Review: Duex Plus portable display attachment for laptops

Review unit provided by Mobile Pixels

The Duex series of displays from Mobile Pixels are portable displays that can attach to laptops for a dual display setup. The design is an interesting take on the standalone portable displays with some pros and cons. The biggest pro is it's convenient to have a secondary display you can pull out from behind the laptop. The con is usage is limited to laptops and the colour support isn't that good.

The three products currently under the Duex series are the 12.1-inch Duex Lite, 13.3-inch Duex Plus and 14.1-inch Duex Max. Prices at the time of review are US $220, $260 and $280 respectively on Mobile Pixel's website. These displays are also available on Amazon.

Video review

This is my 13-min video review

If you want a triple display setup, Mobile Pixels has the Trio series displays where you can pull out two displays from behind the laptop from both sides. How's that for productivity?

The Duex displays came from two successful Kickstarter campaigns with 3,900+ and 3,100+ backers.

These are the items included in the box.

The cable is a USB-C to USB-C with USB-A adapter. The display supports USB-C video connection.

There are extra double sided tape for the magnets.

Duex Plus can be used with a computer that has USB-A instead of USB-C too. You'll have to use the USB-A adapter and install a driver. USB-A connection works fine with no latency issues.

Those circular things are double-sided tape for the magnets.

This is the side that attaches to the laptop. There are four detachable magnets on four metal plates. The design allows the magnets to slide sideways.

If you're using a laptop with a touchscreen that supports an active stylus, the magnets may affect pen performance. I tested with the Microsoft Surface Pen and Slim Pen 2 and there were no problems, but I could not write with the Samsung S Pen when the magnets are near.

Only four magnets are provided. If you want to re-use the display on other laptops, you can buy more magnets (US $22 for four pieces) from the company.

This is how it looks with the display pulled out all the way.

The hinge allows you to turn the display.

There's an installation video provided and the installation is straightforward. You align the magnets and display to the laptop, remove the double sided tape from the magnets, and attach the display to the laptop.

The size of the Duex Plus almost matches my 13.3-inch M1 Macbook Air. If you think they don't look good stacked like this, I would agree. This is after all an add-on installation, but it works.

Duex Plus dimensions are 12.25" x 8.46" x 0.25" (31.1 x 21.5 x 0.64 cm). The weight is 1.3lbs (589g).

The display can be installed on either side of the laptop. There's a gyroscope that will rotate the orientation automatically depending on which side you install, and which side is up.

In this photo, I pushed the cables to the back. If your laptop USB port is on the other side, you can have the cables run neatly around the back.

Colours on the display look alright out of the box. With a colour calibrator, I measured colour support for just 68% sRGB and a maximum brightness of 152 nits. As a visual content creator, the limited colour support means I can't use the display for work that requires colour accuracy. Having said that, the colour support is fine for those doing office type work, web browsing or maybe even watching videos.

152 nits brightness is sufficient for indoor use.

The resolution is 1920 x 1080 on a 13.3-inch display so there will be noticeable pixelation. In the picture above, left is Duex Plus and right is Macbook Air. 1080P resolution is still very usable though and works just fine for on an extended display.

Having a dual display setup is always useful. In this case with the Duex Plus, it's really convenient to have that secondary display right behind the laptop display waiting to be deployed. If you don't need the secondary display, you can always remove it from the laptop as the magnets are detachable.

Due to the extra weight on the laptop display, if you tilt the laptop display too low, the weight will pull one or both displays down. The Duex Plus seems to be best used with the laptop display vertical or tilted very slightly. The hinge is able to hold Duex Plus at an angle more easily when the laptop display is more vertical.

The second USB-C port has power pass through that can be used to charge the laptop.

The hinge is used to pull the display out and to turn the display. So one area of concern would be how durable the hinge is. Unfortunately I have not used Duex Plus long enough to say much about durability.

The hinge does look tough enough though.

Conclusion

The Duex Plus works well as an external display and is compact and convenient to bring around with a laptop. This is a good product for productivity. The main downside would be the limited 68% sRGB colour support that affects image quality.

The pricing is quite reasonable when compared to standalone portable displays. US $220, $260 and $280 for 12.1, 13.3 and 14.1-inches. The main advantage here with Duex Plus vs standalone portable displays is this display "floats" by the side and you don't need a stand for it.

Availability

You can find the Duex and Trio displays on Mobile Pixels online store.

They are also available on Amazon and you can find more reviews there too through these links: US | CA | UK | DE