After working with a dual-screen portable monitor for a month, I’m a believer
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I’m wondering if it would work for an M3 MacBook Air. My guess is no, but it would be wonderful if it did.
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As a guy who spent far too many years doing product reliability and product robustness testing, my big worry about a device like this is how many compromises were made on the hinge and connector assembly.
With apologies, the photos don't inspire confidence.
With apologies, the photos don't inspire confidence.
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When I earlier this year was looking for a portable solution with multiple screens I compared most things I could find. I ended up getting an Asus Zenbook Duo 2024 and I can honestly say it is one of my best purchases ever (I am in no way affiliated). i9 CPU, 32 gb ram, 2 great Oled (touch) displays, fantastic keyboard. I can even connect my iPad Pro as a third monitor via Astropad. The only thing it doesn't have going for it is price I guess, but it works fantastically well.
Just saying there are more alternatives than the Lenovo out there when it comes to multi-screen laptops.
Just saying there are more alternatives than the Lenovo out there when it comes to multi-screen laptops.
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As two discreet displays? Only with the MBA display disabled. As one combined display? Sure, why wouldn't it?
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The hardware button for toggling screen modes sounds very useful, and this does look like an upgrade to the laptops with a dual-screen setup. But reading this makes me happy that I do all of my work at one of two permanent desks.
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That's a neat take on the concept. I don't think I'd want to crane my neck to look down at the bottom display, but then I already find normal laptops extremely unergonomic anyway, so at least you get some proper screen real estate. I think I'd opt to ditch the shitty laptop keyboard and trackpad and just pack a small, proper keyboard and mouse.
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Ok, maybe I missed it... What is the interface? HDMI? If so, what connector? What protocol?
I've tried HDMI monitors with macOS, and the results have always been less than satisfactory--usually distorted stretching and often kinda wonky.
@Scharon.Harding -- if you have access to a Mac, it'd be nice if you could test it as a secondary Mac display.
I've tried HDMI monitors with macOS, and the results have always been less than satisfactory--usually distorted stretching and often kinda wonky.
@Scharon.Harding -- if you have access to a Mac, it'd be nice if you could test it as a secondary Mac display.
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I'm someone that squirms when I'm at a desk working with less than 2 monitors, and really prefer 3.
I own a USB-C external monitor and have the option of using my iPad to extend my MBA monitor, but I never use either when I am on the laptop. It's just a different dynamic and it adds more bulk and setup when I'm on the move. I much preferred going from a 13" laptop screen to a 15" to feel more comfortable.
The specs for the FlipGo say it supports DisplayLink, so yes. Just be aware it's a screen sharing hack and may introduce some oddities. In my case, occasionally Citrix has a real problem with running applications on a DisplayLink screen.
I own a USB-C external monitor and have the option of using my iPad to extend my MBA monitor, but I never use either when I am on the laptop. It's just a different dynamic and it adds more bulk and setup when I'm on the move. I much preferred going from a 13" laptop screen to a 15" to feel more comfortable.
The specs for the FlipGo say it supports DisplayLink, so yes. Just be aware it's a screen sharing hack and may introduce some oddities. In my case, occasionally Citrix has a real problem with running applications on a DisplayLink screen.
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The ipad works fine for having slack/messaging windows with sidecar, and a generic smart cover means it has a built in stand. I'd recommend people pick up a cheap old one if they want a second screen for mac, it's all I use mine for at this point.
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Edubfromktown
Ars Centurion
Portability is really cool though I tend to go between work and home office desks.
I still prefer running my M3 Pro MBP with an LG 22MD4KA-B (UltraFine 4K 21.5" UHD 4096x2304 1xTB3, 3xUSB-C) external display.
The image quality and color accuracy are stellar. Also tough to beat 219 PPI as well!
I still prefer running my M3 Pro MBP with an LG 22MD4KA-B (UltraFine 4K 21.5" UHD 4096x2304 1xTB3, 3xUSB-C) external display.
The image quality and color accuracy are stellar. Also tough to beat 219 PPI as well!
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So how portable is this second screen? No photos of it folded up and taken on the road with you? How solid is the stand? You allude to it being able to rotate 180 degrees, but you don't talk about it. How was the color matching between the two screens, and then between the main screen? I'm not expecting perfection, but at least some comments on that and brightness, etc.
But honestly, how does this improve my life over a pair of 27" monitors hooked upto my current laptop?
Looking at the base on the portable monitor, I wonder if it folds flat, or is it just a big annoying circle in your bag? How is the hinge? Does it hold securely both completely closed, and when open? You show it at around a 170 degree open, but does it sag over time and slowly fold shut?
I'm disappointed in this review because you don't talk AT ALL about how portable it was and how easy it was to move around with you. Did you take it to a coffee shop? Did you take it on a trip and use it to work in a hotel? Did you even just move it around your house/apartment to use in different locations?
But honestly, how does this improve my life over a pair of 27" monitors hooked upto my current laptop?
