When you think of Philips, your mind instantly gravitates towards its wonderful shavers, coffee makers, and home appliances. Philips is, in actual fact, a multi-faceted company that also makes tremendous lighting, life-saving medical equipment, and as we see here, gaming monitors… Good ones, that don’t break the bank either!
Design
Philips does not do much when it comes to the bling factor, consider them the under-seller. Every single one of their items prefers to go for the understated look and I love that. The Philips Momentum 325M2 Monitor follows that trend to a tee. No flashy colours or sharp design queues, no, instead they went for straight lines and timeless designs. This makes the Philips Momentum 325M2 Monitor perfect for every space, whether it be gaming or work, the simple and elegant design will fit into any setup.
The Philips Momentum 325M2 Gaming Monitor uses black and silver colours which work wonderfully well to keep its toned-down appeal. Starting from the foot piece, the foot piece is cleverly designed to take up substantially less space due to the fact that the monitor arm leans far enough forward, meaning the foot piece takes up most of its space towards the front. Perfectly spaced with the space the display will take up in the air. There is very little space behind the monitor, both on the desk and in the space above.
The foot piece is squared and takes an angled approach toward the viewer, following the curve of the monitor to give a sense of drawing you in. The foot piece mounts onto the rear of the monitor via a simple click-in system which was extremely easy to assemble. The Philips Momentum 325M2 Gaming Monitor has an extremely thin bezel design which features only a noticeable bezel at the bottom. The bottom of the screen has the word Momentum written in white, on the left, with the standard Philips name in the center. The bottom right shoulder is where the buttons can be found.
The rear of the monitor is grey which is, once again, perfect for the low-key look, perfect to fit into an office environment, yet won’t look out of place in a gaming setup. The stand connects via the standard VESA 100 mount with a simple click. There is not much in terms of embellishments on the rear apart from the Philips name. The ports are rear-facing, unlike many current monitors that opt for a downwards-facing port section.
Philips has opted to keep the inputs to a bare minimum with only two HDMI and DisplayPort inputs and a 3.5mm audio out if you would like to connect external speakers which is great if you have console gaming in mind.
Technical Specifications
LCD Panel – VA LCD
Backlight type – W-LED System
Panel Size – 31.5 inch
Display coating – Anti-Glare, 3H, Haze 40%
Effective Viewing area – 697.344 (H) x 392.256 (V) mm – at a 1000R curvature
Aspect ratio – 16:9
Max Resolution – HDMI 2560×1440@ 144Hz, DP 2560×1440@165Hz
Pixel Density – 93 PPI
MPRT – 1ms
Low Input Lag – Yes
Brightness – 250cd/m2
Smart Contrast – Mega Infinity DCR
Contrast – 2500:1
HDR – HDR Ready
AMD FreeSync – Premium
Features
The Philips Momentum 325M2 Monitor features a 1000R curve, I am generally not a fan of curved screens unless they are on the larger-sized panels. The 1000R is the perfect curve to put on the 32-inch panel while it draws you in and provides a more captivating experience, the curve is not too severe causing a minimal viewing angle.
The Philips Momentum 325M2 Monitor comes equipped with AMD FreeSync to ensure you are able to play all your games at a high frame rate without having any tearing or stuttering. Making it able to utilize the 165Hz panel that sits in this monitor. To improve this, even more, Philips has put low input lag and a 1ms response time on this panel minimizing the time it takes for your inputs to register on the screen.
The Philips Momentum 325M2 Monitor features QHD which delivers the perfect resolution of 2560×1440 for the large 32-inch VA. Incorporate that with HDR, and you have a simply breathtaking image. HDR Game will best optimize your image for gaming, whiter whites and darker blacks will really make your gaming experience pop. HDR movies will deliver better contrast and brightness to make scenes feel more realistic. HDR Photo will enhance the red, green, and blue for more lively visuals.
The overall feature and menu navigation of the Philips Momentum 325M2 is really easy to use and navigate and a few nice features such as the crosshair on the screen are an added benefit for anyone who is planning on using it for FPS gaming.
Gaming Experience
I am fortunate enough to review plenty of monitors and at times, you find one that just looks and feels right straight out of the box. The monitor that you place on your desk, plug it in and the colours and everything is just “right”. These are generally few and far between, the Philips Momentum 325M2 is one of those monitors.
I did not want to or need to, change a single setting, for my own preferences at least, on this monitor. Turning on the HDR often makes you have to adjust colour settings but it was simply perfect. The sheer size of the 32inch is always something I like and the 1000R curve really gives you a sense of being drawn in.
Jumping between AC Valhalla as well as R6 Siege and even some Apex Legends I found the Philips Momentum 325M2 to handle it all with ease. The high refresh rate served me well on both R6 Siege and Apex Legends and the HDR really came into its own during Apex Legends and AC Valhalla.
The only shortcoming I have noticed, especially when HDR is active, is that often during darker scenes in AC Valhalla especially, I would notice the odd dark blocks that would appear in the shadows. I am attesting this to the VA panel as moving this scene to another VA panel I got the same and shifting it to an IPS panel the anomaly disappeared.
Verdict
The Philips Momentum 325M2 gaming monitor is a great package. Coming in at a very competitive price of under R10 000 for a 32-inch QHD, 165Hz, HDR panel, there is not much reason not to buy it. It looks great in both gaming and productivity setups. The high refresh rate will excite gamers while the HDR and high resolution will get those who need to do some productivity eager to get their hands on this monitor.
I cannot fault the Philips Momentum 325M2 gaming monitor in any way shape or form. The whole package is just great for the price, many 27-inch monitors of other brands come in at a steeper price tag than this 32-inch. The only shortcoming or deal-breaker for some might be the VA panel. If you are serious about video editing or something along those lines, it would only be natural to rather look for an IPS panel. But for general use, the VA panel does a spectacular job!
I would purchase this Philips Momentum 325M2 gaming monitor in a heartbeat! Here is to hoping that they leave it with me for an extended period of time, because I will be extremely sad to see it go.
Design/build – 5/5
Features – 4/5
Price – 5/5
Overall:4.5/5
special thanks to Philips South Africa for the reviewed product
