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Philips has announced two entries for its best monitor competition, with which it aims to compete with its rivals.
We must say in advance that both monitors – the Philips 34B2U6603CHfrom the Philips 6000 line, and the Philips 34B2U5600Cpart of the Philips 5000 series, are premium, like most ultra-wide angle monitors. If you’re looking for cheaper monitors to work with at home, you may want to look elsewhere.
The 34B2U6603CH and 34B2U5600C both feature 34-inch, 21:9 ultrawide displays, with a respectable 3440 x 1440 pixels – nothing crazy in terms of resolution, but solid enough to be respectable among premium monitors. The curvature is rated at 1500R, which the company says should aid in immersion.
Feel the curve
Philips didn’t stop there, though, building both monitors to support a maximum refresh rate of 120Hz and up to 450 nits of brightness in SDR mode for the 34B2U6603CH – rising to an impressive 550 nits in HDR mode – and up to 300 nits for the 34B2U5600C.
Both monitors feature a built-in 5MP webcam that is Windows Hello certified, making logging in easier, a noise-canceling microphone and fairly powerful speakers.
The overall design is pretty slick and professional, with minimal bezels – and we liked that the bottom bar is thick and the sides are thin, giving the bottom some weight. The stand looks pretty cool too, and rotates and adjusts naturally to your preference and desk.
Ports in abundance
Philips has gone all out with the connectivity on these monitors and this is by far the most impressive part of the setup.
For starters, the more expensive 34B2U6603CH model offers DisplayHDR 400 support, Thunderbolt 4, fast 2.5G LAN, a USB 3.2 port, two USB-C ports (one for upstream and one for downstream), and four USB-A ports.
Philips says DisplayHDR 400 produces “astonishing brightness, contrast and colors” thanks to global dimming. Anyone who works with images or video will likely appreciate the addition of this feature in the 34B2U6603CH. (For the real nerds out there: the color gamut spans 101% NTSC and 120% sRGB for vibrancy, and it has stellar color accuracy thanks to Delta E < 2 for sRGB.)
The company has also built in its EyeSafe technology, which basically ensures that staring at a monitor – especially a very bright one – doesn’t put too much strain on your eyes and cause eye fatigue. There’s also Adaptive-Sync.
The Philips 34B2U6603CH and 34B2U5600C will retail for £599.99 and £439.99 respectively in the UK (pricing in other markets is yet to be announced) when they go on sale in mid-August 2024.
