![Portable Monitor - 2020 Lepow Z1-Gamut 15.6'' FHD Laptop Display [Improved Color Gamut] IPS 1080P Ultra-Slim Type-C & HDMI Se](https://images-fe.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71fDVntwSML._AC_UL160_SR160,160_.jpg)
I had been looking at portable monitors for a few months. All I saw were a bunch of unknown Chinese brands. Most of them have good reviews, but I didn't like them for a couple of reasons:
1. Most of them have ports on one side, and ports/buttons on the other side. This means that you might have problems if you want to use the monitor in portrait mode, because the ports would be on top, and you wouldn't be able to access the buttons on the side that's sitting on the desk.
2. A lot of them have a hole in one of the corners that lets you use a pen as a stand. The hole looks really tacky.
Now this brand name ViewSonic VG1655 portable monitor has come along, and it solves both of those issues. It has a multi-directional button on the back that you use to access the on-screen menu. And it has a built-in stand (usable in both landscape and portrait modes), so there's no hole in it. You're paying about a 40% premium over the unknown Chinese brands though, but you also get a 3 year warranty.
It comes with 3 cables (USB-C to USB-C, USB-C to USB-A, mini-HDMI to HDMI), a power adapter, a cover, a microfiber cloth, a quick start guide, and a piece of paper saying it should be used in 1920x1080 mode. I'm using the USB-C to USB-C cable with my laptop, so I don't need to use the power adapter. The cables are only about 3 feet long, so they might be a bit short if you need to use the power adapter. I like how one end of the cable has a right-angle connector - that could be useful as a space saver in some situations.
What I don't like about this monitor is that the colors are dull compared to my laptop. And this is supposed to be an IPS panel, which is the best type of panel. It's very obvious when duplicating my laptop screen to the portable monitor - colors look vivid on my laptop, and they look dull on the ViewSonic. It's not a brightness issue, I have the ViewSonic on maximum brightness (that's the default anyway). The colors just look dull, and I tried all the different view modes and color adjustments. Green and purple colors seem especially bad - they can look really dark sometimes, and purple sometimes looks like dark blue. (See the photo I attached.)
Another thing is the button on the back. The good thing about it is you just need to press one button to access all the menus and change settings. You can push the button in 5 directions - up, down, left, right, and inwards. The bad thing is that ViewSonic designed their menus in an inconsistent manner. For example, on some submenus, you have to push the button in one direction to go back to the parent menu, and on other submenus, you have to push the button in a different direction to go back to the parent menu. Because of that, I found the menu navigation to constantly behave differently than I expected because of the fact that the actions assigned to each direction always changed depending on what submenu I was on.
So overall, if you're just using this monitor as a secondary monitor and you're not doing any graphics editing on it, then it'll probably be fine. But for the premium in price and considering it's a name brand, the dull colors is a bit disappointing. After all, the main thing a monitor should be judged on is its image quality. If vibrant colors are important to you, there are other portable monitors out there that advertise a high gamut for around the same price as this monitor.
| Brand | ViewSonic |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer | ViewSonic |
| Series | TD1655 |
| Colour | Grey |
| Item Height | 8.8 inches |
| Item Width | 14 inches |
| Standing screen display size | 15.6 Inches |
| Display resolution | 1920 x 1080 |
| Resolution | 1920 x 1080 |
| Number of HDMI Ports | 1 |
| Wattage | 240 watts |
| Manufacturer | ViewSonic |
| Item model number | TD1655 |
| Product Dimensions | 1.52 x 35.56 x 22.35 cm; 1 Kilograms |
| ASIN | B08778F756 |
