Dual Resolution Gaming Monitor – Philips 27M2N5901A 4K 160Hz / 1080p 320Hz Review

This is the Philips EVNIA 27M2N5901A, the Philips version of the AOC U27G4R, the miracle dual resolution and refresh rate display. This bad boy offers either a 4K 160 Hz 27 inch FastIPS panel, OR a 1080p 320Hz panel. This sure sounds like a ‘have-your-cake-and-eat-it-too’ type deal, doesn’t it? Well as always I have some key bits of information you’ll want to know before pulling the trigger on one of these things, so let’s dive straight in, starting with a tour.

Physically, this follows Philips’ EVNIA aesthetic perfectly, with partially recycled plastic feet, a sleek white and silver design, and of course from the back their signature square styling. The key thing Philips offers over, well, everyone else is Ambiglow. That is a collection of RGB LEDs that are arranged around the perimeter of the backing, which can just give you some rainbows on your wall, but more likely you’ll want them to ‘follow video’, helping to extend what you’ve got on your screen for a more immersive experience. Of course that only really works if the monitor is up against a wall with no other displays around it, but if that fits you, the option is there.

Of course the stand itself is fully adjustable, in height, tilt and swivel, plus rotation into portrait mode in both directions. Not sure who that’s for, but the option is there. When it comes to the IO, that is two HDMIs, on DisplayPort, and a USB C port, plus a two port USB 3 hub with the yellow port for charging. The on screen menu is controlled with a joystick style switch on the back, and has all the settings you’d expect – picture modes, game settings, the works. Overdrive is off by default – WHY PHILIPS? WHY?? – although as we’ll see shortly, these four options are pretty key to your experience with this thing. To make the resolution and refresh rate thing work, you need to change the mode in the menu. It’s a clunky experience for something that is nominally meant to be a regular occurrence. Oh, and you do have both adaptive sync, and a backlight strobing mode that in theory works with adaptive sync (there’s actually two versions, the regular and ‘sync’ versions). We’ll be coming back to that in a second too.

At first glance, well my first impression was, “damn, I’m spoiled by OLEDs”, because this just looks washed out and flat by comparison. That’s not to say it doesn’t look good – and it’s for sure brighter than the OLEDs I’ve been testing, but it doesn’t pop quite as well. Still, it looks pretty good – certainly sharp – and the colours (once you adjust to the lack of contrast anyway) do look good enough. To put some numbers to those words, my SpyderX2 reports over 450 nits of peak brightness (that’s over 50 more than the AOC version), and a contrast ratio of around 1100:1. Colour gamut coverage is decent at 90% of DCI P3 and 66% of Rec2020 – although not amazing. Even the budget OLEDs I checked out recently are 99% P3 and 83% Rec2020. As for accuracy, that is great with an average DeltaE of 0.93. Happily that accuracy was actually confirmed at the factory – Philips and AOC include factory calibration reports in the box which I really like to see. 

As for the response times, well that’s where this gets interesting. At 4K with overdrive off – the inane default settings, mind you – you get a pretty poor experience. It averaged 7.8 milliseconds, when the frame time is 6.25 milliseconds. Only 40 percent of the transitions fit within the refresh rate window, so yeah, kinda naff. Setting overdrive to the first setting, “Fast”, you do drop that average below the refresh rate window – huzzah! It still isn’t perfect, but it’s better. “Faster” drops it another millisecond (this is the mode to choose by the way), with only minimal overshoot that’s so insignificant, I have to question WHY THIS ISN’T THE DEFAULT MODE. Sorry, I’m hoping they get my VERY SUBTLE MESSAGING… “Fastest” though, I wouldn’t touch that. It doesn’t drop the average initial response time by much, but actually increases the perceived time thanks to the somewhat unpleasant overshoot. So yeah, ‘Faster’ is the way to go.

Of course, that’s at 4K160, what about 1080p320? Well skipping over off because it’s pointless, unsurprisingly the same panel that could only just about match a 160Hz refresh rate window can’t come close to a 320Hz window. Amazingly, “Faster” offers no overshoot at all, showing it is not driving the panel anywhere near hard enough. The average only comes down by 0.3 milliseconds, and still over two milliseconds above the refresh rate window on average. Yikes. “Fastest” ALSO has functionally no overshoot, so I have to ask… Philips, what are you doing here? This monitor cannot hit the faster refresh rate window, and since there’s no overshoot here, clearly this mode has room to push the panel harder. At least with this firmware version, the “Fastest” mode is best for the 1080p320 mode, although that’s another thing you’ll need to change in the menu which is annoying. 

At least on the latency front it’s spot on – both modes offer half their refresh rates for latency which is exactly what you want to see. I also cracked out the live view mode of my open source response time tool (available at OSRTT.com by the way) to measure the dead time on the backlight strobing mode, and interestingly it was on for the majority of the frame time – 2.2 milliseconds on, 1 millisecond off. That means the MPRT time is actually 2.2 milliseconds, at least at 1080p320 with the adaptive sync version of the mode anyway. Interesting. 

For actually gaming on it, it’s a decent enough time for sure. The panel isn’t nearly as smooth or crisp as the OLEDs I’ve, again, been spoiled with, but it’s decent. In theory the benefit this thing offers is that you can be clicking on heads all day in something like Siege, running at 1080p and 320Hz, then when you want a more relaxing, scenic jaunt, you can swap back to 4K160 and have a crisp and still plenty smooth drive through the forest in Dirt Rally 2.0. Personally, I find a 1440p display tends to sit in that middle ground already – no switching modes needed – but hey, if you really want to sweat on CS or something at 1080p320, then chill with a scenic game at 4K, this definitely can offer that.

Of course the price makes a difference here, and that’s where these things just blow my mind. This 27 inch 4K 160 Hz IPS display – which not long ago was hundreds, or even thousands – is just £270. AND you essentially get a second more esports display built in. That’s phenomenal! Of course, if you don’t mind a more traditional gamer styling, and can do without the Ambiglow, AOC’s version, the U27G4R, is even cheaper, currently available for just £220. That is insane. Personally, I’d rather spend a bit more on a 1440p OLED instead – there are a lot of options now that aren’t allllll that much more money – but that’s me. Let me know what you think in the comments below!