Does Quantum Dot Make Your Monitor Better? - Philips 276E6 LCD Review
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2016-05-06
·
1,503 words · ~7 min read
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at a mere $300 the Philips 276e is the
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first quantum dot display that I have
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yet had the pleasure of putting my grubby little hands on but does it
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deliver or does it
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disappoint let's start with the monitor itself the 276e features only what I
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would consider to be basic inputs VGA DVI and HDMI with no DisplayPort it
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resorts to an external power brick something I don't usually mind
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personally though I wish the cord was a little longer on this one so it reached
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the floor more comfortably but is considered a design compromise by many
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it has no Creature Comforts to speak of so no USB hob and it not only lacks any
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ergonomic adjustments other than tilt in its admittedly attractive though metal
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base but to add insult to injury does not feature vase amount points so other
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than putting a riser or some books under it on your desk nothing can be done to
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adjust the height the bezels are of average thickness so no complaints there
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but while some people may be into white monitors to go with their oh I don't
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know 2006 model MacBook or whatever the
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use of glossy plastic anywhere that we might have to look at it is a pretty
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sore spot for me as are the touch sensitive buttons on the bottom right
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right for what must be the worst onscreen menu controls that I have yet
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encountered while it's true that they are at least labeled unlike the genius
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ones on Acer's predator x34 and the contextually switching ones that force
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me to navigate deep within the menu just to change a bloody input on this Ben Q
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the labels do me very little good when they are positioned in such a way that I
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need to lie my head down on the desk to see them PSA to monitor makers all of
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them not just Phillips here glossy plastic is bad tactile feedback and
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labels we can read on navigation buttons are
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good okay lonus cool story bro but the
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reason I'm still watching is that I want to know if quantum dot which by the way
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is actually as cool as it sounds and involves a sealed tube with these dots
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that react to Blue Light by shining red and green learn more here is enough to
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make this puppy worth any of the compromises that you might be making by
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buying it and for you my friend I will reveal the
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answer it depends on who you are and
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what you want to do because a quantum
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dot monitor much like all the buzz and
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marketing nonsense around LED monitors
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is still at its heart an LCD monitor it
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inherits many of the same characteristics that you would expect
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from any LCD in this case the
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unexceptional black levels of our IPS ads panel make dark scenes look more
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gray than black and while casual gamers won't notice the difference its pixel
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response times are nothing to write home about for competitive Gamers but what
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you get in return is the as advertised
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wide color gamut support in the form of true 99% coverage of the Adobe RGB color
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space this in spite of the unexceptional
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outof thee boox color accuracy is a huge
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Boon for digital imaging hobbyists and prosumers who will be super amped to
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have the ability to work on photographs that they've taken in Adobe RGB mode on
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their camera natively on their workstation to get the best possible
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printing results at an unheard of price point the
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276e even alongside a decent Colorimeter
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for calibration is still going to be fighting in a much lower price class
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than other monitors with similar color space support but that doesn't make the
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276e a slam dunk and I have one more
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major issue with it the way it's presented in the marketing materials and
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in the reviewers guide as more vibrant
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thanks to its ability to represent a wider range of colors is really
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irresponsible as far as I'm able to tell unless you color calibrate it and set up
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an ICC profile to correct this native
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Adobe RGB monitor to the smaller srgb
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color space which is used almost exclusively on the web and the PC you're
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going to end up with inaccurate oversaturated colors think of it this
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way a program like uh let's say your web browser will call for 100% green
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assuming a fully srgb pipeline then the
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monitor is going to go to town delivering a 100% Adobe RGB green that
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the program had no idea that it could display compounding the issue is the
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fact that even profiling is not a perfect solution while macOS handles
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color Corrections pixel by pixel
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systemwide on Windows it's handled on an
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application by application basis with many common programs like games for
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example not being ICC aware so using
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this monitor you're going to end up with TV display model syndrome where your
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saturation is too high in a way that might make it look Punchy next to a
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competitor on a shelf but actually displays the content in a way that the
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Creator did not intend most monitors
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literally every single one that I've ever seen with wide gamut support deal
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with this simply by having an srgb mode often with a quick switch button within
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the onscreen display but for some reason
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the 276 e doesn't work properly I got
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the exact same 9 9% Adobe RGB coverage
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in srgb mode and Phillips's response
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telling me that the oversaturated greens were probably because I'm not used to
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wide gamut displays demonstrates that while at least I don't believe they are
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intentionally misleading customers they also don't seem to really understand the
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issue here which leads us finally to a couple of conclusions number one is that
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whether this monitor is for you or not wide gamut support is coming to the
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mainstream thanks to quantum dot woo freaking who at this kind of pricing I'd
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be surprised if every LCD doesn't support it in a couple years time what a
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cool technological advance to tide us over while we wait for OLED to deal with
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its Burnin and cost issues and this is
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conclusion number two we all need to practice new technology use responsibly
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it's all fine and good to be ahead of the feature curve but it's important not
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to lose track of the way that most people will use the product in the
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process I'm not saying that the 276 is a
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total flub of a product but in my humble opinion it is best suited for use as a
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secondary display for a hobbyist or a
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prosumer photo editor for example where ICC aware applications can be dragged
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over to it but other applications like games can be runon one with proper
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standard srgb color space support speaking of which
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