It’s the best 27in AMVA panel we’ve tested, but this screen's contrast and image quality is still far below average
Written By
Published on 14 April 2013
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1 / 5
Our rating
Reviewed price £302 inc VAT
The Philips 271P4QPJKEB is a 27in AMVA panel with a Full HD display. Monitors with this type of panel technology are meant to go one better than their less advanced VA cousins, thanks to higher contrast ratios and wider viewing angles. This should lead to better overall image quality, but while this screen’s viewing angles were certainly very impressive, the rest of its performance left a lot to be desired.
The screen was very bright when we first turned it on, and this made our solid colour image tests look pale and flat. There was little depth to be found in our whites and blacks, too; whites had a pinkish hue while blacks were almost grey. This was reflected in our high black level reading of 0.60cd/m² at the screen’s default settings. For reference, other VA panels we’ve tested have had lower black levels around 0.10cd/m².
Our contrast ratio recording was also disappointing. We measured this as 391:1, which is far below what we’ve seen from other VA screens. Turning on the monitor’s Smart Contrast mode did help to make blacks appear much deeper, but viewing our high contrast test photos with Smart Contrast turned on simply made the entire screen darker rather than help pick out any more detail, so we soon turned it off again.
Compared to other 27in VA panels, the 271P4QPJKEB can lay claim to having one of the highest levels of colour accuracy we’ve measured. However, a measurement of 88.4% of the sRGB colour gamut is still poor compared to other TN and IPS monitors we’ve seen. Despite our best efforts we couldn’t increase this score after calibration, either. In both instances our colour gamut charts showed the monitor to be short in both its red coverage and its cooler blues and greens. The Philips monitor’s colour accuracy scores are a few per cent higher than both the AOC m2752Pqu and the BenQ GW2750HM’s, but it’s also far more expensive than either of these screens.
It’s quite a classy-looking monitor, though. We were disappointed that the base of the stand was prone to marks and scratches if you accidentally knocked it against the edge of the screen, but the monitor’s height-adjustable stand is sturdy, if a little stiff, and its overall design is both elegant and stylish. It also has two 2W speakers integrated into the front of the monitor rather than the back as on so many other displays, and these are accented by a thin LED light in the centre. Sadly, the speakers sounded tinny and lacked any real level of bass. The monitor’s pivoting stand will please those who work on long documents
More welcome is the monitor’s range of ports, with VGA, DVI, HDMI and DisplayPort inputs, a 3.5mm audio line in, a headphone jack and a three-port USB2 hub on the side of the bezel.
The Philips 271P4QPJKEB is certainly one of the best 27in AMVA panels we’ve tested, but it only offers a marginal increase in colour accuracy compared to the £230 AOC m2752Pqu. Ultimately, though, neither monitor is particularly impressive. Instead, we’d recommend either the smaller BenQ BL2410PT if you want a rotatable stand or the Iiyama Prolite E2773HS if you’re after a cheaper yet better-quality 27in display.
Written by
Katharine Byrne
When Katharine's not glued to her Wii U and 3DS, she's usually found darting between tiny smartphones and huge pieces of home cinema equipment.She’s tested everything from laptops and monitors to motherboards and projectors, but she currently specialises in smartphones, games and AV.
