Philips 226E9QDSB Review - All-around budget monitor

Monitors have always been integral in computers and they have only gotten better and more affordable. One of them is the Philips 226E9QDSB.

Philips 226E9QDSB or Philips 226E

Let see if the Philips 226E 22-inch monitor worth it? Here's our review!

Unboxing/Accessories

Stand, documentation, driver disk, VGA to VGA cable, HDMI to HDMI cable, power cord and power supply!

It comes in a large white box with branding and regulatory information printed on all sides.

Inside is a styrofoam packing cube with inserts for the Monitor, the stand, the documentation, the driver disc, the VGA to VGA cord, the HDMI to HDMI cable, the power plug and the power supply.

Build Quality/Design

Back of the monitor

The monitor is mostly made out durable plastic. The back of is all glossy black while the stand is metal. The back is rounded towards the center thus it is not a flat monitor. Personally, this monitor is thin enough for the price.

Slim for the price

But, if you are looking for a monitor that is slimmer than 2 inches, you should increase your budget. This is not the monitor for you.

HDMI port, DVI port, VGA port, audio-out and power-in ports

The overall design is simple. The 21.5-inch screen has a nice matte coating preventing dirty fingerprints and unnecessary reflections. The bezels are 0.5 cm thin except for the bottom chin which is 2 cm thick. The bottom chin is glossy plastic similar to the back.

Clean top

Thin and clean on the left side

At the back there are the ventilation grills, Kensington lock slot, power input port, HDMI 1.4 port, 3.5mm audio out, VGA and DVI ports. Underneath where the stand attaches to the monitor is the knob for controlling the monitor. Lastly, there are hole for VESA mounting.

The stand only allows tilting the monitor front and back. The stand itself is a nice premium looking metal. 

Features

All settings can be changed by a single knob. By holding down the knob, you can turn off the monitor. Personally, we prefer a quicker way to turn the monitor off. The settings easily accessible are the Input Selection, Image presets called "Smart Image", and Brightness. These image presets are mostly intended for gaming as there are no color accurate presets. 

The monitor also highlights a Low Blue mode. It is Philips's rebranding of the blue light filter, night mode or reading mode found in other devices which reduces blue light to lessen eye fatigue.

Other settings include the usual manual picture adjustments of brightness, contrast, sharpness and color. Additional features include Fast Response and Fast Contrast which increases the speed of the backlight panel. These settings don’t increase the framerate but they do make games feel a bit more responsive. 

The monitor does have AMD Freesync which will make any AMD enthusiast happy. There is no G-SYNC so NVIDIA users can look elsewhere if they need the feature.

Performance

The monitor when the display is turned off

For the most part, the Philips is a good monitor. It has a nice IPS display with good brightness and little eye-tiring glare. It can reach an approximate brightness of 250 nits. Colors are bright. 

Viewing angles are good and have minimal visual degradation at extreme angles

We had a slight issue with lighting uniformity. It can be seen that the center is the brightest point and it gradually darkens to the edges.

Great screen quality for the price!

Using the monitor is awesome. The thin bezels make for an immersive viewing experience especially since we used this is a multi-monitor setup. 

The monitor has nice horizontal viewing angles thanks to its IPS display.

Philips 226E9QDSB Specs

Display: 21.5-inch IPS w/ FHD 1920 x 1080 resolution at 102 ppi

Brightness: 250 cd / m2 (type)

Contrast Ratio: 1000:1

Smart Contrast Ratio: 20 Million:1

Viewing Angle: 178 degrees/178 degrees

Response time: 5 ms 

Scanning Frequency: 30-83kHz (H)/50-76 Hz (V)

Signal Input: VGA (Analog), HDMI (digital, HDCP)

Price: PHP 6,336

Pros - Great IPS display, thin top and side bezels, affordable price

Cons - Slow to turn off time, lighting uniformity could be improved

Verdict

The Philips 226E is a high value basic monitor because of its good performing display, thin bezel frame at an affordable price.

This monitor can be easily used in a multi-monitor setup with a custom mount to compensate for the inflexible stand. 

It is one of the better monitors for people who do not need the best performing monitor in terms of color reproduction, high contrast or high frame rates, but who need to get things done with some gaming on the side with its 75Hz display.

The Philips 226E priced at PHP 6,336. It is available at nationwide at PC Express, PC Worx, Octagon, Thinkingtools, Computerworld, ThinkPC, Vivocom, and PC Chain.

Build Quality/Design - 4 

Features - 4

Performance - 4

Average - 4/5