Portable monitors had proven to be very effective in my workflow. My main display is a BenQ 32″ 4K beast that keeps all the windows I ever wanted in one place. It’s great for more than one reason, but each time I switch down to my laptop, I miss the screen estate. We live in a beautiful time where portable screens are small light and can connect with a single USB-C cable. I will bring your attention to the Lepow portable display that had been sent to me. And you can grab it with an Amazon discount by shopping via TikTech.
Lepow portable display: 1080p ISP panel
It’s the second portable display I got my hands on (that’s a lovely pun!). The previous one sent to me by Banggood came with a 4K resolution. You would think that the bigger resolution is better, but that’s not the case with portable panels this size. 4K resolution is harder to drive, takes more processing power and scaled text at 100% is barely readable. Lepow portable display comes with a 15.6″ ISP panel with a perfect for this size 1080p resolution.
Equipped with USB-C and MiniHDMI cables and supplied with a magnetic cover that doubles as a stand it makes a nice add on to your portable workstation. Lepow portable monitor is wrapped in a metal body and is just as thin as my ultrabook. It looks stylish, very neat and rigid. I won’t have to worry about it being squashed inside of my backpack.
As you probably guessed based on the list of accessories, the monitor comes with USB-C for input and power, MiniHDMI for input, 3.5mm jack for audio. There is also a setting rocker that you can use to access the usual OSD. I’m not a big fan of that rocker. They are annoying to operate, and I’m totally spoiled by touchscreen OSD from the Banggood unit.
Display
Lepow portable display comes with an ISP panel with a 1080p display and 60Hz refresh rate. You can drive it via USB-C (a single cable can deliver power and video signal) and thanks to extra USB-C connector, you can recover used up port on your computer and use it for data transfer.
The screen needed some setup to match my preference. OSD comes with enough options to tune it. I will just note that HDR preset isn’t great, however works really well with Visual Studio Code running the dark theme. It brings out the contrast between the letters without causing strain to your eyes. Overall the colour reproduction is decent, with great viewing angles.
By far the best feature is the actual brightness of the unit. I couldn’t find any source for the brightness in nits, but it’s considerably brighter than my laptop’s screen. It’s a life saver if you planning on taking your work into sun filled areas.
Sound
If you really care for sound, use a 3.5mm jack and plug it into a decent audio source – like these Jabra Elite 85h (review) either through the laptop or the Lepow portable monitor. Built-in speakers do the job, as long as you don’t expect audio to sound better than your average laptop. They are placed on each side of the screen so the sound isn’t blocked by the back cover. Let’s face it, physics is hard to beat when space is at a premium.
Everyday use
I’ve been taking the screen with me to work for a week now. My work requires me to focus on programming lately in remote (as in far away from desk) areas, popping up the 2nd display especially in vertical position is very handy. It’s a challenge as you can’t use the supplied cover to balance the monitor, and you have to be mindful of the OSD rocker at the bottom. To use it in a vertical orientation you would need a bigger stand that keeps the monitor in place – something like this would work perfectly in both orientations. As you shopping for bits and pieces, get a nice long USB-C braided cable, short and stiff cables make it hard to keep portable monitors in one place. These served me well.
Vertical positioning is easy. Lepow portable monitor sits where you want it to thanks to magnetic cover. there is enough tilt adjustment to find the most comfortable position. When you are done, simply unplug the USB-C, fold the cover and you are ready to go. Lepow portable monitor takes very little space when folded.
Gaming
Game mode 
HDR ON – oversaturated, lost details
I didn’t expect any issues with computer setup and games from Steam store, no input lag that I can notice and if your game can benefit from multiple monitor setup, you spend hours playing it from your laptop. Very handy.
To make sure that the user existence persists for console users, I plugged my PS4 via HDMI cable, added the power cable to feed the power to the screen and tested some games. I’m pleased to report a similar experience. Input lag free gaming at 1080p60 – well as much as PS4 games let you play at that resolution!
Final Thoughts
Lepow portable monitor provides a great balance between the size of the screen and the resolution. For most use cases, you won’t need more than 1080p. You will care more about the panel size, brightness and colour reproduction. If you are looking to increase the screen estate on the go, USB-C monitors are great for that. A clutter-free desk always looks nice, so not having multiple cables routed here and there is the way to go. You can grab this screen for about $220 on Amazon or get a discount if you go through the TikTech website. Let me know if you have any questions in this Reddit thread.
🆓📈 – See the transparency note for details.
