The Philips 248X3 is a 23.6-inch monitor with a 2 ms, Full HD, TN screen. One rather original thing about this model is that it uses Philips' LightFrame 2 technology, which apparently reduces the eye fatigue associated with prolonged use of an LCD screen. So what progress has been made in the three years since Philips released the 220X1, its first monitor to use this technology?
Design and Build
On first contact, the 248X3 feels like a robust, well-made and well-finished product with its aluminium and plastic stand. That, however, doesn't necessarily mean there aren't any design issues, as the stand has no swivel or height-adjustment features, so the screen can only be tilted by a few degrees. But although hardware features are kept to a real minimum (a headphones socket), video connections save the day with two HDMI entries and a VGA input.
However, we did find that not everyone likes this light effect. When we tried this LightFrame monitor out on various guinea pigs in our office, we found that people either liked it and found it attractive or hated it. Note, however, that Philips has kindly included options for varying the intensity of the bezel lighting or switching it off completely in the OSD.
Colours and Contrast
Out of the box, colour fidelity is decent enough (Delta E = 3.7) but it's not perfect. Our sensor picked up a slightly high gamma (distribution of brightness levels) at 2.4 while it should really be 2.2. The colour temperature is a bit high too, at 7400 kelvins compared with an ideal value of 6500 kelvins, making for a blue overtone.
Colours before and after adjusting the settings
Things can be improved slightly in the internal menu. Go into 'User Settings' and switch 'Blue' from 100 to 85. Then set the 'Gamma' to 2.0 instead of 2.2 to push the Delta E down to 3 for accurate colours.
We measured the contrast at 950:1, which is above average (850:1) compared with other monitors we've tested.
This means that the Philips 248X3 is a good choice for anyone looking for good colour fidelity. However, seeing as it uses a TN screen panel, vertical viewing angles are rather tight, which makes onscreen images look dark and strange when the screen is viewed from above or below. Anyone who's really into photo editing and graphic design is therefore more likely to look for a monitor with an IPS or VA LCD screen panel, as these aren't prone to this particular problem.
Responsiveness
With its default settings, the 248X3 certainly can't be described as a fast, responsive monitor. The trailing images following the mouse cursor speak for themselves and, with its out-of-the-box settings, the 248X3 would have a hard time winning over gamers. Our ghosting time test merely served to confirm this, with an average score of 20.5 ms!
An overdrive function is available in the internal menu, called 'SmartReponse' in Philips terminology. This should, in theory, boost responsiveness in the 248X3 and in turn reduce the ghosting time. In reality, switching this function on instantly creates a reverse ghosting effect even on its lowest setting. This mode should therefore be left switched off, otherwise ghost images seen trailing behind moving objects will end up being more visible than usual.
All in all, the 248X3 doesn't really do a better job than the 220X1 on this front. As a result, this 24-inch monitor should only really be used for activities that don't involve moving images, such as office computing and web browsing.
There are no problems with input lag, however. The delay between an action and its corresponding onscreen response (16 ms on average) is too shot to be noticeable.
Design and Build
On first contact, the 248X3 feels like a robust, well-made and well-finished product with its aluminium and plastic stand. That, however, doesn't necessarily mean there aren't any design issues, as the stand has no swivel or height-adjustment features, so the screen can only be tilted by a few degrees. But although hardware features are kept to a real minimum (a headphones socket), video connections save the day with two HDMI entries and a VGA input.
As we mentioned above, this monitor uses LightFrame 2 technology. Seeing as we're not expert eye doctors, it was difficult for us to quantifiably test whether the blue lighting on the bezel actually had any real impact on eye strain, eye fatigue and concentration, as claimed by Philips.
However, we did find that not everyone likes this light effect. When we tried this LightFrame monitor out on various guinea pigs in our office, we found that people either liked it and found it attractive or hated it. Note, however, that Philips has kindly included options for varying the intensity of the bezel lighting or switching it off completely in the OSD.
Colours and Contrast
Out of the box, colour fidelity is decent enough (Delta E = 3.7) but it's not perfect. Our sensor picked up a slightly high gamma (distribution of brightness levels) at 2.4 while it should really be 2.2. The colour temperature is a bit high too, at 7400 kelvins compared with an ideal value of 6500 kelvins, making for a blue overtone.
Colours before and after adjusting the settings
Things can be improved slightly in the internal menu. Go into 'User Settings' and switch 'Blue' from 100 to 85. Then set the 'Gamma' to 2.0 instead of 2.2 to push the Delta E down to 3 for accurate colours.
We measured the contrast at 950:1, which is above average (850:1) compared with other monitors we've tested.
This means that the Philips 248X3 is a good choice for anyone looking for good colour fidelity. However, seeing as it uses a TN screen panel, vertical viewing angles are rather tight, which makes onscreen images look dark and strange when the screen is viewed from above or below. Anyone who's really into photo editing and graphic design is therefore more likely to look for a monitor with an IPS or VA LCD screen panel, as these aren't prone to this particular problem.
Responsiveness
With its default settings, the 248X3 certainly can't be described as a fast, responsive monitor. The trailing images following the mouse cursor speak for themselves and, with its out-of-the-box settings, the 248X3 would have a hard time winning over gamers. Our ghosting time test merely served to confirm this, with an average score of 20.5 ms!
| Responsiveness | ||
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Light Background |
Black Background |
Average |
This graph shows the monitor's ghosting time (in ms) with the AMA function on. Ghosting time measures the time it takes for the screen to totally remove an image. The faster the ghosting time, the smoother moving objects will look onscreen.
An overdrive function is available in the internal menu, called 'SmartReponse' in Philips terminology. This should, in theory, boost responsiveness in the 248X3 and in turn reduce the ghosting time. In reality, switching this function on instantly creates a reverse ghosting effect even on its lowest setting. This mode should therefore be left switched off, otherwise ghost images seen trailing behind moving objects will end up being more visible than usual.
All in all, the 248X3 doesn't really do a better job than the 220X1 on this front. As a result, this 24-inch monitor should only really be used for activities that don't involve moving images, such as office computing and web browsing.
There are no problems with input lag, however. The delay between an action and its corresponding onscreen response (16 ms on average) is too shot to be noticeable.
Pros
- Accurate colours (Delta E = 3) once you change a few settings
- Above-average contrast
Cons
- Low responsiveness but overdrive creates reverse ghosting
- Not many hardware features
- TN screen looks dark when viewed from below
Conclusion
Philips makes the same mistakes with the 248X3 as it did with the 220X1. This 23.6-inch monitor has accurate colours and high contrast but it's a bit light on hardware features and responsiveness is quite poor.
OUR SCORE
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