Philips 276E8FJAB review – elegance and extremely colorful image

Today, we have a beautiful-looking 27-inch monitor from Phillips. Its exact name is the 276E8FJAB (yep, it sounds like it comes from a Star Wars movie), and it has a 1440p resolution, which fairs pretty well with the screen size. Ultimately, it is part of the E-series, where E stands for elegance, and it certainly feels that way.

If you look at the official web page listing, you can see Philips bragging about the vivid colors it can reproduce, and more specifically, they state it covers 132% of sRGB – sounds good, but we’re going to test it for sure.

Additionally, it supports FreeSync, as well as some health-preserving features, including a Low Blue light mode, as well as a non-flickering backlight (again, we are going to test that to confirm).

You can check the current price of Philips 276E8FJAB here: Buy from Amazon.com (#CommissionsEarned)

Contents


Unboxing and setup

According to the region you live in, you will receive the Philips 276E8FJAB with a VGA cable, an HDMI one, as well as a 3.5mm audio cable. Additionally, there should be a driver and software CD, as well as the mandatory paper manuals. Here, the monitor is powered by a dedicated Adapter, which you will also get inside the package.

Assembling the monitor is rather easy – the stand is already connected to the panel and you will only need to screw up the foot. Fear not, you can do that with hand, thanks to the “ear” attached to the screw.


Design and construction

Indeed, this is a very beautiful monitor on the outside. It has a super-thin side and top bezels, as well as a slightly bulky bottom one. As you can see from the pictures below, there is a transparent logo sticking from the bottom bezel – purely a design touch. On the back, there is a black, glossy plastic material, which attracts fingerprints like a magnet.

In terms of weight, the monitor tops the scales at 4.07 kg without the stand and 4.69 with it. This is a pretty reasonable result, especially for a 27-inch display. However, there is a formidable downside to that in our view – the stand is very static. Its only adjustable movement is a tilt – from -5 to 20 degrees. In contrast, most of the stands, Dell puts on their monitors, are far more nimble – even in the budget segment of the market.

Although this is petty, it is good to see an anti-glare finish, which will definitely help in direct sunlight conditions. With that said, it is not often, you will see direct sunlight at your home or office.

Ports

Connectivity-wise, there is a VGA port, a DisplayPort 1.2, an HDMI 1.4 connector, as well as two Audio Jacks – one for input and one for output, respectively.


Display quality

Philips 276E8FJAB is equipped with an IPS panel. Its diagonal is 27″ (68.58 cm), has a resolution of 2560 x 1440 pixels, and a maximum refresh rate of 60Hz. The screen ratio is 16:9, and we are looking at a pixel density of – 109 ppi, and a pitch of 0.23 х 0.23 mm. The screen turns into Retina when viewed at distance equal to or greater than 80cm (31.5″) (from this distance one’s eye stops differentiating the separate pixels).

It has comfortable viewing angles. We offer images at 45° to evaluate image quality.

We measured a maximum brightness in the “Standard” mode of 405 nits in the middle of the screen, with a maximum deviation of 13%.
In the illustration below you can see how the display performs from a uniformity perspective. It how matters are for operational brightness levels in “Standard” display mode (approximately 140 nits) – in this particular case at 8% Brightness.

Values of dE2000 over 4.0 should not occur, and this parameter is one of the first you should check if you intend to use the monitor for color-sensitive work. The contrast ratio is good – from 1010:1 to 1300:1, depending on the display mode.

To make sure we are on the same page, we would like to give you a little introduction to the sRGB color gamut and the Adobe RGB. To start, there’s the CIE 1976 Uniform Chromaticity Diagram that represents the visible specter of colors by the human eye, giving you a better perception of the color gamut coverage and the color accuracy.

Inside the black triangle, you will see the standard color gamut (sRGB) that is being used by millions of people in HDTV and on the web. As for the Adobe RGB, this is used in professional cameras, monitors, etc for printing. Basically, colors inside the black triangle are used by everyone and this is the essential part of the color quality and color accuracy of a mainstream display.

Still, we’ve included other color spaces like the famous DCI-P3 standard used by movie studios, as well as the digital UHD Rec.2020 standard. Rec.2020, however, is still a thing of the future and it’s difficult for today’s displays to cover that well. We’ve also included the so-called Michael Pointer gamut, or Pointer’s gamut, which represents the colors that naturally occur around us every day.

The yellow dotted line shows Philips 276E8FJAB’s color gamut coverage in the “Standard” mode in the first graphic and in “Standard” mode in the second.

The Primary RGB in “Stanard” mode matches with a decent accuracy with the sRGB/ITU-R BT.709 (web/HDTV standard) in CIE1976. Not only that, but the colors are a lot more vibrant than the Web standards, and this way, the Gamut Volume reaches 130% of sRGB.

Our “Design and Gaming” profile delivers optimal color temperature (6500K) at 140 cd/m2 luminance and sRGB gamma mode. We’ve used the “Standard” preset after factory reset and brightness set to 8%.


We tested the accuracy of the display with 24 commonly used colors like light and dark human skin, blue sky, green grass, orange, etc. You can check out the results at factory condition and also, with the “Design and Gaming” profile.

Below you can compare the scores of Philips 276E8FJAB with the default settings (left), and with the “Gaming and Web design” profile (right).

The next figure shows how well the display is able to reproduce really dark parts of an image, which is essential when watching movies or playing games in low ambient light.

