Philips 436M6VBPAB Review: 4K HDR FreeSync Console Gaming Monitor

Thanks to its 43″ 4K screen with a high 1,000-nit peak brightness, local dimming, and wide color gamut, the Philips 436M6VBPAB is a great monitor for multimedia enjoyment.

In addition, AMD FreeSync paired with low input lag and decent response time make it a good choice for casual gaming too! And if you need to view a lot of stuff at once for your work, the monitor offers more screen space than you’ll likely ever need!

Image Quality

The Philips Momentum 436M6VBPAB is based on a VA panel with broad 178-degree wide viewing angles, a high 4,000:1 static contrast ratio, 4K UHD resolution, and 10-bit color depth support via dithering (8-bit + 2-bit FRC).

It also features a QDEF (quantum-dot enhanced film) layer for rich colors that cover 97.6% of the DCI-P3 color space, amounting to ~145% sRGB color gamut.

There is an sRGB mode that clamps the gamut down to ~100% for accurate sRGB colors, but it has a locked high brightness setting by default. You’ll need to download Philips’ SmartControl application to adjust the brightness in the sRGB mode.

In addition to the wide color gamut and high contrast, the monitor has a stellar typical luminance of 720-nits and a peak brightness of over 1,000-nits for HDR content.

The Philips 436M6VBPAB features both VESA DisplayHDR 1000 and Ultra HD Alliance certifications, but you’re not getting the ‘true’ HDR viewing experience as there are only 32 dimming zones.

Related:What Is HDR For Monitors And Is It Worth It?

These zones are supposed to dim parts of the image that need to be dark, without greatly affecting parts of the screen that should remain bright.

Since there are only 32 zones across the entire 43″ screen, only the scenes with dark and bright objects far apart will look significantly better.

The dimming zones are also not very quick, which can lead to distracting trails behind fast-moving objects.

For the ‘true’ HDR viewing experience, an LED display needs a full-array local dimming solution with many zones.

The new ASUS PG32UQX, for instance, has 1152 zones across its 32-inch screen yet the image is still not flawless as some halo/bloom is noticeable in certain scenes, but the HDR image is still drastically better than that of the Philips 436M6.

Basically, the Philips 436M6VBPAB monitor offers a great image quality thanks to its vibrant colors, high contrast ratio, and strong peak brightness, but HDR content will be hit or miss. Some scenes will look amazing, some will look just okay, and some will look better with HDR disabled due to the slow dimming zone transitions.

Sadly, you can’t disable local dimming when HDR is enabled.

Another thing to keep in mind about the monitor is that it uses a BGR subpixel layout, instead of the standard RGB. This can cause text to appear somewhat fuzzy and fringy.

The issue can be alleviated by setting up ClearType properly, though this only applies to Windows’ native applications. Another way to improve text is to use scaling as the issue is most prominent at 100% (no scaling).

You most likely won’t notice this issue when gaming or watching videos, but if you read and type a lot, it can be bothersome.

Performance

The Philips 436M6VBPAB input lag is only ~10ms meaning that you won’t be able to notice or feel any delays.

There are four response time overdrive modes: Off, Fast, Faster, and Fastest. We recommend using the ‘Off’ mode as it has the least amount of inverse ghosting.

As expected from a 4K VA panel monitor at this price range, there is some trailing visible behind fast-moving objects, more so in darker scenes.

It’s okay for casual gaming, but if you’re sensitive to ghosting or play a lot of fast-paced shooters competitively, you’ll most likely find the response time to be too slow.

Moving on, the Philips 436M6VBPAB also supports AMD FreeSync technology, but with a limited 48-60Hz range.

This means that if you have a FreeSync-compatible graphics card or an Xbox console, the monitor will change its refresh rate according to GPU’s frame rate within the 48-60Hz/FPS range.

Within that range, all screen tearing and stuttering will be removed without adding perceptible input lag, but as soon as your FPS drops below 48, screen tearing and stuttering will begin occurring again until your frame rate is back to 48 or over.

On PC, you might want to try extending the VRR (variable refresh rate) range using CRU (Custom Resolution Utility).

FreeSync also works without any issues when using a compatible NVIDIA G-SYNC graphics card.

Features

You can either use the provided remote controller or the OSD-joystick on the monitor to navigate and adjust OSD (On-Screen Display) settings.

For the best input lag performance, remember to leave the ‘Low Input Lag’ setting on in the Setup section of the OSD menu.

Besides the standard adjustments, such as brightness, contrast, gamma, and color temperature, you will find additional features, including the Picture in Picture and Picture By Picture modes and advanced audio settings (EQ, DTS).

Apart from that, the Philips 436M6VBPAB HDR PC monitor features the Ambiglow technology, which consists of RGB LEDs that can synchronize to the colors on the image and produce atmospheric lighting beneath the bottom bezel of the screen.

There are also three different HDR modes, including VESA HDR 1000, UHDA, Normal, and Off.

You should use it depending on what type of content you are playing, the viewing distance, and overall preference, though we found VESA preset to work best for the most part.

The monitor supports HDCP 2.2, so you can stream content from Netflix, Amazon Video, etc. in native 4K UHD.

While the screen doesn’t use PWM (Pulse-Width Modulation) to regulate brightness, there’s a high frequency (1000Hz+) oscillation but it shouldn’t bother those sensitive to flickering.

Design & Connectivity

The Philips 436M6VBPAB design resembles a TV though it’s possible to tilt the screen by -5°/10° and VESA mount it using the 200 x 200mm pattern. The stand is made of aluminum while the chassis sports black glossy plastics.

Just like most TVs, the 436M6VBPAB has a glossy screen surface, which makes the colors more vivid but also causes the screen to be reflective under strong lights.

Turning to the connectivity, there’s DisplayPort 1.4, mini-DisplayPort 1.4, HDMI 2.0, and a USB type C port (with DP 1.4 Alt Mode, but no Power Delivery) as well as a headphone jack, a dual USB 3.0 hub with fast charging capacity, and two 7W DTS integrated speakers.

Price & Similar Monitors

The Philips 436M6VBPAB price amounts to ~$850.

There are different models of the monitor depending on the region:

• Philips 436M6VBPAB/27 – the US model with two HDMI 2.0 ports
• Philips 436M6VBPAB/00 – the EU model with one HDMI 2.0 port

Another difference between these two monitors is that the /00 variant can use local dimming for SDR content too.

For gaming, we recommend getting the equally-priced Gigabyte Aorus FV43U with HDMI 2.1, DisplayHDR 1000, and 4K 144Hz support instead.

Conclusion

This leaves the Philips 436M6VBPAB as a good option for in-between use – if you do a bit of gaming but don’t need a high refresh rate and you want a bit better HDR image quality.

Visit our comprehensive and always up-to-date best gaming monitor buyer’s guide for more monitors and information.

You also might want to keep an eye on all upcoming monitors.

Specifications

Screen Size	42.5-inch
Resolution	3840×2160 (UHD)
Panel Type	VA
Aspect Ratio	16:9 (Widescreen)
Refresh Rate	60Hz
Response Time	4ms (GtG)
Adaptive Sync	FreeSync (48Hz-60Hz)
Speakers	2x7W
Ports	DisplayPort 1.4, mini-DisplayPort 1.4, HDMI 2.0
Other Ports	2x USB 3.0, Headphone Jack, USB-C (DP 1.4 Alt Mode)
Brightness	1000 cd/m2
Contrast Ratio	4000:1 (static)
Colors	1.07 billion (8-bit + FRC)
VESA	Yes (200x200mm)