Philips Evnia 27M2N8500 360 Hz QD-OLED review: Unmatched speed and response

Philips is a storied brand of lighting and electronics that goes back to 1891 when it was founded in Holland. With such a rich history, you’d expect that its gaming monitors would be more mainstream but in terms of volume, they are off the beaten path.

This doesn’t mean it can’t run with best gaming monitors. In fact, I have a 27-inch QD-OLED screen here that smoked my speed tests. It’s the Evnia 27M2N8500, and it officially has the lowest input lag I’ve ever recorded. Let’s take a look.

Philips Evnia 27M2N8500 Specs

The 27M2N8500 is a 27-inch QHD QD-OLED. QD, or Quantum Dots, means more color – about 14% more than an OLED without the technology. That’s a difference easily seen in a side-by-side comparison. The QD-OLEDs I’ve reviewed of late have all filled around 110% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, just like this one. The 27M2N8500 sports decent accuracy too. Though it benefits from calibration, it isn’t absolutely necessary. It runs close to the mark for white point and gamma.

The big draw here is its speed. It runs at 360 Hz rather than the 240 Hz more commonly seen in this category. And it doesn’t cost any more than its competitors. Prices at this writing are around $650. So, you’re getting the fastest and most colorful 27-inch QHD OLED out there for no extra money.

Of course, you’ll need a stout video card to hit those frame rates, but the reward is great. I won’t spoil the test result yet but the 27M2N8500 didn’t just break the input lag record by a small margin, it erased it. Complimenting this is Adaptive-Sync in Nvidia and AMD flavors. It doesn’t currently appear on Nvidia’s certified list but given the large number of Philips displays there, it’ll likely be joining the club soon.

The image is exactly what one expects from a premium QD-OLED: colorful and contrasty. The 27M2N8500 has a variable brightness feature that works more subtly than most other monitors but still delivers punchy highlights and those trademark infinite black levels. Brightness is also on par with others, with a peak brightness of around 250 nits for a full white field and 440 nits for a 25% window. Philips claims 1,000 nits for a 3% window, and my tests revealed no reason to doubt this.

Physically, it stands out with an all-white aesthetic and Philips' unique Ambiglow lighting feature. Rather than backlit logos or projected images, Ambiglow is a bias light meant to cast its goodness on the wall behind. You can specify many different colors and effects, have the show sync with the on-screen action, or use it as a true bias light. This is when you dial in a neutral white color with brightness at 10% of the monitor's peak level. It closes the user’s pupils slightly, increasing the perception of both sharpness and contrast. I use this method with my TVs and projection screen at home to a very positive effect.

The Evnia 27M2N8500 may not be as famous as many of the displays from companies starting with the letter “A”, but it certainly beats them handily in the speed contest. You'll want to read on if you’re looking for a competitive edge.

Assembly and Accessories

All the Philips Evnia gaming monitors I’ve reviewed come in a white and lavender-adorned box with their contents packed in recyclable molded pulp rather than crumbly foam. The 27M2N8500 goes together without tools to form a reasonably solid package. There’s a bit of play where the panel snaps onto the stand but overall build quality is sound. The cable bundle is white to match the monitor and includes IEC power for internal supply plus HDMI, DisplayPort, and USB. You also get an adaptor with hardware for aftermarket arms and brackets.

Product 360

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White monitors tend to disappear when the picture is on, which is good. The 27M2N8500 blends smooth white textures with silver metal accents and a speckle finish on the base. The bezel is thin and flush around the top and sides with a silver strip at the bottom that sports “Philips” and a small power LED at the lower right.

You can see more white plastic in the back with a soft scalloping pattern on the component bulge. The small rectangles around its perimeter are the Ambiglow LEDs. They are very adept in their task of enhancing the image. They can follow on-screen movement which creates a unique effect. You can call up specific effects like starry night or breathing. The LEDs can also follow audio, which I haven’t seen anywhere else. The possible combinations are endless, and spending hours just playing with Ambiglow is easy.

The stand has an all-metal upright and a deep base with a metal core. It offers a 5/20-degree tilt adjustment, a 30-degree swivel, and a 5.2-inch height range. There is no portrait mode. The panel’s attachment point is a bit small with some play, but I was never concerned about longevity. Overall, the build quality is solid.

The input pack is clearly labeled and includes a DisplayPort 1.4, two HDMI 2.1 and USB 3.2, one upstream and two down. I did not find a KVM feature in the OSD. Two internal five-watt speakers play to a good volume without distortion. You can also plug a pair of headphones into the 3.5mm jack.

OSD Features

The 27M2N8500’s OSD appears when you press the joystick around the back right. This is the monitor’s only control key. The directional clicks offer quick access to picture modes and inputs.

