How to choose the best portable display

Are you looking for the best portable display but don't know what features to look for? This is the article for you.

I've written this from my experience of having reviewed too many displays that I've lost count.

The points I'll cover in this article are

• Brightness
• Colour support
• Power
• Power Delivery (PD)
• Brand
• Display size (and portability)
• Aspect ratio
• Resolution
• Display type
• Viewing angle
• Display surface
• Ports, connectivity
• Touchscreen functionality
• Stand, VESA mount
• OSD
• Speakers
• MacOS issues
• Pen support

There are many things to cover as you can see. If you just want to know the key features to look for, scroll down to the brightness, colour support and power sections.

I'll include some product recommendations whenever possible.

If you have any questions, the comments section is always open and I will answer your question as best as you can.

If you prefer to watch a video instead of reading, you can watch this video below but this text article will contain more up-to-date information as technology is always improving.

Brightness

Brightness is the MOST IMPORTANT feature to look for in a portable display.

A bright display can show colours more accurately and create good contrast. A dim display just makes everything more difficult to see, and more so under reflections or anti-glare.

Brightness is measured in nits or cd/m2 (candelas per square meter).

Real world brightness is usually 10-20% lower than advertised brightness, and I'm saying this based on all the displays I've reviewed over the years.

For indoor use, 200 nits real world brightness is sufficient, but of course the higher the better. For outdoor use, I recommend 400 nits and above and there aren't many options to choose from.

Getting a display with at least advertised 400 nits would be a safe choice.

Colour support

Here are the use cases for the commonly listed colour spaces:

• sRGB: General use, studies, office work
• AdobeRGB: Use for print design work, photography. If you work primarily with CMYK as appose to sRGB, look for AdobeRGB coverage
• DCI-P3: Suitable for video editing

Look for displays with high % for wider colour space coverage which means the displays can show more colours.

Choose the appropriate colour space based on what you plan to do with the display.

You should always choose 100% sRGB as a minimum. Whether you should also consider AdobeRGB or DCI-P3 will depend on your work.

AdobeRGB will have wider colour space, followed by DCI-P3 and sRGB. By the way, 100% AdobeRGB displays are usually noticeably more expensive for this reason.

Power

Some displays can be powered by a single USB-C video connection from the computer. This is minimalist with less cable clutter.

But if a portable display does not have enough power, it will either not light up or the brightness will be low. If so, a cable has to be connected to power in additional to the video connection cable (usually HDMI or USB-C).

Look for a portable display that can be powered by a single USB-C video connection because it's more convenient. But unfortunately this information may not be available from the company. The company may advertise that it's possible, but in reality it's may not possible depending on the device you use. This is where finding reviews is important.

Laptop USB-C ports usually limits output to 15W to power external devices. When using a laptop to power a portable display, the laptop battery will drain more quickly.

Oh, there are battery powered displays too. These displays won't drain laptop batteries as fast. Having a built-in battery may be convenient but note that the battery health may deteriorate in the future with usage.

Power Delivery (PD)

Portable displays with Power Delivery (PD) feature can charge devices they are connected to, such as laptops, tablets or even phones that can output video.

This is a nice feature to have if you want to minimise the number of cables connected to your laptop. E.g. Connect the power cable to the portable display instead of to the laptop.

Brand

Brand may or may not be important.

Brand is not that important because many portable displays are just white label products. The same display can be sold by many companies under different brands. So if two displays from different brands look the same, they may be the same product.

Warranty period is important though. Brand is important because you need a trustworthy brand that can honour the warranty.

Display size (and portability)

Nowadays, portable displays can range from 10-inches to 22-inch.

Choose the size that fit your needs.

15 to 16-inch portable, easy to find and affordable (less than USD 150 for a good one). They are the size of 15 to 16-inch laptops but much thinner and lighter.

If the display is meant to be used primarily at home, go with larger displays, and get something as big as your budget can allow. Working with a big display is more satisfying, and if the resolution is high enough you also get more desktop space to work with, which will improve productivity.

My recommendation for a big portable display is the UPerfect UMax22 which I really like.

I've tried an 18-inch display before and did not improve my productivity as much as I expected. 18-inch would probably be the maximum limit I would go with for a display that you have to bring around often. But for bringing around, I would go with 16-inch with 16:10 aspect ratio.

Aspect ratio

The most common aspect ratio for portable display is 16:9.

My favourite aspect ratio is 16:10 which has 11% more screen real estate (pixels) compared to 16:9 aspect ratio.

Aspect ratio is important when the display is small because given the fixed width of the display, you get more vertical pixels to show more content.

Aspect ratio is not as important when the display is bigger because with higher resolution (2560 x 1440 vs 1920 x 1080), you can also show more content.

People who watch more videos may prefer 16:9 because of wide format videos. People who work more than watch videos should go with 16:10 aspect ratio.

Resolution

Resolution, or the number pixels, will affect sharpness, detail, and productivity with larger displays. The higher the resolution, the higher the price.

Common resolutions are

• 1920 x 1080 (aka 1080P or FHD), and the less common 1920 x 1200 FHD+
• 2560 x 1440 (aka 1440P or UHD), and the less common 2560 x 1600 QHD+
• 3840 x 2160 (aka 4K UHD)

1080P resolution

4K UHD resolution

If you prefer sharpness and more detail over pixelation, go with displays that have Pixels Per Inch (PPI) that's close to 200. You can use an online PPI calculator to determine the PPI

E.g. A 15-inch display with 1080P resolution has 146 PPI and there will be noticeable pixelation from one arm's distance away.

