Philips 273E3LH

Philips' latest monitor, the 273E3LH, boasts a 27'' Full HD TN display backlit using LEDs.  Nothing new there, you might be tempted to say ... except that it's the first monitor we've tested that claims to have a response time of just 1 ms.  We can't wait to put it through the tests we've designed to pick out any trace of ghosting!

Hardware: all the basics but no accessories

A rather traditional design covers all of the usual bases, leaving only the audio and video inputs and outputs to add extra points for usability in this category.  There are VGA, DVI and HDMI video inputs at the back of the case, as well as an audio line out in case you want something more powerful than the 2 x 2 W speakers.  Without a more flexible stand-this one only allows you tilt the display back a few degrees-or any accessories, there's no chance of the 273E3LH getting more than two stars.

Excellent colours with the factory settings

We were impressed by the way this monitor handles colours: without any intervention on our part, it managed a deltaE score of just 2.1, which represents only a minimal discrepancy between the colours it should show and those actually visible on screen.  That's a guarantee of a very accurate colour reproduction.

It also had a nice surprise in store for us in our contrast tests.  A contrast ratio of 1300:1 easily broke through our average of 850:1, meaning that a five-star rating is more than justified for the 273E3LH in this section.

Responsiveness: what's going on?

What's happening?  Once again, Philips has totally forgotten to spend any time working on the reactivity of its monitor, despite claiming a response time of just 1 ms (see inset).  When you turn the SmartResponse filter on, you're treated the same awful reverse ghosting, with an average ghosting time of 20 ms.  That doesn't get any better when you turn the filter off, but at least you escape the reverse ghosting which makes things a lot better.  I'm sorry to disappoint avid gamers, but when the display suddenly changes entirely-like when you change your viewpoint for example-the 273E3LH does no better than a 5 ms TN display that you'd find in an office.

Responsiveness
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There's nothing out of the ordinary to point out about the input lag.  There is some, but it's so limited that it's invisible to the naked eye, meaning that it won't pose any problems for multiplayer games.

Movies

The 273E3LH does no better (or no worse) than any other monitor when it comes to upscaling SD video.  Our usual advice applies: leave the job to an external device, whether that's via hardware or software.  You're guaranteed a better result.  This particular monitor also produces rather blurry results, an effect you can get rid of by turning the brightness down as low as you can, which produces the best results for watching a film.