14 DAY TRIAL // Even with the 3840 x 2160 pixels resolution showing up on smaller and smaller displays, to find one with a diagonal of under 30 inches is still pretty rare, which is why the newest 28-inch Philips UltraClear stood out to us.
Some may scoff at the idea that diagonals of 30 inches are the staple of small displays. After all, most business and even consumer monitors, gaming-grade or otherwise, come in 21.5 to 27-inch diagonals. Or at least most of the ones that sell have that size.
However, considering that most 4K displays are UHD TVs or Smart TVs of 40 inches to 105 inches (and even one or two 110-inch monstrosities), 28 inches seems very small indeed.
The new member in the Philips UltraClear Display series does not just have a good resolution going for it. Sure, the 3840 x 2160 pixels are great, but there is another area in which the newcomer performs well: responsiveness.
More specifically, the response time is of 1 ms, which is about as good as you can get for displays in general, as well as home/gaming models in particular.
Which makes the new Philips display (288P6LJEB) really strange because it is not, in fact, a gaming monitor but an office one. For CAD professionals and anyone else who needs lots of graphical detail and display space.
Admittedly, the typical response time is the normal 5 ms, but the monitor also has a Smart Response capability (Philips' own technology) that brings it down to 1 ms, just in case you do use it for games from time to time.
In addition to the resolution of 4K crammed into a 28-inch package (and, thus, 157.35 pixels per inch / PPI), the newcomer benefits from several assets.
One is the W-LED backlighting technology, with white LEDs, for better color quality and clarity. Others are the 300 cd/m2, 10-bit color, and the 16:9 aspect ratio, although that last one comes with the territory of being a widescreen display.
Other traits include two USB 3.0 ports (for charging and device connections alike), two USB 2.0 connectors, and four display inputs (HDMI, DVI-D, VGA, and DisplayPort). MHL is supported via HDMI, mobile high-definition link technology that lets you stream all content from a phone or tablet to the big screen, from the Android/iOS user interface (UI) to any music or video file stored on the on-board NAND or memory card.
Finally, multi-view technology will let you watch content from two sources at once (say, a PC and a set-top box or media player).
Philips should be selling the new Philips UltraClear 288P6LJEB for $599 / €599 soon, if it hasn't already started. It's a decent price, though not amazing.
