Philips 49B2U6900CH review: the monitor that lives to work

Super Ultrawide monitors, or Superwide if you will, are a blessing for the office. Combining two 1440p displays into one, it gives you just as much screen space with half the power supplies, half the stands, and no intrusive central bezel. Philips 49B2U6900CH is the latest to tackle the form factor, and it’s more than a little familiar.

If you’ve ever seen Philips 49B2U5900CH, then the equally catchy-named 49B2U6900CH might seem like deja vu. It packs all the same features, including a 5120×1440 resolution on top of a 49in 1,800R curved VA panel that pushes a 75Hz refresh rate. But hey, why fix what’s not broken? Just bolster connectivity and call it a day.

Its £959.99 price tag is just a tenner more than its predecessor’s MSRP, but 49B2U5900CH is partial to discounts. Pair that with the rapidly evolving market, and it begs the question of whether the latest monitor is worth it. Fortunately, Philips boasts some unique features that set it apart from its competitors.

Ports and features

Philips 49B2U6900CH has just about every port you’ll need throughout the workday. For video, there’s the usual DisplayPort 1.4, two HDMI 2.0 ports, and even two USB Type-C ports with DP Alt mode. Hook up your laptop, and the latter will charge the device with 100W power delivery.

Adding a layer of convenience, both Type-C ports are upstreams that connect to a built-in KVM switch. Essentially, you can control up to two systems with one set of peripherals. All it takes is the push of the User button to switch between them.

Anything you connect to the four USB Type-A ports, a 2.5G Ethernet, 3.5mm audio jack, or separate Type-C downstream feeds into your monitor before flowing into your PC or laptop. Better yet, two of the Type-A ports are side-mounted for easy access, and one has fast charging capabilities. It’s an absolute lifesaver for when I’m faffing about with my camera, portable SSDs, or just need to juice up my phone.

Even though this is one single entity, you can treat it like it’s two separate monitors. Picture-by-picture lets you see a 1440p window of each system side-by-side, creating an ideal workflow. Picture-in-picture, on the other hand, lays one screen over the other in a smaller window. Considering you can do all this with just two cables is mighty impressive, ditching the spaghetti situations of old.

One thing you can count on with Philips is a good stand. Built using solid metal with rubberised feet to stop it budging, there’s great cable management through the centre. You can lift it up 150mm high, swivel it between -/+30°, and tilt it around -5/15°. There’s no pivot function here, but you probably won’t want to swing the massive screen around much anyway.

I’m a big fan of this tool-less push, simply clipping the screen on without a screw in sight. It’s incredibly straightforward and even sways me away from my preference of mounting monitors. You still have the option to fit it to the wall or a clamp with VESA 100×100 support, provided you can find an arm strong enough to hold this behemoth.

The same quality is reflected in the display itself. There’s a good amount of plastic, but none of it feels cheap. Some might take issue with the larger 24mm chin or slightly thicker bezels but that’s part and parcel with monitors of this size. Similarly, there’s a little bit of wobble when using the on-screen display (OSD) buttons that’s practically unavoidable, given the width.

All work, no play

The 75Hz refresh rate and lengthy 4ms grey-to-grey response time drive home that this isn’t a gaming monitor. It’ll still serve you just fine playing single-player games like Horizon Zero Dawn since it’s slightly faster than your average 60Hz, sports unbranded adaptive sync, and even has DisplayHDR 400 certification, but there are better options out there. Take LG UltraGear 49GR85DC-B, for instance, which packs 240Hz, 1ms GtG response time, and DisplayHDR 1000 for the same price.

Instead, Philips 49B2U6900CH stands out with its array of office-based features, led by a built-in webcam. The 5MP lens is hidden beneath the display to remain discrete when not in use. It supports Windows Hello facial recognition, shoots in 1080p at 30fps, and even flaunts a noise-cancelling microphone for all-in-one videoconferencing.

I initially feared a fixed webcam would lack the versatility of a free-standing one, but Philips has you covered. You can tilt it towards or away from you -/+30°. You’ll still need to be mindful of where you sit, though, as it can’t pivot left or right. Autoframing is on hand to help you get a better position, but it can’t work miracles if you’re not close to the centre.

