Philips BDM4037UW - The giant that doesn't just care about size
Practical experience, use
Unpacking was no longer easy due to the size of the screen. My car has a large trunk, but I had to fold down the rear seats to take it home. I only got in through the front door with help, it took four hands because of the size of the box. Because of the curved display, you don’t have to calculate the box size of an average 40-inch display. A thick layer of styrofoam inside the cardboard protects the hardware, which is why it is not easy to highlight.
Before commissioning, I removed my two used FHD displays from the table. I installed the base, plugged in the cables, used HDMI, unfortunately my VGA card doesn't have a Display Port yet. However, this was not an even more serious problem, as HDMI 2.0 is already able to transfer the required data stream even with a 60 Hz update. I turned on the monitor, set the size of the icons and similar default settings, and then just sat in front of it and thought, no matter how much money I had, I would never, ever in a stinky life take such a display for myself. Let's put aside the fact that the cheapest price I found for him was 180 thousand forints, so at the moment the financial aspect would also be a strong barrier.
Images do not return the size. After the two 24-inch displays so far, the Philips BDM4037UW was the size of an ocean liner next to an otherwise large Danube cruise ship. If I looked at the center of the screen, the edges could only be captured by my peripheral vision. If I started a 4K video on it, I had to rotate my head to keep an eye on events at the edges or corners of the screen. I felt that this display was unsuitable for any normal activity.
As I wrote above, the monitor has been peaking on my desk for a week and a half now. The first 3-4 days were enough to get me used to the sizes, 5-6-7. days I have already started using it in its full size. Two FHD-sized browser windows, with an FHD-sized Photoshop above it, plus an FTP client, and sometimes a server on a remote desktop that I just had to work on a bit.
Sometime in the 8-9. around the day I noticed how much I love that the display is bent. It didn’t show up until then, but at this image size, if we sit close to the monitor, it’s very helpful that the distal edges of the display get closer to us due to the bending. In the case of televisions, I always smiled at the ads, which mentioned among the benefits of curved displays that the image surrounds us because of the curvature. Of course, it is sure to surround us from 3-4 meters… But in the case of the monitor, when the center of the panel is barely 30-40 inches from our face while working, the image really surrounds us.
After a week and a half, I have to say that there has never been a test where my opinion has changed so much since my first impression. A lot of times I felt like I knew a lot, the hardware I tested was unnecessarily big, unnecessarily chilly, and in most cases I felt the same at the end of the test. The best thing that could have happened was that I saw some subtlety in the abilities that escaped my attention at first, so I was able to nuance the resulting image a bit.
However, with the Philips BDM4037UW, a full turn occurred after the first impression. After a week and a half, I feel that the only barrier that stands between the monitor and me is the price, which unfortunately doesn’t fit into the budget right now. What is certain, however, is that I now know there is plenty more room to evolve from dual FHD displays, and the work can be even more enjoyable than what my own monitors offer. The windows do not obscure each other, there is no need to switch between applications, everything is immediately available to me. I love it!
