The Philips E-Line panel is another budget IPS display offering that’s £50 cheaper than the ViewSonic IPS screen. It’s also stylish with a natty, blue on-light, glossy black frame and plentiful curves. Even with the power supply built into the back, it’s still thinner than most of its competitors. However, this descends into anorexia with a 1cm trim that’s transparent in daylight but also leaves it a little too flimsy and bendy. See also: Group test: what's the best display?
The stand is about as small as you can get and offers only a modest forward and back movement. Thankfully then, the power plug and monitor interfaces are built directly into the back. Bizarrely, the connections include two HDMI sockets and a VGA D-Sub socket. There’s no DVI interface. The menu buttons on the front are set into the surface of the panel itself so using them can be awkward. Visit Group test: What's the best 19 to 24-inch LCD monitor?
Still, once it’s up and running there’s lots to like about the Phillips offering. The viewing angles are better than the TN panels, though not quite as good as some others on the market. There’s a good range of tones again – more so in the highlights, slightly less so in the shadows – and the display is clean and neutral.
The white screen test showed some yellowing along the top, but it’s slight. The black screen test showed very minor light leakage in the bottom-right corner – significantly better than you may have read regarding the early production units, though. Colours are vivid and strong. While the other two IPS panels had to push the boat out to make the 200cd/m2 brightness setting, the Phillips panel easily managed it.
The Phillips E-Line 237E3QPHSU is a stylish looking monitor with a good quality display, its refresh rate is a little disappointing though.
Buying Advice:
The refresh rate here is poor at 7ms and while you just don’t get bad ghosting effects on these modern displays, it wasn’t quite as snappy as the other two. The colour gamut coverage is fairly standard with 97 per cent sRGB, 75 per cent AdobeRGB and 70 per cent NTSC. The display is slightly better than the LG, but the inability to line it up or rotate it makes the LG a better choice for a dual monitor setup.
Comments
tahir2 said: It isnt refresh a refresh rate of 7ms but a response time7ms would at 60Hz means the pixel changed colour with 9ms to spare from grey to grey From black to white it would have 2ms to spare