Philips let us have a play with the new 150P4cs 15” LCD monitor. Lucky us, ‘cos it rawked.
With a simple, compact design sitting on a double-hinged base, the Philips 150P4cs supports both analogue and digital inputs, although only an analogue cable was supplied.
Power is supplied via a standard power cord, with no bulky transformer required.
On screen monitor controls are managed via four unobtrusive buttons on the bezel, which is relatively standard fare. What this monitor does have, however, is a feature called ‘Light Frame’, which is available after installation from the supplied CD-ROM.
The purpose of ‘Light Frame’ is to automatically identify where images or video are on the screen and brighten just those areas. It is actually fairly clever at picking from a mix of image and video types on the screen, without affecting the rest of the display. This is handy for those who work with various media types, but the actual implementation is perhaps a little clumsy.
The interface to switch the feature on an off was difficult to manage. For example, we loaded a page from the Internet and the various images were identified and highlighted. But when we deactivated the Light Frame, and scrolled the screen, even just a bit, the images would be redetected and highlighted again. Worse, however, was that any windows that were opened over the top of any highlighted images displayed the highlighted area of the image underneath.
At the moment, we have mixed feelings about this technology. Whilst we understand it does have value in some situations, it became rather annoying and we eventually switched it off.
Apart from Light Frame, the monitor itself was quite the performer. Hooked up to an ASUS Ti4600, we viewed some DVD video, 2D and 3D rendered graphics and played a game or three. The images were sharp and clear without any of the colour banding noticeable on lesser models. We also found that the image remained clear and focused regardless of the viewing angle. The monitor is non-bulky and lightweight, perfect for those who would like to drag it around to LAN parties.
In summary: Monitor = great. Light Frame = don’t install it
Issue: 137 | June, 2012