Three’s the magic number with Philips’ 5231 screen

Cor, that monitor looks a bit posh!

It’s not a monitor! Or rather, it’s not ONLY a monitor. Because it’s also a television and a Bluetooth speaker. It’s Philips’ very own triple threat of home entertainment.

I was going to mention that big old speaker block at the base…

Well, let’s start with that then. You can connect that wirelessly to any Bluetooth-having source like your phone or laptop and have it play audio through a 16W 2.1-channel setup (left and right speakers, plus that hefty subwoofer base you can see in the photos). You might think 16W doesn’t sound like much sonic muscle, but it’s about twice what you’d get from a "normal" TV in this size bracket.

Which is…?

It’s a full 1080p 24-incher, putting it firmly in the “portable” category by today’s standards. In fact, Philips has designed this as a screen that can be easily carried from room to room as needed – another nod to versatility.

I’m guessing I can plug pretty much anything into it?

With a couple of HDMI inputs, it’s got a fair bit of flexibility, yes: computer, games console, Blu-ray player, set-top box or streamer – the choice, as they say, is yours. And there’s also a USB port, so if you’ve got a little hoard of videos, photos or music files you can unleash them too, accessing them via the on-screen content browser.

If all that jack-of-all-trades nature sounds like something you can get on board with, look out for the Philips 5231 in Argos and Costco stores from mid-October, priced at around £200.