- Overall
The Philips 275P4VYKEB is a more affordable ticket to the exclusive 5K club of professional monitors designed to provide unrivaled color and detail for your editing needs. But there are only a few products capable of 5K imagery since the demand is limited, mainly because everybody else has their sights on a faster 4K monitor for gaming. So for a user whose work requires more pixels, it can be frustrating because qualified offerings are either too expensive or out of reach.
Philips 275P4VYKEB Specifications
- Screen Size: 27 Inches
- Resolution: 5K UHD
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Panel Technology: In-Plane Switching (IPS)
- Refresh Rate: 60Hz
- Response Time: 8ms
- Contrast Ratio: 1000:1 (Static)
- Brightness: 300 cd/m²
- Built-in Speakers: Yes 2 x 2 Watts
- Stand: Height –Yes (5.9 Inches)
- Stand: Tilt – Yes (-2°/+20°)
- Stand: Pivot-Yes
- Stand: Swivel – Yes
- VESA Compatibility: Yes 100 x 100
- Connectivity: DisplayPort 1.2 x 2, , USB 3.0 x 3, 3.5mm Hack
- Dimensions with Stand(WxHxD): 25.16” x 22.83” x 10.75”
- Weight: 17.88lbs
Design and Features
The Philips 275P4VYKEB is probably going to serve its purpose in sophisticated studios, but the design looks and feels industrial. The bezels might be too thick for most tastes, but it does have low-profile edges. The bottom and top strips are thicker thanks to the built-in webcam and microphone on the latter and touch sensitive buttons for the OSD on the lower right end.
In our experience, touch buttons are almost always annoying, and the Philips 275P4VYKEB is no different. On a positive note, this model feels robust and finely crafted, as we could not find any physical defects such as creaking plastic or wide/separated seams. The subdued black with a brushed texture is attractive, and it makes looking at the thick borders a lot less painful.
The I/O panel on the Philips 275P4VYKEB is a bit limited since it only has two DisplayPorts both of which, will be populated by cables if you want to operate at 5K. If you want to use them separately, you will be stuck with 4K since there is simply not enough bandwidth on a single slot for 5K. Although it’s a good thing Philips did include three USB 3.0 slots for peripherals, they are quite hard to reach because they are recessed into the rear panel of the cabinet.
One of the first shortcuts to lower the price are the two-watt speakers on the Philips 275P4VYKEB, which are too weak for audible enjoyment. The Dell UP2715K’s 16-Watt Harman Kardon speakers which did have enough frequency response and power for music or personal movie viewing is above and beyond when compared, but that product costs a few hundred dollars more than this option.
At least, Philips did not skimp on the included stand. The mechanism ships disassembled, so you need to screw the arm to the base and attach the screen into the VESA 100 x 100 mount. Since its designed this way, you can opt to use aftermarket solutions if you prefer other methods to view your 5K content. However, this part has plenty of flexibility which includes height, swivel, pivot, and tilt so you can easily get a perfect viewing angle.
Display and Performance
The Philips 275P4VYKEB features a stunning 27-inch 5K PLS (IPS) 10- bit panel capable of vibrant colors with wide gamuts and impressively crisp detail making it suitable for photo and video editing. 5120 x 2880 at 27 inches equates to a pixel density of 218PPI and a pixel pitch of .116mm, so each grain is invisible. You can compare the clarity to Apple’s Retina technology which also sells for a premium price thanks to the clarity of the screen.
Out of the box, the Philips 275P4VYKEB is capable of 100% sRGB, 98% Adobe RGB, and 87% DCI P3 coverage for superb vibrancy and accuracy, which you can maximize further with the help of a calibrator. There are five gamma modes you can use in the OSD, and our tests prove that each one is accurate within .1 of the specs Philips listed.
Using some of the built-in filters like the sRGB and Adobe RGB modes will raise the brightness to 310cd/m2 which is above the specified number, but in our opinion, you are better off with only 50% to achieve a contrast ratio of 950:1, which is admirable for this panel type. One worrying flaw we did notice is that the Philips 275P4VYKEB is susceptible to backlight bleed which degrades panel uniformity at the bottom corners.
Philips drops the ball here since a monitor at this level should be more or less perfect in this regard. This issue is, however, an inherent flaw of PLS/IPS panels. The lottery concept applies here so that you might get an excellent unit or not. As mentioned, lowering the overall brightness will lessen these flaws in practice while also subduing the tendency of the display to become too warm at some points.
There are situations where lower illumination levels could work against the Philips 275P4VYKEB since this model utilizes a glossy coating instead of the matte AG options we see on almost every great monitor out there. It does have its merits when used correctly since the shiny treatment does help in portraying deeper blacks. Setting up away from windows and finding a balanced ambient lighting is a must for this model, so you won’t need to turn up its brightness to get a clear view.
For gamers, unfortunately, the Philips 275P4VYKEB is unsuitable for your enjoyment purposes. The 8ms response time is dismal for fast-paced action, although you can still get by if you have the necessary GPU horsepower. Gaming at 5K resolution will put most cards to the test, plus not every model out there is equipped with two DP slots.
Adaptive Sync would also help a lot if you insist on playing at this resolution, but the Philips 275P4VYKEB doesn’t implement either of the two options we have. We tried Battlefield 1 on this monitor, but the game suffered from stutters, blurring, and ghosting making it less enjoyable than on a gamer-centric product meant for this type of use.
Thoughts
The Philips 275P4VYKEB is an excellent product for professional use thanks to its satisfying performance in both accuracy and vibrancy. There are some issues which might be too big to ignore for the extra meticulous, but the lower price tag than some competitors could help persuade prospective buyers. You can enjoy the benefits of its resolution and color performance out of the box, but using a colorimeter will unlock its full potential.
Gamers, on the other hand, should look elsewhere since the Philips 275P4VYKEB is unsuited to the requirements of an enjoyable experience, due to the graphics requirements and the slower performance of these types of panels. But if you are an all work no play kind of guy, you should at least short list this fantastic product for its mix of an attractive price point and capabilities.
roberto pardi says
Where in usa i can buy it (275P4VYKEB)
Paolo Reva says
Hi, Robert! It sometimes slips in and out of Amazon. Please keep checking the buy links for availability. Cheers!