Philips Brilliance 234CL review

Philips’ Brilliance 234CL is a slimline LED-backlit display that’s only 9mm thick. It saves space by moving most of the electronics for the monitor, including the inputs and power socket, to the base. This makes the 234CL incredibly slim but also means that it can’t be wall-mounted. You get an HDMI input as well as the standard analogue VGA socket, and there’s also a headphone socket.

LED-backlit screens still command a price premium, but sadly that means corners have been cut elsewhere. While the thin screen might make the 234CL seem like a luxury item, its cheap plastic construction feels tacky as soon as you touch it, and build quality is worrying. The screen itself flexes under pressure, and the whole thing wobbles alarmingly if you push it slightly. If you hold the top edge of the screen to tilt it back, the screen pulls away from the lower bezel.

The base is also made from plastic, and for some reason has sharp edges. Touch-sensitive blue LED controls are built into the base, so if you grab it to move the screen you might find yourself changing settings inadvertently. Touch-sensitive controls are a pain at the best of times, but when your menu system is controlled by two buttons either side of a power button, frustration and annoyance are bound to follow.

Picture quality is controlled either manually or by choosing between five SmartImage presets, none of which offered a good balance. The Office and Economy modes seemed simply to darken the image to save power, while Photo, Movie and Game presets added unnatural effects such as edge sharpening and colour boosting, none of which we found made the picture any more pleasing.

Strangely, these presets seemed to have no link with the manual image controls, and with no User option, you can’t save your favourite setup as a SmartImage preset. We tried turning brightness down and contrast up, but we couldn’t correct the washed-out image, and the SmartContrast figure, while it added more contrast, also introduced edge sharpening that added an unnatural sheen to images.

A matt finish helps to reduce the glare from reflected overhead lighting, and we were pleased to find that the backlight was evenly bright. We’ve been spoiled by some great screens recently, so although colours seemed muted to us, they are still natural, as long as you leave the screen at its default settings.

Those looking for an LED-backlit monitor purely for aesthetic purposes might initially be drawn to the 234CL’s svelte screen, but on closer inspection the finish will turn them off. Meanwhile, image quality isn’t any better than most CCFL-backlit monitors, and worse than some we’ve seen. There really is no justification for the premium on this model, and the build quality is disappointing. For less money, you can get the larger Iiyama ProLite E2409HDS, which has far better image quality, and will turn heads for the right reasons.