Philips Momentum 27M1N5500 review: 170Hz for flawless response

By default, this Philips monitor provides excellent image quality. Color temperature and gamma curves are stable across the spectrum. Gamma measured at 2.2 is consistent with the reference value, resulting in perfectly reproduced gray levels, while the average color temperature measured at 6340 K is very close to the reference value for standard video (6500 K).

Also, the colors are perfect. As a guide, delta E averages a peak of 2.6, less than 3, which is the threshold below which the eye no longer perceives chromatic drifts. By lowering the screen brightness to 41 to get a white close to 150 cd/m², the image quality remains the same. This display is good enough to not have to calibrate the screen.

The screen obviously covers 100% of the standard sRGB color space and also goes up to 95% of DCI-P3, which is the color space primarily used by Ultra HD content (movies and TV series). This screen is also HDR compatible, but the low contrast associated with limited peak brightness (319 cd/m²) clearly limits HDR’s interest.

We measured only 675:1 contrast, which is a very low value for the IPS model. In comparison, the contrast between the best IPS screens likeAsus VG27AQ Exceeds 1200:1, when the vast majority already display a native contrast of 1000:1. On screen, this low contrast results in dull blacks that appear gray. This is not too dangerous to use in broad daylight, but it does have an effect in the dark and in dark scenes that are systematically overexposed.

The difference in white smoothing averages 6% on the 27-inch panel, and can be reduced to 1% by activating the mode Smart Consolidation. Thus there is no difference in the perceived brightness of the eye. We didn’t notice any light leaks around the corners or any of them the clouds (“cloud effect”) in our test form. IPS technology also provides very good viewing angles, with very little difference in angles.