Philips Gioco 278G4 3D Ambiglow review

The 278G4 has enough inputs to let you connect multiple devices at once, including three HDMI inputs and a VGA port for connecting it to older PCs. It doesn’t have any speakers built into the casing, but there is a HDMI audio output for your headphones or an external pair of speakers. There are also four USB3 ports, which is particularly handy if you like to keep your PC out of the way on the floor.

Of course, no monitor is worth its salt if it hasn’t got the image quality to match its special features. Thankfully, the 278G4 isn’t far off the award-winning AOC e2752Vq when it comes to colour accuracy. Straight out of the box, our colour calibrator showed it was displaying 97.5 per cent of the sRGB colour gamut. We weren’t able to increase this score after calibration, but a score of 97 per cent is precisely what we expect to see from an IPS screen at this price.

Our solid colour image tests bore similar results, showing very bright and vivid reds, greens and blues uniformly across the screen. Blacks were deep and whites were almost truly white, but here we couldn’t help but notice the backlight bleeding through very slightly in the bottom corners of the screen. You wouldn’t notice it during day-to-day use, but it nevertheless chips away at the monitor’s overall appeal.

Its glossy finish also caused a few problems with reflections when we tried viewing our high contrast images with the lights on, but considering the 278G4’s Ambiglow effect is best viewed in the dark, we had no problems whatsoever when we turned the lights off. Each picture showed a very high level of detail, and its brightness levels were also excellent.

Overall, we like the Philips Gioco 278G4, especially its USB3 hub, but its AmbiGlow feature not only feels superfluous, it also detracts from your viewing pleasure. You can turn it off, though. If you aren’t going to take advantage of its 3D capabilities either, that leaves the 278G4 feeling rather expensive. If you’d rather not pay a £50 premium for its good looks, then you’d probably be better off with the AOC e2752Vq.