Philips 27M1N5500ZA Review: 27-Inch IPS Monitor

The Philips Momentum 27M1N5500 marks Philips's arrival on the gaming-monitor segment. It carries a 27-inch Nano IPS Quad HD panel at 170 Hz and backs it with genuinely accomplished ergonomics. This review is based on the complete published test of the monitor, not on hands-on testing of our own.

The 27M1N5500 — also known simply as the Momentum 5500 — uses a 27-inch Nano IPS panel from LG Display at a Quad HD definition of 2560 x 1440 pixels and a native 170 Hz refresh rate. It distinguishes itself from rival panels with a 1 ms response time and Nano-IPS technology that covers 98% of the DCI-P3 colour space. FreeSync Premium (Adaptive Sync) operates up to 170 Hz; the monitor is not G-Sync certified, but compatibility with GeForce cards is assured all the same. Complete connectivity, integrated speakers and faultless ergonomics round out the package, and it lines up against established 27-inch Quad HD IPS rivals such as the Asus TUF VG27AQ.

From the front the screen is fairly classical, with the stand lending the set some character; the panel's matt coating filters most reflections. The C-shaped base is very airy and frees up desk space, though room must be found beneath the desk for the external power supply — a choice that eases replacement should it fail, if less elegant than an integrated unit. The stand adjusts across 13 cm of height and -5° to +20° of tilt, and — impressively for so slim a design — allows portrait orientation and ±45° swivel to left or right, every adjustment moving smoothly and silently. That quality of stand in so compact a format is a rare thing worth underlining on this segment.

Connectivity comprises two HDMI 2.0 inputs, two DisplayPort inputs, a headphone output and four USB 3.0 ports, two of them supporting fast charging at 2.4 A. Two 5 W speakers are unexceptional but serviceable for short videos. Navigation falls to a clickable joystick — much the most agreeable way through the menus, which are legible and quick to move around, covering source, presets, brightness, contrast, sharpness, overdrive and colour temperature. On a desk the airy stand and shallow 21 cm depth leave ample room for keyboard and mouse. The Quad HD definition is reasonably fine at 109 pixels per inch on this diagonal, showing good detail; the more sensitive can scale to 125% or 150% depending on viewing distance, at the cost of a little workspace.

Default image quality is excellent. The colour-temperature and gamma curves are stable across the spectrum, the gamma measuring 2.2 in line with the reference so grey levels reproduce perfectly, and the average colour temperature of 6340 K sits very close to the 6500 K video reference. Colours are effectively perfect, the average delta E capping at 2.6 — below the perceptibility threshold of 3 — and lowering brightness to reach a white near 150 cd/m² changes nothing; the rendering is good enough to need no calibration. Coverage reaches 100% of sRGB and 95% of DCI-P3, the space used by most Ultra HD films and series. HDR is supported, but a low contrast ratio paired with a limited peak brightness of 319 cd/m² clearly blunts its usefulness.

The sore point is native contrast, measured at just 675:1 — very low for an IPS panel, where the best exceed 1200:1 and most manage 1000:1. On screen this shows as washed-out, greyish blacks: not serious in daylight, but noticeable in dim conditions and dark scenes, which end up systematically over-exposed. White uniformity is very good at 6% deviation across the panel — and as low as 1% with the Smart Uniformity mode engaged — with no perceptible brightness variation, no corner light leakage and no clouding on the tested sample. IPS viewing angles are, as ever, very good.

The Momentum 5500 avoids pulse-width modulation to govern its brightness, so it is flicker-free, and a software blue-light reduction mode is included. FreeSync Premium operates across a wide 48-170 Hz window covering every use, though exploiting the native Quad HD definition at high frame rates calls for a powerful graphics card of the GeForce RTX 3080 or Radeon RX 6800 XT class. A backlight-strobing black-frame-insertion mode (MPRT), adjustable across 20 levels, sharpens moving objects effectively but disables FreeSync when active and dims the image at its maximum setting — one or the other, to taste.

Responsiveness measured 5.5 ms — excellent for an IPS panel — with the overdrive set to its "faster" step; the top "fastest" setting introduces clearly visible, bothersome reverse ghosting. A handful of IPS and VA monitors go quicker still, the 280 Hz and 240 Hz panels of the Asus VG279QM and Samsung Odyssey G7 reaching 4.5 ms, but the Philips clearly ranks among the most reactive monitors around. Input lag measured 11 ms, so there is no perceptible delay between the graphics card sending an image and its appearance on screen.

At a white of around 150 cd/m² the monitor draws about 26 W — a relative 129 W/m², well above the 100 W/m² average of tested monitors. Minimum brightness (71 cd/m²) uses 20 W; maximum (319 cd/m²) 43 W.

The 27-inch Momentum 5500 is a very good monitor for gamers, and more besides. Its Nano IPS Quad HD panel is highly reactive and FreeSync support up to 170 Hz ensures great fluidity in games, while its out-of-box calibration suits anyone who also needs accurate colour. The stand is a pleasant surprise, packing numerous adjustments into a compact format that is still rare on this segment. Only its low contrast and elevated consumption keep it from ranking among the very best.