Philips 273E3QH 27″ Full HD E-line AMVA LED Monitor Review

Continuing our voyage through the range of Philips' newly-released monitors, it's the 27" 273E3QH's turn to be scrutinized at our KitGuru labs. Can its AMVA panel and ultra-high contrast ratio guide it to the worthy heights of a successful evaluation? As with the recently reviewed Philips Blade 2 monitor, the 27" 273E3QH utilizes an AMVA, or Advanced Multi-domain Vertical Alignment, panel to produce super-high static contrast ratios and exceptional viewing angles. Aided by a W-LED backlight system, image quality produced by the AMVA panel could be a fundamental strength for this 27", Full HD beauty. With 27 inches of screen real estate and a promising specifications sheet, can Philips' 273E3QH deliver the performance that is required to survive in this sink-or-swim market? Specifications: AMVA LED for wide-view super-high contrast, vivid images. 16:9 Full HD resolution for gaming and video. SmartImage Lite for an enhanced LCD viewing experience. SmartContrast 20,000,000:1 for incredible rich black details. Modern touch controls. Our rather tatty and bruised box is home to a large image of the 273E3QH monitor as well as a table outlining some of the key features. VGA, DVI and 3.5mm jack cables are all accompanied by a kettle-style power lead and installation CD. Philips use a circular base to evenly distribute the screen's weight while maintaining an aesthetically pleasing appearance. A simple slot-in design is used to affix the 6.5kg screen to its base. Unfortunately, this technique eradicates any tilt-adjustment possibilities. Philips' perceptive engineers and designers have managed to create a reasonably elegant design from a large 27" screen. It isn't the most attractive monitor on the market, but we have definitely observed far worse design attempts. A dull 'texture' finish to the 20mm-wide bezel certainly doesn't offer much in the way of enhancing the product's visual appearance. To reach the given price point of this monitor, Philips has to cut corners somewhere, though. Unfortunately, making a price-reducing compromise on the bezel material - something which occupies such a large amount of the monitor - wasn't the greatest of ideas. A 100 x 100 mm VESA mount located on the rear panel of Philips' 69mm-thick monitor makes wall-, or even multi-display stand-, mounting a possibility. Downwards-facing inputs are partly to blame for the monitor's 69mm thickness. This orientation has the benefit of eliminating any cable-protrusion issues that arise when using a narrowly-spaced wall mount. 4 of the 5 touch buttons located on the 273E3QH's front panel double up as menu and selection controls. SmartImage Lite, input, volume and menu interfaces can be easily accessed thanks to their specifically-allocated buttons. HDMI, DVI and VGA connections are accompanied by audio input and output jacks on the monitor's right-rear side. A kettle-style power input is located towards the left side of the monitor's rear panel. A number of users will groan at Philips' exclusion of the increasingly-popular DisplayPort input. Personally, I feel that this is only a minor issue on a 1920 x 1080 screen. Key features are publicized on a sticker that is housed on the screen's upper-right corner. The sticker will help store-based customers decide upon a purchase, or, if you insist, it can be used as a prop for bragging about your new monitor to friends and family. SmartImage Lite is much more confined in comparison to its full-blooded sibling used on Philips' Blade 2 monitor. Standard, Internet and Game presets are the lucky few to survive the chop. We will discuss the SmartImage Lite settings in more depth later on in this review. Inputs can be changed via a specific button located on the monitor or through the menu interface. The Picture subsection allows you to configure and edit a wide variety of settings until your personal preference is attained. Wide screen and 4:3 picture formats are supported by the 273E3QH. SmartResponse settings can also be altered via the Picture subsection. A touch button is allocated for use with the volume control. The menu's Audio section provides access to the mute setting and can also be used to configure the monitor for use with separate speakers. Easy access is provided to settings such as the screen's colour temperature. Only a pair of colour temperature settings is provided which puts an increased emphasis on a user-tailored colour configuration. Yes, you guessed it. The monitor's language is controlled in the 'Language' section. The On Screen Display settings can be changed to avoid irritation. General information such as the monitor's serial number and model name is located in the 'setup' section. The technical testing of Philips' 273E3QH AMVA Monitor was completed by my colleague, Zardon. To test today, we are using a LaCie calibration gun along with specific software to accurately measure the readings. We measured the Gamut out of the box and the Philips 273E3QH returned a reading of 2.11 which is an excellent result. When manually tweaking to 1.8, the panel returned a 1.78 result which is also very good. Colour response is excellent although at the default settings, the saturation was slightly washed out and a little worse than we would have expected. Text focus was sharp however and backlighting was quite consistent across the full width, with only minor fluctuations evident. We noticed a few minor patches of bleeding at the edges, although again these are to be expected in this sector. Panel linearity is strong and significantly better than the Blade 2 Full 24" AMVA LED panel. Black Definition is well above average although it never produces a pure black, even in the center of the screen. Philips claim a 20,000,000:1 high dynamic contrast ratio but this does vary according to what is being displayed on screen. Blacks could definitely be richer however most people would be happy with the result. The edges of the panel vary up to 15%, which is above average in this sector. In real world terms, high definition media looks impressive and we enjoyed the overall images produced. White purity is very good, measuring around 13 percent at the edges, and between 3-6 percent in the middle. This is not noticeable to the naked eye, even when viewing bright outdoor scenes. 