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Philips 276E9QDSB Review

Josh Maynard

The Philips 276E9QDSB is a 27” gaming monitor that has merited its position in our list of The best gaming monitor under 150 for a good reason. The monitor delivers stunning colors for its price point to make movies and games look great. While the refresh rate is only 75Hz, this monitor is a prize-get for casual gamers who also like to spend endless hours surfing web and watching movies. Read through to learn all the good and bad we found about this monitor

Philips 276E9QDSB Review SUMMARY

Philips 276E9QDSB review summary Bar graph , out of 10 Picture Quality 6 , Gaming 5.5, Ergonomics 8.0 , Build Quality 9.0 , Value For Money 8.3, Office 8.0, Photo/Video editing 7.0 Multimedia 8.9

Specifications

Screen size: 27-inch | Panel Type: IPS | Resolution:  1920×1080 | Refresh rate: 75Hz | Brightness: 250cd/m2 | Response time (g-t-g) : 4 ms |  Color SRGB coverage: 124% | Aspect Ratio: 16:9 | Freesync: 75-50 Hz |Signal Input:  HDMI , DVI-D, VGA |  Audio output :  HDMI Audio Out

PROS
Pros Icon IPS Panel
Pros Icon AMD Freesync
Pros Icon Sleek look

CONS
Cons Icon Poor Ergonomic options(Tilt Only )
Cons Icon Poor brightness uniformity

Check Price On Amazon		Philips 276E9QDSB Monitor

IMAGE QUALITY

Image Quality Bar graph summary, out of 10. Contrast 8.0, HDR Color Gamut 0.0 , Color Uniformity 8.5 , sRGB Color Gamut 7.0 , Color Accuracy 7.8

The Philips 276E9QDSB is an IPS panel with a 27 inch screen size that is a bit extravagant for its full HD resolution. While the larger panel offers an obvious advantage in terms of extra real estate and hence a larger field of view for its audience, it also suffers from a low pixel density (82ppi) making the monitor less suitable for text intensive work. For easier reading it is better to look for monitors that sport a higher pixel density above of 90 ppi.

A very appealing aspect of this IPS panel is the generous sRGB color gamut coverage of 124%  (as claimed by Philips. We didn’t get to test this) and NTSC 93% which is rare amongst monitors in this price bracket. The panel displays rich, saturated colors. The picture quality is fantastic and it makes movies and games look great.
Philips seems to have cut some corners to bring down the monitor’s price. The panel struggles to deliver uniform brightness across the length and breadth of the display which is rather disappointing. Also the viewing angles leave a lot to be desired especially since this is an IPS panel. The colors look washed out from wider angles 		Important Image Quality Specs

There aren’t any complaints as far as the contrast is concerned. The panel offers good visibility in the dark areas of games and movie scenes. There is a little light bleed (as expected from IPS monitors) which becomes particularly noticeable when displaying dark images. We didn’t find the light bleed to be overly disturbing. However, light bleeds can vary from unit to unit and definitely disturb visual quality particularly in darker scenes.

Performance

The monitor runs a max refresh rate of 75 Hz. Gaming at 75Hz is not remarkably superior to 60Hz, yet the difference in smoothness catches ones attention. Games appear more natural.   

As we usually do, we tested this monitor with various titles including Metro Exodus on our budget build using the Radeon RX580 GPU at 1080p settings to reach frame rates between 80 fps and 55 fps. The game action was fairly smooth as Freesync operated well within this narrow window. We didn’ t notice any artifacts . No stuttering or tearing was seen and the monitor maintained good responsiveness throughout.
However the monitor is susceptible to choppiness and game stutter whilst playing graphically intensive games. The AMD FreeSync operates in a narrow window and any drop in frame rate outside of the VRR window effects the flow of the game.  		List of Gaming Features included and Missing in the monitor

The dark scenes in the game didn’t pose a great challenge as the visibility was adequate .There was a small amount of motion blur, which is not uncommon in budget panels. 

As for our verdict on the monitor’s gaming performance, it is suitable for light gaming. It delivers everything that a casual gamer expects of a 75Hz gaming monitor.  

Design and Build Quality

Philips 276E9QDSB has been styled with narrow bezels to maximize viewing area. The bezel size is a thin 9mm along all the borders except for the base. The screen has an anti-glare coating and exhibits good glare handling.  

The cabinet is made of solid plastic with a glossy finish. The monitor stand has a compact rectangular foot that does not consume much space on the desk. The stand keeps the monitor stable and it’s silver color contrasts well with the glossy black cabinet. There are not a lot of adjustment options, the stand only allows for the monitor to be tilted forwards and backwards.

If you don’t have desk space for the monitor, it can also be wall mounted.

Summary

The Philips 276E9QDSB is a good choice for casual gaming, media, and everyday use. The monitor offers good value for money, however, one is tempted  to explore other options such as  AOC C24G1, and the Sceptre C248B-144RN. Serious gamers might want to read our article on 75hz vs 144hz for our recommendations of cheap 144hz monitors.