Philips has just released a 240Hz monitor that can overclock to 260Hz, and it’s aimed at gamers on tight budgets. With a price of just £139 the Philips Evnia 27M2N3291PL/01 not only gives you a fast refresh rate, but you also get a 27in screen, as well as some clever tech to minimise motion blur in fast action.
The latter comes courtesy of Philips’ Smart MBR (Motion Blur Reduction) system, which strobes the monitor’s backlight in sync with the refresh rate, with Philips claiming it has an effective 0.3ms response time. According to Philips, Smart MBR “the monitor effectively eliminates blurring and ghosting, providing the sharpest possible images during fast-paced transitions.” It’s very similar to Asus’ ELMB tech, which we’ve found works remarkably well at reducing ghosting artefacts.
Meanwhile, the Fast IPS panel installed in this display has a FHD 1920×1080 resolution. That means pixels are going to look comparatively chunky on this 27in screen, compared to a 2560×1440 resolution. On the plus side, though, you won’t need to buy an enormously powerful GPU to play your games at native resolution on this screen.
It’s all clad in an attractive white shell, meaning this monitor will fit right in with a snowy-coloured PC gaming setup. There’s no tacky gamer styling either, with Philips instead going for a classier, minimalist look.
However, bear in mind that this isn’t a QD-OLED screen, despite what it says on the image in the Amazon listing. That’s no surprise, given the very low price. Its Fast IPS panel should do the job nicely, though. IPS panels are generally much more responsive than rival VA models, which is what you want when it comes to fast action.
Other bonuses include Adaptive-Sync support, to eliminate tearing artefacts, and you also get both DisplayPort 1.4 and HDMI 2.0 inputs, so you can hook up a console as well as your PC.
The Philips Evnia 27M2N3291PL/01 is available to buy now from Amazon in the UK for £139. If you’re thinking of buying a new screen, check out our guide to buying the best gaming monitor to see all our top recommendations.