Looking at the base on the portable monitor, I wonder if it folds flat, or is it just a big annoying circle in your bag? How is the hinge? Does it hold securely both completely closed, and when open? You show it at around a 170 degree open, but does it sag over time and slowly fold shut?
I'm disappointed in this review because you don't talk AT ALL about how portable it was and how easy it was to move around with you. Did you take it to a coffee shop? Did you take it on a trip and use it to work in a hotel? Did you even just move it around your house/apartment to use in different locations?
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Dualscreen as a concrpt is indeed awesome - portability less resuired IMO. I use an LG DualUp which has proven itself a revelation (though immobile) sidecar w an ipad in my laptopbag suits mostly just fine
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I dunno, I just have a regular-ass portable screen I got on newegg for like $80. It's stand works either portrait or landscape.
It's doesn't have a big black line through the center, and it's a hellava lot cheaper
It's doesn't have a big black line through the center, and it's a hellava lot cheaper
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This concept and setup sounds extremely useful for something. I don't know what yet. But I will be snatching a touch model during Black Friday sales.
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The display toggle sounds very useful. A few questions, how does it mount to the stand? From the pictures, it looks like a magnetic attachment. Is it easy to bump off?
Does switching between landscape and portrait orientation happen via a rotating mechanism that you can do with one hand, or do you need both hands to disengage the magnet and then engage in the rotated position?
Does switching between landscape and portrait orientation happen via a rotating mechanism that you can do with one hand, or do you need both hands to disengage the magnet and then engage in the rotated position?
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My MBA M3 runs two external monitors WITH the MBA screen enabled.
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This looks very appealing when traveling, but not for a stint at the coffee shop. I might have to look into something like this for the holidays (although shipping a second, regular monitor looks like a good compromise).
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This particular monitor is a bit pricey but I have a bunch of the cheap, portable 1920x1080 15.6" LCDs based off some sort of laptop screen. They were ~$65 each IIRC and have a VESA mount on the back. I use them as a 2nd screen with the laptop but mostly I have them mounted in the network closet and above my workbenches so when I need a console login or need to bring up a Raspberry Pi I don't have to find somewhere to stack a bulky, heavy traditional 18" LCD monitor.
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Not natively. If you actually have an M3 MBA and you're running multiple external monitors, you're using displaylink.
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Agreed. Portability is the only reason for this thing to exist, and any info on that was missing from this review.
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Thanks, Scharon! Very interesting for my occasional portable use cases!
How high does the stand go? My dream portable setup is to have these dual screens directly above my 13" M2 MBA's screen, and I wonder if there stand would go that high.
How high does the stand go? My dream portable setup is to have these dual screens directly above my 13" M2 MBA's screen, and I wonder if there stand would go that high.
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Correction: That should be "a 3:4 experience," since you're adding the height, not the width.
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There is a link in the review to the product page where you can see many more photos and videos, including of the device being set up and packed away for transportation, and with the other available mounting options. As well as device specs including how much it weighs. I'm not sure why you would compare this to a pair of desktop monitors. That's like asking how a laptop would improve your life vs using your desktop.
It's a niche product, and I wasn't aware something like this even existed, so I appreciate reading about it here.
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That honestly doesn't look very portable. Where does the stand go when it's folded? And how is it powered? Maybe I'm blind but I'm not seeing any mention of it in the article. If it needs its own power outlet then it is a pretty worthless "portable" monitor.
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The weirdest thing I've experienced with DisplayLink is the first time I used it I didn't realize it was DisplayLink and thought it was just HDMI over USB-C (and IIRC it wasn't made clear in the then-current version of macOS that you were using DisplayLink in the menu bar like it does now), so I was confused as fuck about why my f.lux settings weren't passing through to the monitor. At the time I had a windowless office so I had a 24/7 heavy redshift set to try to save myself from eye strain and headache. Now it supports f.lux but still doesn't support Night Shift I think.
The oddities can just be unpredictable though and seems to all depend on your exact hardware mix. With my M3 MBP at work that I got earlier this year it can be a crapshoot on getting the dock that I'm using as a DisplayLink connector to actually connect to the Mac, have to try different Thunderbolt ports and flipping the USB-C connector over until I hear it ding that it's recognized the dock. And in my case everything seems to connect more smoothly if I do the dock first before plugging in the HDMI cable straight into the Mac for the other monitor.
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Yeah, I have fun with the hokey-pokey connection dance. My DL dock has 2 Displayport and 1 HDMI, but to get it to work I need to plug the Apple Thunderbolt display in directly using a TB2 to TB1 adapter, plug the second display in using the display port cable to the dock, and plug the HDMI cable into the Mac itself. Anything else and it throws a fit.
It does work, but it's obnoxious the dock can't handle it all
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I was really excited by this until I saw the 2 screens weigh 38 lbs!!!!
May I suggest removing that space to avoid giving any other readers heart attacks?
May I suggest removing that space to avoid giving any other readers heart attacks?
