Philips Releases 42-inch Evnia Monitor for 4K OLED, 138 Hz Gaming

Philips Evnia 42M2N8900 4K OLED gaming monitor
(Image credit: Philips)

Philips has just released the Evnia 42M2N8900 (opens in new tab), which becomes the flagship of its top- of-the-line 8000 series of gaming monitors. Key features of this alluring 42-inch monitor are its 4K OLED display, with its deep lush colors, and high performance for demanding gamers, as well as built-in Philips Ambiglow backlighting.

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The new Philips Evnia 42M2N8900 ticks some very nice boxes, with the specs outlined above. OLED screens have a great reputation, particularly for image quality, contrast, and response time, and going by the specs this model doesn’t disappoint. Philips says the anti-glare coated panel offers 10-bit color with a DCI-P3: 98.5% (sRGB 131.3%) gamut, as well as a 1,500,000:1 contrast ratio, and 0.1ms GtG response time.

As this is a gaming monitor, we should look at the specs from the perspective of game performance. We already mentioned the 0.1ms response time, which should be appreciated in fast paced titles as it translates to minimal image ghosting when movement occurs. The top 138Hz refresh rate isn’t astounding in 2023, but with a 4K panel you will need a very powerful GPU to push the pixels in a modern AAA game at 120Hz or more. eSports players after the fastest refresh rates will stick to their 24-27-inch 1080p displays, with only recently signs being shown that 1440p might become popular.

Lastly, with a view to gaming, the Evnia 42M2N8900 features Adaptive Sync, to prevent screen stutter and tearing. It can adjust sync between 48 and 138Hz without fuss. Philips also says this monitor features SmartImage game picture enhancement, which will very probably be picture histogram settings customized to work with various game genres. Three-sided Philips Ambiglow backlighting will probably also be welcomed by gamers, for the greater immersion this reactive RGB lighting tech can deliver.

At 42-inches in diagonal, the 4K image isn’t super-fine at 106ppi. This pixel density figure is just a smidgeon better than a 22-inch 1080p monitor (100ppi), but that may fit in with your Windows multitasking workloads in place of several smaller screens. The wide viewing angles will aid those who pixel peep, close to the screen, too. 

The built-in KVM hub, where you can switch between two PCs sharing the same screen, mouse and keyboard can be a productivity boon. The KVM can work with the built-in Pip and PbP modes too – it isn’t just one or the other source that exclusively hogs the screen. Also, while at work or play, the bundled height (120mm), swivel and tilt adjustable ergonomic stand is welcome. Any VESA stand can be used in its place.

Other general specs listed that are welcome include; the twin 10W DTS speakers, USB hub with USB Power Delivery v3.0 up to 90W, HDMI 2.1 x 2, DisplayPort 1.4 x 1, USB-C x 1, remote controller, and all cables are provided.

(Image credit: Philips)

In an email we received from Philips, we were told that the Evnia 42M2N8900 is available in stores now at a price of £1,499.00 / €1,699. We don’t have US availability / pricing at the time or writing. Interestingly, some accessories built specifically to enhance the abilities of Evnia monitors are promised for this summer.

Mark Tyson
Freelance News Writer

Mark Tyson is a Freelance News Writer at Tom's Hardware US. He enjoys covering the full breadth of PC tech; from business and semiconductor design to products approaching the edge of reason.

  • kaalus
    4k is low even at 32" - you only get 140 dpi. With this 42" it will be horrible. Cheap newspapers printed when Al Capone was around were 300 dpi - 3 times better quality than what you get from this monitor. We need 8k. I've been on 4k since 2015, and I am still waiting for something better.
    Reply
  • voyteck
    kaalus said:
    4k is low even at 32" - you only get 140 dpi. With this 42" it will be horrible. Cheap newspapers printed when Al Capone was around were 300 dpi - 3 times better quality than what you get from this monitor. We need 8k. I've been on 4k since 2015, and I am still waiting for something better.

    That's right. And it cannot be said enough: it doesn't matter whether one can see individual pixels or not, it's also about font distortion. The same letter/line can be rendered in many different ways (for example: slim, swollen to the right, swollen to the left) and, as a result, the spacing between them changes, thus all that careful optimization goes kaboom. The point is seldom any line fits the (sub)pixel matrix perfectly and even text displayed on 27" Ultra HD differs visibly from a laser print.
    Reply
  • Sceptical87
    Why no mention of the HDR10 support? :)
    Looking forward to a full review.
    Reply
  • coloradoblah
    kaalus said:
    4k is low even at 32" - you only get 140 dpi. With this 42" it will be horrible. Cheap newspapers printed when Al Capone was around were 300 dpi - 3 times better quality than what you get from this monitor. We need 8k. I've been on 4k since 2015, and I am still waiting for something better.

    apparently Al Capone was more a fan of front projection too, he would roll in his grave if he knew how bad people had it these days
    Reply
  • eklipz330
    coloradoblah said:
    apparently Al Capone was more a fan of front projection too, he would roll in his grave if he knew how bad people had it these days
    Al Capone frowns at the sight of fringing, he's been turning in his grave for decades
    Reply
  • Bamda
    kaalus said:
    4k is low even at 32" - you only get 140 dpi. With this 42" it will be horrible. Cheap newspapers printed when Al Capone was around were 300 dpi - 3 times better quality than what you get from this monitor. We need 8k. I've been on 4k since 2015, and I am still waiting for something better.
    What GPU are using to drive your 8K monitor? And please don't tell me 4090, 'cause that is laughable.
    Reply
  • edzieba
    kaalus said:
    4k is low even at 32" - you only get 140 dpi. With this 42" it will be horrible. Cheap newspapers printed when Al Capone was around were 300 dpi - 3 times better quality than what you get from this monitor. We need 8k. I've been on 4k since 2015, and I am still waiting for something better.
    Even Al Capone would know that DPI in terms of newsprint (where the text is not printed by dots but by castings from moveable type, and the image dot pitch is not directly correlated to image resolution due to the use of dot screen density to control pigment intensity) and DPI in terms of RGB subpixels, are about as comparable as Apples and Agent Orange.
    Reply