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Review: Philips Moda 2

Introduction and design

There are only so many ways to differentiate your product in the monitor space, and rather than compete on panel resolution, screen size or price, Philips opted to go a unique route and pair better audio quality to its display. The Moda 2 ($220, £140, AU$285), also known as the 245C5, integrates a Bluetooth speaker into the base of the monitor stand, giving users an upgraded display experience with a 24-inch screen and an enhanced sound experience for multimedia consumption.

In the compact monitor space, the Moda 2 competes against displays in the 21- to 24-inch range. In this space, the 21.5-inch Acer UT220HQL ($199, £125, AU$255) differentiates itself by adding a touchscreen panel, the BenQ EW2440 ($220, £140, AU$285) brings a stylish design and integrates a smartphone dock to highlight its MHL connectivity and the 21.5-inch Samsung SD300 series ($149, £93, AU$191) offers a great panel at a significantly more affordable price.

At the suggested retail cost of $300, users can even find higher resolution panels, such as QHD and UHD 4K screens. Dell's 28-inch P2815Q display bumps up the resolution to 4K for $299 (£188, AU$386).

Design

Considering that most PC users buy a good display and fail to purchase good speakers for their computer, the entertainment experience can be hampered by poor sound quality. Philips chose to target these users with its C245C5 Moda 2 display by bundling better quality speakers with a great monitor design.

Cloaked in glossy black plastic, the Philips C245C5 looks like a product with a premium price tag. If Philips had used aluminum instead of plastic for the construction, the Moda 2 could be mistaken for a Bang & Olufsen Beovision product, given its unique, minimalist design.

One of the highlights of the Philips 245C5 is the base of the display, with a circular mesh pillow that houses the dual 7W speakers. The design is both functional and aesthetically pleasing, which should add to the Moda 2's desk appeal.

The Moda 2 measures 21.3 x 1.5 x 13.1 inches (54.1 x 3.8 x 33.3cm) and weighs 9.94 pounds (4.5kg), making it sturdy enough on a desk, but light enough for business users to carry to trade show booths for use as a digital display.

The roomy 24-inch IPS screen on the front spans to the edges of the display with a bezel-less look. The monitor floats above the circular, upward-firing speakers on the bottom thanks to an angular stand.

On the rear of the panel, Philips employs a textured wavy pattern to the glossy black finish, which keeps things interesting. I personally don't care for the pattern. The glossy black material attracts fingerprint and dust easily, which may be a problem if you're using the monitor in an open front office setting.

The back also houses a thin cut out where the connectivity ports are located. The Moda 2 accommodates three HDMI, single VGA and audio input and output ports. Philips also included a small clip-on cable management ring in the box, which plugs into a small hole in the lower portion of the rear of the stand to keep wire clutter to a minimum.

Build quality for the display is solid, except for a small lip on the bottom center of the screen. Presumably, this lip is to aid users when adjusting the tilt angle of the display, but when pressure is applied to the lip, it feels like the bottom plastic strip of the display is about to come undone.

Specifications and performance

Even though the Moda 2 has a matte panel, which helps to reduce glare and reflectivity under ambient office lighting, the matte surface is actually a thin film and not a sprayed on coating. Out of the box, there is a small sticker warning users to not rip off the panel film.

At this point, it's unclear if this matte film will come off over time, and if it does come off, if there will be any perceivable performance degradation to the quality of the display.

Specs

• Panel: WLED Backlit - IPS LCD Panel
• Viewable Image Size: 23.8"
• Aspect Ratio: 16:9
• Brightness: 250 cd/m2
• SmartContrast: 20,000,000:1
• SmartResponse Time: 5ms (Gray to Gray)
• Viewable Angle: 178 degrees horizontal, 178 degrees vertical
• Maximum Resolution: 1920 x 1080 @ 60 Hz
• Display Colors: 16.7 Million
• Connectivity: VGA, HDMI (2x), MHL-HDMI (digital, HDCP)
• Tilt: -5 to 20 degrees
• Audio In/Out: PC audio-in, Headphone out
• Built-in Speakers: 7-watt (2x), Bluetooth Speaker
• Weight: 9.94 pounds (4.5kg)
• Dimensions: 21.3 x 1.5 x 13.1 inches (54.1 x 3.8 x 33.3cm)

The 5ms grey-to-grey refresh rate makes the Moda 2 fast enough for most tasks. There shouldn't be any ghosting with videos thanks to the 60Hz support, but heavy gamers may want to look at other options, as there is occasional ghosting on high-frame rate titles.

Ergonomics

Unfortunately, as this is a consumer-centric display, the display has limited capabilities for adjustments, which may affect its use in office settings given ergonomic constraints. For instance, even though the display can tilt, the Moda 2 cannot swivel horizontally or be lifted or lowered vertically. Additionally, as the speaker wires run through the display stand, the base and stand portions cannot be removed for wall mounting.