The left side of the image represents the display with stock settings, while the right one is with the “Gaming and Web Design” profile activated. On the horizontal axis, you will find the grayscale and on the vertical axis – the luminance of the display. On the two graphs below you can easily check for yourself how your display handles the darkest nuances but keep in mind that this also depends on the settings of your current display, the calibration, the viewing angle, and the surrounding light conditions.

Response time (Gaming capabilities)

The response time of the pixels shouldn’t be slower than the refresh cycle of the screen (16.67 ms for 60Hz, 6.94 ms for 144Hz, and so on). Ultimately, this results in ghosting, caused by the pixel’s inability to change in that amount of time, thus continuing in the next frame. In order to battle with that issue, manufacturers use Overdrive. Essentially, this is a technique for RTC (Response Time Compensation). What does it do? Well, it supplies higher voltage to the crystals (in LCD monitors), which makes them switch their position faster. However, excessive levels of Overdrive can result in Overshooting, which transforms into inverse ghosting, coronas, and artifacts, obviously affecting the image quality in a negative way. This is why many manufacturers provide several levels of Overdrive, so you can choose which suits you best.

We test the reaction time of the pixels with the usual “Gray-to-Gray” method from 50% White to 80% White and vice versa between 10% and 90% of the amplitude.

Here, as you can see, there are three Overdrive modes. Apparently, with the “Game mode” turned off, this monitor is pretty slow in response. However, the Overdrive settings work great, with the “Fastest” mode halving the response times, but taking a significant toll on the visual experience. In our view, the “Faster” mode works the best here.





PWM (Screen flickering)

Pulse-width modulation (PWM) is an easy way to control monitor brightness. When you lower the brightness, the light intensity of the backlight is not lowered, but instead turned off and on by the electronics with a frequency indistinguishable to the human eye. In these light impulses, the light/no-light time ratio varies, while brightness remains unchanged, which is harmful to your eyes. You can read more about that in our dedicated article on PWM.

Philips 276E8FJAB’s backlight is not PW-modulated at any brightness level. This makes it comfortable for your eyes in this aspect even during long working periods.

Blue light emissions

Installing our Health-Guard profile not only eliminates PWM but also reduces the harmful Blue Light emissions while keeping the colors of the screen perceptually accurate. If you’re not familiar with the Blue light, the TL;DR version is – emissions that negatively affect your eyes, skin, and your whole body. You can find more information about that in our dedicated article on Blue Light.

Buy our profiles

Since our profiles are tailored for each individual display model, this article and its respective profile package are meant for the Philips 276E8FJAB.

In this case, the profiles are ready for work after a factory reset, except for the Gaming and Web design profile, where you need to set the display to the “sRGB mode”. Interestingly, depending on the ambient light and the game you’re playing it is highly possible that the Office Work profile might be more appealing than the Gaming and Web design one.

*Should you have problems with downloading the purchased file, try using a different browser to open the link you’ll receive via e-mail. If the download target is a .php file instead of an archive, change the file extension to .zip or contact us at [email protected].

Read more about the profiles HERE.

In addition to receiving efficient and health-friendly profiles, by buying LaptopMedia's products you also support the development of our labs, where we test devices in order to produce the most objective reviews possible.

Office Work

Office Work should be used mostly by users who spend most of the time looking at pieces of text, tables or just surfing. This profile aims to deliver better distinctness and clarity by keeping a flat gamma curve (2.20), native color temperature and perceptually accurate colors.

Design and Gaming

This profile is aimed at designers who work with colors professionally, and for games and movies as well. Design and Gaming takes display panels to their limits, making them as accurate as possible in the sRGB IEC61966-2-1 standard for Web and HDTV, at white point D65.

Health-Guard

Health-Guard eliminates the harmful Pulse-Width Modulation (PWM) and reduces the negative Blue Light which affects our eyes and body. Since it’s custom tailored for every panel, it manages to keep the colors perceptually accurate. Health-Guard simulates paper so the pressure on the eyes is greatly reduced.

Get all 3 profiles with 33% discount


Verdict

While the Philips 276E8FJAB is not a gaming monitor by any means, however, its high resolution and a rather big size make it a comfortable solution for basically any type of use. Its viewing angles are wide, have a good maximum brightness (about 400 nits) and its OSD menu is well thought of.

Additionally, it has a super high color coverage (130% of sRGB), which is a prerequisite for a vibrant and punchy image. Should you be playing games or watching movies, you will certainly enjoy the image quality. What is more important though, is the lack of PWM for all brightness levels, ensuring a comfortable experience for prolonged working sessions.

Of course, no device is perfect, and this monitor’s major disadvantage is the pretty static stand. It only provides tilt movement, making it far less appetizing than some of Dell’s offerings, like the UltraSharp U2717D and the P2719H. At least, it supports older hardware, via the VGA port, and the I/O selection is actually pretty decent.

You can check the current price of Philips 276E8FJAB here: Buy from Amazon.com (#CommissionsEarned)

Pros

  • Optimal size for desktop computing
  • High resolution, resulting in a crisp image
  • Well populated OSD menu
  • 130% of sRGB coverage
  • Decent port selection for the price range and class
  • FreeSync support


Cons

  • Not the best stand in terms of adjustability
  • Although it supports FreeSync, the refresh rate is the limiting factor here – only 60Hz

Subscribe
Notify of
guest
0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments