Philips Evnia 34M2C8600 Review
A QD-OLED marvel with lots of style
Verdict
The Philips Evnia 34M2C8600 is a fantastic ultrawide gaming monitor with a lot to like including a sleek design, marvellous QD-OLED panel, solid port selection and comprehensive OSD. It may be an expensive option, but there aren’t many better monitors of this type available.
Pros
- Stylish white and silver chassis
- Marvellous image quality
- Comprehensive OSD
Cons
- Expensive
- Lack of HDMI 2.1 port at this price is a shame
Key Features
- 34-inch QD-OLED panel:The Evnia 34M2C8600 comes with an ultrawide QD-OLED panel with deep blacks, vibrant colours and fantastic contrast.
- 175Hz refresh rate:It also comes with a high refresh rate for smooth motion and a responsive gaming experience.
- Wide port selection:The Evnia 34M2C8600 also features both DP 1.4 and HDMI 2.0 outputs, as well as four USB-A ports, a USB-C port with KVM powers, and a 3.5mm headphone jack.
Introduction
The Philips Evnia 34M2C8600 represents one of the first entries in Philips’ latest lineup of Evnia-branded monitors and peripherals that debuted at the back end of 2022.
Originally priced at £1149.95/$1299.99 (although currently on sale for a much lower rate), it is an expensive monitor. Still, you are getting the benefits of a 34-inch ultrawide 3440×1440 QD-OLED panel, complete with a 175Hz refresh rate, a vast port selection and a stylish, modern design.
Competition is fierce where ultrawide monitors are concerned, with four-figure price tags including top-class options from Samsung (Odyssey Neo G9) and Asus (ROG Swift OLED PG49WCD). While this particular form factor means this Evnia panel also competes against the middling Lenovo Legion Y34wz-30.
I’ve been testing the Evnia 34M2C8600 to see if it makes for one of the best ultrawide monitors yet. Here’s my verdict.
Design
- Modern white and silver colourway
- Lots of stand adjustment
- Vast port selection
I’m a big fan of how the Evnia 34M2C8600 looks, with a stylish white and silver colourway which offers a more modern alternative to the sea of black monitors available elsewhere. The combination of silver across the bottom bezel and stand, as well as the speckled finish on the angled bottom portion of the stand looks sublime, and helps the Evnia 34M2C8600 to be quite a statement piece on your desk.
The branding touches are kept to a minimum with a small Evnia logo in the bottom left corner, while there is a Philips logo on the opposite side, while the right front side also houses a small LED to indicate when the monitor is on. The back side is a lot more angular and boxier, and also houses a series of LED lights for the Evnia 34M2C8600’s Ambiglow light projection.
The rear of the stand also houses a small Evnia logo, and is entirely made of metal for maximum sturdiness. It ties in well with the white and silver colours found elsewhere. It also houses a headphone stand which I used to perch my Focal Bathys on, and even if it is quite difficult to access the headphones when on the stand, it’s still a nifty feature.
This is an easy monitor to build, as long as you manoeuvre it carefully. The stand screws into the bottom with no need for tools, and you can be up and running in a matter of moments. If the bundled stand isn’t for you though, then Philips bundles a bracket that makes the Evnia 34M2C8600 suitable for VESA mounting.
Unless you’ve got something that would get in the way of the included stand, such as a set of speakers or soundbar, the stand that the Evnia 34M2C8600 comes on will be excellent for most people. There is good scope for adjustment here, with 150mm of height adjustment, as well as convenient means for tilt and swivel if you need the panel in a different position. You can’t put the Evnia 34M2C8600 into a portrait orientation though, arguably owing to its 1800R curvature.
As for ports, the Evnia 34M2C8600 impresses with a vast selection which includes a pair of DP 1.4 ports, as well as an HDMI 2.0 for display inputs. The latter is a bit of a shame, given how common HDMI 2.1 ports are becoming nowadays.
You get a total of four USB-A ports which are split in terms of their placement with two on the main port panel, while the other two sit on the left hand side as you look at the monitor. There is also a USB-B upstream port for offering power to those USB-A ports, as well as a USB-C to power the Evnia 34M2C8600’s KVM switch, which is used for operating two different devices connected to the monitor with one set of peripherals, as opposed to needing two separate sets.
Image Quality
- Fantastic SDR performance
- Deep blacks and accurate colours
- Smooth motion with a high refresh rate
The headline feature is the presence of the QD-OLED panel, which is part of the reason why this monitor costs as much as it does. A QD-OLED panel combines the benefits of a QLED and OLED with a QLED’s higher peak brightness and the deep, inky blacks of an OLED. It’s arguably one of the best panel types available for a gaming monitor, and has become a favourite for higher-end options.
This particular panel is a 34-inch option with a 21:9 aspect ratio and a 3440×1440 resolution which is excellent for both work and play in testing it in the likes of Cyberpunk 2077 and F1 22, with smooth motion thanks to the 175Hz refresh rate. There is also a near-instant 0.03ms response time, as well as support for AMD FreeSync and Adaptive Sync for Nvidia GPUs to prevent screen tearing and juddering.
I also tested it with a range of LG’s OLED demes and HDR content on Prime Video to best gauge image quality, and the Evnia 34M2C8600 looks brilliant with deep blacks, vibrant colours and virtually infinite contrast. Getting out my colorimeter only helped back up my initial observations. Colour accuracy here is near-perfect, with a measured 100% coverage of the mainstream sRGB space, as well as equally excellent performance for both Adobe RGB and DCI-P3 at 93% and 98% respectively making the Evnia 34M2C8600 a suitable panel for more colour workloads.
