VisionOwl Large Portable Monitor-18.5 Inch Computer Gaming Display 100Hz 125% sRGB FHD 1080P USB-C HDMI IPS Screen for Laptop Mac Surface PC PS4/PS5 Xbox Built-in Kickstand, Speakers, VESA Mountable

Pros:- Brightest portable monitor that I have seen to date for under $200. I picked it up for $159.99!- It's large. The screen dwarfs that of my laptop and a 16" portable monitor that I bought last Christmas for my wife.- It just works.Cons:- It's huge! I had to upgrade my backpack because it will not fit in a 17" laptop partition (duh...).Other:- It has an HDMI port as opposed to a mini-HDMI port but I actually like this because if I ever forget my cable, there will be one on the back of the hotel's TV for me to use.- It comes with a padded case. The case seems to be well padded but I don't think that there are any protective inserts in them. I don't know yet if I have to worry about the monitor flexing as I drove as opposed to flying to where I am this weekend. It does not have the "flap protective system" that doubles as a stand. The monitor seems to be of a good build quality and the attached stand seems to be solid.I had previously bought a portable 2K 16" monitor for my spouse because I had seen kids around the office use them when they were visiting from our out of town locations. Why for my spouse when I am the one that really uses two screens whereas she doesn't even maximize any windows/applications on her MS Surface? Okay, you got me there. It was really for me (but I always ask first before using it) and my use case was primarily to work on spreadsheets on the larger screen while dealing with other tasks on my MS Surface. Unfortunately, the screen was too dim and the sheets were not as large as I had hoped.With the Black Friday Sale going on on Amazon, I decided to buy this VisionOwl 18-1/2" portable monitor. I did a search of the reviews for "nits" and it came back with something like another user reported that it has 320 candelas. I googled that and it said that 320 candelas were about 320 nits. Don't ask me what nits are. I just remembered that the CEO of Apple was talking about nits recently in the context of brightness. So, this is not a technical review but a review by someone who is mechanically inclined and somewhat tech savvy.How savvy? Not that savvy because I had to do some searches on my MS Surface to figure out how to connect my Amazon Firestick to the hotel's network. Yep, I am at a hotel tonight and while setting up my firestick I played what I wanted to watch on this portable monitor. Picture quality was great and the sound was fine (unlike the portable monitor that I bought for my wife). It's not stereo quality great as I am sure that the built in speakers are tiny but it is loud enough to follow conversations on Netflix shows without being distorted.If you are looking for a larger, brighter screen that is very usable, then I would recommend this one to you. In case you are concerned (as I was) that the monitor is not very bright because many of the pictures in the reviews appear to have been taken in the dark, don't be. My fears were unfounded. I have used this screen in a very well lit home office. The only reason why the lighting in my review pictures is not very bright is because like many hotels, there weren't any overhead light fixtures. I just realized that I should also point out that when I power the monitor off my MS Surface, the screen is not as bright as when it is connected to its own power supply; however, it is just as bright as that 16" 2K portable monitor my wife has. I actually have it plugged into an Anker GaN charger which is also powering my MS Surface so I don't have to carry as many chargers with me.

I needed a nice large portable monitor for my graphic design and marketing work. It's just too tough to do everything on one monitor. After doing some research, I ordered this one. I have to say, I absolutely love it. I had it up and running right out of the box in just a few minutes. Nothing special is needed in terms of software (at least on my Macbook Pro M1). I just attached two USB-C cables and I was off an running.The first thing I noticed was that the image quality and colors seem like a natural extension of my Macbook Pro. I was really surprised that I didn't even feel the need to adjust the color or contrast. Secondly, the connectivity is super easy to set up and that means that you'll have a functional second monitor a few minutes after you unbox it. The size of this monitor is fantastic for me, at least. It affords me plenty of screen space when designing or working in Google Analytics or having multiple browser windows open at the same time. I haven't played games on it yet but there's no flickering so the refresh rate seems to be good. One thing to note is that you can plug the monitor into an outlet or you can use the USB-C to power it from your computer directly. This is really well thought-out!If you travel for work it's hard to say whether this will be the best monitor for you. If you fly, then I'd make sure you have a large enough backpack to hold the monitor so it doesn't end up being a separate item. Even then, it's so light that you'll hardly notice that it's in your pack. If you drive, then this is a no-brainer - just stick it in the back seat. The case has a convenient handle so you can carry it easily and not worry about dropping it even if you have a few too. many things in your hand.

