Philips Evnia- 34M1C5500VA - 34 Inch QHD Curved Gaming Monitor, VA, 165Hz, AMD FreeSync, Height Adust, USB Hub, Smart Image HDR, (3440 x 1440 @165Hz, 300 cd/m², HDMI 2.0 / DP 1.4 ./ USB 3.2)

I treated myself to a new gaming/creators PC about a month ago, as it has a decent graphics card and to get the best from that, I decided to buy a new monitor so I could the full benefit. All of my previous monitors have been from the Dell alienware range, initially I was set on buying another Alienware screen, however I happened to come across these offerings from Philips, which had better specs at half the price, I have to admit I was contemplating for over a week, I took a gamble and went with this monitor. Thinking if its not great I'll simply use it as my second screen.I am so happy I took a punt, as I honestly couldn't be happier, these monitors are so under-rated, they truly are exceptional, so much so that I quickly purchased a second, image quality for editing, gaming and watching movies truly is spot on. I had planner to purchase a new dual monitor gas lift stand, however the functionality of the stands provided are fab, and I love that they have a headset hanger built into the stands. The usb hubs are awesome its something I hadn't considered whilst searching for a new monitor, but its one of those things that once you've had it, you won't want to live without, its really decluttered my desk as my audio interface, web cams, chargers for our two gaming controllers, 2.4htz dongles and chargers for our steel series nova 7 x headsets, and mobile phone chargers are all connected to my pc via the monitor hubs, with spare ports still left, which means my pc itself has several vacant usb ports for anything else.If you are here contemplating buying one of these monitors, but you are put off by the lack of reviews outside of Amazon, honestly take a punt, you will be glad you did.

I bought the Philips EVNIA 27M1N5500ZA - 27 Inch, height adjustable base and I'm really plased.Lovely, even, and vibrant colour with good contrast. No uneven backlight bleed/glow. Very solid construction. Fantastic base.I bought it on its merits as a screen but didn't even realise it has a built-in USB hub (4 ports USB, 2 of which are fast-charging), built-in speakers, and the stand is not just height adjustable - you can also rotate the screen 90 degrees, swivel left to right, tilt forward and backward, plus even comes with a headphone rest.Arrived with both UK and EU power cables, HMDI cable, and Display Port cable. Well packaged and very easy to assemble.I've paid more for far worse monitors. This monitor is great value.I bought it specifically for 144 Hz at 1440p, and this goes up to 170 Hz.

Lovely monitor, my eyesight is starting to play up (age, lol) so the size of this helps and I’m not having to use glasses to read it which is great. Going to get another one to use for our CAD work so I can have multiple views etc, they are big though!

The first order was inconvenienced by a courier delivery issue which Amazon customer services promptly resolved. The second re-order arrived without any problem.It was well worth the extra effort.The unit is exactly described and aesthetically pleasing. Easy assembly of the adjustable base/stand and its attachment to monitor, fairly standard these days.The unit is supplied with two power leads, European and UK plug tops. There are four graphics cables supplied, two are hdmi type, the other two are display port type.Having connected it up to the graphics card and powered up, the initial setup of resolution and refresh settings were limited.After a bit of research, swapped the graphics cables around to make the new monitor display port 1 of the graphic card and in doing so the resolution and refresh settings that were expected became available, hello 240Hz!Monitor performance is very very good, graphics are superior compared to previous LG TV/Monitor being used. The curved display makes for an improved visual experience annd overall it’s very impressive.

