Big screen productivity
While a 40in UHD screen makes for a glorious experience in gaming and media consumption, if you have the graphics horsepower to drive it, the primary benefit is served up through productivity. The Philips BDM4065UC is a great monitor for tasks that require multiple windows or large viewing areas.
Programmers and application developers can benefit from the extra real estate that allows you to have, for example, a browser with stackoverflow open, a logcat or debug window, your integrated development environment and a preview window. Photographers can make use of the extra real-estate to edit multiple photos side by side in Adobe applications such as Lightroom, and the list of potential use cases goes on.
The productivity advantages are extended further with the PiP and PbP modes. With Picture in Picture the user can work on one system while keeping a close eye on another, with Picture by Picture the user can work on up to four systems at the same time. The inclusion of MHL means it's also possible to make one of those displays your mobile device.
The large screen doesn't come without a few potential issues though. When using UHD without any form of scaling you get an approximate PPI of 110 which requires the user to sit reasonably close in order for text to be readable and to prevent eye strain after prolonged usage. Sitting close to such a sizeable panel means the corners of the screen are being viewed at different angles to the centre of the screen, resulting in some colour and brightness shifting. The further back the user sits, the less of a problem this will be.
Part of the aforementioned issue stems from the fact the VA panel type doesn't have the same viewing angles of IPS, although VA is still significantly better than TN. The viewing angles and lack of backlight bleed on this panel are still impressive, and the main issue is that the screen has such a glossy finish. As the brightness of the screen fades, be that from distance or variable viewing angles, the screen becomes harder to view clearly because of the reflectivity. The situation is hindered further by the lack of stand adjustments, as there's no way to adjust the screen to provide a better experience. The entire panel is still easy to view and work on, when positioned well, though these caveats are worth keeping in mind.
As previously mentioned the Philips BDM4065UC has no OSD buttons along the front bezel. OSD controls are delivered in the form of a quad-directional thumbstick. Up and down directions navigate up and down the various lists while left and right provide back and enter functionality, respectively - it all makes implicit sense.
The whole concept is a little pedantic to use but the OSD is fairly well-equipped, as most Philips monitors usually are. There's contrast, sharpness, colour temperature and gamma adjustments as well as a plethora of OSD profiles tailored for specific use cases. On a side note the stereo speakers with the BDM4065UC are surprisingly good with an impressive maximum volume, decent amounts of audio depth and a well-rounded listening experience.