I bought this 18.5" FHD monitor specifically for use as a portrait mode secondary display. I have to say, it exceeded my expectations. I was able to get it to work pretty easily from the USB 4 port on my workstation, but I ultimately decided to use the included HDMI cable and attached it to my discreet graphics card instead.It was important to me to have the HDR capability so my primary display could remain in HDR mode at all times. While the SDR picture quality is superb, the Windows HDR calibration tool allows it to look virtually identical to my primary monitor in perceived color space and brightness.Also, the bezel on 3 sides is extremely narrow, slightly narrower than my primary, which makes it great candidate for a secondary display. Only the "bottom" (if it were in landscape mode) is a little big. But that makes no difference to me, I simply oriented the display so the bottom edge was on the outside of the display wall. What's better, the PPI (approx 120) is nearly the same as my primary monitor, so windows almost seamlessly move from one screen to the next without much stretching, shrinking, or misalignment.There are two ports with a lightning symbol, but I'm not sure if it's for Thunderbolt passthrough, or if those are only ports for supplying/providing power (also DP alt mode input). I think it's the later, as they don't have the arrow on the end of the bolt. I tried plugging my iPhone into the 2nd USB port, with the first connected to a USB 4 port (also a DP Alt Mode port) on the PC and it started to charge the phone, so it does pass power through, but the PC didn't connect to the iPhone for data transfer.Bonus 1: This little guy has a maximum refresh rate of 100Hz. I doubt many people still have fluorescent lighting, but the fact that this can do something more than 60Hz would reduce screen flickering in those situations. For me, things just look that much smoother if I have animated renderings on the second screen. Video looks great, too. I'm sure it would be great if you used this for games, too.Bonus 2: The screen also supports Freesync, which my NVidia card identified as a G-Sync candidate. Not sure that bit is useful for me on a secondary display, but people that would play games on this will have a nice treat in store. I was able to put both monitors into G-Sync and HDR modes simultaneously.Bonus 3: The integrated kickstand works surprisingly well in portrait mode, but I would suggest a monitor stand to get if off the desk, and possibly some high-quality right-angle adapters for the cables. You can only use it in one orientation this way, as the cables come out one side, so you can't put that side on the bottom. The menu buttons are on the other side, which would be unusable since they would then be on the bottom, unless you picked it up. Luckily, it's extremely lightweight, so picking it up isn't a problem.Still, it's perfectly usable without a dedicated monitor stand, or wall/desk mount.Bonus 4: If you send their support team your invoice number, they will give you a free 2 year warranty.Bonus 5: I also tried connecting my iPhone 15 Pro Max as a video source, and it worked as Apple promised. You can play video to the screen in full HD with HDR and sound. Volume control via phone is only available via the monitor's side buttons. I found the color saturation was extremely high in the "2084" HDR mode selected from the monitor's OSD, which is what the manual says you should select for HDR on a PC. However, I found the "auto" setting to work perfectly for both the phone and PC, so I'm not sure why "2048" is recommended. I was able to switch back to the PC via the monitor's OSD menu; it also automatically switched back to PC when the phone screen went to sleep.It worked with my wife's iPad Pro, too.I'll update if I can get it to pass data via a Thunderbolt connection with my MacBook (although, they never claimed it supported Thunderbolt, so I'm not really expecting that to work).Cons:The viewing angle maybe isn't 178 degrees, like most IPS displays. It's probably closer to 120 degrees. This might be because I'm viewing it in portrait mode? It's a minor inconvenience, and for me it doesn't matter. The viewing angle is still quite good, and if it's facing toward you the picture is bright, clear and colorful.Don't get too excited about the built in speakers. They reproduce sound, but you're going to be better off with some headphones or dedicated desktop speakers. I doubt anyone is buying this for the sound quality, though.Overall this is a fantastic little display that fits my needs perfectly and works far better than I expected. The fact that it works with new USB-C enabled iPhones and iPads, and just about any flagship Android phone is a pretty cool bonus, too.