Philips 436M6VBPAB Momentum 43-Inch 4K FreeSync Monitor Review: Better Than a TV

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HDR Performance

The 436M6 supports HDR10 signals, so we used an HD Fury Integral signal modifier to perform a suite of HDR tests for luminance, contrast and color accuracy.

HDR Brightness & Contrast

At maximum brightness settings, the 436M6 came close enough to the 1,000-nits mark. Rest assured, this monitor is BRIGHT.

Black levels were hard to measure because when we displayed a full-black signal, the backlight shut off. By turning on a small info icon from the pattern generator, we were able to get a reading, an impressive .0126 nits. This just manages to edge out the full-array models from the Acer and Asus monitors. The resulting contrast ratio is a new record for our database, 76,353.6:1.

Grayscale, EOTF & Color

Grayscale accuracy in HDR mode was mostly good but rode a bit off the mark in the image’s brightest areas. The clip point is 75 percent, so anything higher than that was rendered at the same peak level. The most intense highlights looked a little cool, but most of the levels were solid and neutral-looking as they should be. Luminance tracks the EOTF curve almost perfectly.

The color accuracy we saw in SDR mode was not quite there for HDR content. Green and cyan tracked well, but red was undersaturated, while blue and magenta were off in hue. These are minor errors, but HDR content looked a little less vivid than it should. The 436M6 certainly has the native gamut volume to shine with HDR material, but it came up slightly short in practice. The monitor’s excellent contrast and black levels help make up some of that shortfall.

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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.