Philips Brilliance 248C3LH review

If you’re looking for a monitor that can handle video or games console inputs as well as serving as a PC monitor, the new Philips Brilliance 248C3LH is a stylish 24in monitor with a Full HD resolution and twin HDMI inputs. The white case and metal stand divided opinion in the office, but there’s no doubting the 248C3LH’s build quality.

We don’t like touch-sensitive controls at the best of times, but the 248C3LH’s buttons only light up when you touch them, which isn’t very intuitive. We often found ourselves activating the wrong button while trying to feel for them. We found the best results using either sRGB or 6500K colour temperature, leaving the other controls at their defaults.

There are also four “Smart” controls: SmartKolor boosts colours, but it’s fun for watching films and cartoons; SmartTxt adds sharpness to enhance text, but ruins images; SmartResponse increases response times using overdrive technology, but we noticed no difference with it on or off; and SmartContrast is a dynamic contrast option that not only caused distracting changes in brightness, but washed out the colour in dark scenes far too much.

A choice of Smart presets for image quality is also available by pressing the far left button, but these were all far too heavy-handed in their effects, either over-saturating colours or darkening the image too much.

You’re better off leaving these presets alone and adjusting image quality manually. Even then, the TN panel’s image quality can’t compete with newer display’s IPS panels. We found that colour depth wasn’t as high and we lost some detail in photos, as the screen couldn’t render the full complicated highlights in our test images. Contrast also wasn’t as good, and the monitor struggled to bring out the full detail in dark scenes.

Ultimately, this is what lets this monitor down. The quality of the screen would have been great for the price a year ago, but a whole new range of displays has been released with newer panels producing better quality images. The LG IPS235V has better image quality and costs less; it’s the better buy.