also some great tech to maintain the stability of the picture, such as the Flicker Free feature which helps to keep your viewing void of problematic performance. Playing games for a long period of time can result in performance struggle, but I spent a lot of time on Steam, and doing a lot of writing, editing podcasts, and watching videos, and there were never any issues. You can also optimize your image via the SmartImage Lite, so it’s quick and easy to get a better picture depending on the settings you decide on.
The Smart Contrast feature is supposed to analyse what’s being displayed on screen, and then adjusts the backlighting and colour output to keep whatever is being displayed, whether a game on Battlegrounds or an episode of Rick and Morty from losing its brightness and sharpness. Whilst this technology is an impressive feature, it was sometimes difficult to tell if it was working, as sometimes the contrast was rather acute, and didn’t always feel as balanced as it could be. Saying that, because of the screens stunning colour management it was a very minor issue in the grand scheme of things.
What you see on screen is truly exceptional, and thanks to a range of inputs, it supports various connections. It’s HD Ready, so you’ll be able to connect various equipment via HDMI, and the DisplayPort gives you plenty of support with longer cables, trumping the capabilities seen with certain DVI connections.
The Philips 276E8FJAB also has built-in stereo speakers, with decent quality. These are standard, with nothing standing out, but there is a solid performance here, with zero issues through playback. There’s’ a 3.5mm connection if you’d rather connect your headphones too, giving you that option if you’d prefer.
I was very impressed with this monitor; it offers plenty of technology to make sure whatever you’re viewing is crystal clear, full of colour, and maintains a consistently great performance. This monitor can gladly compete with brands such as Dell and Samsung, and after my time with it, I can recommend it without any reservations.
