Philips' North American brand license partner, EPI, announced plans to bring the Brilliance 492P8 ultra-wide monitor to the U.S. When it arrives later this year, it’ll sport a newer and denser LCD panel with a 5120 x 1440 resolution. EPI also said the monitor won a 2018 iF Design Award.
The original Brilliance 492P8 was announced by Philips at IFA 2017. Back then, its screen was reported to be the same as the 49”, 32:9, 3840 x 1080 curved LCD panel used in the Samsung C49HG90. Whereas Samsung targeted the screen for gamers by pairing it with a quantum-dot backlight--which enabled 95% coverage of DCI-P3, AMD FreeSync 2 compatibility, and a 144Hz refresh rate--Philips opted to target professionals. In exchange for a lower MSRP, the original Brilliance 492P8 was to leave some of its LCD panel’s potential untapped by pairing it with more mundane performance specs, such as a smaller color gamut, and leaving out FreeSync 2.
The originally announced Brilliance 492P8 was expected to hit the European market in Q2 of this year, but its North American availability was unknown. Philips has answered that question and announced that the monitor will come to the U.S. market in Q4 of this year. It’ll be arriving with a different LCD panel that has a resolution of 5120 x 1440. The monitor’s other specs, which include a 600 nit peak brightness, 5,000:1 static contrast ratio, and 1800R curvature, will remain the same.
Given the Brilliance 492P8’s original intent as a productivity tool, the decision to significantly increase its resolution makes sense. We’ve contacted Philips to clarify whether the announcement only applies to those units coming to the U.S., or if it applies to the Brilliance 492P8 globally. The company has not revealed the monitor’s full specs or pricing.
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