[PCM2]

Bratic opted for the Philips 288E2UAE and shared their very positive impressions of the screen with me.

[sebas76]

Hi to all,

I’m planning to buy a new monitor.
Actually I have a (very) old VA monitor with 1650×1050 resolution from viewsonic. In my job, I use VA monitor also. I want to choose 4K monitor but i really hesitate between the Philips 288E2UAE and the Dell S2722QC. My problem is IPS Glow, and black level comparing to VA ? The Philips seems to have a better color but less contrast. I’d like to wotk on video, photo and 3D modeling. Which is the best ? The Philips is around 300€ and 340€ for the Dell.
Thans in advance

[PCM2]

Hi sebas76,

Even if you had the two monitors side by side, you’d struggle to see an actual perceived contrast difference. They’re within ~100:1 of each other using our ‘Test Settings’ (1044:1 for the Philips vs. 1157:1 for the Dell) and inter-unit variation could even be responsible for some of that. Either way, ‘IPS glow’ levels are comparable, screen surface is similar and the overall contrast experience is similar. You’re correct that our Philips unit was better calibrated and that was nice to see. But there are no guarantees in that respect. Also, if you want the highest level of colour accuracy you’d ideally calibrate (and re-calibrate) either model with your own colorimeter. Though you’re used to VA models and perhaps you don’t consider your usage ‘colour critical‘ in that respect, so you might consider that extra expense and commitment to be unnecessary. I’d at least recommend using sRGB emulation as advised in the reviews for work within the sRGB colour space, however.

I can’t really add anything more to the comparison already drawn here between the two models. I understand the hesitation when it comes to moving from VA to IPS, but I’d again reiterate that it depends on room lighting and you can always work to improve that. Including investing in bias lighting behind the monitor for when the room is dimmer (in the evenings etc.)

[sebas76]

Ok thank you very much for your quick reply.
So these monitors seems to be very similar in performance, the Dell has better design and Philips better color out of the box.
But I’d like some precisions :
– The black level is another problem for me, I use my computer often in lighted room and during day, rarely in dark room so maybe dark level will work in this case?
– Is the IPS Glow visible during day or only in dark room ?
– Can you see difference between black level at 0.14 against 0.16 ( Dell vs Philips) And how are the black uniformity between them ?
– Is a luminosity of 270 during sunny day enouh ?

I can get the Philips 40€ less than Dell, the Philips has USB hub.
I hesitate or does exist a good 4K VA monitor with 27-28 inches ?
Thanks in advance.

[PCM2]

As I said, there is not a perceived contrast difference between the two. So the black depth differences are naturally insignificant, especially in brighter lighting where there would be no perceived difference at all (not even a very subtle one). Uniformity varies between units and is assessed for our units in the respective reviews. ‘IPS glow’ is not something you’d observe in a bright room (bright daylight), but can be noticed in a moderately dim room (say a cloudy day) and more so in a dim room (evening viewing with normal room lighting and especially with the lights dim or out).

The 270 cd/m² of the Philips is quite bright and most would find it sufficient even in a sunny room. In a very sunny room with lots of light streaming in perhaps the higher brightness of the Dell could come in useful, but regardless of brightness you will have glare issues to contend with when viewing darker content if there is strong direct light striking the screen surface. I’d suggest you just go for one of these monitors and see for yourself. If it doesn’t work out (hopefully it will) you can return it. There are no VA alternatives as you can’t get ‘4K’ VA models of this size. 🙂

[sebas76]

Ok, thank.
Maybe Amazon is better for testing and returning in bad result. In this case I should order in spain amazon for the Philips at the lower price but I live in France. Hope no problem for return policies. I’m very surprised that there is no 4K VA in 27 ” range, i don’t know why.
For the Dell, I’d get it elsewhere but I should wait end of march to get the screen.
I think 32″ monitor will be too big for me.

[PCM2]

I’ve updated the link for the 288E2UAE to point to Spain for people from France, if you decide to go for that. As you say that’s a significant price difference and hopefully the returns process would be easy enough should you need it.

[sebas76]

Hello,

I’ve purchased the Philips 288E2UAE monitor from Amazon and received yesterday but very bad experience with Amazon.
The package was damaged (some hole in the Philips box ) even inside the external package;
Very strange the screen comes from a reseller to Amazon on 26 january before I purchase.
I think the monitor was already used or opened ?!

