Philips 240BW review

Manufacturers often tell us that fancy stands bump prices up. But despite this, the Philips 240BW manages to include a fully adjustable one without topping £250. It lifts through an impressive 130mm, tilts and swivels, and even pivots into portrait mode for editing tall documents or images. The bezel is a reasonably thin 21mm should you wish to line up a pair of TFTs, and the grey design is very similar to that of the Iiyama.

Its picture quality, however, is lacking, even next to the cheaper Iiyama. We found colours washed out and lifeless, while the 250cd/m2 brightness was shown up as inadequate by our all-white test screen. The Philips looked frightfully dull in this company. This does result in a deep black level, but the 1,000:1 contrast rating just doesn't give it the punch required for anything more than office work.

In that environment it'll be fine for everyday use: the colours it produced were close to neutral, and gradients were reproduced without banding. The duller backlight actually makes document editing easier on the eyes, and the adjustability is well suited to the cluttered state of most office desks. But in our movie tests the monitor's picture looked murky, uninspiring and lacked the detail of the better models.

As a cheap and adjustable 24in monitor the Philips 240BW initially looks like a good deal. But the image quality is distinctly underwhelming next to the superior and cheaper Iiyama, so for all but the most awkward of desks we'd look past the Philips for our budget choice.

Author: David Bayon