Philips Momentum 272M8 Full HD 144Hz IPS Monitor Review

Whether for games or work, the Philips 272M8 is a visual treat.

27 inches is probably my threshold when it comes to 1080P monitors, anything past that is easily a hard pass for me. Great for couch gaming, not so much for my personal work and games on the side when you go past that size. So, anyway, Philips lent us their 27-inch gaming monitor to test out, specifically the Philips 272M8. And we've spent a good couple of months or so to take it for a spin.

Technical Specifications

• Picture/Display

  AMD FreeSync™ technology

  Premium

  LCD panel type

  IPS technology

  Backlight type

  W-LED system

  Panel Size

  27 inch / 68.6 cm

  Display Screen Coating

  Anti-Glare, 3H, Haze 25%

  Effective viewing area

  597.89 (H) x 336.31 (V)

  Aspect ratio

  16:9

  Optimum resolution

  1920 x 1080 @ 144 Hz

  Pixel Density

  82 PPI

  Response time (typical)

  1 ms (MPRT)

  Brightness

  250  cd/m²

  SmartContrast

  80,000,000:1

  Contrast ratio (typical)

  1000:1

  Pixel pitch

  0.311 x 0.311 mm

  Viewing angle

  • 178º (H) / 178º (V)
  • @ C/R > 10

  Color gamut (typical)

  NTSC 105%*, sRGB 119%*

  Picture enhancement

  SmartImage game

  Display colors

  16.7 M

  Scanning Frequency

  30 - 160 kHz (H) / 48 - 144 Hz (V)

  Flicker-free

  Yes

  LowBlue Mode

  Yes

  sRGB

  Yes

• Connectivity

  Signal Input

  • VGA (Analog )
  • HDMI (digital, HDCP)
  • DisplayPort x 1

  Sync Input

  • Separate Sync
  • Sync on Green

  Audio (In/Out)

  Audio out

• Convenience

  User convenience

  • Power On/Off
  • Menu/OK
  • Brightness/UP
  • Input/Down
  • SmartImage game/Back

  OSD Languages

  • Brazil Portuguese
  • Czech
  • Dutch
  • English
  • Finnish
  • French
  • German
  • Greek
  • Hungarian
  • Italian
  • Japanese
  • Korean
  • Polish
  • Portuguese
  • Russian
  • Spanish
  • Simplified Chinese
  • Swedish
  • Turkish
  • Traditional Chinese
  • Ukranian

  Other convenience

  • Kensington lock
  • VESA mount (100x100mm)

  Plug & Play Compatibility

  • DDC/CI
  • Mac OS X
  • sRGB
  • Windows 10 / 8.1 / 8 / 7

• Stand

  Tilt

  -5/20  degree

• Power

  On mode

  30.4 W (typ.)

  Standby mode

  < 0.5 W (typ.)

  Off mode

  < 0.3 W (typ.)

  Power LED indicator

  • Operation - White
  • Standby mode- White (blinking)

  Power supply

  • External
  • 100-240VAC, 50-60Hz

• Dimensions

  Product with stand(max height)

  613 x 461 x 210  mm

  Product without stand (mm)

  613 x 368 x 42  mm

  Packaging in mm (WxHxD)

  683 x 525 x 249  mm

• Weight

  Product with stand (kg)

  3.95  kg

  Product without stand (kg)

  3.40  kg

  Product with packaging (kg)

  6.35  kg

• Operating conditions

  Temperature range (operation)

  0°C to 40°C  °C

  Temperature range (storage)

  -20°C to 60°C  °C

  Relative humidity

  20%-80  %

  Altitude

  Operation: +12,000ft (3,658m), Non-operation: +40,000ft (12,192m)

  MTBF

  50,000 (Excluded backlight)  hour(s)

• Sustainability

  Environmental and energy

  • RoHS
  • Mercury Free

  Recyclable packaging material

  100  %

• Compliance and standards

  Regulatory Approvals

  • CB
  • CE Mark
  • PSB

• Cabinet

  Color

  Black

  Finish

  Textured

Starting off with the packaging, the Philips 272M8 contains the essentials in getting you up and running. You’ll get the monitor itself with the stand pre-installed, a power brick, and some paperwork. This should contain an HDMI cable at least to help you get it up and running, but our demo unit didn’t come with one. So do check with Philips or your local retailer which one it comes with or if there’s one.

So, as we’ve mentioned, the Philips 272M8 comes with quite a large 27-inch panel – it fits in our threshold for 1080p displays, and it’s quite a visual treat for gaming and multimedia consumption. This isn’t a curved monitor, by the way.

Ports are pretty standard for this price range. There’s one for DisplayPort, one for HDMI and one for VGA coupled in with the audio out and DC power port here. No idea who still uses a VGA port nowadays, but in our books that’s just deadweight nowadays. If you have a legacy device, sure?

The base on the other hand is one of its neatest things design-wise. That angular stand connecting to its cylindrical base looks stylishly awesome, not to mention sturdy. The height isn’t adjustable, but you can tilt it -5/20 degrees. Thankfully there’s also VESA mounting holes at the back, which should be standard for all monitors.

The OSD buttons are fairly standard – no issues here, but the joystick nav on their other monitors are what I’d personally prefer. 

You get Philips’ SmartImage presets that optimize for certain scenarios. FPS, Racing, RTS, Gamer 1, Gamer 2, LowBlue Mode, and Off are the selections here.

One thing that it lacks is a speaker. While there is an audio out, the lack of speakers might be an issue for those who are switching between that and headphones. Not necessarily a dealbreaker, and it does cut down on the cost for one. After all, it’s either go big or go home, and a 2-watt speaker on competing products don’t really cut it at all.

 

PERFORMANCE

On to the monitor - the Philips M27 features a 1080p IPS panel with a 144Hz refresh rate. As for our test setup, we'll be playing on our system with a Ryzen 5 3600X with a Radeon RX 6600 XT and 16GB of DDR4 3600Mhz RAM. Freesync Premium looks to be on by default or rather permanent since there's no toggle for it on the OSD as well. Monitor Quality tests on color, luminance and such are done through Sypder 5 Elite.

Color Gamut

100% of sRGB, 86% of AdobeRGB, 90% of P3

Tone Response

Gray Ramp

Brightness, Contrast and White Point At Different Brightness Settings

Brightness, Contrast and White Point At Different Presets

Color Uniformity for Brightness 100%

Luminance Uniformity for Brightness 100%

Color Accuracy

Monitor Rating

Backlight Bleed

Backlight bleed isn't exactly uniform across the board, so while this won't be a conclusive test, it would at least provide some idea on the quality brands offer before shipping out their products. Test is done with 1/60 shutter speed at f/3.5 aperture and 800 ISO under no ambient lighting.

Brightness 100%

Brightness 75%

Brightness 50%

Brightness 25%

Brightness 0%

CONCLUSION

Personal experience is also quite pleasant. Brightness levels are good, refresh rate is smooth with AMD FreeSync Premium, and multimedia consumption is welcomed while I pull back and watch some series on Netflix or HBO Go. Backlight bleed is there as usual with IPS displays, but quite minimal for it. OSD buttons are okay, but I prefer the joystick navigation on their other monitors.

Honestly used it for so long that it became my primary monitor for a good couple of months. The Philips 272M8 is simply superb for multiple use cases including gaming, office work, Photoshop and just sitting back and enjoying some movies while I'm on break from work.

At Php12,990, it's priced competitively against other monitors with the same caliber. Top that off with Philips' three year warranty for its monitors and you've got yourself a pretty good deal.