Philips Brilliance 241B7QPJKEB

VERDICT

Superbly built and with great colour quality, this is the best IPS monitor you can get on a tight budget

- Christopher Minasians

UNTIL NOW, IF you’d asked us to recommend a colour-accurate, 24in IPS monitor for less than £200, we would have directed you to the fairy dust aisle in Tesco. The Philips Brilliance 241B7QPJKEB, however, resets all the rules.

It’s not unheard of to find excellent monitors at this price – take the AOC Q3279VWF (Shopper 361), which has both a high 2,560x1,440 resolution and a 75Hz refresh rate. That uses an MVA panel, though, which means narrower viewing angles and inferior colour reproduction to an IPS panel, as on the 1,920x1,080 Brilliance 241B7QPJKEB. The Philips monitor also has the benefits of a fully adjustable stand, an excellent design and even an integrated 2-megapixel webcam.

SWIVEL EYED

The design instantly grabs your attention. The top and side bezels are so slim as to be almost borderless, making it seem as if the image is floating in space, and cutting down the space that the Brilliance 241B7QPJKEB consumes.

Philips also includes its SmartErgoBase, which provides height, swivel and tilt adjustment. You can pivot it 180°, while the sturdy base prevents the panel from wobbling. If a tidy desk is important, you’ll appreciate its smart cable routing channel at the back, which stops the cables from haphazard dangling.