Philips BDM4037UW – Image Quality

Out of the box, this display largely offers good image quality. Its colour temperature is fairly accurate (6543K) so there’s no obvious colour cast to the image, contrast matches up to the claimed 4000:1 (3969:1) and gamma is 2.13 – close enough to the ideal of 2.2 that there’s no obvious darkness or lightness to the image.

The only figure that draws concern is the maximum brightness. At just 250nits, according to my measurements, it doesn’t provide much headroom for use in bright environments. In normal office use I don’t recommend more than 150nits anyway, but most monitors can offer at least 300nits just in case.

This display provides a full 99.9% of the sRGB colour space and 84.6% of Adobe RGB colour space, both of which are impressively high. However, the latter figure suggests this display has a slightly wider gamut than most displays, and this can be seen, with some colours looking just a touch oversaturated. Reds, in particular, can look a little radioactive.

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It’s not a problem for most desktop work, gaming and watching video but for content creation where accurate colours are important, it makes this display a little less suited than top-quality IPS models.

This can be tweaked slightly through calibration but a post-calibration Adobe RGB coverage of 80.8% shows it’s still a touch higher than the 75% we’d normally expect of a standard-gamut monitor.

Another area where this display can’t quite match the best IPS panels is in viewing angles. There’s far less change in colours and contrast than you get with TN panels but, particularly when viewed from slightly higher than perpendicular, the image can start to look a little grey and washed out.

Where this display does impress, though, is in its uniformity. There’s an average change in brightness of just 2.5% as you move from the centre of the screen to its edges. That’s among the best Trusted has ever recorded, which, considering the size of the screen is quite a feat.

All this adds up to a display that’s excellent for general day-to-day computing and that is absolutely fantastic for watching video. The high contrast ratio and accurate colours really bring films to life.

As for gaming, it also looks great but the 60Hz refresh rate and relatively slow response time mean it’s certainly not ideal for competitive high-speed gaming. Input lag isn’t an issue, though, with us measuring an average of just 12.9ms. That’s far better than most TVs, so console gamers will be very happy indeed.

This relatively slow response time can also be seen when on the desktop, particularly as you move windows around – it can result in a slightly smeared, ghosting effect, but largely it’s not too distracting except when playing very fast-paced FPS games.

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Should I buy the Philips BDM4037UW?

This is the sort of monitor that could so easily have been something of a gimmick – all headline-grabbing numbers and little practicality. However, the reality is quite different.

The massive screen size and 4K resolution combine to perfect effect, creating a huge display that’s daunting but still entirely practical to use.

Along with good overall image quality, this makes it ideal for those who just want as big a desktop workspace as possible and don’t want to compromise on image quality or on having multiple displays. Its colour reproduction isn’t quite accurate enough for professional designers and other creatives working with colour-critical apps, but it’s fine for everything else.

Add in that the high contrast makes this display fantastic for sitting back and watching video and you have quite the all-rounder.

The only obvious area where it’s less suited is gaming. It’s fine for more casual titles but competitive gamers will find its slow response time off-putting.

All this and you’re getting this massive screen for a relatively bargain price.

Verdict

A bit of a surprise hit, this huge monitor is stylish, practical and does great doubly duty as a good size TV. All without breaking the bank.

Trusted Score