A webcam has become a necessity for anybody working from home. We still aren’t sure why video was chosen as the default for business calls, especially when one considers how data intensive video is, but, this is the world we find ourselves in.

At first the idea of a monitor that includes a webcam makes sense. If you’re going to need a webcam anyway why fuss with additional cables and just bake the thing into your monitor.

That was the idea that seemingly drove Philips to create the 242B1H, a monitor that features support for Windows Hello secure login via its built-in webcam.

Unfortunately, being multifaceted has left us wanting as regards this monitor which carries an astronomic price of R6 299.

This is why we feel that price is far too high.

The spec sheet

The Philips 242B1H is a 23.8inch monitor with a native resolution of 1920 x 1080p. The maximum refresh rate here is 75Hz and the backlight is a WLED system. The picture quality is very good with 107 percent of the sRGB colour gamut covered and it does show.

Reds are more vibrant and blacks are infinite in how deep they appear.

Other than that, however, we wouldn’t recommend this monitor for colour sensitive work as it’s not really designed for that.

There are also modes for lower blue light emissions and a PowerSensor that, when enabled, will use infra-red to determine whether there is a squishy human body in front of the display. If the infra-red detects that there isn’t anybody there, it will turn the display off. It’s a nice feature for an office environment and the display wakes up before you are able to sit down in our experience.

The 242B1H is also bursting with ports. You’ll find the following ports on the display:

• VGA.
• DVI-D.
• DisplayPort 1.2.
• HDMI 1.4.
• USB.
• USB 3.2 with fast charging.
• 3.5mm output.

What makes this notable, however, is the fact that Philips includes every connector you could ever need in the box.

The monitor’s base allows for swivelling left and right and the monitor can be tilted and moved up and down as well. Getting your monitor in a comfortable position is relatively easy.

In terms of specs, the 242B1H is as good as other 24inch monitors but its price is nearly double that of monitors without a webcam and the PowerSensor.

How do you get the camera up?

Finding the webcam on this monitor was easy, but getting it out of its housing proved to be a bit trickier. That’s because in order to get the camera to rise out of its housing, you have to press the camera down with a bit of force.

To understand why this is a problem, the monitor features a stand that allows the actual screen to move up and down with relative ease. As such, when ever we try to pop the webcam up we have to push the entire screen down. Worse still, there’s no indication of where to press (facing the screen it’s the furthermost right of the webcam housing) and this can frustrate users.

Once the camera is up, the quality is nothing to write home about.

Images are noisy, even a bit of natural light blows the exposure to the Moon and it’s just not worth the price of admission. We understand that the camera has support for Windows Hello, but functionally, as a webcam, you’re far better off using your smartphone for video calls.

That’s because this camera, while boasting a FullHD resolution, only has a 2MP sensor and that sensor is working overtime here.

As a security feature we like that the camera folds away from the user and faces the roof but, again, the camera itself is just terrible even when compared to an old Samsung Galaxy S10+.

Worth the money?

What you’re paying for with this monitor is convenience. Aside from your display cable, the only other cable one needs to plug in is a USB cable to carry the video and audio from the monitor to your PC.

Is that worth of the price tag here? Not to our mind.

For example, a Samsung 24inch FullHD monitor currently retails for R2 499 at Makro. Over on Takealot you can pick up this Lenovo FullHD webcam, with support for Windows Hello, for R959.

That brings our total to R3 458. Sure, the Samsung doesn’t have the infra-red detector which will save power but you can set timers in Windows display settings rather easily.

All of this has us wondering who this monitor is for. The price is far too high for home office users and the specs highlight that this isn’t for content creators.

This seems like a monitor for a big business that needs a multi-faceted solution with one single purchase. Even that however means that businesses are spending R2 841 more than they could be if they simply purchased our setup above from Makro and Takealot.

Sadly then, we can’t recommend the Philips 242B1H. It’s a lovely idea, but the price is simply too high.