Philips Evnia 25M2N3200W review: budget gaming monitor appeals to creatives

The Evnia 25M2N3200W has a new, perhaps unfamiliar brand name, but it's not made by any minnow or upstart in the industry; rather, this is the new gaming brand from Philips, which was launched just a few months ago, and is gradually introducing monitors, keyboards, headsets and mice to the gaming market this year. 

This monitor, a 25-inch '3000-series' display, is aimed at gamers on a budget, costing under £200 in the UK (and only slightly over €200 on the European mainland), and for it, you'll get 0.5ms MPRT, a 240Hz refresh rate, and 120% sRGB colour coverage, which makes it a little more interesting to us creatives too...

I borrowed a review unit from Philips and have spent the last three weeks using the monitor for work, hobbies and play, to see how it stacks up against not just the best gaming monitors but also, considering the stated colour coverage, the best monitors for photo editing...

Philips Evnia 25M2N3200W: Key specs

Philips Evnia 25M2N3200W review: Design and build

Philips have a decades-long reputation for well-built, reliable displays, but has often been overlooked by gamers and creators due to reserved aesthetics and non-flashy presentation. 

Owned by the same parent company as the AOC/AGON gaming brands, it's clear that Evnia isn't aiming for the same demographics as its sister brands as soon as you open the box. There are no reflective logos or streaks of red going across the front and back like we've gotten used to on the striking (some would say garish) AOC/AGON monitors. Instead, we get matte grey plastic and metal on both the frame, back and base for a more muted desktop setup. If you want a bit more flash, you probably won't gravitate towards Envia's design, but not all gamers want a full complement of racing stripes and RGB backlighting, and that's clearly the cohort Philips is aiming its bow at here.

Often with budget monitors, the adjustability is very limited, but here there's a full range of tilt, swivel and pivot adjustments on offer, with 130mm height adjustment too. The monitor attaches easily to the sturdy, two-pronged base, and the high adjustability means I didn't have to sprain my wrist and fingers plugging everything in once I'd set the monitor up on the desk. 

The side and top bezels are very narrow, with only the bottom bezel extending the size of the unit beyond the screen itself. And while there's no webcam included on the monitor, the thin top bezel is just big enough to accommodate a webcam clip without blocking out screen real estate, which strikes the perfect balance for me.

On the back, there are two HDMI ports and a DP port, along with a headphone jack, but unfortunately, that's about it. Unlike most Philips-branded monitors I've tested in the last year, there are no USB-A/USB-C ports here, so I've had to rely on my USB dock a bit more than usual over the last few weeks.

Features and performance

Enough about frames and bases and ports. What happens once we turn the thing on? Well, for a sub-£200 budget gaming monitor, more than I expected. 

With a stated max brightness of 300 nits and FHD resolution of 1920x1080, this 25-incher is very much specced as an entry-level gaming monitor (if you want to get into esports, for example, we recommend at least 2560x1440p, so this will not be your cheap stepping stone into online gaming glory, for example), but here Philips' technical cunning comes to the rescue, as the screen offers 1.07 billion colours, 120% sRGB coverage and a very impressive 240Hz refresh rate. The GTG response time is 1ms, with a 0.5ms MPRT, and the contrast ratio is a very healthy 3,000:1, so not only are we looking at a budget gamer without too many compromises; we're actually looking at a decent entry-level creative monitor too.

And my experience over the last three weeks backs this up too. I've used Photoshop and InDesign and been very impressed by the richness of colour, and even though the resolution may not be enough for pro creatives, an FHD with this sort of colour richness will do just fine for hobbyists or enthusiasts. 

On the gaming side, while sprawling strategy games (such as Civilization) haven't had enough pixels to offer true immersion, sports games such as NBA2K23 and arcade shooters have looked really good, thanks to the fast response time and refresh rate. 

There are several preset profiles available too via the OSD menu, and most of those I could use without having to fiddle too much with the manual settings to get my desired setup for each activity.

Price

The Philips Evnia 25M2N3200W has an RRP of £179.99 in the UK and €219 in the Eurozone. It's not available in the US at the time of writing, but as Evnia extends its reach, that might change in the future. You don't get many 240Hz monitors for under £200/€220 today, so file this one under 'possible bargain'.

Should I buy the Philips Evnia 25M2N3200W monitor?

We're all looking into our budgets lately, it seems, and trying to save a little here and a bit there can reduce our cost-of-living anxiety a lot. So if you're looking for a budget gaming monitor or an entry-level screen for your budding creative endeavours, you can get some bang for your buck with the Envia 25M2N3200W. It doesn't have the best resolution in its price class, and the matte grey might not get your inner 10-year-old giddy with anticipation, but it does everything you need from a budget monitor, and then some, making it a good budget candidate for the best gaming monitors.