INTRODUCTION

   For good or bad i was born in the early 80's so by the early 90's when PCs really started to "bloom" there weren't many screens for one to choose from. Sure there were plenty of CRT models (previous technology) up to 20 inches but on one hand most were mediocre at best while on the other if you wanted to get an 20+ inch one you only had very expensive models with EIZO standing at the top of the industry (their Golden ERA according to many). Fast forward to today and well just like most areas of the industry things have changed for the best so right now not only do consumers have a very large number of screens to choose from but even 40 inch models are extremely affordable (just for the record the FlexScan T966 21 inch CRT Monitor by EIZO set me back over 1200Euros back in 2003). Philips recently released one of the largest curved LCD displays in the market the 40 inch 4k UHD Brilliance BDM4037UW model which has been with us for almost 3 weeks now.

   MMD is a wholly owned company of TPV established in 2009 through a brand license agreement with Philips. MMD exclusively markets and sells Philips branded LCD displays worldwide. By combining the Philips brand promise with TPV’s manufacturing expertise in displays, MMD uses a fast and focused approach to bringing innovative products to market. MMD serves the Western European markets from its headquarters in Amsterdam. The Eastern European and CIS markets are served by a local office in Prague. Through its network of local sales teams MMD works with all major IT distributors and resellers. The company’s design and development center is located in Taiwan. www.mmd-p.com

   The Philips Brilliance BDM4037UW offers a massive diagonal length of 101.6cm (40 inch) and is based on a flicker-free LED-backlit 10-bit (1.07 billion colors) VA (Vertical Alignment) panel (TP Vision TPT400UA-FN06) that features a maximum resolution of 3840x2160p at 60Hz (4k UHD), horizontal viewing angle of 178 degrees, contrast ratio of 4000:1 (deep blacks), 300cd/m2 maximum brightness (this number is quite low so it's not very ideal for bright environments) and a grey to grey pixel response time of 4ms. The BDM4037U is also well equipped since it comes ready with two 5W speakers, VESA 100x100mm compatibility, joystick menu button (JOG), 2 MHL HDMI (v1.4/2.0) ports, 2 DisplayPort (v1.2) connectors, VGA port, 4 USB 3.0 ports (hub), fast charging USB port, audio line-in port and a 3.5mm headphones output. Unfortunately although this is one of the best looking LCD monitors in the market today due to its silver base (offers 5 degrees forward and 10 degrees backward tilt) and curved (3000R) screen it does lack several features not only basic ones (such as height adjustment) but also some that we find mostly with gaming models including support for FreeSync and G-Sync. Ontop of that add the fact that VA panels are not quite as "responsive/fast" as IPS and TN ones and thus it's quite evident that Philips didn't develop the Brilliance BDM4037UW with gamers in mind. Then again the same was told about the MultiSync 3090WQXi monitor which we've been using for over 6 years now and we never had a problem with games so let's see what applies to the brand new Brilliance BDM4037UW.