Philips Evnia 49M2C8900 Review (240Hz QD-OLED Super Ultrawide)

The Philips Evnia 49M2C8900 is a really interesting monitor and it's been fascinating to use it over the last couple of months. It's not perfect, but for those interested in buying a 49in super ultrawide display, it does plenty right.

Utilising Samsung's second-generation QD-OLED panel – the same found in the likes of the Samsung G9 OLED – it offers a very punchy and dynamic image as we'd expect, with colours far exceeding the sRGB colour space, alongside the effectively infinite contrast ratio that is a hallmark of OLED technology.

Couple that with the 240Hz refresh rate, which delivers exceptional motion clarity, and gamers will find a lot to like here. That is, if your games of choice play nicely with the 32:9 aspect ratio, as that unfortunately isn't a given even in 2024. I found it best suited to racing games and could see this monitor at the heart of a racing sim setup, but it certainly won't be for everyone.

There are some issues though, the main one being the inaccurate HDR performance. As we saw earlier, with the different HDR modes on offer, users have to choose between a 1000-nit peak brightness mode but with poor accuracy, or a much dimmer overall experience that is more accurate – and neither is ideal. Considering HDR is a key selling point for OLED monitors, this is certainly something that Philips should be aiming to fix with a firmware update as a priority.

The built-in sRGB emulation mode is also not overly impressive, with the panel suffering from a slightly warm tint that reduces colour accuracy in the sRGB space. Offering customisable white balance settings, and a better sRGB clamp, would go some way to improving this.

That said, I do still feel that the Philips Evnia 49M2C8900 is worth buying, namely thanks to its impressive raw speed and relatively unique form-factor. We also have to factor in pricing, with the 49M2C8900 retailing for under £1150 at the time of writing, whereas the aforementioned Samsung G9 OLED, which uses the same panel, is up at £1400. There's certainly room for a firmware update or two to improve performance, but if you're interested in a screen like this, the 49M2C8900 does enough to earn our recommendation.

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Pros

• Large and unique form-factor.
• Very fast response times.
• Incredibly wide colour gamut.
• We measured just over 1000 nits peak brightness.
• Effectively infinite contrast ratio.
• 2x HDMI 2.1
• Ambiglow lighting adds to the experience.
• Integrated KVM.

Cons

• HDR is inaccurate in its default mode.
• No user-configurable white balance.
• sRGB emulation mode needs work.

KitGuru says: For a certain type of gamer, the Evnia 49M2C8900 could be just the thing.

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