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Philips 27inch Panel with AmbiGlow base 

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Most panels show you a screen of information, some do it with low Blue Light, and some have the ability to rotate so you can see your screen in portrait mode. This offering from Philips however is a first for me having a changing colour display in the base.

philips ambiglow LCD monitor
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It is 60x36x1.5cm at the edge. The stand is circular at 23cm with the connecting arm attaching to the back edge. The stand raises the screen by 10cm from the base and the screen has 20 degrees of back tilt and 10 degrees of forward tilt, there is no side to side movement.

There is no assembly required as the unit comes from the box with the stand already connected.

The external connections are in a horizontal line at the back HDMI, HDMI2 for MHL option, VGA (D-Sub) and audio for VGA, finally DC input.

The normal line of five touch screen controls are in a line towards the right side of the underside of the screen surround, the explanations of  what they do is shown on the bottom right edge of the screen surround. 

Now the surround itself is cream with a very thin border on the top and sides and two centimetres on the base. The centre of the base has a slight protrusion almost like a droplet that has yet to fall where the on/off LED resides.

The base and its colour can be controlled from the screen controls or by touching the top of the base, a little unnerving when you first do it but light is important and as by default this scrolls through a range, this could be thought provoking.

Before I return to tell you more about a rather nice panel I ask does the AmbiGlow light have any practical purpose in a well-lit room probably not, in my tests no real pattern occurred in what colours were produced in where the base was tapped and even where you tap it to turn it off. After viewing the link at the end I found the answers to where does what.

‘Smart’ seems to be the current in word with Smart Contrast and Smart Image both featuring both give sharp and clear images, flicker free seems to be almost taken as a given as indeed is low Blue Light for eye kindness. All these things put together are deemed to give true to life images together with the ability to change to brightness/contrast for specific tasks from the on screen menu. Having virtually no side or top borders mean there is no wasted desk space.

The stated viewing angle is 178 degrees from side to side but as the unit weighs only 5¾ kilos it is easy enough to manually twist. The stated response time grey to grey is 5ms; contrast is 1000:1 and smart contrast 20,000,000:1.

Now the all-important question does the AmbiGlow base do anything to the performance of the panel, in my opinion no, is the AmbiGlow base more than a talking point probably not. This is a nice clean easy to view panel with settings for all normal office tasks however the price is of course higher by having the AmbiGlow base.

The Philips AmbiGlow 275C5QHGSW/272 is available from the first link below for £227.94.

http://www.misco.co.uk/product/2560916/275C5QHGSW-272-16-9-1920X1080-5MS-WHITE0

http://www.philips.co.uk/c-p/275C5QHGSW_00/moda-lcd-monitor-with-ambiglow-plus-base

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Features2
Performance2
Value2
Ease of use2
Design2
OverallPhilips 27inch Panel with AmbiGlow base rated 76 out of 100

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