The Philips 27E2F7901 ($499) is a 27-inch monitor with a vibrant 4K UHD display and a easy but good-looking design. As an IPS Black panel, it has higher distinction than commonplace IPS screens, because of its skill to render deep blacks. Philips additionally highlights this show’s huge shade protection, nevertheless it did not fairly reside as much as its rankings in our testing, particularly in terms of Adobe RGB shade house protection. The 27E2F7901’s versatile stand provides good ergonomics, and it has all of the connectivity you’d anticipate from a USB hub monitor, whereas together with the flexibility to daisy-chain an extra monitor in addition to a digital KVM swap.
The Design: Smooth, Silvery, and Versatile
The silver-gray 27E2F7901 measures 22.3 by 24.1 by 7.8 inches (HWD) and weighs 11.9 kilos. Its minuscule bezels on all 4 sides maximize the display space for its body dimension. The bottom is within the type of a rectangle with a hole heart, an open “corral” in which you’ll be able to park pens, a telephone, or small peripherals.
From the again of the rectangle, a vertical shaft holds a cylindrical rod that matches right into a receptacle at the back of the show’s cupboard. The stand supplies efficient ergonomics: You’ll be able to regulate the peak as much as 5.1 inches, swivel the chassis as much as 45 levels in both route, tilt the highest of the monitor as much as 5 levels towards you or 20 levels away, or pivot it from panorama to portrait mode and again.
The 27E2F7901’s 27-inch display options native UHD decision, aka 4K (3,840 by 2,160 pixels). A 27-inch 4K monitor has a pixel density of 163 pixels per inch (ppi), which is greater than enough for viewing or modifying photographs, movies, or intricate diagrams. All else being equal, the better a monitor’s pixel density, the sharper its picture will likely be. It’s an IPS (in-plane switching) panel that makes use of LG’s IPS Black expertise, a variant that guarantees as much as 35% deeper black ranges and double the distinction ratio (2,000:1) of normal IPS panels. This huge distinction ratio was borne out in our testing, as you will notice beneath.
IPS Black panels such because the 27E2F7901 provide the identical huge viewing angles as commonplace IPS, as much as 178 levels for each vertical and horizontal. This permits you to have a look at the display practically edge-on from the aspect or above with out notable degradation in picture high quality.
Suitable with each PCs and Macs, the 27E2F7901 has a Mac-friendly shade scheme, and its Show P3 shade profile, certainly one of a spread of various profiles, is optimized to be used with Macs.
Connectors embody one HDMI 2.0 and two DisplayPort 1.4 ports (one in and one out); you may join the monitor to your laptop by way of the DisplayPort enter and daisy-chain a second monitor utilizing the DisplayPort-out connector. There are three USB-C ports—one helps as much as 96 watts of USB energy supply, and a second helps as much as 15 watts—plus a hub of 4 USB-A downstream ports for connecting peripherals. You’ll be able to management and swap between two computer systems utilizing the monitor’s digital KVM swap.
You entry the 27E2F7901’s onscreen show (OSD) menus with a mini-joystick controller positioned at backside heart of the again of the chassis. I’d have most popular it to be on the right-hand edge as it’s on screens which have an analogous management stick, however it’s nonetheless preferable to the array of small buttons that many screens nonetheless use as controls.
The 27E2F7901 doesn’t embody built-in audio system, a not-uncommon state of affairs with productiveness screens and maybe no nice loss, as monitor audio system are inclined to have mediocre audio high quality at finest. Nonetheless, they’re good to have for when they’re wanted. The monitor does have an audio-out jack to be used with headphones or powered exterior audio system.
Philips backs the 27E2F7901 with its beneficiant four-year guarantee; commonplace warranties for screens typically max out at three years.
Testing the Philips 27E2F7901: Vibrant, With Excessive Distinction and Full sRGB Colour Protection
I measured the 27E2F7901’s brightness, distinction, and shade protection utilizing a Klein K10-A colorimeter, a Murideo SIX-G sign generator, and Portrait Shows Calman for Enterprise software program. The monitor’s luminance (brightness per unit space) is rated at 400 candelas per meter squared (nits); in our testing, it was even a bit brighter, at a superb 455 nits. The distinction ratio got here in at 2,008:1, simply above its 2,000:1 score as an IPS Black panel.
In line with Philips, the 27E2F7901 covers 100% of the sRGB shade house. In my testing, it achieved this with room to spare (see the chart above). The panel additionally coated 94.8% of DCI-P3, a bit wanting Philips’ declare of 98%, and 88.4% of the broader Adobe RGB gamut in style in getting ready photographs and illustrations for printing, effectively underneath Philips’ claimed full (108%) protection.
Along with our quantitative testing, I considered photos from our photograph take a look at suite in addition to chosen video clips. Our take a look at video clips confirmed vibrant, life like colours and good retention of element, particularly in darkish areas. Pictures displayed on the the 27E2F7901 from our photograph suite had been additionally vibrant, with natural-looking colours.
Verdict: A Mac-Pleasant Creator Panel
Competitively priced as a UHD monitor for creators, the Philips 27E2F7901 is a good-looking silver-colored show with good ergonomics and the ports you’ll anticipate from a USB hub monitor, with help for options like straightforward daisy-chaining of a number of screens and a digital KVM swap. It delivers a vibrant picture with excessive distinction, and covers the total sRGB shade house and has good DCI-P3 protection, although its Adobe RGB protection in our testing was beneath Philips’ score.
The 27E2F7901 is a worthy, lower-priced various to the Editors’ Selection-winning Dell UltraSharp 27 4K USB-C Hub Monitor (U2723QE), a equally geared up IPS Black panel that had a bit higher shade protection in our testing, and an much more strong number of ports, together with Ethernet. Though the 27E2F7901 works effectively with Home windows machines, it is a significantly good match for a Mac, each aesthetically and with its Show P3 shade profile, which is designed to emulate the colours and particulars you see on a MacBook Professional display.
