The Philips Evnia 49M2C8900 is one and a half meters of glorious image quality, thanks to the vivid contrast, fast response times and excellent HDR.
Due to the Philips Evnia 49M2C8900 review, Joël now squints permanently, and he wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.
For years, OLED televisions have been treating fanatics to high-quality, vibrant images. The risk of burn-in was so high that manufacturers did not want to touch it – sorry – for PC gaming. Until now. OLED has arrived and brings a viewing experience that you cannot match with a VA or IPS panel. This especially applies to the Philips Evnia 49M2C8900. There’s no denying that this is the ultimate gaming experience. Figuratively and literally, because with its 49-inch ‘super ultrawide’ format, this is a home theater for your desk.
Besides its dimensions, the funky design is the first thing you notice about the monitor. The panel is surrounded by a stylish, metal-colored edge. This edge is pleasantly thin on the top and sides. However, the split vertical part looks like an object straight from the hardware store. The V-shaped base deviates even more from the gamer norm. It is white speckled with light blue, as you sometimes saw on public transport in the 90s. Despite the brutal looks of the base, the monitor stands a maximum of 17 cm above your desk. Overall, it’s a polarizing monitor design. At the very least, it’s quirky and futuristically retro, although the mediocre height adjustment remains harsh.
The biggest problem with this monitor is that the image quality is so sublime that you will never want anything else. With OLED, each pixel is its own light zone, which can dim and light up individually. The result? An overwhelming contrast and therefore very vivid images. Furthermore, the Evnia is a QD-OLED, with corresponding advantages and disadvantages. The only disadvantage is that the black on a QD-OLED looks slightly grayer with a lot of outside light. The advantage is that due to Quantum Dot (and unlike WOLED) the panel does not have a white subpixel. This means you are looking at full, saturated colours. However, you do not get many settings there. In addition to the color temperature, you only turn the SRGB on or off. With SRGB off, it’s like looking at beautiful HDR images that look best in your average dungeon. For productivity work or a competitive game of Tarkov, the SRGB mode is recommended; it is less lively but can be seen more in the shadows. Furthermore, it is difficult not to empathize with every gaming session, since you literally cannot ignore the splendor of this panel.
The first thing you notice about the monitor, besides the size, is the futuristic retro design. Source: Philips.nl
The HDR is also excellent on this monitor. Previously, HDR simply wasn’t worth it on PC monitors. The Evnia 8000 series, on the other hand, has a Display HDR True Black 400 certification. This certification is specific to OLED displays and requires a minimum brightness of 400 nits, a DCI P3 color coverage of at least 90% and pitch black pixels. The 436 nits in this case are not much compared to an LCD monitor, but due to the infinite contrast and the 99% DCI P3 color coverage, you will hardly notice it. Furthermore, a world opens up for you in HDR games. Walking around outside in a game like The Division 2 you can almost feel the rays of the sun, while you see a lot of intermediate colors and recognize definitions in the shadows. The interaction between Windows and the HDR modes in your games is still not user-friendly, but that is not a disadvantage of this monitor because the HDR capabilities are sublime.
As a competitive multiplayer gamer you will also be in good hands with this monitor, but with two important caveats. First of all, the 5120×1440 resolution demands the utmost from your PC. After all, your PC renders almost as many pixels at this resolution as at a 4K resolution. Second, essential UI elements like your life bar and map are often just out of view. As a result, you regularly turn your head, which costs precious seconds. That doesn’t mean this is a mediocre screen for multiplayer games. On the contrary. This monitor has the highest anti-motion blur certification (ClearMR 13000), 0.03 ms gray-to-gray pixel response times and an impressive 240 hertz refresh rate. In practice, it is an insanely fast monitor for multiplayer games, although a smaller size may be more useful in the heat of battle.
In terms of further bells and whistles, this monitor offers a total package. It has decent built-in speakers and lets you display two video sources simultaneously via the PIP/PBP function. Or you can easily switch video sources via the KVM switch. This monitor also has Ambiglow. Although Ambilight TV is the unique selling point for Philips TVs, the three-sided implementation on this monitor leaves something to be desired. Due to the large base, the monitor is approximately 24 cm away from your wall, so the light effect is less present than on Philips TVs. In addition, you can count on the Ambiglow being even less visible behind the sides due to the curve. Ambiglow’s algorithm can also be improved. It is quite soothing for your eyes in relaxing games, but reacts a little too nervously to, for example, quickly zooming in with a sniper in multiplayer games. Ultimately, the monitor offers a tasty and complete cake, although the ‘icing’, the ambiglow, could be a little fresher.
The Ambiglow on the monitor does not have the level of Ambilight on Philips TVs. Source: Philips.nl
Finally, there obviously remain some burn-in concerns for OLED monitors. In that regard, time will tell. In any case, this is not noticeable on this copy after a few months of use. I also didn’t notice the widely reported ‘weird-looking text’ due to the OLED pixel structure. The monitor also protects itself against burn-in. After some inactivity, the screen dims, you occasionally see a (not disturbing) quick pixel refresh, and after a few hours you get a message asking for a longer pixel refresh. In addition, Philips offers you a three-year manufacturer’s warranty, which includes burn-in. In any case, this monitor is only suitable for varied use, and it is better to avoid static elements, such as your start bar.
If no belt can withstand the weight of your wallet, look no further for the ultimate gaming experience. The Philips Evnia 49M2C8900 is a truly sublime screen. The infinite contrast, rich colors and excellent HDR images are mouth-watering in single-player games. You’re also in the right place as a multiplayer gamer thanks to the 240Hz refresh rate and lightning-fast pixel response times. The monitor is big and grand, possibly a bit unwieldy for pure multiplayer, but those are real luxury issues. This is a glorious meter and a half of QD-OLED.
2024-02-11 14:18:14
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