Philips Brilliance 498P9Z, Ultrawide And 165Hz

5,120 x 1,440 Of Freesync Premium

There are an increasing number of 49″ and larger ultrawide screen monitors to choose from, now including the Philips Brilliance 498P9Z.  The first thing to note about it is the Z … there is a non-Z model which only goes up to 70Hz, while the 498P9Z can hit 120Hz on HDMI connection and 165Hz with DisplayPort.  The two models both offer VA panels with 3,000:1 contrast so if high refresh rates are less important to you, then by all means shop for the non-Z model.

Kitguru snooped around the OSD and found the usual features as well as some handier ones such as the PBP function which allows you to make this monitor behave as two separate 1440p displays, letting you play a full screen game and still keep an eye on your desktop; especially handy if you are streaming and need access to the software controls.  The OSD also allows you to swap modes, important as some modes such as the Office preset are limited in their brightness, while EasyRead can reach 543.6cd/m2 brightness.

The colour accuracy was quite good out of the box, including P3, however much to Kitguru’s dismay the gamuts dropped slightly after calibration.  It’s a good thing Datacolor saves the default profile as well as the calibrated one.  Check out the full review for all the good and bad about the Philips Brilliance 498P9Z.