Philips Brilliance 28-inch 288P6 4K Monitor Review

Final Thoughts

Pricing

Currently, the Philips Brilliance 288P6 is available from Amazon for £379.12 including shipping. While this is a significant sum of money, the price is reasonable for a 28-inch 4K monitor. The only competing model which comes to mind within a similar pricing category is the Samsung U28E590D, costing the same amount. Interestingly, the Samsung panel supports FreeSync and has a higher brightness rating. On the other hand, the product’s stand is very limited and feels quite flimsy. Therefore, the value proposition depends on which features are more important to you. Personally, I think the monitor would benefit from a slight price reduction to make the lack of FreeSync more acceptable.

Summary

Even though 4K televisions are becoming more affordable, 4K monitors still have a certain premium associated with them and it’s unlikely you’ll find a new one under £300. When considering the cheaper options, you’re going to have to settle with a TN panel which results in worse viewing angles with a glaring colour shift. Saying that, the panel is able to take advantage of a 5ms default response time and 1ms through Philips’ autodetection of certain moments which require a faster rate. Rather surprisingly, the monitor outputs a good colour accuracy and ensures there’s a level of vibrancy across the entire screen. Whether you’re playing games, watching 4K video or compiling large documents, the hefty resolution offsets any minor drop in image quality. Although, it’s important to remember that 4K gaming is not a cheap hobby.

The product’s uncalibrated performance is worthy of praise and didn’t record any results which caused alarm. The tone response, luminance uniformity, colour uniformity and other tests illustrate the monitor’s well-rounded default setup. I do think the contrast ratio has some room for improvement and the numbers were less than I expected. Once calibrated the tone response improved by a large margin while the colour accuracy remained within a smaller range. On another note, the monitor didn’t exhibit any kind of ghosting and the input lag felt minimal. It’s enough to be problematic for some people who want an extremely fast experience without any latency, but this isn’t really the product’s target demographic.

Another highlight is the monitor’s stand which supports tilt, swivel, pivot and height adjustment options. This allows you to fine-tune the screen until it matches your own personal preference. Also, the stand in combination with the base is well made and contends with the monitor’s weight without major wobbling. The base’s large array of rubber feet and strong metal mounting plate greatly enhance the product’s stability on a desk. The stand’s mounting system is simple and effective and shouldn’t buckle under even the most demanding pressure. Unfortunately, the monitor’s touch screen controls are a nightmare to use and respond in an inconsistent manner. Sometimes, the OSD reacts straight away to your commands and on other occasions, nothing happens at all. For example, when adjusting the brightness values, it’s very hard to move in multiples of 1 because of the fiddly controls.

On a more positive note, the display’s speakers can output loud volumes without suffering from distortion. Furthermore, the audio fidelity is surprisingly good and the mix doesn’t sound overly flat or lacking in character. During the review, I was pleasantly surprised by the enjoyable audio experience and think it’s much better than many other monitors available today. Granted, it’s not a patch on dedicated audio hardware, but it’s perfectly fine for an enclosed space or someone waiting for a new pair of headphones to arrive in the post.

Pros

• Conforms to environmentally friendly standards
• Decent colour gamut
• Excellent stand supports lots of ergonomic adjustments
• Good packaging
• Great tone response after calibration
• Impressive colour uniformity
• Out-of-the-box performance is to be commended
• Shockingly good speakers
• Superb build quality

Cons

• Doesn’t support variable refresh technology
• Mundane styling
• Reported contrast ratio could be higher

“The Philips Brilliance 288P6 is a superb option for someone wanting a 4K monitor at a respectable price. While it’s not most exciting product ever made, the dependable build quality and solid performance should be enough to make you ignore the uninspired aesthetic.”

Philips Brilliance 28-inch 288P6 4K Monitor Review

Thank you Philips for providing us with this review sample.