Portable monitors tested – what pathetic panels are worth it?

Whatever the reason you need an extra screen, a portable monitor can help boost your productivity—and often for less than other display types.

When choosing a portable monitor, image quality should be your primary concern, but there’s more to it than just finding the prettiest screen. Depending on what you will be using the panel for, port selection is important. And since you’ll be carrying the display around and mounting it in multiple locations, you should pay close attention to build quality.

We tested three portable monitors with great potential for a variety of use cases. Here’s what we found.

Ars Technica may be compensated for sales from links in this post through affiliate programs.

Ars chooses

Lenovo ThinkVision M14

Buy: $269 at Lenovo, Best Buy

With outstanding dual stands that make installation easy, a decent carrying case, and solid picture quality worth its price, Lenovo’s ThinkVision M14 is the best portable monitor option for most people.

We recorded a peak brightness of 250.2 nits and 97.4 percent sRGB and 69 percent DCI-P3 coverage. The contrast ratio was a solid 1064:1. Colors don’t look oversaturated in Windows, and the screen is bright enough to watch movies in a sunny room.

A pair of M14 stands makes the monitor more stable and allows for easier adjustment than many portable monitors that use an origami style thin sleeve folded up as a makeshift stand. I was able to get the M14 to look its best in a variety of working conditions and lighting conditions. The largest monitor stand protruding from the rear allows for -5 to 90 degree tilt. A smaller stand protruding from the bottom panel provides a 0 to 90 degree tilt and increases the height by up to 1 inch.

The panel is thin, but the case’s rubber backing and thicker base provide extra support. The fabric cover of the monitor is thicker than many other portable monitors.

Because the M14 has one USB-C port each on the left and right, it’s easier to create a clean setup. Unfortunately, these are only two M14 ports. The HDMI port makes it easy to connect the panel to other types of devices besides laptops, such as game consoles or Raspberry Pi. And there are competitors like the Lepow C2S below that come with extra ports like DisplayPort or an audio jack. Finally, the M14 is the only monitor on our list without speakers.

Good

• Prominent double footpegs
• Quality Image
• Ports on both sides of the display

Badly

• Zero sonic capabilities
• Restricted ports