Philips announced a massive 43” monitor, the Momentum, that is capable of hitting 1000nit peak brightness for true HDR compatibility. The monitor also uses quantum-dot materials to achieve a wide color gamut and features Philip’s Ambiglow ambient lighting tech built in.

One of the most common complaints you hear about 4K monitors is that they make text too small. Many programs aren’t based on Windows’ built-in UI libraries and won’t scale with Windows’ UI-scaling option. Scaling itself is an issue because it’s effectively removing the screen real estate that you paid to have more of. If you’re happy with the pixel density of a traditional 24” 1080p screen but want more resolution, then you’re going to have to get a monitor that’s both higher resolution and larger. Philips thinks the perfect size for 4K enjoyment is 43”.

The company’s new Momentum monitor uses a 43” W-LED-backlit MVA panel with a claimed 97.6% coverage of DCI-P3. Unfortunately, the screen displays 10bit color through dithering (FRC) rather than being natively 10bit-capable. MVA LCD screens typically have a stronger static contrast ratio and faster response time than IPS screens, and this product keeps to this trend. It has a 4000:1 contrast ratio and 4ms G2G response time. Sweetening the Momentum’s screen performance is its wide-ranging refresh rate. It’s maximum refresh rate is more than double its minimum, so it should fully support AMD FreeSync with lower framerate compensation (LFC).

Beyond its above-average size, the monitor's two most interesting features are its peak brightness and integrated Ambiglow lighting. A 1000nit peak brightness, combined with the aforementioned wide color gamut, means that the Momentum can actually deliver some substance with its claim of HDR support. Many monitors now claim to support HDR because they have the necessary elements on the control interface to receive HDR content, but they cannot actually display the HDR content as it's intended because their screens either aren’t bright enough or cannot display certain colors.

The second feature, Ambiglow, is Philip’s ambient-lighting technology that detects the location and hue of colors on the screen and replicates them on external LEDs that surround the back and bottom of the monitor. Ambiglow doesn’t quite create an impression of screen content extending past the screen borders, but it promises to enhance color perception.

The Philips Momentum will be hitting retail this summer with an MSRP of $999.

1000 nits on a monitor is insane! I bet that a pure white picture could blind a person at 1000 nits. That $999 price point for 4K HDR @ 43" is great.