Reviewing a portable usb monitor? (Asus MB168+)

I ordered the Asus MB168+ yesterday now that it is finally available and I've had several people already asking me to put up a review.

What are important points you guys want reviewed?
Let me know below.

 

That's actually a pretty cool feature set. I'd not bothered with Displaylink monitors for a while, maybe I'll pick one up.

 

How well does fullscreen video work. Something like that would be great as a second screen, while working on the main screen. "Multitasking" ftw

 

I think that would be application dependant, but I'll try with MPC-HC and youtube videos.

 

Why all of the above of course:

Weight
resolution
brightness
battery life impact
viewing angle

Is USB the sole connection (power/signal), or does it need something else?

Also, does it offer the capacity and features of a traditional monitor, i.e. Nvidia spanning etc? Does it work with, and in lieu of your regular monitor?

 

The biggest problem I have heard is that some pixels don't work or the device just stops working after 3 months or so.

Please in a few months update us on that.

In practice in your daily activities do you end up using it? That is something I wonder about. I think that when it comes to productivity, more screen real estate can be useful to put documents side by side but I can't see alot of purpose of getting a portable usb monitor unless you are forced to work away from your existing external monitors.

As a college student, I have been interested in getting a portable external monitor but I am leery of the existing options because alot of people have said that they stop working after a while.

 

I can answer those last two as the ex-owner of many Displaylink monitors.

1. Displaylink monitors are entirely USB driven. You often need a USB Y-cable because these usually demand the full 500ma@5V - and many even more. I'm assuming the USB3.0 connection with the increased power draw capability allows the monitor to get away with one USB port most of the time on most machines, but in many cases - and especially when connecting to USB2.0 ports - you may need to plug it in to more than one USB port using a Y power splitter.

2. It's not like a Thunderbolt display which passes through the monitor image from a built-in IGP/GPU over the bus. It's entirely software driven and apart from your Intel IGP, it relies on the CPU to do a lot of the display processing, super-old-school PC style. Displaylink drivers effectively simulates an IGP/GPU in software and then slings that screen content, compressed, down the USB cable. There's been a lot of optimisations to allow Intel IGP's to be a co-processor to drive Displaylink monitors, but there's still a small degree of CPU hit (far more noticeable than e.g. even an IGP when watching movies). Because of all this, you won't be doing any worthwhile 3D gaming for example on one of these. It also consequently obviously doesn't work as an NVSurround / Eyefinity spanned display though you may still be able to add it to a surround group (it won't be being driven by the GPU).

 

How is it different from its competitors from gechic and lenovo?

 

it seems uninspiring. I think manufactures need to keep in mind the multifunction is the pinnacle of today's designs. This device need to do more than just be a display, especially when even those abilities is extremely limited. Now if it were a table and a monitor, or offer enhanced connectivity and ports, then maybe they'd have something.

 

But then it would need to be heavier and much more expensive. These are also used by people with their Surface Pro 2 as an external screen.

 

I'd very much like to hear about how sturdy and durable it seems to be?

It's obviously tailored for mobile use, so will it stand up to being carried in laptop bags? suitcases? etc?

Too many of the reviews I've seen focus on the specs and not the user experience, and none of touched on it's durability if it's being lugged to a co-working space, coffee shop, hotel room, wherever on a regular basis.

 

Well, since I missed the first delivery notice on saturday I only received it today.
First impressions;
- It's really lightweight.
- The supplied case/stand is quite okay but I would probably prefer a step between the steepest and the lowest setting. That should be fixed with one of the tablet- and bookstands that I bought of off e-bay. ( Stand # 1, Stand #2, Stand #3
- The supplied 40cm cable is fine for travel but for my particular laptop (Sony S13P) and that specific location of ports it is not long enough. Consider buying a 150cm cable if you want to put it on the left hand side of the laptop.
- It's really bright, the quality of the picture seems to be much better than my laptop's screen... which is not that hard however.

Stay tuned for more updates!

 

Any update on this? I'm thinking about buying on in the next week and I'd REALLY love to hear about how sturdy/durable it is for travel. Does it seem like it'd survive ok inside a suitcase? backpack? etc? How protective is the cover? etc...

 

Those who are using Mac OS 10.10, Yosemite will have to wait for a stable driver as the current beta version 2.3 has some issue. The resolution on apps deteriorate and will flicker when you scrolls. Different apps has different visible issues. However it does display decently but definitely not as well when I am using it on Mac OS 10.9. Hope this review is helpful in your decision to buy a portable monitor. I guess this is the drawback of monitor that is USB powered and dependent on driver compatibility.

Notice the side of the application...