Philips Evnia 27M2N5901A Review

Design

• Stylish white finish
• Lots of stand adjustment
• Extensive port selection

The Evnia 27M2N5901A’s look isn’t too dissimilar to other monitors in the brand’s range I’ve tested over the years, with a slick and stylish white frame to add a little more pizzazz to your desktop. Granted, it is mostly plastic, but it feels sturdy when assembled. 

Assembly is nice and easy with the V-shaped base screwing into the stand, which clips into the back of the monitor. It’s a shame this isn’t a flat base, as we’re seeing become more common on monitors in general, as it can make standing things on it, such as my Sonos Beam soundbar, trickier than it needs to be.

There isn’t much branding on this Philips screen, with small Evnia and Philips logos in the bottom left and right corners, respectively. The reverse of this panel is a lot more angular and boxier, also housing Philips’ innovative Ambiglow LEDs, which project light onto the rear wall for added ambience. That’s found on some other Evnia panels, as well as a lot of Philips’ own TVs, too.

The stand has strong adjustment, with good room for tilt, swivel and height adjustment so you can get comfortable with it. The panel can also pivot around to be vertical, as the AOC Gaming Q27G3XMN/BK does. If you don’t want to use the included stand, though, the Evnia 27M2N5901A is also 100mm x 100mm VESA mountable.

As for ports, we’ve got a pair of HDMI 2.1 ports, a singular DP 1.4 and a USB-C that supports DP Alt mode with both video and up to 65W of power delivery. You also get the benefit of an extensive USB hub with a USB-B port for powering a pair of USB-A data ports, and a KVM switch so you can hook up one set of peripherals to the screen and control multiple connected devices through it. This isn’t usually seen on a more affordable monitor, so it’s a very handy addition.

Image Quality

• Detailed and smooth output
• Solid colour accuracy
• Black level and contrast is middling

The Evnia 27M2N5901A features a detailed 4K resolution and 160Hz refresh rate, providing some excellent image quality out of the box across its 27-inch size. The high refresh rate also helps responsiveness in everything from cinematic titles such as Cyberpunk 2077, to quicker-paced eSports titles where that refresh rate becomes more useful, such as Counter-Strike 2 and Dirt Rally 2.0. 

This panel can also double its refresh rate to 320Hz, at the expense of going down to 1080p resolution, to provide even more responsiveness for faster-paced titles as a dual-mode monitor.

Brightness-wise, we’re seeing a peak of 429 nits, which keeps images punchy and vibrant. There is also basic HDR support for DisplayHDR400, although don’t expect to find more advanced standards or higher peak brightness here, though.

Being a Fast IPS panel means you experience the benefits of both brisk response times and solid colour accuracy, too. This is especially useful for competitive titles, and the Evnia 27M2N5901A had no trouble in the likes of CS:2 in my testing, for instance.

Speaking of colour accuracy, my colorimeter measured a perfect 100% coverage of the sRGB colour space, meaning this screen displays all the mainstream colours needed for gaming and productivity workloads perfectly. For more colour-sensitive workloads, this panel could conceivably be used, with 88% DCI-P3 and 83% Adobe RGB coverage being above the requisite 80 percent measurement, although you’d be better off with a screen that’s designed for that purpose, rather than a gaming one.

A measured 6500K temperature is perfect, although the 1120:1 contrast ratio is quite middling. The black level on offer was a bit of a disappointment, though, with out-of-the-box levels of 0.28, which was exacerbated to 0.39 when cranking the Evnia 27M2N5901A up to its peak brightness. 

This is symptomatic of IPS screens against OLEDs and Mini LEDs, although we’re yet to see many 4K OLED or Mini LED panels achieve a more affordable price point.

Variable refresh rate support comes in both AMD FreeSync and Nvidia G-Sync flavours, meaning the Evnia 27M2N5901A comes with a tear and stutter-free experience with GPUs from both Team Red and Team Green.

Software and Features

• Lots of configuration in OSD
• Speakers are just okay

The Evnia 27M2N5901A comes with an extensive OSD which feels very similar to the Evnia 32M2N8900 and other monitors in the same range. It’s navigated by the small joystick on the panel’s reverse. Here you can cycle through different panel modes based on game genre, such as racing or FPS titles, fiddle with the panel’s clever Ambiglow lighting system, enable any on-screen crosshairs, choose inputs, volume control and more besides.

There’s a lot of functionality, although the joystick feels a little cumbersome for controlling the OSD – this isn’t necessarily a complaint on this Philips monitor, but more with joysticks in general.

Unlike some other monitors, the Evnia 27M2N5901A comes with speakers built in. They’re serviceable for monitor speakers in a general sense, although they lack depth and detail compared to a dedicated soundbar or separate units.

Should you buy it?