With the continuous enrichment of video and creative content, players are increasingly demanding the display effect of the monitor. The color gamut, color accuracy, brightness, contrast and other parameters of the display have become the focus of attention when players choose to buy a monitor. Under this market demand, traditional LCD panels with LED backlighting have become increasingly difficult to meet the needs of high-end players. With the gradual maturity of the panel process, some brands have taken the lead in bringing OLED panel displays into a relatively reasonable price range, that is, the Philips 27E1N8900 4K OLED display that we are going to evaluate today.
In the battle of high-end panels, OLED has outstanding advantages
When video content gradually replaces traditional text content to become the mainstream of Internet content, players have also begun to pursue the realism of picture color, while HDR content has gradually increased, and wider color gamut coverage, more accurate color accuracy and higher brightness contrast have also become essential options. Higher demands have also begun to be placed on displays. After the high-end mobile phones took the lead in popularizing OLED panels, high-end notebooks also began to be equipped with OLED panel displays. Nowadays, OLED panels have finally begun to enter the field of displays, and have begun to compete head-on with traditional LED backlit LCD panels and emerging MiniLED backlit LCD panels in the high-end market.
OLED panels and LCD panels are very different in structure
OLED panel using self-light emitting diode material, compared to LCD panel in the circuit structure is much simpler, especially it no longer needs the LCD panel necessary backlight layer, so the overall is more thin and light. Because of this, when displaying the black picture, the pixels of the OLED panel are closed, theoretically can achieve infinitely high contrast, the overall color saturation is higher, and the display will appear purer and more delicate. Because the LCD panel has a backlight layer, the backlight still needs to be turned on when displaying black, so it will cause the black to be black enough, so it cannot provide high contrast. Even if you use partition light control technology or use MiniLED backlight, but due to the number of partitions, glow effect and other issues, it is still impossible to achieve black performance. In addition, high-resolution LCD panels equipped with partition light control technology or MineLED backlight are difficult to control well as the cost of the number of partitions rises, and can only be applied to high-end product lines.
In addition, because the OLED panel uses a combination of red, green and blue light-emitting diodes, unlike the LCD panel, which uses a hierarchical structure to emit light, the light emitted is closer to natural light, and it can also reduce short-wave blue light to a certain extent and avoid blue light hazards. And due to the difference in driving mode, the OLED panel in the response delay performance is also very good, can easily achieve a response time of less than 1ms, LCD panel is currently difficult to do this.
Of course, players' concerns about OLED mainly come from the "burn-in" problem. With the continuous development of technology, the life of OLED panels has been greatly improved, manufacturers also use a variety of ways to eliminate residual shadows such as pixel automatic displacement to solve the "burning screen" problem, normal daily applications do not have to worry too much.
Classic design, rich interface
Philips 27E1N8900 has an elegant shape, inheriting the classic IF design award style of 279C9, and has a strong family atmosphere. The front has no decoration except the Philips LOGO, and it is plain and clean. The back adopts the familiar streamlined curved design, and the interface part is placed in the middle, realizing the beauty of left and right symmetry, and with the drawing process, it shows a delicate texture.
The bracket part also adopts a minimalist design style, the seemingly slender cylindrical bracket support rod is solidly made, the weight is very sufficient, and a small cable card is designed on the bracket to facilitate the player to better store the wire. The regular square base is cleverly designed with a circular cutout that combines frosted and brushed textures to create a full layering.
When you adjust the position of the display panel left and right, the circular panel of the base rotates with it, which is quite ritualistic. The base also comes with certain storage properties, which is more practical. The display bracket also has an ergonomic adjustment function, which can achieve 90 ° vertical rotation, 0 ~ 130mm high and low lift, ± 175 ° left and right rotation and -5 ° ~ 20 ° tilt angle adjustment, the player can better adjust to their own suitable position.
In terms of interfaces, philips 27E1N8900 has 2 HDMI2.0 interfaces, 1 DP1.4 interface, 1 Type-C interface, 4 USB interfaces (two yellow USB interfaces support fast charging) and 1 3.5mm audio interface, which is convenient for players to connect multiple input sources. Among them, the Type-C interface is a full-featured Type-C interface, in addition to supporting video and data transmission, it also supports 90W PD charging, and can also provide upstream data transmission functions for 4 USB interfaces, so as to achieve KVM switching between notebooks, computers and mobile devices, bringing a more convenient experience.
