Philips Momentum 279M1RV Review: Packed With Features and Class-Leading Performance

The Philips Momentum 279M1RV is a 27-inch 4K IPS monitor with 144 Hz, Adaptive-Sync, HDR 600, wide color gamut and Ambiglow bias lighting.

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If your gaming rig takes the form of a high-end PC or one of the latest consoles, an 4K monitor is the best choice to show it off. Of course, you can go for a big-screen television, but if you need a desktop solution, a 27-inch 16:9 flat panel is the ideal shape and size. With so many examples in the category, comparisons become tiny aspects of performance and image quality. The Philips Momentum 279M1RV delivers on all counts.

(Image credit: Philips)

Gaming performance comes down to frame rate and the quality of a monitor’s overdrive. A 4K screen will need a lot of processing power behind it to top 100fps. If your system can do this, the only consideration is overdrive, AKA blur reduction. To date, only the Dough Spectrum D03 and the 279M1RV have truly stood out in this area. They refresh as fast as any other 144 Hz screen, but when viewing moving content, both better maintain motion resolution than anything else. The Philips doesn’t offer a backlight strobe, but it doesn’t need one to deliver superb gaming performance with both FreeSync and G-Sync systems.

In the color accuracy department, the 279M1RV is unmatched. I measured perfect color and grayscale and near-perfect gamma right out of the box. Calibration was completely unnecessary. There are many much more expensive displays that can’t make that claim.

Another standout feature is the Ambiglow LED system. Not only can it provide a flashy light show, but it can also serve as a bias light which has a real impact on contrast and color saturation. I wish it had a few more brightness settings suited to darkened rooms, but in my space, it provided a significant enhancement to the experience.

And don’t forget the tank-like build quality. The Philips Momentum 279M1RV has a premium and high-quality feel with rugged components that will likely outlast multiple systems.

If you’ve scored a high-end PC or console and only a 4K monitor will do, the 279M1RV is among the very best I’ve reviewed to date. Definitely check it out.

MORE: Best Gaming Monitors

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MORE: How to Choose the Best HDR Monitor

Christian Eberle
Christian Eberle
Contributing Editor

Christian Eberle is a Contributing Editor for Tom's Hardware US. He's a veteran reviewer of A/V equipment, specializing in monitors. Christian began his obsession with tech when he built his first PC in 1991, a 286 running DOS 3.0 at a blazing 12MHz. In 2006, he undertook training from the Imaging Science Foundation in video calibration and testing and thus started a passion for precise imaging that persists to this day. He is also a professional musician with a degree from the New England Conservatory as a classical bassoonist which he used to good effect as a performer with the West Point Army Band from 1987 to 2013. He enjoys watching movies and listening to high-end audio in his custom-built home theater and can be seen riding trails near his home on a race-ready ICE VTX recumbent trike. Christian enjoys the endless summer in Florida where he lives with his wife and Chihuahua and plays with orchestras around the state.

3 Comments Comment from the forums
  • gg83
    Do they make a 1440p version of this?
    Reply
  • cknobman
    "That means it won’t quite deliver the dynamic contrast of a full-array local-dimming (FALD) model, but it will render solid HDR with deep blacks and bright highlights. "

    Stopped reading right there.
    I call bs as no IPS with edge lit dimming is actually capable of delivering a real HDR experience.

    Then looked at price and laughed even harder. $750!!!
    Phillips be smokin crack, LMAO
    Reply
  • Sergei Tachenov
    cknobman said:
    "That means it won’t quite deliver the dynamic contrast of a full-array local-dimming (FALD) model, but it will render solid HDR with deep blacks and bright highlights. "

    Stopped reading right there.
    I call bs as no IPS with edge lit dimming is actually capable of delivering a real HDR experience.
    Absolutely. You need all three things to deliver any HDR experience: brightness, contrast and color gamut. And the contrast is what, 1000:1? Laughable. That's not "deep blacks." It's just a very bright SDR monitor with wide color gamut, nothing special. In fact, it's just the Philips version of the 27GP950, sharing the same panel.

    On an unrelated note, I wonder whether the KVM switch is as broken as in the 329M1RV. I'm 99% sure it is. Because they call it a KVM switch except... there is no freaking switch! There are exactly two ways to switch between the connected devices. The first, use the "auto-switch" feature: turn one PC off, the monitor will automatically switch to the other. The second, dig all the way through the OSD to find the carefully hidden switch functionality. And nope, you can't set it up to some shortcut, like moving the joystick into a certain direction.

    This is the reason why I chose the M32U over the 329M1RV. Here, the switch comes with a lot of flaws, but at least it's there, and it actually works.

    Philips has a very unique talent of making a horrible mess of UX. I had a Philips TV where plugging earphones in didn't mute the speakers. Instead, you had to mute them manually and then, to adjust the phones' volume, you had to dig through the menu to find it because the volume buttons on the remote control only controlled speakers regardless of whether earphones are connected.
    Reply