A peak brightness of 237 nits in SDR nearly hits Philips’ 250 nits claims, while its 0.03 black level explains the inky, perfect blacks that this QD-OLED panel offers, and its 6000K white point is also nearly bang on, too. A contrast ratio in SDR of 8090:1 is also fantastic, and even if this monitor is very rarely going to hit the 1,000,000:1 which Philips claim, it’s still highly impressive at making both games and movies look brilliant.
The Evnia 34M2C8600 supports DisplayHDR True Black 400, and Philips quotes this panel to offer a peak HDR brightness of 1000 nits in localised elements. In supported content, the panel looks excellent with that high peak brightness, although even at lower levels, it still looks a lot better than equivalent sized LCD screens.
The only issue you will have to deal with in content that isn’t 21:9 by default is the blackboarding effect, where black bars appear to the side of the screen where the output doesn’t fill the entire panel. This is more likely to affect movies and video content rather than games, which should support the full 21:9 aspect ratio to provide an immersive experience. With this in mind, racing titles such as Assetto Corsa Competizione and FPS games such as CS:2 can take full advantage of the wider aspect ratio to keep you engrossed in games.
Software and Features
- Comprehensive OSD
- Ambiglow lighting is a nice touch
- Speakers offer lots of volume and decent depth
With regards to its OSD, the Evnia 34M2C8600 offers one of the most comprehensive out there, containing plenty of scope for changing how the screen looks with ten different presets, including specific ones for FPS and Racing Games, as well as one for Movies, too. It’s also easy to navigate with a joystick on the back right of the panel as you look at it.
The Game Mode tab provides options for enabling Adaptive Sync and an on-screen crosshair and for enabling settings including Dynamic Dark Boost and Sharp Shooter. The former varies low-end gamma to help details in shadows remain plentiful, while the Sharp Shooter setting adds a window in the middle of the screen with extra magnification, in a similar vein to the scope of a sniper rifle.
You can also enable Ambiglow in the OSD, which projects a series of lights positioned on the back of the monitor into the wall behind you to provide some stylish ambient lighting. This can either follow on-screen content, or you can map it to your own will with a choice of single colours, or a full rainbow, It looks fantastic, and it’s pleasant to see the feature make its way over from Philips TVs to the gaming monitors.
Otherwise, you can also use the OSD to switch between inputs and enable the KVM switch, as well as go through a range of options for OLED care to help prevent the effects of burn-in. While the options are not as exhaustive as with some of the more modern monitors with Samsung’s third-gen QD-OLED panels, there are still options for pixel refresh, as well as pixel orbiting, and an option to enable a prompt which shows if the monitor has been on for a while and it thinks you should run the OLED care procedure.
The presence of a KVM switch is useful for folks who want to use one monitor and set of peripherals with multiple displays, as I sometimes do when switching between my Windows PC for playing games and my MacBook Pro for work. It works well for flitting between the two, and keeps life easy.
Unlike some other gaming monitors at this price, the Evnia 34M2C8600 comes with a pair of DTS-tuned 5W internal speakers which are reasonable for a set of internal monitor speakers with a lot of volume and a reasonable amount of depth, too. While they aren’t up to the standards of separate speakers or a dedicated headset, I could happily use these for a while before wanting a dedicated set.
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Should you buy it?
You want fantastic image quality:
The Evnia 34M2C8600’s QD-OLED panel offers up some brilliant images in both SDR and HDR with deep blacks, vibrant colours and excellent motion, and if you want tip-top output, this is a panel to consider.
You want a more affordable panel:
As much as this Evnia 34M2C8600 is a brilliant monitor, it’s expensive. So, if your budget doesn’t go this far, if you simply want something more affordable, you will be looking elsewhere.
Final Thoughts
When gaming monitors tend to be mostly black boxes in varying shapes and sizes, the Philips Evnia 34M2C8600 is refreshing. It’s a gorgeous monitor with a sleek white and silver colourway that feels more grown up than a lot of the competition, as well as a vast selection of ports and useful features including a KVM and easy-to-use OSD.
What’s more, this is also a panel with brilliant image quality. Deep blacks, fantastic contrast and vibrant colours are all on the menu with the 34-inch 3440×1440 QD-OLED screen. Its motion handling is also excellent with a 175Hz refresh rate, and a wraparound screen with a 21:9 ultrawide aspect ratio also makes it a marvellous choice for immersion in games.
It is comparably more expensive than panels of the same, or of bigger size, such as the Lenovo Legion Y34wz-30 and AOC Agon AG405UXC, but neither of those offer QD-OLED powers with as sublime image quality and as stylish of a design. The Evnia 34M2C8600 is a brilliant gaming monitor, as long as you’ve got the dough to pay for it. For more options, check out our list of the best gaming monitors we’ve tested.
How we test
We use every monitor we test for at least a week. During that time, we’ll check it for ease of use and put it through its paces by using it for both everyday tasks and more specialist, colour-sensitive work.
We also check its colours and image quality with a colorimeter to test its coverage and the display’s quality.
We used it as our main monitor for at least a week.
We used a colorimeter to get benchmark results.
We used our own expert judgement for image quality.
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FAQs
The Philips Evnia 34M2C8600 has a 3440×1440 resolution across a 34-inch screen.
The Evnia 34M2C8600 comes with a three-year warranty that also covers any issues caused by OLED burn-in, for peace of mind.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
