Philips Evnia 8000 34″ Curved QD OLED Gaming Monitor Review

How Much Does it Cost?

The Philips Evnia 34″ 34M2C8600 3440×1440 QD-OLED 175Hz 0.1ms A-Sync HDR400 TrueBlack Curved Ultrawide Gaming Monitor is not cheap, but given that it’s a feature-packed ultra-wide OLED gaming monitor, I mean, you were never going to expect it to be affordable. That being said, at £1149.95 I think it actually is pretty impressive value for money. Given the flagship LED monitors of the last five years that were this size were £2000+ and nowhere near as good as the Evnia, we’re certainly heading in the right direction. It’s cheaper than the Samsung Odyssey G8, and it’s a whole £5 cheaper than the Dell Alienware AW3423DW.

Overview

This monitor is literally the best gaming monitor I’ve ever used. It’s not the biggest, or the fastest, or the most expensive, but it doesn’t need to be. It hits a sweet spot for me in terms of size, resolution and refresh rate that I’m more than happy to live with it. Personally, I think 144 Hz is about all we really need, anything above that is nice, but rarely needed for all but a few gamers and just puts more strain on the GPU for diminishing returns.

34″ is a good screen size too, making for a decent pixel density for the 3440 x 1440 resolution, and any bigger, and I’d likely want to switch to a 5K2K panel instead. It’s also a size most people can easily accommodate on a fairly stand desktop. However, keep in mind, with the 1800R curve and the thicker body, these monitors sit further forward than many LED panels, which are typically a lot thinner. The same is true when wall mounting.

There are some issues though, such as the aggressive Pixel Refresh, sure it is to prevent image retention issues, but every few hours? I turned it off, and if you leave your desk to go make a cuppa tea and grab stretch your legs, which you should do regularly anyway, just pop into the OLED and perform the task manually. In fact, it should have its own button, like the Degause button on old CRT monitors.

You can’t change the brightness at all in HDR modes, which is annoying as I play/watch in a totally dark room and in many cases I find that while HDR colours look amazing, the peak brightness is still too much. I’d like to adjust to my taste, and would like to see this addressed.

Also, the fan is weird, at night when it’s quiet, it sounds like a laptop HDD ticking away when sitting close, which, I do a lot as it’s a monitor. Then you hear it puff a breath as the fan pushes air through the small vents. I think a more constant RPM larger fan would be a drastic improvement. I don’t think a hole saw and a Noctua fan would be a bad idea, but Philips would likely be pissed when they get the monitor back.

Should I Buy One

Minor inconveniences aside, and they are minor, this is still the best monitor I’ve ever used. It has the best black levels, the fastest response time, no blur, a fast refresh rate, and the best colours I’ve seen on a monitor too. If you want the bleeding edge of gaming panel technology, this is where you’ll get your kicks. The features closely match that of the Alienware, but honestly, Philips would be my pick as I like the overall aesthetics, the glossy coating really makes OLED pop like never before, and it doesn’t dim its brightness aggressively like the Alienware does. But honestly, even with their quirks, they’re both pretty astonishing monitors.