Asus ZenScreen MB16AC 15.6-in USB monitor launching soon

[HEXUS]

Portable monitor, a 2017 Red Dot Design Awards winner, features in a new promo video.

Read more.

[daddacool]

£270 then?

I paid two and a half times that price for my i5 Surface Pro 4, which as well as packing in an entire computer, also had a touchscreen with a resolution of 2736 x 1824. 1080P at this price seems like an awful premium :/

[preter_s]

Pretty pricey offering from ASUS. AOC pioneered such a USB monitor concept years ago and I'm quite sure their pricing is far better (although slightly lower res - https://www.amazon.com/AOC-e1659Fwu-1366x768-Brightness-3-0-Powered/dp/B00CMKOVMO )

[Ttaskmaster]

Nice idea, loadsamoney, too thin and breakable for me to even consider hiking up a mountain and "overcoming challenges" with it...
AOC looks far cheaper, even with UK pricing!!

I expect tablets to include a similar feature before too long...

[kingpotnoodle]

£270 then?

I paid two and a half times that price for my i5 Surface Pro 4...

Quite a different sized screen, this is intended as a portable addition to an existing laptop form factor... how many 15.6" tablets are there, and how much to they weigh?

Quite a large proportion of the cost of a laptop or tablet is the screen.

Nice idea, loadsamoney, too thin and breakable for me to even consider hiking up a mountain and "overcoming challenges" with it...
AOC looks far cheaper, even with UK pricing!!

I expect tablets to include a similar feature before too long...

Most tablets have very much smaller screens that aren't much use at laptop typing distance.

[Ttaskmaster]

Most tablets have very much smaller screens that aren't much use at laptop typing distance.

And yet so many can be fitted to cases with integral keyboards and used just like a laptop...

I could be wrong, but I *assume* one can actually just make the text bigger, no?

[Xlucine]

Some kind of double case that can fit this and an equal sized laptop would be nice, keeps them together and if your bag is a bit tight they'll share any bending loads

[daddacool]

Very true, I initially started with just the resolution and then added the rest of it as I got more carried away 1080P on a budget 15.6" laptop, looking at ebuyer an i3 HP is a good fit, costs just £80 more than this. The specs are too low for the price, even if a big chunk of a laptops price is its screen.

[Valantar]

Most tablets have very much smaller screens that aren't much use at laptop typing distance.

And yet so many can be fitted to cases with integral keyboards and used just like a laptop...

I could be wrong, but I *assume* one can actually just make the text bigger, no?

Sure, you can, but then you're left with a hopelessly small screen area. A ~10" screen is simply too small to be useful as a laptop. In my experience, roughly 12" is the lower limit for laptop use. As such, the Surface Pro is a good compromise. Not that you can fit a usable keyboard in a 10" form factor anyhow.


As for the Asus monitor, I love the concept, resolution, and low weight (that it is IPS and has an sRGB mode makes me hope for some okay colour accuracy too), but I would really want an HDMI input. That's a deal breaker for me, unfortunately.

[GrahamC]

While I accept it's a bit expensive in the UK, as a second screen for the streaming crowd it would be a pretty neat solution.

[Ttaskmaster]

Sure, you can, but then you're left with a hopelessly small screen area. A ~10" screen is simply too small to be useful as a laptop.

Speak for yourself - I did very well for several years with just a 10.1" Netbook as my main PC, including gaming use. Only reason I'm not still using it is the lack of 1080p for movies and the hardware will not run Windows 10.
Before that, I was using a Psion Revo.
Both keyboards were among the most usable I've ever had and I could type as well on those as the bog standard HP keyboard I'm typing this on!

Certainly looking at the Galaxy tablet thing the wife has, I could use that just fine as a second screen...

[kingpotnoodle]

And yet so many can be fitted to cases with integral keyboards and used just like a laptop...

I could be wrong, but I *assume* one can actually just make the text bigger, no?

The 12" of the Surface Pro 4 is usable like a small laptop but if you're going to use a regular 10" tablet for screen mirroring with a larger device it's not going to be good by the time scaling is adjusted to match a laptop screen.

When you fit something the size of a 10" tablet with a matching tiny keyboard and plonk it on the desk you are closer to the screen than with a 15" laptop, you can't really compare a 15" auxiliary screen for a laptop with a <12" tablet...

[Ttaskmaster]

The 12" of the Surface Pro 4 is usable like a small laptop but if you're going to use a regular 10" tablet for screen mirroring with a larger device it's not going to be good by the time scaling is adjusted to match a laptop screen.

If you demand über hi-def from both screens, then no... but for just a general auxiliary screen, I don't see a problem.

When you fit something the size of a 10" tablet with a matching tiny keyboard and plonk it on the desk you are closer to the screen than with a 15" laptop, you can't really compare a 15" auxiliary screen for a laptop with a <12" tablet...

So position it closer to your face...?
I often use a 5.1" mobile phone in 1080x1920 and only need it about 7" further forward from my main screen...

[qasdfdsaq]

Pretty pricey offering from ASUS. AOC pioneered such a USB monitor concept years ago and I'm quite sure their pricing is far better (although slightly lower res - https://www.amazon.com/AOC-e1659Fwu-.../dp/B00CMKOVMO )

By slightly you mean basically half the res, doesn't support DisplayPort, and a vastly inferior TN panel which has terrible colours (6-bit) and viewing angles.

By your logic a £100 FHD IPS monitor is pretty pricey because you can get £50 720p TN off Fleabay. If you're the kind of person who routinely goes for the cheapest monitor you can get, premium IPS displays are not aimed at you.