I’ve just tested the screen but the color are not good at all out of the box, too much yellow.
I’ve tried few settings without good result :
– sRGB -> yellow tint (very anoying because no color adujstement could me done)
– 6500K,7500K,8200K color temp -> yellow-green tint
I should use 9300K to get think better but not perfect.
I can compare with my old (15 years) Viewsonic VA screen which is more luminous and
My only way is to set manually color and adjust green/red values (around 93%) to get a better render.
But I probably lost the calibration factory setting.
I take this screen to have a calibration out of the box as i haven’t myself a calibration tool.
Another I haven’t succeeded to connect the screen with Display Port (no detection by the screen on bios or in windows)
I use an old Gefore GTX660 in HDMI, but i need Display Port to get access to 60Hz in 4K else in HDMI only 30 Hz.

I will probably exchange or return the screen…
Bad luck.

[PCM2]

I’m sorry that was the case, definitely sounds like a bad unit which was likely one somebody else tried to exchange. To clarify, was this sold by Amazon directly or via a 3rd party seller? Also be aware that you may be comparing to a monitor with a very different backlight that may not be correctly calibrated. Don’t assume that the Philips appearing to have a warm or yellowish tint is because it is poorly calibrated, you could be comparing to a monitor with a white point that’s too high or simply a very different backlight that produces a natural cool tint or more bluish quality in comparison. If you’re talking about extreme and clear tints then that could indeed be something to do with your unit having additional issues with calibration or a bad panel etc. You should also ensure you’ve corrected the colour signal as advised in the review.

The GTX 660 only has HDMI 1.4a so doesn’t support 3840 x 2160 @60Hz (requires HDMI 2.0+). DisplayPort should work, but sometimes (and this isn’t specific to the Philips) you need to power cycle. So keep the monitor connected up to the system via DP and switched on (even though no signal is detected by the monitor), unplug power from the monitor and wait at least 30 seconds before plugging it back in.

[sebas76]

Yes directly by Amazon spain, not marketplace.But send from french warehouse as I live in France. I will publish some pictures.
I have succeeded to work the DP but a little capricious, I have to connect HDMI and DP then it could start on DP after removing HDMI.
For colors, without any screen comparaison, I really see a yellow tint on white screen. The only way to remove that is to set with user color r:93, g:92 and B:100, but how is the color calibration now ?

I have seen also a little IPS glow but i don’t think there is backlight bleed, and probably no dead pixel. So should I keep this screen or return it ? I don’t know?

[PCM2]

It’s not at all unusual to have to make those sort of corrections to improve white point and is a perfectly normal part of the ‘tweaking’ process. The adjustments you’ve had to make there are moderate but not extreme and won’t significantly affect other areas of the calibration such as gamma. It’s why I always say in reviews that individual units vary and why I said in my earlier replies there are no guarantees when it comes to factory calibration. White point also drifts over time as phosphors and other backlight components age, so even if that is ‘perfect’ out of the box it doesn’t mean it will stay that way.

It’s annoying your unit didn’t appear to be unopen in a box of expected condition, although it could’ve been bashed up a bit during transit and might’ve been opened and inspected by customs officials. Either way, if the 288E2UAE you received is good in terms of uniformity and doesn’t appear to have defective pixels then it may well be worth keeping it.

[sebas76]

Yes I have some doubts about the monitor.
It seems to be use before me : some marks on black plastic, display port cable bag already opened, no strap to fix the styrofoam, some marks on styrofoam.
In Europe, no customs between different countries, my screen comes from a french warehouse as I can read the reseller name who sent the monitor to Amazon.

Unfortunately, no preset settings are usable, I could only use the “User setting” else color are not good at all :greenish and yellow.
I have another problem the “RTS mode” display a blank square at the top of the screen, is it normal ? You can see at :

I don’t have the USB cable for the Hub, but i don’t know if I should have it. ( the manual is not clear about that).

[PCM2]

Yup, definitely sounds like an open box product from what you describe. The ‘Gamer 1’ and ‘Gamer 2’ presets or simply disabling ‘SmartImage’ and making manual colour channel adjustments is the correct thing to do and what we advise in the review. As I’ve said several times, individual units differ and it was simply lucky that we didn’t need to make colour channel adjustments on our unit. How various presets are configured by default is not something to be concerned about. Also note that most monitors come with a load of useless presets which are best ignored. In this case they mainly just make adjustments you could simply make with manual adjustment in the OSD anyway.

Manuals for monitors are usually quite limited in the information they provide, which is exactly why we do OSD run-throughs. The ‘box’ you’re describing with the RTS mode is covered in the OSD video and the presets are also touched upon there – https://youtu.be/Agd9KTqZtuk?t=207.