'Pooling' was not visible in the central area of the screen, only at the edges ... primarily top right. Panel uniformity rates as excellent with minimal distortion, only closer to the sides, a common issue for most consumer panels. Some people may find the default colour vibrancy a little lacking, but a tweak in the panel can enhance this. SmartContrast is a feature that dramatically boosts the 273E3QH's contrast ratio to 20,000,000:1, providing the best possible quality for a displayed image. We were very impressed by the SmartContrast feature. It has the ability to convert a basic image into a rich and vibrant one. No trickery is involved; just a few intelligent tweaks to the picture settings and the viewing experience became more sumptuous and enjoyable. SmartImage Lite builds upon the ease-of-use trademark associated with SmartContrast, taking it a step further. It loads an array of pre-determined settings which are, according to Philips, perfect for use with their related scenario. Three pre-defined SmartImage Lite modes are available; Standard, Internet and Game. It eliminates the adjustment process that is required to enjoy a specific task to the fullest of image quality. Standard mode is the choice that should be used to incorporate user-defined settings. It was perfectly functional for daily procedures. Bright and vibrant images were produced with absolute consistency and we didn't encounter any annoying tint or pixelation issues that were applied to the mode by default. Internet mode is very similar to its 'Standard' counterpart. It retains an appropriate level of brightness which is well-suited to internet-style web pages. SmartContrast was disabled by default, but this proved as a non-existent issue for our general browsing habits. A distinguishable burst of brightness and contrast is unleashed when SmartImage Lite's 'Game' selection is applied. The extravagant environments of Battlefield 3 managed to create some lip-smacking images when used in conjunction with the Game mode. SmartResponse was automatically set to its 'fast' setting which is actually the third fastest of all 4 possibilities. We didn't notice any motion-blur issues, so it'd be a little picky to criticise Philips for not utilizing the fastest setting in the default Game mode configuration. Avid gamers will undoubtedly intensify the 273E3QH's motion-handling abilities by increasing SmartResponse to its highest possible setting. Power consumption is excellent, demanding only 24 watts when calibrated. This drops to a single watt when in power saving mode. Philips has created a great monitor in the 273E3QH. Coupled with a W-LED backlight system, the AMVA panel is able to utilise the 20,000,000:1 contrast ratio, producing high-quality and vibrant images. DVI, VGA and HDMI inputs will suffice for all but the most hardcore of multi-monitor users, with only the latter connection lacking a supplied cable. This input configuration is what we would consider to be near perfect for a 27" 1080p screen, allowing it to double up as a gaming TV for use with High Definition consoles. The absence of a DisplayPort connection may become an issue for some potential buyers wanting an EyeFinity configuration. Offering a combined output of merely 4W, the built-in speakers aren't intended to replace a stand-alone pair. They served their purpose as a trouble-free way of producing a sound output, making them a worthwhile addition to the 273E3QH. Likeability of the 273E3QH's appearance is going to be heavily swayed by individual perception. Personally, I feel that the circular stand is an attractive design feature that suits the monitor perfectly. The screen itself isn't going to win any style awards with a monotonous and dreary finish to its 'texture' bezel. SmartImage Lite certainly is a 'Smart' feature. The trio of modes were backed by well-decided settings that enhanced the viewing experience of a specific scenario. We wouldn't have any problems relying upon the pre-determined settings for gaming, internet browsing or general usage circumstances. Philips' 273E3QH monitor is available for the very competitive price of £230.90 from LambdaTek. Sporting an AMVA panel, LED backlight system, 20,000,000:1 contrast ratio and 27 inches of glorious 1920 x 1080 screen, the Philips 273E3QH monitor certainly does provide a lot of bang for your hard-earned buck. Pros: Competitively priced for a VA panel. Excellent gaming performance. Good variety of inputs. Built-in speakers are convenient. Relevant and useful SmartImage Lite modes. Cons: Bulky dimensions and dull colour aren't stylish. No DisplayPort. Tough competition in the £200-250 price range. KitGuru says: A likeable monitor that offers great performance with a competitive price tag.