Monitors have been growing, and I really like the trend. I recently went from a dual 27-inch 16:9 1440p monitor setup to a single 34-inch 21:9 1440p monitor, and there’s no turning back for me. The benefits of UltraWide vastly outweigh any downsides in my opinion.
A trend that Samsung started last year, however, shows even more promise I think. Samsung launched a 49-inch 32:9 monitor with a resolution of 3840×1080. This is nice, but honestly, I was waiting for a higher-resolution monitor to come out because I just can’t downgrade from 1440p to 1080p again. Thankfully, Philips has finally announced the answer to my dilemma.
Now, pricing information is not yet available from Philips on the Brilliance 492P8, but if it takes after its Samsung predecessor, the price will probably be in the neighborhood of $1,500-$2,000. I hope it’s less, but I’m not holding my breath for this new technology to be super budget-friendly just yet.
Why does one need a 49-inch 32:9 1440p monitor with an astounding 5120×1440 display? Short answer, no one needs this, but it’s so amazing that everyone probably wants it.
Philips’ new monitor sports a 1800R curvature, 5000:1 contrast ratio, DisplayPort, USB-C, VGA, HDMI, Ethernet, and is a USB 3.0 hub as well. You’ll not be lacking at all when it comes to the port department on the Philips Brilliance 492P8.
There are those that question why having such a wide monitor is useful, so let me take a moment and explain. A 21:9 monitor, or a normal UltraWide offering, is the width of one normal 16:9 monitor with another 4:3 next to it, on a single panel.
This means that you can have more content on a single monitor without having bezels get in your way like a normal two monitor setup brings. Up that ratio to 32:9, and you now have the equivalent of two 16:9 monitors without any bezels in the middle.
The main reason I went from my two monitors down to one, was I hated staring at a bezel in the middle of my screen real estate. No matter how small the bezel, anything between two monitors is bound to cause issues, in my opinion.
Going with a 32:9 monitor means I’ll have the screen real estate of two 1440p monitors without that pesky black line in the center. To say I’m excited about this monitor release is an understatement.
Sadly, like earlier stated, there is no official release date set yet for the Philips Brilliance 492P8, nor is there an official price. Only recently did Philips announce the details of its upcoming monitor. We expect more information to come closer to the release timeframe, which is slated to be later in the year.
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