Philips 40B1U6903CH Ultrawide 5K2K Curved Business Monitor Review

How Much Does it Cost?

The Philips 40B1U6903CH Ultrawide 5K2K Curved Business Monitor is available now on Amazon for £1480.48 and while that is a lot, keep in mind, this is a LOT of monitor. Sure, you can get big monitors for less, but at 40″ and ultrawide, this is certainly one of the biggest panels on the market and the price reflects this. It’s also a very high resolution, 5K2K is seriously big on pixel count, and by the time you throw in the KVM switch, USB hub, Thunderbolt 4 and the camera, the price quickly starts to make a lot of sense. It’s not cheap, but wow do you get a lot for your money.

Overview

I love this monitor, but it’s not really the right monitor for me, which is a shame, as I love both the enormous size of the panel and the truly killer 5K2K resolution and all the benefits that brings. However, I am a gamer, and the 4ms response time and the 75Hz refresh rate just isn’t enough for me. That being said, playing something like Cities Skylines 2 is freaking awesome on this screen, and so is Flight Simulator 2020 and Civ VI, as they’re less dependent on fast motion, high refresh rates and reaction times. However, in competitive shooters and faster games like Forza, I miss my 144Hz ultrawide, even if the resolution is lower, the motion speed is still half what I’m used to.

However, for daily work, it’s hard to beat, as it’s built for productivity and that’s where it really delivers. The screen space, resolution, and pixel density, all combine for a great workspace. Furthermore, with the panel being so colour-accurate, it’s well suited to photo and video editing, and the ultrawide aspect ratio makes is easy to see a video editing timeline with less zooming in and out.

I also tend to watch a lot of movies at my desk, as I have a big comfy chair, a footrest, and my big headphones, so adding an ultrawide 4K panel to the mix is great. I can watch a Blu-ray in 4K, or enjoy the full aspect ratio of movies that would normally have borders at the top and bottom. With HDR mode and the DCI-P3 colour, everything looks pretty amazing, and the sRGB mode works great for SDR content too. It is an edge-lit panel though, so there’s a little glow to the blacks, but it’s no more than you get on a typical good-quality LCD TV. Having an array backlight would easily double the price of the monitor too, or put it in a similar price range to an OLED, so you just have to be realistic about what you want and what you have in your budget.

Should I Buy One?

If you want a big monitor, there are plenty of options out there. However, with a 40″ ultrawide panel and a stunning 5K2K resolution, there are few monitors and panels out there that could hope to compete with this one. Philips has built a great monitor for work and some gaming, but it’s the built-in features that make it a real winner, and having a KVM, LAN, Thunderbolt 4, a webcam, USB hub and charging ports makes this not just a monitor, but a hub for all your desktop needs.