A 15-inch display with 1440P resolution has 195 PPI and will be noticeably sharper, and pixelation is more difficult to see.

A 15-inch display with 4K UHD resolution has 295 PPI and individual pixels cannot be seen.

My personally recommendation is to go with at least 1440P resolution or higher if your budget allows, or go for 200 PPI.

Higher resolution combined with bigger displays can show more content due to having more pixels, and this would improve productivity instantly. E.g. being able to show to documents side by side, or have a reference by the side while you're working on something else.

Display type

LCD display is most common and more affordable, and OLED displays are getting more popular, more expensive but prices are coming down.

LCD is a matured technology and can produce good colour accuracy. OLED is the newer technology has can produce noticeably more vibrant colours, better contrast and true HDR effect, and also has good colour accuracy.

Note that OLED displays will have pulse wave modulation (PWM) and people with sensitive eyes may be affected. If you're unsure whether you're affected by PWM, you can go to an electronics store and look at OLED displays to find out.

OLED displays is better for watching videos and gaming. Extra vibrancy from OLED displays is not that useful for viewing office documents.

LCD are durable and can last for years before they turn yellow. OLED displays are supposed to be quite durable too but they are still new so we won't know whether there will be burn-in (image retention) effect over years of usage.

If you want to get an OLED display, consider the UPerfect Ucolor O2.

Viewing angle

Viewing angle is how the visual quality of the display is affected when viewed from extreme angles.

Viewing angle is usually affected by the type of display. Many companies like to list 178 degrees viewing angle, but it's actually more accurate to see the viewing angle in real life.

Having said that viewing angle should not be an issue because portable displays are usually small, so chances are you are always in front of the display rather than looking from an angle, such as when the display is too big. So when looking from the front, visual quality should always look good.

Display surface

Display surfaces are either glossy or matte.

Glossy surfaces are reflective but shows off colours more vibrantly. There are glossy displays with anti-reflective coating but those are rare and I've not seen such a feature in portable displays.

Matte displays are have anti-glare and will diffuse reflection. Colours are not as vibrant as glossy displays but colours can still look really vibrant. I personally prefer matte displays.

When reading reviews, look for information on the aggressiveness of the anti-glare. Some anti-glare can diffused reflections until the display is bright and glaring which is obviously not ideal.

Ports, connectivity

Most portable displays support USB-C and HDMI for video connection.

Sometimes there's a micro-USB for OTG (on the go) connections to keyboards or mouse.

Choose the ports you need, the ones that your computer provides. E.g. If your computer support HDMI, get a portable display with HDMI obviously. It's good to choose a display with both USB-C and HDMI so that you have the flexibility to choose input source.

If you want to use USB-C video, do check and make sure the USB-C port from your computer can actually output video.

Touchscreen functionality

Touchscreen may be useful but is not a major selling point to me.

Having a touchscreen allows you to work without keyboard and mouse which is useful but in most situations using a keyboard and mouse is more productive.

Touchscreens will support basic navigation gestures such as pan, zoom and rotate. Depending on how good the touchscreen is, you may also use multiple finger gestures.

Touchscreens work well with Windows and not MacOS. If you use MacOS and buy a touchscreen, you're paying for a feature that you'll not use.

I've reviewed the ASUS PA147CDV before which was designed with the touchscreen as the main selling point.

Pen support

There are actually a number of portable displays that support pen input. Some companies actually make pen displays targeted at digital artists. If you want to draw on your display, check out my pen display reviews.

How good pen support is really depends on the product.

Some pens are just meant for creating markups, basic writing and not suitable for creating professional art.

Stand, VESA mount

Some portable displays come with a flip case that can be folded to prop up the display.

Some have built-in kickstand which are more useful. These displays with their stands are usually on the table, so I prefer to put the displays on tablet stands to raise them to a more ergonomic height. Buying a cheap tablet stand can make the viewing experience way more comfortable.

For displays with VESA mounting on the back, you can purchase a VESA mount stand. VESA mount stands have many designs, and most are more stable compared to a tablet stand.

Make sure you have the correct VESA measurement, either 75 x 75mm or 100 x 100mm

Speakers

If you need to have audio, you don't have to choose between displays because all speakers from portable displays are lousy.

MacOS UI scaling issues

Some older versions of MacOS have issues with scaling the UI, causing visuals to look fuzzy or soft. I've heard recent MacOS versions have fixed the problem but I can't confirm.

Anyway, there's a software fix. Just install BetterDisplay app and use that to handle UI scaling with HiDPI option enabled.

If you do not want to use a software fix, just avoid displays with 1440P resolution. In other words, go with 1080P (pixelated) or 4K UHD (sharp) resolution.

Laptop extensions

I don't recommend laptop display extensions that stick to the lid of laptops. There is either one or two foldout displays.

Such display extensions are more of a hassle than help. These displays are often smaller than the laptop screen, colour support isn't good and they are noticeably heavier compared to standalone portable displays, and quite bulky because of the extra folding parts.

The advantage with such products is you can fold them away easily, but a standalone display can also be folded away easily and stacked onto a laptop.

Dual stacked displays

Dual stacked displays are quite new. These are two displays that can fold down into a laptop-size unit.

This design is not a gimmick. Dual stacked displays provide extra screen real estate for those who do need a lot more extra desktop space.

The product shown above is UPerfect Delta Pro Touch and there are now other companies that also sell such designs.

Conclusion

There are many things to consider when getting a portable monitor. Just remember the three important things to check: brightness, colour support and power.

For more reviews of portable displays, visit
https://www.parkablogs.com/tags/portable-monitor