When it comes to choosing monitors you’re spoilt for choice and with so many buzz-phrases like refresh-rate, wide, superwide etc out there making a choice can be hard. When it comes to a large monitor to maximise your productivity the Philips Brilliance 499P 49″ Superwide Curved Monitor or Philips Brilliance 498P 49″ Superwide Curved Monitor can be a great choice. We share why.
In this review we’re going to be talking about the 499P however, the 498P is basically the same monitor without the built in webcam and so this review should help you decide whether the 498P is right for you too.
499P Monitor – Design
The 499p is a beautifully designed curved monitor with slim bezels around the edges and a pop-up webcam on top which can be retracted for privacy. Alongside a huge selection of cables you also get a solid metal stand in the box which can tilt and adjust height.
The curve and beautiful display make this monitor look amazing on any desk as well as giving you plenty of screen space to play with.
Specification of the Brilliance 499P / 498P
With tons or ports and inputs, including USB-C, 2 HDMI and a displayPort input this monitor is packed with features. The rest of the monitor specifications can be split into 2 categories. The display and the extras!
The Screen
Boasting a massive 49″ display with a maximum ratio of 5120 by 1440 this Quad HD LCD display is beautiful. The monitor has a brightness of 450 cd/m2, 3000:1 contrast ratio and an impressive 120hz refresh rate which makes everything super-smooth to use.
The monitor itself has those curved edges to bring the edges closer to you which makes it more comfortable to use and, the anti-glare mode performs better than other monitors I’ve used previously which is great if you work near a window.
Finally, there’s a whole variety of display modes and options you can customise which we won’t go into however, our must-have is a anti-blue-light mode which helps protect your eyes and is a feature offered by the Brilliance 499P and 498P monitors.
The Extras
With a retail price of £1000 for the 499P and £850 for the 498P monitors these are not cheap however, pack in a lot of extras as well as just being incredibly well-made displays.
Built in Speakers
These monitors have a pair of 5W built in speakers at the base of the monitor. These speakers aren’t going to blow you away but sound better than we expected and are completely functional for tasks where you need audio such as editing video and video calls and also sound fine for background music.
Powered USB Dock
With a range of ports including ethernet and USB the built in, powered dock is great if you have chargers on your desk or even IR receivers for wireless mice and keyboards.
Built in Webcam and Microphone (499p only)
The build in webcam is a 2 megapixel full HD camera with microphone. This camera can have it’s angle adjusted and can be completely tucked inside the body of the monitor for privacy when not in use.
Using the Philips Brilliance 499p 49″ Superwide curved monitor every day
We’ve been using this monitor as our daily monitor for an average of 7 hours usage a day over the last week or so and it’s a brilliant, superwide monitor. The massive screen gives enough space for (at least) 3 full size windows which is great if you want to reference several windows at once.
In our usage we’ve used this for editing music in Logic Pro X with plugins open at the same time, creating a website with a web browser, design file and code editor open and, of course, writing content for this site with notes and specs open alongside our article editor.
The display is plenty bright enough, the anti-blue light protects our eyes and the antiglare performs incredibly well.
As mentioned previously, the built in speakers are fine for every day tasks but we still use our HomePod mini for background music as the sound quality is better.
The only disappointing thing about this monitor is the built in webcam which, even in good lighting scenarios looks grainy and, for the price point of this monitor we’d have liked to see a much higher quality camera. That being said, with the 498p costing £150 less we’d recommend most people go for that and then buy something like the incredible 2K AI webcam from AICOCO which we previously reviewed here.
Our Verdict
If you’re looking for a monitor with high build quality that performs really well then the Philips Brilliance 499P 49″ superwide curved monitor is a great choice. It’s comfortable to use, makes everything looks great and has plenty of screen real-estate.
For those likely to use a webcam on a daily basis we’d recommend opting for the Philips Brilliance 498P at the lower price-point and investing that spare cash in a decent external webcam.
You can purchase the monitors using our links below: