Philips 499P9H- 49 Inch Curved Dual QHD Monitor, 70Hz, 5ms, VA, WebCam, Speakers, USB-C Dock, KVM, Height Adjust (5120 x 1440, 450 cd/m², HDMI/DP 1.4/USB 3.1 / USB-C)

Well I've had this monitor for just over a year now and it feels like I only just got it. I do enjoy using this form factor and it has made me more productive during COVID-19 and has made playing the odd game more fun too.Let's get this clear, it's not a gaming monitor with high refresh rates and all the trapping of those high end superwide gamers. However for the likes of me that play games occasionally for fun it works well. I play games like Borderlands 3 regularly at full screen size and it is fine, even though my Graphics card is just a GTX 2070 super.For most of the time I have been using this to work, and also a little bit of programming for fun. Initially it feels a bit weird having so much screen and the max button filling the whole thing. I tried the philips software initially but did not like it. I then used DisplayFusion that worked well allowing you to setup virtual screens you can maximise into. Now however I just use Microsoft PowerToys and the FancyZones app. I drag the window and hold the right mouse button to dock into one of the zones. This makes me super flexible on where windows are. One recent thing I found was TaskbarX, this locates the Taskbar icons in the middle of the taskbar, removing the need to constantly swivel your neck to the left to find things.I have powered my work HP Elite X2 device directly from the USBC adding this as an additional screen to the laptop. My main machine uses DisplayPort which works well and I have in the past run a RaspberryPi directly from the USB ports with no issues. The screen has been reliable, has all the pixels working properly and the pop up camera has both been giving me access to my computer and working double time through Covid. Not a perfect picture but more than adequate for video conferencing.The only thing that frustrates me about the screen is that it gives the impression you can divide the display into two 2560x1440 screens being fed from different devices. This is not quite the case. PBP mode does split the screens however it scales the contents such that you end up with two 5120x1440 screens scaled down to fit a 2560x1440 letterbox window, meaning you really cannot read the screens well. I've not found any way to resolve this despite occasionally having another go. In truth this would not make me give up this monitor at all! I have not for a moment regretted my decision to buy this. It was a good balance of cost and performance and has been invaluable over the last 6 months trapped at home.

As a software developer this monitor saves me so many micro stresses every day, it just makes working easier. No more spanning windows over 2 monitors and the extra pixels over a 2 x 24 inch monitors helps a lot. I find I use it like 2 x 27 inch, having just 2 large windows using the Windows-key left/right arrow, to position the windows. That works for me. I use it connected to a lap-top and a desktop. The kvm is a little disappointing as it's slow and fiddly to change. I have the HP Elitebook connected via the USB3 and to my surprise it drove the monitor at the full 5120 x 1440 without issue. When using the USB-up from my desktop, I had some issues depending on which usb port I used. The screen kept turning off completely, which drove me nuts! I finally realised that the issue was which USB port I had the usb-up cable plugged into on my box. After trying a few different slots, it solved the problem, I don't think it was anything to do with the screen.Very happy with it. I don't play computer games so I can't comment on that. Recommended!

I wanted an ultra-wide monitor to replace two 21" monitors that started to show variations in brightness after 3.5 years of extensive use. I considered Samsung, LG and DELL 49" monitors. Bought Samsung LC49HG90DMUXEN 49" but unfortunately it was not calibrated properly and I could not read the text properly so returned it and I was bit disappointed. Then I considered DELL but unfortunately they will ship from China and it will take 14 days and was over-priced.Finally I found this brilliant monitor that's value for money and they keep reducing the price. I bought it for 840 now its 770!! It is great monitor and I strongly recommend it. The Smart Control isn't perfect but it works for most of the software. I use VSCode and Python Spyder a lot to code but they they dont fit in Smart Control.The summary is if you are looking to use this office productivity and programming this is a great monitor. I'm not sure if its perfect for gaming or not as I did not test it!!