Philips BDM4065UC review

It's not all good news, however.

The most obvious downside is a stand that doesn't adjust. At all. Though you do have the option of using the 200mm VESA mounts on the back to cook up something.

The real problem though is with the panel itself.

In some ways it's a glorious thing on a wondrous scale. Once you've seen something like Shadow of Mordor running at 4K on a 40-inch panel, you're pretty much ruined for other screens. Even those 34-inch, 21:9 aspect screens – which we still love – look a bit puny.

Actually, it could be too much of a good thing, with the 4K pixel grid exposing any low-res textures with ruthless efficiency. Oh, and if you're wondering, the semi-gloss panel surface works well. It had us a bit worried, but reflectivity is blessedly limited.

Where the HDTV-ness kicks in with an unambiguous negative is the VA, or Vertical Alignment, rather than IPS panel tech.

It delivers lovely deep blacks and nice, rich colours, but also serves up viewing angles that are basically a bit broken.

The problem is most obvious at the extremities of the display, especially along the bottom. If you sit back far enough, the issue resolves – but this is a PC monitor and the whole point is that you sit close.

Is it a deal-breaker? Probably not, but it is enough, along with the stand, to make us wonder whether the Philips BDM4065UC is only suitable for early adopters willing to make compromises.

Of course, what we haven't mentioned is the sheer load any 4K panel puts on your graphics card; no single GPU is currently up to the job of running the latest games at 4K and full detail. Even multi-GPU setups with high-end cards will struggle.

In mitigation, this screen looks pretty decent running 1440p interpolated. So you could take the long term view – buy now and plan on a GPU upgrade in a couple of years – that should see you enjoying many years of native-res 4K gaming.

But it's a different psychology from buying something that performs at its best from the beginning.

Plenty to think about, then, and at the very least a tantalising glimpse of the 40-inch 4K form factor that could be the weapon of choice for high-end gaming for the foreseeable future.

We liked

The sheer scale of this screen is magnificent. At 40-inches it really makes the most out of the increased detail of a 4K resolution and you'd be surprised just how quickly you get used to the panel size even on a desktop setup.

The actual design of the monitor is neat too, taking the HDTV aesthetic and running with it. That also means it's got a nice, slim bezel around the panel too.

And, despite the high price-tag, the BDM4065UC is great value considering 30-inch, 2560 x 1600 monitors are still far more expensive.

We disliked

There are problems with the screen itself. The VA panel isn't perfect and you do get definite viewing angle issues at the extremities of the screen when you're sat close to it.

We're also not taken with the fact the HDTV stand is completely non-adjustable either. That makes getting a perfect view on your desktop actually a little tricky.

Verdict

The first 4K monitor to make us see the real benefit of the super resolution for our PC games. It's not the absolute perfect monitor, but it's close enough to make us hugely tempted to make the purchase. The 40-inch 4K Philips BDM4065UC will still stand the test of time so when you've finally got the GPU horsepower to drive the panel at its native resolution it'll still be a great screen.

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