For users who are more concerned with eye fatigue than the positioning of their displays, the Moda 2 offers various viewing modes along with a flicker-free screen. The modes are accessible through the display's menus, and I found that they help to reduce eye strain when using the display for extended durations.

Performance

According to data obtained from the display analysis tool taken from the Spyder5 Elite colorimeter, the Moda 2 achieves 98% of the sRGB color space and 76% of the AdobeRGB range. This means that the display could display colors accurately when working with the web and internet applications, but users working with Adobe's suite of creative tools, including Creative Cloud, should probably look at pricier studio displays.

The display analysis results show that the Moda 2 has excellent color uniformity and accuracy, good luminance uniformity across the display, and mediocre contrast and tone response.

For a consumer device, an average delta-E score of roughly 2 is generally considered excellent. The color gradient on the Moda 2 shifts from the bottom left corner to the upper right corner, according to the Datacolor test, but is generally imperceptible to the naked eye.

Menu and navigation

Including the power button, there are six capacitive buttons on the front of the display that lets users adjust various settings on the monitor. Tapping on the buttons brings additional commands, and you'll have to use the left and right arrows to navigate between menus and submenus.

Even though I appreciated that the buttons are clearly labeled and marked, navigating the menus can be a bit of a chore. The menus and the navigation aren't always intuitive, and sometimes there is a lag or delay so it feels like I haven't pressed a button.

Audio

Philips included plenty of audio control so that you can tune the speakers to your liking. There are controls within the monitor's menu to toggle the treble and bass, enable SRS WOW HD tuning and gain surround sound 5.1 output with an option called Incredible Sound.

Unfortunately, you can't have all the tuning going at the same time, so if you've enabled SRS WOW HD, for example, you cannot enable Incredible Surround nor treble and bass controls.

In my testing, audio quality sounds richer and louder than competing displays with built-in 1W or 2W speakers. However, given that there isn't much space in base of the display to house the speakers, the output lacks bass and audio fidelity, and isn't as clean as on portable Bluetooth speakers, like the Jambox, Bose SoundLink or Samsung Level Box.

For audiophiles, the built-in Bluetooth connectivity of the Moda 2 will be great. Even though the display doesn't have picture-in-picture or picture-by-picture modes for multitasking, you can still be productive and entertained at the same time. You can work on spreadsheets and documents while streaming music on your phone to the monitor.

When working with multiple sources, the Moda 2 can only recognize one input source to play audio. When I had my phone paired over Bluetooth and my PC connected via HDMI, the Moda 2 could only play sound out from one source and not both. It'd be nice, for example, if I could have streamed music from my Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge while also hearing my system notifications and calendar alerts from my Dell Latitude 12 7000 notebook.

Additionally, Bluetooth streaming will only work when the display is on. Given the multimedia focus of the Moda 2, Philips could have added a webcam and integrated microphones to the package to further set this display apart from the competition. This would allow the Moda 2 to be used for video conferencing, and the microphones could be used in conjunction with a smartphone for speakerphone calls.

Verdict

Philips has created a balanced display for productivity and multimedia consumption with a great screen panel and loud audio. Bluetooth audio and MHL connectivity makes this a great display for businesses, as this setup allows road warriors the flexibility of connecting their laptops or smartphones to do work, stay entertained or give presentations.

We liked

The design with the integration of good speakers means that the Moda 2 is capable of delivering a great audio and visual multimedia experience, even in tight spaces, such as small offices, cramped dorm rooms and even on trade shows to loop promotional videos or to give an impromptu presentation with a connected smartphone.

There are also plenty of options to connect your devices with three HDMI ports, MHL support and Bluetooth connectivity for audio. For college students or business professionals working with both a laptop and a desktop, this means you won't run out of HDMI ports or have to disconnect one device in order to connect another.

We disliked

Even though the Moda 2 comes with upgraded dual 7W stereo speakers and audio tuning enhancements, audio fidelity is still lacking. You'll get louder, amped up audio output, but you won't get smoky vocals or punchy bass in jazz performances.

Additionally, some of the speaker's tuning, like the mode that emulates a surround sound 5.1 experience, seems gimmicky.

Final verdict

By combining sophisticated styling and an upgraded audio experience, Philips is hoping that users won't mind paying the price premium for the Moda 2. If you like the compact package that Philips delivers, the Moda 2 will reward you with a great IPS panel, flicker-free screen and connectivity options to connect your smartphone.

For the price, users would be wise in looking at options with a touchscreen, like the Acer UT220HQL, or a higher resolution display, like the 4K Dell P2815Q. After all, you can't upgrade your existing monitor to include touch or a 4K panel after the point of purchase, but you can always add better sounding speakers later.

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