Wide color gamut 4K OLED panel, very high quality
The panel is the soul of the display, and the most eye-catching philips 27E1N8900 is the panel it carries. It is equipped with an original OLED panel from JOLED in Japan, and its specific model can be seen from the engineering mode as EPM269Q014A, which is a 26.9-inch 4K (3840×2160) resolution OLED panel with a refresh rate of 60Hz. It boasts native 10-bit color depth and extremely high color space, with a color gamut covering 99% Adobe RGB, 99% DCI-P3, 100% sRGB, and 79% Rec.2020, Delta E
The panel adopts a vertical RGB arrangement, and the display effect is better
With the advantages of OLED panels, the static contrast ratio of the display can reach 1,000,000:1, the brightness of all white is 250cd/㎡, and the peak brightness of HDR is 540cd/㎡. The response time is only 0.1 milliseconds, and there is almost no smearing. In addition, the OLED panel created by JOLED uses RGB arrangement, and the display effect is also guaranteed. From the macro shooting screen, the panel adopts the same vertical RGB arrangement as the LCD, so the display effect of text and other content will have the same performance as the LCD, and the overall look and feel is good. At the same time, we can also see that the area of its blue pixels is about twice that of the red and green pixels, which is because the attenuation period of the blue organic material is shorter, an improvement in order to extend the overall lifespan.
From the perspective of panel specifications, the performance of Philips 27E1N8900 is very eye-catching, and the performance of color depth, color gamut and color accuracy alone is enough to surpass many professional displays at the same price, which can be regarded as a great weapon for creators. Let's take a look at the actual test performance.
Displays can switch between multiple mainstream color spaces
Philips 27E1N8900 can be switched in the NTSC, sRGB, AdobeRGB, DCI-P3, Rec.2020, Rec.709 and D-mode color spaces, and the corresponding color gamut limits have been made, and we have tested the most commonly used sRGB, AdobeRGB, dcI-P3 for everyone.2020. Let the monitor work for an hour to warm up before starting the test, and then test it with the SpyderX Elite color adjuster.
In the sRGB color space, the monitor was tested with a gamut of 99% sRGB, a maximum chromatic aberration of 5.73 and a minimum of 0.07, and an average chromatic aberration ΔE of only 0.64. In the AdobeRGB color space, the monitor was tested with a 97% color gamut of AdobeRGB, a maximum chromatic aberration of 2.34 and a minimum of 0.18, and an average chromatic aberration ΔE of only 0.84. In the DCI-P3 color space, the color gamut of the monitor was 97% DCI-P3, the maximum chromatic aberration was 1.96, the minimum was 0.13, and the average chromatic aberration ΔE was only 0.71.
Considering the test error of the instrument, this color gamut performance has been very exaggerated, and the color accuracy is very excellent. In addition, it is commendable that although it has a very high wide color gamut coverage, even if the Adobe RGB and DCI-P3 color spaces are selected, the Philips 27E1N8900 does not appear in the very oversaturated color performance of the traditional LCD panel using quantum dot technology, which looks very good.
In addition, due to the limitations of test instruments, we cannot test the performance of rec.2020 color space for the time being, but what we need to know is that Rec.2020 is a very wide color space, and the display that can reach more than 70% rec.2020 is relatively small, and the performance of Philips 27E1N8900 can reach 79% Rec.2020 is already very good.
In terms of brightness testing, the global SDR white brightness of the Philips 27E1N8900 is up to 253.8nit, which is consistent with the official propaganda. Of course, at first glance, this brightness value is not prominent compared with the traditional LCD panel, in fact, this is because of the physical limitations of the OLED material and the protection mechanism of the material itself, the global SDR white brightness of the OLED panel is mostly only about 200nit, and some larger screen models (such as televisions) are even less than 200nit.
The monitor has a variety of HDR modes such as video and video, games, etc., and of course, there is also a standard DisplayHDR TRUE BLACK 400 mode. In this mode, HDR brightness test is carried out, and the small range of white brightness can reach about 530nit, because the maximum brightness of the OLED panel is related to the size of the white display area, so the test results are consistent with the official propaganda. With the characteristics of OLED black not emitting light, when displaying HDR pictures, there is a pure black field and extremely high contrast, and the display effect is better than many HDR600 certified LCD displays. In addition, when the monitor is connected to the PS5 game console, it is no problem to turn on 4K/60Hz/422/HDR.
The white point of Philips 27E1N8900 is near 6600K~6700K, which is closer to the D65 standard and performs better. The tone response curve of the monitor and Gamma2.2 are very compatible and perform well. OLED also has a natural advantage in terms of screen brightness uniformity, so we can see that at 50% brightness, the maximum brightness error is only 4%, and the performance is relatively good.
