This is large and you will need to sit well away for normal work and even farther away for those times when you marvel at videos shot in high resolution as this panel displays 3440x1440 and unlike other manufacturers offerings this requires no drivers to do it.
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The Philips 346B1C curved screen monitor measures 80x37x2cm but the screen is far larger than the measurements given as there is a 4cm difference between the edges and the centre of the screen.
It has a two piece arm the flat base 25x25cm and the arm that connects to the centre of the units back 9cm from the rear of the base. The screen has about 30 degrees of back tilt and a good amount of forward tilt. It can be as little as 6cm above your desk to as much as 25cm.
The bezel is 2cm along the base and next to nothing on the other three sides. At the right under edge of the screen are the five touch buttons but unless you have very strange lighting conditions you are unlikely to use more than the one button the on/off offering, there is a small white LED above it on the bezel when power is being received.
The centre of the back protrudes more and the left side of this has a four port USB3 hub and the required lead is provided to take the connection from your PC to the ‘UP’ socket beside the four USB ports one of which is always on useful for charging mobile devices.
The connections are in a line under the centre of the back of the area being HDMI, Display Port, USB ‘C’ and Ethernet, the last mentioned for both Internet and KVM use. Towards the right side of the back is the kettle style mains lead connection.
The previous panel I had hooked up was a standard 1920x1080 offering and that was the resolution it started in but a click of resolutions offered 3440x1440 at 100HZ immediately as far as I know this is the only brand of panels that this happens with without needing to add drivers. The pixel density is 110PPI.
The actual format is 21:9 the same as a lot of recent videos and the clarity was excellent. In fact I was able to view three ‘normal’ screens on the one display, this makes working on several things together easier.
USB ‘C’ is made easier with the provided docking station and reversible connector makes two way working easier. The upstream has the ability to charge at 90W.
All the normal goodies are implemented here, low blue light, 178 degree viewing angle, low glare and easy read.
Now onto something that is normally poor on flat panels the speakers here they are excellent the 5W output seems far more and the first thing I needed to do when they were connected was to turn down my volume level by around half. They were good enough to play and enjoy music that I normally only do through my music system. The reason I am sure is that the thicker part of the rear allows decent speakers to be fitted.
The weight of the unit with the stand is 11.5 kilos.
A very nice unit but you do need a room large enough to support it.
At the time of publication the Philips 346B1C is available from Amazon for £468.99.
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