Package wise, the unit’s box is just humongous, the box is just as the size of a luggage you use when taking a trip abroad, the package includes the unit, HDMI, VGA and DVI cables, the Smart remote, power cable and CD drivers.

On the design, the 242G5 is rather plain, nothing fancy with the looks, with only a red stripe on the front to show the Philips brand. Despite the simple design, the adjustable stand makes up for it. With the specially designed stand of the 242G5, you can adjust the height and viewing angle of the monitor, you can even swivel the monitor to a different direction and adjust the screen orientation so multiple monitor set up. Installing the monitor is a breeze, the connector pins from the stand will lock on easily to the monitor while keeping it secured.

It also has a wide range of display inputs from traditional HDMI, DVI and VGA ports and new options such as the DisplayPort 1.2 and MHL HDMI for smartphone and tablet display connections. The OSD of the monitor is located on below the lower right part of the screen, still making it easy to press while concealing the buttons below.

The 242G5 also boasts to have a USB 3.0 hub that can accommodate up to four ports for those data transfers and extra peripherals. The monitor also include a Smart remote that you can easily change your display presets or navigate around the monitor menu. Our complaint on the Smart remote is that some of the buttons are a bit stiff to press which could take some attempts before your input finally connects.

In terms of performance, we will be testing a couple of games to check the visual quality of the 242G5. We tried testing some of the presets of the monitor in some games and also check the refresh rate on specific games.

Navigating on the menu does not give you a hard time, especially with the addition of the Smart remote, you can opt to use the Smart remote or the OSD on the monitor, though the Smart remote is much accessible especially during gaming sessions. In terms of the presets, we have to configure some of it by reducing the brightness and adjusting the contrast, but some of the presets suits well on its specific genres, especially on FPS.

It’s hard to test the 144Hz refresh rate if your graphic card does not support refresh rates at that high. We tested the monitor with Borderlands 2 and the results were impressive, it produced a very smooth framerate, we used the FPS preset during the test and the settings really fit well especially the darker colors.

We then tested Phantasy Star Online 2 during the Closed Beta Test, and the framerate can reach up to 120fps, we also experiment with the other presets, but we decided to customize our own by reducing the brightness and improving the contrast.

Aside from gaming, we tested a couple of HD movies (1080p) and still the 242G5 provides great quality, if you tweaked the settings with the Smart Frame software, you will be able to see better results on the image quality.

*Video footage of the 242G5 will be uploaded soon*