Feature-rich with fast charging, KVM switching is more convenient
The OSD menu of the Philips 27E1N8900 is rich in functions, clear in logic, and there are more customizable items, so that players can easily adjust the required functions. In response to the possible image endimation problem of oled panels, the monitor is equipped with three technologies: automatic pixel displacement, Screen saver and Smart brightness Limiter to avoid the "burn screen" problem.
Among them, the pixel automatic displacement function allows the display to automatically refresh the pixel position, avoiding staying on the same screen for a long time. Screen saver can automatically reduce the brightness to extend the life when the picture does not change, the default is 10 minutes. The Smart brightness Limiter automatically adjusts the brightness of the screen according to the ratio of the area occupied by the bright field (white screen). With these three technical blessings, it can greatly extend the life of the panel and reduce the player's worries about the OLED screen.
Since the Type-C interface of the monitor is a full-featured Type-C interface and supports 90W PD charging, most of the notebooks on the market that support PD charging only need to use the included Type-C cable to connect the monitor to charge the display at the same time, reducing the cable and making the desktop more tidy. In addition, mobile phones that support video output (DP Alt mode) (such as Huawei P series/Mate series, Samsung S series, Xiaomi MIX series, etc.) can also directly output video to the display through the Type-C video cable, which is very convenient. When using the Huawei Mate40 Pro to connect to the monitor, it can also smoothly turn on the computer mode of the mobile phone.
Rich interface plus KVM function, you can use a set of keyboard and mouse to control 2 devices
Philips 27E1N8900 also integrates a KVM switch, connect the keyboard and mouse on the USB interface of the display, and connect 2 computer hosts or computer hosts/notebooks with USB-C interface and USB upstream interface, you can control two computer devices through this monitor and a set of keyboards and mice, and you can easily switch control objects with one key, which is very friendly to users with this demand. In addition, the monitor also supports PIP display, which can directly present 2 input sources on the monitor at the same time, which is very convenient.
It also features a SmartSize feature that simulates different scale displays from 17 inches to 27 inches, rendered in the middle of the display, and blackened the excess area. Due to the fact that OLED black does not emit light, this function is closer to the real effect and the experience is better. It can be very convenient for players with relevant needs.
The OLED panel itself has less short-wave blue light, and the Philips 27E1N8900 has also added a low blue light mode, and players can further choose to achieve better eye protection effects. In addition, it also has a variety of preset image modes to choose from, including easyRead e-paper book reading mode for office users, after the OSD menu is turned on, the display will present a paper-like black and white display mode, which can effectively reduce the stimulation of long-term viewing color on the eyes, bring a more comfortable text reading experience, and make it easier to perform document operations.
Summary: The first shot at the cost performance of high-quality OLED displays
From the overall test, we were very impressed by the Philips 27E1N8900. Under the advantage of oled panels compared to LCD panels, the comparison between the two does not seem to be of much significance. As a very rare 27-inch, 4K resolution, OLED panel display, Philips 27E1N8900 is equipped with JOLED original panel, with native 10bit color depth and extremely high color gamut coverage, while having a good color gamut limit reduction adjustment, the average color difference in the mainstream color space can be less than 1 high level. Whether it is in daily use/ web browsing / Internet content production (sRGB color gamut), image publishing and printing (Adobe RGB color gamut), digital video viewing and production / games / Mac product use (DCI-P3 color gamut) and wide color gamut HDR video production (BT.2020 color gamut) can bring a very good experience. It also has DisplayHDR TRUE BLACK 400 certification, and the almost unlimited black field can bring a very good HDR video viewing experience. Extremely low response time, even on fast-moving screens (e.g. playing games, watching action movies), there will be no ghosting, the experience is very good.
In terms of functions, the display also performs relatively well, and the addition of rich interfaces and KVM functions brings more gameplay and convenience. Supporting up to 90W PD fast charging can also be more convenient for players to use. It is worth mentioning that the monitor has a complete anti-residual technology, and is the same as Philips LCD monitor is a three-year warranty, reducing the player's worries about OLED displays.
In addition, according to our understanding, the listing price of Philips 27E1N8900 is only 6999 yuan, although in the eyes of many players this is not cheap, but look at the other competitor professional display that uses the same series of screens as it is as high as 29999 yuan (and only one year warranty), it can be regarded as the first shot that directly fired the cost performance of high-quality OLED monitors, and the listing will pull the high-end but expensive OLED monitor directly to a relatively reasonable price. For users with professional creative design needs, HDR video production, HDR movie viewing and other needs, it undoubtedly has great attraction.