Philips 40B1U5600 business monitor review
With a bigger screen, you can get more done. That's the basic principle behind Philips' latest ultrawide productivity panel, the Philips 40B1U5600. It's a 40-inch beast with a 21:9 aspect ratio.
Aiming to be one of the best business monitors with a large panel and plenty of screen real estate, it includes a variety of features to help you get work done. For starters, there's a KVM switch that allows you to share this monitor across two computers. Then there's USB-C connectivity with Power Delivery, letting you power the display, charge your laptop and connect peripherals all with a single cable.
As for image quality, the good news is that you get an IPS panel that supports HDR and runs at 120Hz. That relatively high refresh is usually the preserve of gaming monitors. But it has advantages for general computing in terms of day-to-day ease and responsiveness.
Similar thinking applies to HDR support as well. This isn't directly relevant to most mainstream workflows, but it's nice to have. If all this sounds impressive, there's a catch. The Philips 40B1U5600 only offers a native resolution of 3440 by 1440. This is quite low for such a large display.
Similarly, HDR support is quite limited and USB-C charging power ends at just 15W. That latter figure is arguably the most problematic, as it's not enough to prevent even the best business laptops from discharging under moderate to heavy load.
Philips 40B1U5600: design and features
- Strong feature set
- kvm switch
- Mostly good connectivity
- USB-C limited to 15W power delivery
Glasses
Panel Size: 40 inches
Panel Type: IPS
Resolution: 3440 x 1440
Glow: 500 cd/m2
Difference: 1,200:1
Pixel Feedback: 4ms
Color Coverage: 121%srgb
HDR: displayhdr 400
Refresh Rate: 120 hz
Vesa: 100mm x 100mm
Input: DisplayPort 1.4 x1, HDMI 2.0 x1, USB-C with 100W Power Delivery x1
As a productivity-oriented monitor, it's no surprise that the Philips 40B1U5600 is quite a fit. The all-black plastic and unadorned, straight-edge design is quite anonymous. That said, the large 40-inch panel size and ultrawide 21:9 aspect ratio make the desktop quite attractive. This is not your average office monitor.
It's quite ergonomic for such a large display, thanks to a stand that adjusts for height, tilt and rotation and a plug-out arm for hanging headphones. Speaking of ergonomics, most ultrawide displays of this scale have curved screens instead of flat screens.
As a result, it's notable that the edges of the display feel as if they're angled quite obliquely when viewing the monitor from a normal working distance. In the end curved vs flat is a personal choice. But if curved makes sense at all, it makes sense on this size and format of display and a gentle curve would probably be better here.
Anyway, you also get a KVM switch that allows this monitor to share a keyboard and mouse on two computers. Even better, there's USB-C connectivity with Power Delivery. This means you can power the display, charge your laptop and connect peripherals, all with a single cable.
Philips has specified power delivery at 100W, which should be enough to keep this high-performance desktop replacement laptop fully charged even under fairly heavy load. All this means that this monitor is very well specified in terms of connectivity and ergonomics.
Philips 40B1U5600: performance
- nice ips panel
- low pixel density
- Limited color space and HDR support
The IPS panel of the Philips 40B1U5600 performs well. It's rated up to 500 nits, which is more than enough for all but the brightest indoor ambient lighting conditions.
There's HDR support, but it's the entry-level HDR400 variety, which means no local dimming and limited dynamic range. It's not a true HDR monitor, but it supports HDR signals and will show colors correctly.
It's a pity that the color balance of SDR content is a bit messed up in HDR mode. In practice, this means you'll have to toggle between HDR and SDR modes depending on the content type to ensure the best image quality results. This is a bit of a pain, but probably only a problem if you need to watch HDR content regularly.
Similarly, the OSD menu offers a very limited range of color spaces, with only sRGB beyond the default user mode. So, don't expect one of the best monitors for photo editing or best video editing monitors. It is not targeted towards those users, and thus, it is not the end of the world that there is no Adobe RGB or DCI-P3 mode. And the IPS panel is very well calibrated and delivers pleasant, well-saturated colors and decent contrast for this panel type.
The 120Hz refresh support is also a nice addition. This is not strictly necessary for most workflows. But it creates an extra sense of smoothness and responsiveness for day-to-day computing. Simply put, once you've tried 120Hz or higher, you won't want to go back to the old school 60Hz experience. 120Hz is better.
Plus, you get user-configurable overdrive, so you can tweak the response to your liking. It's a pretty sharp display and even though it's not really designed for gaming, it's actually not half bad as a gaming panel.
Where it's not so good is pixel density. The native resolution of 3440 x 1440 pixels is quite low for a 40-inch ultrawide panel and makes for a low pixel density. As a result, images are not as sharp as higher resolution monitors and font rendering is not as fast.
In Windows, font rendering on this display is tolerable and as an overall productivity device, the Philips 40B1U5600 is quite attractive. However, in MacOS using an Apple MacBook, text is very soft due to the low pixel density.
Philips 40B1U5600: final verdict
As a screen big enough to get things done, the Philips 40B1U5600 has a lot to recommend it. Connectivity is great, including KVM switches and USB-C with 100W power delivery. The main image quality of the 40-inch ultrawide IPS panel is also very good.
Basic HDR support and 120Hz refresh are likewise welcome additions and ensure that this monitor is quite versatile and very pleasant to use on a day-to-day basis. This will also make for a good opportunity to play games.
Despite all this, there is one obvious limitation and that is pixel density. 3440 by 1440 is quite a low resolution for a monitor this large and both overall sharpness and font rendering suffer. For Windows users, it remains a fairly useful monitor. But this is by no means one of the best monitors for MacBook Pro laptops and Macs, and we would advise Apple users to stay away from it as macOS does very well in terms of font rendering for such a low pixel density. Not optimized.
Connect Philips 40B1U5600 monitor with best business computers – Tested, reviewed and rated by us
