Philips 288E2E 28" Frameless Monitor, 4K UHD 3840x2160 IPS, 120% sRGB, FreeSync, Height Adjustable, VESA, 4Yr Advance Replacement

Fantastic value if you get it under $300 (I managed to get it on sale for $215). Even at $300, it's a healthy contender for display quality and color balance with monitors even in the $400 range. Of course, there's a reason it's cheaper than those monitors, namely 60Hz, no USB-C (i.e., sorry Macbooks), no additional USB ports and no speakers. It also uses an AC Adapter, rather than integrated power supply. If you're fine with those caveats, you are going to have a hard time finding a better quality display at this price point. If your heart is set on the missing features, then check out the Samsung U28R55 or Asus VG289Q; both use the exact same 28" Innolux panel. However, according to other reviews, Philips seems to have the best factory calibration for color balance and white levels. Out of the box, my Spyder 4 Pro (yeah, yeah, I haven't upgraded that yet) found it quite accurate, although it was a smidge cooler with the default 6500K with Gamma 2.2 setting. A quick calibration fixed that and brought the sRGB level to full coverage, 87% DCI-P3 and 82% Adobe RGB. For comparison, the Philips' DCI-P3 and Adobe values are about 6% higher than the $300-ish Asus Proart PA278QV. So for most color work, it's very good. (If you need higher percentages, you're in the wrong price bracket). Don't forget to install the drivers from Philips' website, along with SmartControl (yes, it's actually useful - you can do all the monitor adjustments from Windows so you don't have to reach around back to use the joystick). After calibration, there's a tiny bit of saturation in the reds, but it's not super obvious and it makes for a very pleasant image that pops, but it's not over the top and unrealistic. The panel coloring is pretty even, although I can tell it's a tiny bit cooler on the far left than the far right side, but I have to really look for it. For this price point, it's stellar.The stand is surprisingly rock solid and heavy. Making adjustments is easy and it feels very sturdy. I was pleased to see the monitor had vertical adjustment, going as low as 1" above from the desk surface. Vertical and tilt adjustments were solid and I really like the stand, but it is a bit bulky so I mounted it to the wall with a standard 100mm VESA. Overall construction is very solid, even if it's mostly plastic. Philips didn't skimp on the important things like durability. My only gripe (and it's minor) is the lack of an integrated power supply. But, as a result, the back of the monitor is very thin, so there is at least an aesthetic gain from this design decision. The cord for the AC adapter is long enough to hide it out of sight.While it came with an HDMI cable, I used a DisplayPort cable and Windows 11 recognized it instantly and even adjusted the scaling to a recommended 150%. With this setting, this monitor is a Goldilocks size, with very sharp, readable text and a lot of space to work with. For me, the boost from a 1080 monitor to 4K was fantastic. My only regret is that I didn't make the switch sooner. Everything is so much sharper and easier on my eyes, especially if you do a lot of reading/typing. If you're on the fence, definitely consider this monitor. As to long term, I hope it lasts, but from what I paid, it's about half of what I was expecting to pay for a decently color-balanced monitor with 4K. Go for it!1/23 Update - Still going strong 7 months later and no regrets or new annoyances!

The media could not be loaded. After spending time researching what the best budget monitor could be to pair with my MacBook Pro, I stumbled upon this guy. I was initially surprised by the price and amount of positive reviews, so I bought it, and I have only been impressed since using it.I bought this monitor to use mainly for graphic design work and I can say it very much works well for this purpose. Before I was using a 1080p monitor with lackluster colors and contrast, and I found myself avoiding using it for anything besides notes and work calls. The Phillips monitor on the other hand feels like a close enough match to the quality of my MacBook Pro display that I can actually work on graphic elements on it and be able to trust their accuracy - I usually still double check any design on the MBP display before sending it off to a client, but the extra real estate is still definitely a win especially for working on projects over extended periods of time.I included a video and some images to show how this monitor compares to the MBP display; hopefully these speak for themselves as far as brightness, contrast, blacks, color brilliance, sharpness/clarity, anti-glare coating, and fluidity of motion are concerned.Highly recommend the purchase! It was the best budget option I could find. Now if only they would make this with a glass screen instead of the anti-glare 😏PS:I have to agree with what others have been saying about the screen controls being hard to use. Every time I open this menu I found myself fumbling around in it. About the only real con I have though!05/23 Update:I ran into a problem with the monitor where nearly every time I plugged it into my MacBook Pro the MacBook would completely freeze and need to be hard shut down to continue to work on it. Luckily this was not a problem with the monitor itself, but rather a problem with the Elgato adapter/the MacBook’s ability to handle this connection. I googled around and it turns out ever since a certain MacOS update a few years ago, certain connections cause MBPs to have a kernel panic. Ridiculous, but for me switching to a USB-C to HDMI cable solved any problems I was having.

Color is a little different than my samsung 4K monitor. It is a little gray-ish color was not super vivid, quality was good, super light, have eye protect function which is great, I use it for video game, so it is kind of wreid.