To read about our monitor tests in-depth, please check out Display Testing Explained: How We Test PC Monitors. We cover brightness and contrast testing on page two.
Uncalibrated – Maximum Backlight Level
The 279M1RV easily exceeds its 450-nit rating in SDR mode. It’s plenty bright for any potential environment, indoors or out. Black levels are just fair, but contrast cracks the 1,000:1 barrier. It’s on par with its peers.
After Calibration to 200 nits
My calibration consisted only of reducing the brightness slider to 200 nits but that shrunk the dynamic range a bit to 820.9:1. I recommend using the SmartContrast feature for SDR, which improves the picture with a roughly 5,000:1 ratio.
ANSI contrast is almost identical at 823.8:1, which speaks to Philips’ premium components and quality control. Though it doesn’t have a lot of dynamic range natively, its performance is very consistent and reliable.
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