The name might be a mouthful, but the Philips 288E2A is surely packed with features you wouldn’t expect at its price point. The Philips 288E2A sits on a price range where high refresh rate 1080p and entry level 1440p panels dominate. It’s a 4k IPS monitor that’s perfect not only for content consumption, but also content creation, daily productivity tasks and maybe a bit of gaming on the side.
Design
The Philips 288E2A has a minimalist design free of distractions.
It has thin bezels and even a thin chin, perfect for multi-monitor setups. The all-black aesthetic makes it suitable for professional settings or just any type of setup.
There are 2 front-firing speakers on both sides of the monitor, a power button on the right side and you can control the on-screen menu is placed at the back with its EasySelect Menu Toggle Key.
The included stand in the Philips 288E2A is solid and slim, but it does take up a fair amount of space on your desk. The stand makes the monitor stable, although the model that was sent to us only has a tilt option and no left/right and height adjustment. There is a 100mm x 100mm VESA mount at the back if you want more adjustability with a desk arm.
At the back, you have a limited number of ports, but it does have what you need. 2x HDMI 2.0 ports, a DisplayPort 1.2, an audio and a 3.5mm headphone jack. With this configuration, you can have 2 PCs and a gaming console all at the same time. MultiView also lets you view 2 devices at the same time. I don’t know if it’s multi-tasking if you’re playing your console while you’re “working” simultaneously. Just putting it out there that you can do this with this monitor.
Performance
The Philips 288E2A has a 4K UHD panel, which is 3840×2160 pixels. The 28” size gives it a pixel density of 157.35 pixels per inch, this gives you sharp details at a normal viewing distance of about 30 to 40 inches. The panel being IPS also means you don’t lose picture quality when viewing at awkward angles.
The 60Hz refresh rate is enough for productivity tasks and content consumption. If you’re a hardcore PC gamer though who used 144Hz or faster panels before, this might seem to be a downgrade, but it does support FreeSync for a tear-free gaming experience.
Out-of-the-box color accuracy is great, given the price point of the Philips 288E2A. It doesn’t support HDR, but it’s bright enough indoors at around 350 nits. Now if you look at the spec sheet, it says it can deliver 1.07 billion colors, which is what a 10-bit monitor does vs an 8-bit monitor’s 16.7 million colors. But this is an 8-bit monitor and for the price, it does sound like too good to be true. Thanks to FRC or dithering, the Philips 288E2A can simulate a 10-bit color space by flashing 2 alternating colors so quickly, you’ll be able to produce more shades than a regular 8-bit monitor.
Editing images on the Philips 288E2A is such a delight. You have plenty of screen real estate for all the tools and enough space for the image that you can inspect even the finer details. I suggest calibrating the monitor as it has a lot of potential to produce true-to-life colors as it surpasses the 100% sRGB (119.7%) color space.
Conclusion
Whether you’re looking for a monitor for daily productivity, content creation or a personal monitor for your consoles, you can’t beat the Philips 288E2A at its price range. It’s worth the price tag of ₱19,538, especially that Philips is having their “A Summer to Treasure” promo until May 31, 2023. If you purchase the Philips 288E2A at a Philips authorized retail partner or the Philips flagship store, you get a Herschel Classic XL backpack worth ₱4,490 for free.
Check out this micro site for more information and other participating Philips monitors.
Tech Specs:
| LCD panel type | IPS technology |
| AMD FreeSync™ technology | Yes |
| Panel Size | 28 inch / 71.1 cm |
| Aspect ratio | 16:9 |
| Maximum resolution | 3840 x 2160 @ 60 Hz |
| Pixel Density | 157 PPI |
| Response time (typical) | 4 ms (Grey to Grey) |
| Brightness | 300 cd/m² |
| Contrast ratio (typical) | 1000:1 |
| Viewing angle | 178º (H) / 178º (V) |
| Color gamut (typical) | NTSC 106.9%, sRGB 119.7% |
| Signal Input | DisplayPort x 1 |
| HDMI x 2 | |
| Audio (In/Out) | PC audio-in |
| Headphone out |
