Philips 221V8LB

The Philips 221V8LB isn't a big computer monitor—21.5 inches—but it's big on affordability at $69.99. Like many of its budget brethren, it combines a relatively small screen with modest 1080p resolution, limited ergonomic adjustability, a meager port selection, and control buttons instead of the mini joystick we prefer. But its image quality beats many slightly more expensive screens we've seen, thanks to full sRGB color coverage and an astoundingly high contrast ratio, and it costs less than most of its competitors even when they're when on sale. The 221V8LB earns our Editors' Choice award as an excellent general-purpose budget monitor.

Design: A Surprisingly Versatile Cheapskate

The 221V8LB is equally useful for home-office and entertainment purposes. Its color coverage, contrast, and pixel density make it suitable for light photo editing and working with line art or diagrams, and it does well in rendering movies. The vertical alignment (VA) panel with 100Hz refresh rate and AMD FreeSync compatibility puts it in good stead for casual gaming, too. (The monitor replaces the Editors' Choice-winning Philips 221V8LN, essentially the same display with a 75Hz refresh rate, in the company's home lineup.)

Light and compact, the 221V8LB can fit in cramped environments such as a desk in a dorm room. Mounted on its stand, the all-black monitor measures 14.5 by 19.4 by 8.7 inches (HWD) and weighs 5.9 pounds. The full HD (1,920-by-1,080-pixel) screen measures 21.5 inches diagonally. A screen with those specifications has a density of 102 pixels per inch (ppi), reasonably sharp image by the standards of nonprofessional monitors. The VA panel helps keep the price down and provides much higher contrast than in-plane switching (IPS) screens can manage.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

The base and stand are plastic. Assembly needs no tools; the shaft snaps into place onto the back of the chassis and the base rotates into the bottom of the shaft until it catches. You can separate the components by pressing a pair of latches. Although they don't feel particularly strong, the base and shaft hold the panel reasonably steady.

Not unusual for a budget monitor, the 221V8LB's stand is ergonomically limited, providing only tilt adjustment (up to 5 degrees toward or 20 degrees away). I would have liked the screen's cabinet to be mounted slightly higher on the stand. The 221V8LB has a square array of holes to fit a VESA mount for arm or wall mounting.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

The Philips' port selection is typical of budget monitors—one HDMI and one VGA port, ensuring compatibility with the vast majority of desktop and laptop computers today. We would have liked to see a USB-C port, but don't expect one at this price, and you can still connect via USB-C with a third-party adapter. You'll also find a jack for headphones or powered speakers to output audio received from the computer over an HDMI connection.

The ports all face downward, but because the 221V8LB is so small and light they're easy enough to reach by tilting the panel or setting it facedown on your desk. You navigate the onscreen display (OSD) with a row of tiny control buttons on the bottom right bezel.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

Philips offers one of the best monitor warranties in the business—four years. To the company's credit, it doesn't skimp on this even with budget products like the 221V8LB.

Testing the Philips 221V8LB: Magnificent Contrast

I tested luminance, contrast, and color using a Klein K-80 colorimeter, Murideo Six-G signal generator, and Portrait Displays' CalMAN 5 software. Philips rates the 221V8LB's brightness at up to 250 nits (candelas per square meter); I measured it at 258 nits, which is bright for a budget display.

In our color testing, the 221V8LB effectively covered the full sRGB color space, tallying 99.8% (see the chromaticity chart below), an excellent figure for a monitor so inexpensive.

(Credit: Portrait Displays)

The 221V8LB has a rated contrast ratio of 3,000:1, typical of a VA panel. Yet it did significantly better than that, tallying a 4,376:1 ratio in our testing. Contrast doesn't get much better than that short of a pricey OLED panel, a noteworthy achievement for a monitor that costs less than a C-note.

In viewing our usual suite of test photos and video clips, colors seemed true and well saturated. The 221V8LB showed a wide dynamic range for a budget monitor, bringing out detail well in bright and dark areas.

Verdict: A Bit of Budget-Panel Magic

At first glance, the Philips 221V8LB might not seem to have much to recommend it: a small screen, full HD resolution, limited ergonomics and port selection, and a row of OSD buttons instead of a handy joystick. But while the monitor's VA technology and humble feature set keep its price way down, its 100Hz refresh rate and AMD FreeSync support make it a good choice for casual gaming, and its image quality combines ample brightness, stellar sRGB color coverage, and astounding contrast. Its retention of both bright and dark detail puts it in good stead for video viewing and occasional photo editing.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

To be sure, some budget monitors are more feature-rich. The Editors' Choice-winning HP 24mh adds DisplayPort connectivity, height and pivot adjustment, dual 2-watt speakers, and a slightly larger screen. But the Philips is about half the HP's price and carries a four-year warranty, easily earning the 221V8LB its own Editors' Choice award as a general-purpose budget monitor.