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Are you joking? I’ve used HDMI monitors with three different macOS computers for a decade plus and I’ve had not a whisker of a problem. This is across three computers and four separate monitors. Also one TV.
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A single 3:2 13" screen would be perfect for Surface Pro or Surface Laptop users who want a portable monitor with the same aspect ratio as their device.
Two 3:2 screens? Take my money!
Two 3:2 screens? Take my money!
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The biggest problem I have had with HDMI is the legacy overscan setting, most commonly used with 1080p sources.
This zooms the desktop by a few percent, cropping a little off the Mac menubar, or the Windows taskbar. It also meant a slight blurriness to text, since it was not doing 1:1 pixel mapping.
The overscan setting is a legacy feature from the CRT TV era, where the curved shape required a bit of overscan. This persisted into the HDTV era, since many of the first HDTVs were analog (widescreen CRTs and CRT-based rear projection TVs came before fully digital TVs). And still was done by digital HDTVs due to.... HDTV spec standardizations.
This is a toggleable setting in the TV menus, under different lingo, sometimes "Aspect" and sometime a separate setting "Overscan", or a "PC Mode" setting. This inconsistency was annoying, but it's part of the ATSC TV standard to do a bit of overscan regardless of whether the signal was a TV signal or a PC.
Most newer HDMI devices have this setting turned off by default nowadays, since it's no longer necessary with the near-complete disappearance of analog HDTVs unlike in the 2000s.
It's enshrined as part of TV broadcast standards, still. Modern 2020s HDTV signals are still signal-timing derivatives of 1980s Japan MUSE HD (1125 scan lines, where in analog era 1035 was visible and in the digital era, 1080 is visible. The rest is blanking. However, the vertical total was always 1125 for both analog HD and digital HD eras). 1080p kept the same timings, and standardized 4K simply did an exact-doubling (2250 scan lines), of the same MUSE HD standard.
Keeping modern HD signals backward compatible with older HD equipment, and vice-versa, was also a large rationale of the overscan problem that annoyingly afflicts PC/Mac signals that are piped over HDMI. Fortunately, it's almost always a setting that can be toggled on TVs (Except hotel TVs and sometimes annoyingly conference-room TVs, where you can't access their settings menus...)
TV broadcasts still avoid putting text in the overscan area, like a bleed area, so things like Toronto's CP24 has a bit of padding around the edges for the persistently-onscreen textual info, but lets backgrounds and scrolling tickers bleed into the legacy overscan area.
TL;DR: To fix this cropped desktop + blurry text problem, caused by legacy television overscan standardization, google HDMI Overscan.
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Oh, well if YOU've had no issues, then OP must obviously be lying. It's well known if it works for YOU, then everybody will have the same experience
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I have acquired quite a few portable monitors - I'm fond of my 4K Espresso 17", but the Uperfect monitors are solid and less expensive. My only dual monitor portable setup is the
16in Pro Touch model that I got for $100 off. Dual Display port compatible USB-C ports. I couldn't get extend mode to work, but works fine as two separate displays each with it's own connection.
2560 x 1600. Not as bright as the MBP, but then again - almost no displays are.
16in Pro Touch model that I got for $100 off. Dual Display port compatible USB-C ports. I couldn't get extend mode to work, but works fine as two separate displays each with it's own connection.
2560 x 1600. Not as bright as the MBP, but then again - almost no displays are.
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His point is that he's never seen the problem, neither have I across the 20 or so Macs I deal with on a regular basis.
The only take away is that it isn't systematic. Individual users can of course have problems.
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My Dual 16" easily fits in my laptop bag along side MBP and iPad. I'd never set it up in a café, but hotel while on travel - absolutely.
My Expresso is narrower, but wider and barely fits, plus the stand is a bit bulky - but it's got better color and comes with MacOS native touch software.
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You would think that if something as common as plugging a monitor in via HDMI was a widespread problem, there would be some indication of such online.
I would bet 90+% of people plugging monitors into laptops plug them in via HDMI.
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It's sufficiently low power to run off of your laptop? It's roughly laptop-sized? Hell, this one even folds up to protect both screens. Is this a serious question? lol
I have a Lenovo portable monitor, and while I would never toss it anywhere, including into a backpack, I definitely take it places. Not often, because it's hard to beat the convenience of my home setup with its five screens, but yeah. Gonna be at the car dealership for a couple of hours? Need a change of scenery on Friday? A second screen is a great force multiplier for not a lot of additional setup and teardown.
Going to the supplied link shows that the monitor attaches to the pictured stand magnetically and comes with some kind of folding folio thing that can triangle up into a stand of its own, so you don't have to take the main stand with you. I probably would, though, because having two vertical screens side by side is really useful for what I do. Probably not $500-out-of-my-own-pocket useful, but who knows what the future holds?
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Are you suggesting google doesnt provide 10+ pages of atricles about IOS HDMI issues?
And maybe 90% don't have issues,
But your post suggested OP couldn't be serious that he is having problems. Maybe that wasn't your intent, but...
Can you see the difference in tone implied?
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