[sebas76]

Thanks for your quick reply.
I have tested a little the screen on Windows 11, and I’ve seen that blue dark shading (with dark blue flower theme) have banding and color shifting even with my color presets, so the shading looks crappy.
I can compare with a lot of monitors I have in my job where shading are more smooth.

I give you my Philips report where you can see that DeltaE>4 on green/yellow where is bad.

https://ibb.co/F6mjLvB

[PCM2]

The factory calibration report for the 288E2UAE/E2E is only relevant when using the ‘sRGB’ setting (or ‘SmartUniformity’ for the uniformity aspects), a setting that was far from perfect on the unit we tested as well. Though more due to the gamma handling, which was not as reported anyway. I sometimes think they just use a random number generator on these reports – and this goes for all manufacturers, not just Philips. For the Windows 11 dark theme with the blue swirls (or flower pattern) then the background of that image is naturally banded and if it appears smooth on your other monitor(s) it’s actually because they’re masking detail from the image due to poor gamma calibration or higher perceived gamma. You should see some banding, it’s in the image and can be perceived at correct ‘2.2’ gamma. If it’s heavily banded and extremely obvious then that might suggest something is out of whack with the gamma or other aspects of the image – is this the case with ‘SmartImage’ disabled and default colour channel positions? I also assume you’ve corrected the colour signal as I’ve suggested and aren’t running any ICC profiles?

[sebas76]

I hope they don’t use random number for these report. But it seems to correspond to my screen because Green / yellow has more than 4 DeltaE error and I see that in white. For Win11 dark theme, I see banding on others screen too but it seems to more in the same shade than on Philips.
All result are worse with Smart image enabled because greenish or yellowish shade.
I can only use “User Define” color.
I will check the “corrected colour signal” as I use the CPU graphic.
The stand is very wobbly because the screen is higher at left 1 cm more than right side.
Another thing, I have a large sticker (as demo screen in shop) on the bottom of the screen, is it normal ?

If I return the monitor to Amazon, which reason should I choose because :
– the package was really damaged but not the display ( there is a trace in back of the screen and maybe on the bottom (or it’s plastic defect) )
– the screen is yellowish
– the stand is wobbly
I have paid 11€ for shipping fees because ordered from Amazon Spain but sent from France.
Should I pay return shipping fees ?
How long does it take ? Will Amazon exchange the screen ?
Thank in advance.

[PCM2]

That was a joke about the random number generators, they won’t really do that but many times I’ve reviewed monitors and wondered whether the calibration report really applies to the unit I’m testing. Different equipment (and different systems) can cause some differences and things can change over time, but that doesn’t always expain things.

I can’t really discuss the Amazon returns process here, you’d need to approach them and see what they say. Usually it doesn’t matter too much what you choose (for example “Performance or quality is not adequate”) as long as you use the comments box they provide to give your mian reasons, even if they cover other areas such as the box clearly being opened and the product in a used condition when you bought as new. You have many valid reasons for wanting to return the product and usually they’d be quite happy to arrange a replacement (exchange the screen). It’s usually arranged pretty quickly.

[sebas76]

Yes the calibration of my Philips 288E2 is a joke 😉
I have contacted Amazon, the only way is to return the monitor, I don’t know if I shoudl pay shipping fees.
This monitor is no longer available in Amazon store and the price rise up…
I’ve tested the screen more precisely and my result with this little test ( Calibration test is :
– it can’t display very dark gray (number 10)
– it can’t display dark blue shades over 90% but it can for red and green ?

I have contacted Philips to see if they can help else I will return the monitor to Amazon.

Thanks

[PCM2]

That doesn’t suggest a poor calibration. You should notice performance “improve” in those tests if you lower the gamma value in the OSD, but that doesn’t mean the calibration is better. It’s usual for a monitor correctly calibrated to a gamma of ‘2.2’ to display very dark shades (’10’ in that test) in an indistinct way. Especially if it’s an IPS panel! It’s also usual for dark blue shades to be more heavily masked than those that are red or green biased. I’d suggest making observations using Lagom, which we use in the review and comment on so you can compare. Also be aware the observations for Lagom are made in a dark room in the reviews, naturally a brighter room will mask darker shades more readily. The darkest blue band is always the least distinct and sometimes really difficult or impossible to distinguish from the background depending on the gamma and contrast performance of the panel.

[sebas76]

Ok, thank for this precision. I have just tested on my other monitor and yes the dark grey 10 and very dark blue are difficult to distinct from black even in dark room.

But on my old VA monitor, the gamma seems perfect 2.2 but none on my Philips where any gamma settings doesn’t work, the square are always differents from the background in the test that I gave previously.

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