
Philips 220CW8FB
Pros
- Rich colours, very good contrast and brightness
Cons
- USB port didn't detect all our USB sticks, poor viewing angles
Bottom Line
While this screen suffers from colour-shift when viewed from the sides, it's actually quite vibrant and has good contrast and brightness levels. It's also not a bad unit for gaming and watching a few flicks.
-
Price
$ 499.00 (AUD)
Designed primarily for home and office use, this Philips monitor has some useful features -- a widescreen 16:10 aspect ratio being one, and a built-in USB port being another. It's also a dual-input monitor with both analogue and digital inputs, and it's adequate for viewing movies and photos.
A native resolution of 1680x1050 makes the monitor enjoyable to use in an office environment where multitasking is the norm, yet it'll also do nicely when DVDs are played. While its resolution isn't high enough for high-definition movies to be played back in all their splendour, they'll still look crystal clear. The monitor wasn't without its problems though.
When trying to calibrate it, we came across a very quirky OSD menu, which would only appear for a second and then disappear. We couldn't get it to stay on the screen at all, suggesting that the time delay for its disappearance had been set way too low from the factory. This is most likely an anomaly due to it being a review unit, but it means that we had to test the monitor with its default luminance and colour settings. Thankfully, we were able to change the monitor's SmartImage setting, which is a one-touch control for luminance, colour and sharpness adjustments, but the SmartImage modes tend to over-sharpen the image, so we tested with it off.
In DisplayMate, the monitor produced indifferent results, which were mainly due to its viewing angles. Unless positioned directly in front and at eye-level, its greyscale would show slight hints of pink and green colouring. Colour shift was also very noticeable when moving even slightly towards the left or right of the screen.
Its luminance, however, was very good. Dark grey tones were visible on a black background, and light grey tones were visible on a white background. Its black and white levels were excellent, but its colours were a little over-saturated. That said, our test photos looked vibrant and warm so for photo viewing at least, this monitor is well suited. Dark areas of photographs were rendered well, which again is due to the monitor's good luminance levels, but we did notice a little image noise, which manifested as a slight shimmering.
The monitor's colour uniformity was good when viewed from the front, but again, was let down when viewed from the sides due to the narrow viewable angles.
Physically, the monitor doesn't have a glossy screen, but it does have a glossy bezel that can annoyingly reflect room lights. Its stand is basic and only allows for tilting, and its lone USB port is located at the rear of the screen. The USB port didn't work too well; it failed to recognise two out of three USB sticks.
Users who play games and watch a lot of video won't be let down by the screen's response rate -- we didn't notice any problems with blurring -- while users who want a monitor for editing photos will be pleased with the screen's rich output. However, it's a monitor that's best viewed from directly in front as it's prone to too much colour-shift when viewed from the sides.
Brand Post

Most Popular Reviews
- 1 Asus TUF Gaming VG28UQL1A review: This 4K monitor plays nice with consoles
- 2 Firewalla Gold review: Powerful home network security in a tiny box
- 3 Alienware AW3423DW review: Quantum dot OLED renders rival monitors obsolete
- 4 Acer Aspire 5 review: An affordable laptop that’s enjoyable to use
- 5 Asus ROG Zephyrus S17 review: This gaming laptop oozes luxurious power
Latest News Articles
- DisplayPort’s new labels avoid the confusion plaguing HDMI cables
- Dell’s latest 4K USB-C hub monitors get contrast-boosting ‘IPS Black’ powers
- Alienware’s ultrawide OLED monitor is perfect PC gaming excess
- Something for everybody in Acer’s new models
- Samsung's curviest Odyssey gaming monitors are coming to Aus in August
Resources
Business Centre
The latest business news, reviews, features and whitepapers

Videos
Watch our video news and reviews from around the world

Guides
Comprehensive buying guides, features, and step-by-step articles

PCW Evaluation Team
Pedro Peixoto
Aruba Instant On AP11D

Set up is effortless.
Cate Bacon
Aruba Instant On AP11D

The strength of the Aruba Instant On AP11D is that the design and feature set support the modern, flexible, and mobile way of working.
Dr Prabigya Shiwakoti
Aruba Instant On AP11D

Aruba backs the AP11D up with a two-year warranty and 24/7 phone support.
Tom Pope
Dynabook Portégé X30L-G

Ultimately this laptop has achieved everything I would hope for in a laptop for work, while fitting that into a form factor and weight that is remarkable.
Tom Sellers
MSI P65

This smart laptop was enjoyable to use and great to work on – creating content was super simple.
Lolita Wang
MSI GT76

It really doesn’t get more “gaming laptop” than this.
Featured Content
- Best Unlimited Internet Deals in 2022
- Microsoft’s universal ‘One Outlook’ client just leaked out
- Liquid Retina vs. Liquid Retina XDR: Which display is better?
- Which flagship TV is best? Sony 4K HDR Bravia 2016 versus LG 4K HDR OLED 2016
- 10 Blu-ray movies / Best looking Blu-ray movies