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The 27M2N8500 OSD reminds me a bit of vintage Windows and how it looked in the ‘90s. It’s divided into seven sub-menus starting with SmartImage, Philips’ name for picture modes. There are eleven in total, aimed at specific game or entertainment types, and tasks. The best choice is the default, Standard, which allows access to calibration and color gamuts. The native space is 110% of DCI-P3, making the 27M2N8500 very colorful. You can also select sRGB and Adobe RGB for critical work. A calibration data sheet included with each sample ensures accuracy.

If you’re looking for the variable brightness feature, it’s in the first menu under SmartContrast. It’s an on-or-off affair that subtly brings more pop to the image. It’s less aggressive than the competition but it still delivers SDR peaks of around 400 nits.

The Game Mode menu has a selection of aiming points, including one that changes color to maintain contrast with the background. There is also a sniper mode and shadow boost to bring out dark detail for better visibility. Low Input Lag is grayed out in the photo, but trust me, it’s working all the time, as you’ll soon learn.

Ambiglow has its own menu and myriad of options. You can follow video or audio, specify fixed effects, or leave the lights in static mode. If you choose low brightness, static white, it acts as a bias light which works great when playing in the dark. It casts a subtle glow on the wall behind that enhances the viewer’s perception of sharpness and contrast.

The 27M2N8500 has many OLED panel care features including pixel shift, refresh, logo protection and dimmers for taskbars and screen boundaries. I have seen no evidence of burn-in in any OLED I own or have reviewed. Letting the refresh routine run every so often is enough to prevent damage when the display is used for typical gaming and computing tasks.

Philips Evnia 27M2N8500 Calibration Settings

In the 27M2N8500’s Standard picture mode, calibration isn’t strictly necessary. The tone is slightly warm which is a forgivable error, more so than green or blue. I noted slight gamma inaccuracies that I could not fix. A few tweaks to the RGB controls took grayscale tracking errors well below the visible threshold. Color is slightly oversaturated, which is typical of the Quantum Dot OLEDs I’ve tested. Gamut coverage is just over 110% of DCI-P3. It has options for sRGB and Adobe RGB if you need them. They do not allow calibration but are accurate enough for grading tasks. My SDR settings are below.

HDR signals enable six additional modes, five of which are adjustable for brightness, contrast, and luminance tracking. The 27M2N8500 is in a very small group of HDR monitors that allow any sort of tweaking in HDR mode. The SmartContrast (variable brightness) works more aggressively to deliver brighter highlights.

 Gaming and Hands-on

Assuming you haven’t skipped to page two yet, you might wonder how fast the 27M2N8500 is. It’s the third 360 Hz OLED I’ve tested, and I’ve experienced one 480 Hz example, so I know what to expect. Truthfully, all 240 Hz OLEDs are fast with low input lag and perfect motion resolution. So, the question is, how much better can it get?

It’s hard to quantify just how quick these OLEDs are other than to say that they are extremely precise. Translating a mouse movement to an action on the screen always comes with a slight delay. We’re down to just a few milliseconds here so perceptually, there is no delay. The 27M2N8500 is so quick that I doubt even the best pro gamer could detect any lag. I played first-person shooters for hours and it never hesitated to respond to my wishes.

You will need a fast video card to see the 27M2N8500 at its best. I used a GeForce RTX 4090 and couldn’t quite maintain 360fps at QHD resolution with max detail in Doom Eternal. I stayed consistently over 330fps though which is hardly any slower. To say that gameplay on this monitor is addictive would be an understatement. I’ve experienced most of the fastest gaming monitors available and this one is as good or better than any of them. I asked myself why 500 Hz FHD LCD monitors exist when 240 Hz OLEDs hit my desk. Now I really wonder why anyone would choose one over something like the 27M2N8500. It is truly at the point where I can’t imagine better.

The image is stunning whether the content is SDR or HDR. Though I am always happy to see an sRGB option, I am accustomed to seeing the full gamut all the time. No one will complain about too much color and the 27M2N8500 has lots. It looked great before calibration and even better after. I noted gamma issues in testing, but they did not impact any of the content I viewed.

The speakers are better than average with a lot of distortion-free volume available. At 50%, it was too loud so if you need to hear game audio over other background noise, there’s plenty of headroom for that. There wasn’t much bass but the built-in speakers simply don’t have the physical size to produce frequencies below 120 Hz. No matter, I was satisfied with the 27M2N8500’s integrated sound.

During workday tasks, I never missed the higher pixel density of 4K. At 27 inches, QHD means 109ppi which is more than enough to hide the dot structure. Small text was free of jaggies and easy to read thanks to the high contrast. Perfect blacks really do make a difference.

Takeaway: The 27M2N8500 has no real flaws for everyday use and gaming. I’ll discuss a few color and gamma anomalies on pages four and five, but in context, this display's incredible speed and video processing precision far outweigh any other considerations. As a gaming monitor, it currently has no equal.

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