Everyday usability
When making a decision about a gaming monitor there is always an inevitable trade-off to be made between panel resolution and fluidity - current technology dictates that either parameter must be limited to some extent; a 144Hz, 1ms UHD 4K display simply doesn't exist.
Philips has tilted that trade-off to favour fluidity in a dramatic way, which shines through in gaming. The star of the show is Nvidia's G-Sync with the 144Hz refresh rate. This allows for a butter-smooth experience in fast-paced action, FPS and racing titles, while the 144fps is surprisingly easy to hit given the 1080p resolution - our GeForce GTX 780 Ti powered through most games at 120Hz or higher.
The flip side, of course, is that 1080p stretched over a 27-in display area does decrease the density of the image. Depending on your preference in the fluidity-resolution spectrum this may, or may not, hinder the overall gaming experience. We feel what is lost in visual quality is made up for in fluidity. Furthermore, certain titles are visually enticing at 1080p while others seems to be craving more detail, and mileage will vary depending on the user's game preferences.
Moving over to some day-to-day usage scenarios, like content consumption and web-browsing, we found that the Philips 272G5SDYEB is a good overall performer. The experience is pleasant and there's nothing out of the ordinary to report. Despite it's TN-based design viewing angles are virtually perfect from the sides and the top, and only bottom viewing angles are weak, which means this monitor is not an ideal candidate for wall-mounted solutions that might leave the user below the display.
Philips hasn't added any display profiles to the OSD menu to enhance day-to-day usage, but the default settings are fine. Most users will be capable of tweaking brightness to their own preference. Nvidia's Ultra-Low Motion Blur (ULMB) and Philips' Smart Response are both supported, enabling the responsiveness of the display to be tweaked and tuned.