[Model purchased: PHILIPS Evnia 32M1C5200W]This monitor was purchased as a replacement for a cheaper no-name brand that developed severe discolouration along the bottom edge after a few weeks of use. Quite naturally, this occurred after the Amazon return window closed. This was probably down to the panel being over-driven excessively (possibly to boost the specifications on paper) and it getting too hot in the process. Thankfully, the manufacturer gave me a generous refund toward this fault so I was looking to replace it as that flaw irritated me to the point of madness.I was really quite torn, should I spend an additional £150 - £200 and get a more expensive LG or Samsung etc? I didn't really need a higher resolution than 1920x1080 as this seemed quite adequate for the Steam games and the graphics card I own (NVIDIA GeForce RTX4060 Ti). The next leap was towards 2560 x 1440, and I questioned if would I really benefit from QHD as my use case was a mixture of occasional gaming and browsing, videos, word processing etc? Reading through all the specifications, I came to the conclusion that to achieve anything reasonable in refresh rate and response time I would either need to downsize my monitor size by 5 inches or spend a considerable additional amount of money.I then saw this model offering a refresh rate of 240Hz and a response time of 0.5ms. Costing just £40 more than the previous monitor on discount, it seemed like a absolute bargain. After a bit more research online, I discovered that the marketing wonks had either accidentally (or accidentally “On purpose”) miscategorised it as a 0.5ms device instead of the true 1ms. Amazon and Philips have now corrected this error, but there are still a number of outlets online that promote this. As the monitor was heavily discounted on Amazon (Probably down to this), I decided to take a risk. Worse case, I would just have some bragging rights on upgrading from a 75Hz unit to a 240Hz one. I was concerned though, that I would fall foul of buying at the cheaper end of the spectrum once again. Fellow gamers were slightly sniffy, dismissing Philips as “A consumer brand” and not really being up to the task.I needn’t have worried. Everything from the quality of the stand to the ease of use of the paddle driven On Screen Display (OSD) was light years ahead of the cheaper unit. While I was impressed with the move from 720p to 1080p (The reason for purchasing the original monitor in the first place), nothing could have prepared me for the difference between the two 1080p units. While both are FHD, the Philips has a vibrancy and warmth about it that really jumps out at you, but not in a brutal way. The less expensive unit was washed out and anaemic by comparison.Down sides? The only issues I could complain about is the quality of the plastic case and some of the preset OSD settings. The finish on some of the edges is a bit sharp, but that said, my Yamaha amplifier suffers from the same issue with the volume control, and that was over £150 more expensive. Some of the video settings caused my eyes to bleed; the LowBlue Mode had me running for the Migraleve ™, but all of these parameters can easily be fine-tuned via the accessible joystick driven menus. Unlike many interfaces from other manufacturers, the navigation for the Evnia menu system is simple and intuitive, and the very slight “Click” provides just sufficient tactile feedback without being too intrusive. No need to add coins to the swear jar adjusting settings, unlike countless other monitors I have fought with over the years.The metal monitor stand is extremely well made and allows the screen to be tilted away from the user or easily vertically adjusted for height by a dampened spring. An additional headphone holder is also supplied, as well as a very crude cable management channel. Assembly was very straightforward (no tools required), the only issue being that it is extremely wide and long in comparison to some offerings, 45cm or 18 inches at the base. I will need to reorganise my desk to get it to fit ergonomically. That said, the whole unit is very stable in use.As to gaming, my Steam library played without issue. Transport Fever 2, CS2 and Mafia all played with very little obvious ghosting or tearing. This is quite an accomplishment on my setup, as I am running Linux with an Nvidia card (Currently under X11 rather than Wayland due to driver issues).As one would expect, desktop browsing and office utilities are superb. Ripped movie playback, with video that has been aggressively compressed was a challenge though (as it would be with any panel). For instance, watching “The Joker” had me captivated by the dynamics in the opening scenes, but the darker ones suffered from clear gradients in the black areas, something that could be easily eliminated by turning on the “SmartContrast” mode. While this smoothed out the boundaries, it also introduced a clear change in brightness between the darker and brighter scenes, something that might irritate some. This particular issue seemed aggravated by increasing the viewing angle, it seemed much more pronounced when I was looking slightly at the monitor “Off skew”. That said, multiple mixed contrast 4K YouTube demos played beautifully, in some instances almost being “Too digital” in their reproduction. For use in a regular desktop environment, the Philips is more than forgiving. As forever in our digital world, garbage in = garbage out.In summary, I can’t remember being so impressed with a monitor in a very, very long time. Having cut my computer teeth on a green screen IBM XT, I have seen offerings from HP, Dell, and numerous others pass my eyeballs in the past decades. Most have been “Meh”, apart from a very expensive Iiyama I paid a small fortune for in the 80’s. It did last me over 20 years though, but sadly technology overtook it. The difference £40 makes in 2024 quality has left me speechless, and anyone who suggests that the Philips offering is “Sub par” really don’t know what they are talking about. Consumer grade? Pah. Philips have shown they can be a contender with the best, and I would heartily endorse this particular model as an absolute gem at the price. When it comes to bang for buck, it is extremely underrated and very little is documented on the web about this particular model. Grab it while you can.