The Philips Evnia 27M2N5500XD is the first 1440p 500Hz LCD gaming monitor to hit our desk. Yes, we know, not exactly a great monitor name. It's right up there with the worst. But this is a genuinely interesting monitor, as it pushes LCD refresh rates into territory we haven't experienced before. It also raises an interesting question: can IPS LCD technology actually support this sort of refresh rate?
The 27M2N5500XD is a classic 27-inch 2560 x 1440 IPS LCD monitor with relatively standard gaming specifications. There's adaptive sync variable refresh rate support, no real HDR capability since it lacks proper local dimming, and a rated 1ms gray-to-gray response time.
The new feature here is the 500Hz refresh rate at 1440p, which can be pushed to 540Hz through an overclocking mode. But it doesn't stop there. This monitor also has Dual Mode support, which increases the refresh rate to a whopping 1,000Hz at a resolution of 1280 x 720.
That makes it the highest refresh rate monitor we've ever tested, beating some of the latest 1440p dual-mode WOLEDs. Those monitors also hit 540Hz at 1440p, but are limited to 720Hz in the 720p dual-mode configuration. Despite OLEDs generally being much faster in response times, it's actually LCDs that reached the 1,000Hz mark first.