Your webcam’s performance will always depend on your internet connection and what service you use it with. The native quality is top-notch, though, and I had some compliments when using it with Discord. Microphone clarity could be better as it sounds a little like you’re underwater. This is the active noise-cancelling working overtime so that you don’t hear the clatter of keyboards or uproar of a full office. It’s probably the lesser of two evils here, and you can still make out every word just fine.

Standing tall over the monitor, there’s an LED atop the webcam that Philips calls a Busylight. It shines bright red to indicate to everyone in the office that you’re unavailable, whether you’re in a meeting, want some focus time, or just fancy being antisocial. Part of me wishes this existed back before I took the work-from-home plunge. Still, it’s useful in a digital capacity as you can link it to Microsoft Teams. One press of the button on the left side of your monitor and your profile is set to busy.

Rounding off a rather robust feature set is a spring-loaded headphone hook to store your cans when you’re not using them and dual 5W speakers. They sound a little tinny but will help in a pinch if you don’t have a dedicated soundbar or audio monitor. The default 80% volume is a touch loud, though. Things start to get distorted after the 70% mark, and it’s not worth going any higher.

Performance

Colour credentials

Philips 49B2U6900CH has impeccable colour accuracy, with its 0.86 Delta-E far surpassing the sub-2 score the brand aims for. We consider anything under 1.0 ideal, and this finds itself surrounded by OLEDs and professional monitors.

Gamut coverage leaves something to be desired, as 82% AdobeRGB and 86% DCI-P3 is the lowest we’ve tested so far. Part of the reason might be that the specs focus on sRGB and NTSC instead. Regardless, it doesn’t ruin the user experience as colours are still punchy.

Brightness and contrast

Once again, a peak 482nits brightness comfortably eclipses the official rating and is more than enough to perform in a well-lit room. Unfortunately, it sports a similarly luminous minimum brightness. Generally, I’d always recommend flicking a light on when you work or play because it’s better for your eyes, but this is something to keep in mind.

There isn’t a great deal of difference between the black level of most monitors unless you go with OLED’s perfect blacks. While Philips 49B2U6900CH is in the middle of the stack here, a range of 0.05cd/m² to 0.17cd/m² is above average for a VA panel.

The contrast ratio falls short of Philips’ official specs, but it’s not a bad showing. In fact, it’s one of the most consistent monitors in our labs, with little difference between the minimum and maximum.

Uniformity and efficiency

The bigger the display, the harder it is to achieve consistency from end to end. With a whopping 49in, it outstrips all expectations with fantastic colour uniformity. Luminous uniformity hits our preferred 10% limit in the bottom-right corner but otherwise maintains its brightness well throughout.

Considering this is 10in larger than Philips Business 40B1U693CH, it’s pretty darn efficient with a lower minimum and a maximum that’s on par. It’s also a great showcase of just how hungry different panel technologies are. A 49in VA, such as this one, consumes just 70W of power, which is half that of an OLED at the same size – just look at our Gigabyte Aorus CO49DQ review.

This doesn’t even consider how much electric PowerSensor saves. This feature detects when you’ve left your station and automatically dims the display to conserve energy.

Conclusion

There are few better-connected monitors than Philips 49B2U6900CH. It features one of the most robust USB hubs, putting other integrated KVM switches to shame. The added flair of a Busylight is an employee’s best friend that can save you countless hours of interruptions. I’d recommend this if you’re buying displays for an office, regularly work with multiple systems, or need more than two USB ports. After all, a £50 premium for the connectivity you get over 49B2U5900CH is worth it.

If you’re in the market for your personal home office and intend to play games, however, then that changes things. LG UltraGear 49GR85DC-B on Amazon lacks speakers, drops inputs down to just two USB ports, and doesn’t have a built-in webcam, but it gives a rounder visual experience with a higher refresh rate and DisplayHDR 1000. It just depends on what your needs are.

Since Philips 49B2U6900CH is available on Amazon, why not give it a try for yourself? The retailer offers a 30-day return window, no questions asked. If you’re not happy, just open a support ticket, the good folks on the other end will send someone to collect it, and you’ll get a full refund.

Philips 49B2U6900CH

Verdict: a workaholic’s Super Ultrawide monitor with just about everything you could need in an office.