Philips is bringing its 5K dual-mode gaming monitor to the West, and it is available in a neat white shell

A couple of weeks in the past, Philips introduced the Evnia 27M2G5800, a poetically-named, 27-inch, 5K dual-mode gaming monitor on the market in China, and right now, the corporate has introduced a western counterpart—the 27M2D5901A (yeah, monitor names are like that). I managed to get hands-on expertise with the display at a press occasion in Croatia, and dual-mode works in addition to I’d need it to.

The all-white panel is able to swapping between 5120 x 2880 (165 Hz) and 2560 x 1440 (330 Hz). The use case right here is placing one sport on its highest potential decision for these fairly, immersive video games, and swapping to 1440p for aggressive play in one other. 330 Hz is definitely on the high-end in that regard, whereas 5K is kind of wasted on the likes of Counter-Strike 2.

Also, in case your rig is a tad missing and you propose on upgrading sooner or later, you possibly can give attention to 1440p in the interim, then swap whenever you lastly have the ability to justify 5K—although there’s little or no on the market with the ability to justify 5K in the mean time.

Cesar Reyes Acosta, the European Commercial Leader for Philips’ sister firm AOC, tells me “ours is the same [as the 27M2G5800], but ours is more equipped.”

The 27M2D5901A, in addition to having that all-white look, has Philips Ambilight in-built. That means it has lights on the again which you’ll sync as much as your video games. As a part of this, Philips’ new 5,000-8,000 collection (the mid to top-end) all include Philips’ personal AI lighting system and Matter compatibility. This means you possibly can hook up your monitor to your good lights and blast your total room with gentle whenever you get a flashbang hurled at you… theoretically.

It additionally comes with a 65 W USB Type-C within the again, so you possibly can cost your laptop computer from it whereas it is plugged in, or use it to energy a USB hub in a pinch.

The 27M2D5901A can be accessible in July this 12 months, and is available in at a really helpful value of €799. Roughly exchanged, that works out to $940 on the time of writing, however I’m informed there aren’t but any plans to launch the monitor within the US. Hopefully, that can change sooner or later.

On paper, it is reasonably just like the Asus ROG Strix XG27JCG. Both monitors offer 5K dual-mode, and they’re the same size. AOC’s offering, if it launches in the US, will likely come in at north of $900, but Asus’s is available for $849. Both are IPS, and AOC’s comes in at 50 nits brighter. That means there’s a slight upgrade in brightness, a neat look, and some flashy lights in exchange for the extra cash.

In testing, I managed to swap between the resolutions mostly easily (thanks to the new OSD), and it happened in just a few seconds. The little bit of gaming I managed to get on the monitor was certainly pretty , and that 5K resolution is killer. €799 is an eye-watering fee for an IPS panel, but not out of the norm for 5K, especially with dual-mode.

But my eyes have become so accustomed to OLED at this point that I’m not entirely convinced I can go back, and 5K is a budding field, so whether or not you want to get in on the ground floor is a tough decision. You are getting a relatively low brightness here, and 5K is likely only due to get better with time, but I can’t say I wasn’t impressed by the panel, the monitor, and the pretty lights nonetheless.