If you're the only monitor in a comparison review without a digital input, yet still cost over $700, you have to have something pretty special up your sleeve. Unfortunately the 19 inch Philips had no hidden ace in our quality tests. Contrast and brightness can't compete with the others, nor is its relative performance for gaming and DVD playback. This monitor has one of the least bright displays and didn't provide an impressive 'black' screen - there was (back) light pouring in around the edges.
Our feature point counting didn't start so badly as the base, which folds back behind the display when shipping, means this monitor has a theoretical tilt of 90?. Unsurprisingly, it becomes unstable past 40 degrees though. A big surprise was the excellent screen calibration software, 'FPadjust'. Of the three monitors tested, which come with such software, the Philips' was the best as it's very easy to use. It covers all the key bases, such as horizontal and vertical position, phase, clock, brightness and contrast as well as vertical and horizontal video noise. But many of these features would be redundant on the DVI models anyway as the digital connection doesn't require such information.
But overall it's still hard to find grounds for recommending the Philips. It's nothing special to look at either, being a big, clunky chunk of silver plastic. You simply can't expect people to pay this much for an analog-only display with little going for it beyond calibration software --not now 19 inch prices are dropping so much. Even if your graphics card doesn't have a DVI output, you should make sure it's included for future proofing.
