Philips 498P9Z

Two-minute review

Take careful note of the name of the new Philips 498P9Z. It may be an epic 49-inch ultra-wide monitor in its own right, but it’s just one of three such very similar models from Philips. The final ‘Z’ is critical for it indicates the inclusion of 165Hz refresh, something the plain old Philips 498P9 omits. It’s not quite the only detail spec difference between the three otherwise physically identical 49-inch PC monitors from Philips (more on the third in a moment). But it is the most important.

Oddly, the Philips 498P9Z’s gamer-friendly 165Hz refresh support doesn’t necessarily make for a significantly pricier panel than its 60Hz sibling. At around £1,075 (for now, there is no availability in the USA and Australia), the Philips 498P9Z is priced similarly to the non-Z model. That’s still not exactly cheap, but you do get a heck of a lot of monitor for your money, namely 49 inches of curved VA panel with a crazy 32:9 aspect ratio and 5,120 by 1,440 pixels.

Perhaps surprisingly, the market for this class of panel is actually pretty busy. Philips itself also has the very similar Philips 499P9H, which has largely the same chassis and panel specs, but trades high refresh for a USB-C interface. Indeed, it’s the lack of USB-C that is the only glaring omission from the spec sheet of the Philips 498P9Z. It does have a four-port USB-A hub, but there’s no single-cable USB-C connectivity with power delivery, more’s the pity.

Anyway, the very comparable AOC Agon Gaming AG493UCX can be had for slightly less and the mighty Samsung G9 (the first-gen model, not the problematic G9 Neo)  is now available for about the same money. The Philips 498P9Z, then, needs to be on its game.

Out of the box, it’s pretty much as punchy as you’d expect from a VA monitor with a rated brightness of 550 nits. This is to say that it really socks it to you, for an SDR monitor. Strictly speaking, the Philips 498P9Z does support HDR visuals. It’s VESA DisplayHDR 400 certified. But it doesn’t have full-array local dimming and it’s not a true HDR panel. 

In fact, it’s debatable whether content (including games) actually looks better in HDR mode. Take Cyberpunk 2077. Does it look better in HDR on the Philips 498P9Z? We’re not convinced. What is for sure is that SDR content looks dull with the panel in HDR mode, even with the SDR vibrancy maxed out in the Windows Display Settings menu.

Put HDR performance to one side, then, and what you have is a huge, punchy, and pretty thrilling display. This is a VA panel, so the contrast is fantastic. VA can also mean poor pixel response. However, Philips has included three levels of pixel-accelerating overdrive in the OSD menu. The fastest setting has some fairly obvious overshoot. But the middling setting looks good. It’s pretty quick.

The same goes for the 165Hz refresh, which ensures excellent latency (note that you’ll need to connect via DisplayPort to get the full 165Hz). That said, you will need one heck of a graphics card to get good frame rates out of this monitor with the latest games running at high detail settings. If you do have that hardware to hand, the Philips 498P9Z makes a pretty stunning gaming experience. As a productivity panel, it’s probably less convincing. Yes, the huge width allows for fantastic multi-tasking. But the pixel density is actually pretty low. So, font rendering and image detail aren’t all that great.

Buy it if...

Don't buy...

Also consider

First reviewed July 2022

How We Test

We pride ourselves on our independence and our rigorous review-testing process, offering up long-term attention to the products we review and making sure our reviews are updated and maintained - regardless of when a device was released, if you can still buy it, it's on our radar.

Read more about how we test