Remember the lush Philips 5K monitor we first saw a few months ago? Well, it’s now officially known as the Brilliance 27E3U7903 and launching later this month priced at £849.
If the screen looks somewhat familiar, it’s because Philips has clearly taken design cues from Apple’s 27in Studio Display. That’s no bad thing, mind, as it’s a great-looking piece of kit and a lush addition to any professional workspace.
Much like the Apple offering, the Philips Brilliance 27E3U7903 touts a sharp 5K resolution and versatile Thunderbolt connectivity for pro users. Thanks to its clean and refined design, the Brilliance will become the centrepiece of your desk, the company says, with strong specs to back its looks. If you were smitten with Apple’s Studio Display but didn’t feel like paying up to £1,749, this may be the alternative you’ve been waiting for.
The Brilliance 27E3U7903 is a 27in monitor based on a 5K (5120×2880) IPS panel, boasting a 218 PPI pixel density. This makes it ideal for professionals requiring high-detail visuals for tasks such as 3D modelling and filmmaking. The 27E3U7903 is built to display in the most accurate way thanks to its calibrated colours and premium anti-reflection glass that is said to reduce glare without impacting clarity.
Philips advertises support for up to 99.5% of the Adobe RGB, 99% of the DCI-P3, and 99% of the sRGB colour gamuts, putting even the best traditional displays to shame. Better yet, when the time comes for recalibration, the display is Calman Ready, making calibration fast and easy so you can get back to work quickly. Whether you do colour grading, editing, designing, or animation, you can be sure that your colours are as accurate as possible. All of this, while maintaining a comfortable viewing experience using Eyesafe certified blue light protection film that doesn’t degrade colour accuracy.
Though not the highest rating, the Brilliance 27E3U7903 also carries a DisplayHDR 600 certification, indicating better-than-average contrast and vibrant highlights. In these metrics, Philips claims 2,000:1 contrast and 500-nit brightness, augmented by local dimming, which are perfectly fine for most uses, though just not to the level of OLED-based monitors.
Like any respectable professional display, the 27E3U7903 also comes with the usual suite of handy features, including a Picture-by-Picture (PbP) mode for the multitaskers out there, a presence detector to save energy when the user is away, and a 5MP Windows Hello-ready webcam for easy login. The latter is always a welcome addition in my book, and Philips’ implementation includes a microphone plus auto-framing.
Gamers of course aren’t the target audience, as evidenced by a standard 70Hz refresh rate. Yet when it comes to getting work done, I’d love to have something like this on my desk, attached to and charging my laptop via a single cable, all while sharing wired network accede through the integrated LAN port.
Speaking of connectivity, the Brilliance 27E3U7903 is equipped with one HDMI 2.1, a three-port USB hub that goes hand in hand with the built-in KVM switch, 1GbE LAN, a headphone jack, plus two Thunderbolt 4 ports. These support video input, 96W power delivery, and multiple monitors through daisy chaining. A dual 5W speaker setup is also at hand for basic audio duties.
Lastly, in terms of ergonomics, you will find 360° swivel, 90° pivot, from -5° to 20° tilt, and 150mm height adjustments, courtesy of the SmartErgoBase.
The Philips Brilliance 27E3U7903 will be available from early September at £849 MSRP.
