Review cover Lepow Portable Monitor (Hardware)
Official GBAtemp Review

Product Information:

Lepow delivers their entry into the portable LCD monitor market.

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Package Contents and Features

 

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The Lepow portable LCD monitor comes cleanly packaged with all the cables and accessories you could possibly need. 3 cables, including a USB-A to USB-C, a USB-C to USB-C, and an HDMI to HDMI-mini, have you covered for nearly every type of device input. The magnetic "smart cover" holds on to the screen and gives you several different tilt and support angles as well as protecting the device in both sides in the process. The monitor comes with a factory screen cover flap that's meant to keep it pristine during shipping (seen in the photos) until you can apply the included durable, yet thin, clear adhesive-style protector. A small care package contains a screen cloth, wet screen wipe, dust removal stickers, and of course, a user manual.

The monitor and its built-in speakers are powered by 5 volts (!) over either one of the USB-C connections. The right side of the panel houses the power only USB-C connection, right speaker grill, settings dial, and power button. While the power can run off of a 1 amp USB (i.e. an older laptop USB port, cheap USB wall plug, a lower quality portable charger) when paired with a 2 amp source it can pass through some of that power to the other USB-C connection, allowing your mobile device to charge off of the same adapter while in use. The left side holds the other speaker grill, mini-HDMI, and data/power USB-C connection. While it is recommended to use a 5v/2A in the power only side USB-C connection in the manual, you can actually power the screen just from the data side of things. Plugging in a mobile phone directly from C-to-C gives you instant screen mirroring and sound output from the monitor. The optional 3.5mm jack offers sound pass-through, which is great since the onboard speakers are fairly underwhelming and don't put out a lot of volume, even when source and output volume and cranked all the way to the max.

The LCD panel runs at a 1920x1080 resolution and puts out a sharp, clear image. I tried my best to accurately capture the quality in the photos, but the lighting made some spots appear darker than they actually were in real life. The refresh rate was on the better end, causing no screen tearing while playing games, and only a very slight blur during fast motion (when compared to my high performance monitor) that wasn't really noticeable unless you were looking for it. The brightness levels in power-saving mode (which kicks in if it does not have dedicated power) are reasonable, but the screen truly shines when you have 5v2A power running to it. Oddly, when the monitor is running in power-saving mode, trying to push the brightness beyond about 65% causes a power-blip and resets the whole setup, returning it to about 40% brightness and resetting the HDMI connection. This is likely due to a lack of adequate power and is avoidable by using the recommended power levels, but can still be a bit of a hassle if you're in a pinch and you forgot to bring a wall plug.

 

Usage Scenarios

 

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Lepow packs in a ton of different ways to utilize their screen. Obviously, you can plug it into your laptop (or desktop) and use it as a second screen, or hook it up to practically any video game console on the market to play in a vehicle or while away from home, but I tried to throw it a few curve balls to see how it would hold up. Connecting a smart-phone instantly popped up with a mirrored display, with varying resolutions depending on your phone, but they always fit inside the bounds without any over scan. Playing media back from the phone looked great, but without external power, it pulled about 6-8% battery every 30 minutes, so if you want to use it for any significant length of time, I would recommend using your wall charger in tandem-- keeping in mind this will also charge your phone, so you only need to keep and pack a single charger with you.

During testing, hooking up a Galaxy S9 and a Galaxy Note 10+ with external power on the other side (a portable battery worked too but ran in power-save mode) triggered the phones DeX mode. While totally unexpected, it was a very pleasant surprise, and this gave me a few more things to try. Swapping the phone to mouse/keyboard mode while DeX was enabled offered a full desktop experience running in native 1920x1080 all right from my phone. Laying the monitor flat, I opened a couple Dungeons and Dragons battle maps and was able to easily resize it accurately to create a digital play-mat. While the screen protector is more than thick/durable enough to handle a few plastic figurines, I wouldn't try stacking metal figures or rolling dice on top of it, for fear of damaging the panel. Again, media playback looked great and the added options of a web browser and a couple apps open at the same time really boosted the usefulness of the screen.

Using the Switch with the monitor is a bit fiddly, especially if you are away from home, since you need to have it plugged into a dock to get HDMI output (something a third party breakout dongle could take care of). With a hefty enough power inverter, you could even do something silly, like take a Playstation 4 in the car and power the screen with one of its many USB ports and enjoy a full power game system on a long car ride (which works great, by the way, especially with a pair of noise-cancelling headphones plugged in). All-in-all, the monitor performed above my expectations and has found a permanent home in my laptop bag due to its versatility and usefulness.

 

Where to Buy

The Lepow brand portable LCD monitors are currently an Amazon's Choice product, and you can pick one up for yourself HERE (Amazon's Choice Page) or HERE.

Verdict

What We Liked ...
  • Sharp 1920x1080 Image
  • Powered by 5 Volts
  • Durable Build Quality
What We Didn't Like ...
  • Brightness Issues w/ Portable Batteries
  • Weak Speakers
9.3
out of 10

Overall

A few odd quirks and some subpar speakers don't take away from an otherwise fantastic not-so-little display with a myriad of power options and convenient features.
Nice review, cool to see all those use case scenarios (and I wish I had some friends to play D&D with like that...) BUT isn't 180 bucks kind of overpriced for something like this?

This one has a built-in battery and touch-support. Don't know about the actual quality of the screen and build though... But it'd be nice to see some alternatives to find out whether it's just 'bang' or actually 'bang for buck'.
 
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Nice review, cool to see all those use case scenarios (and I wish I had some friends to play D&D with like that...) BUT isn't 180 bucks kind of overpriced for something like this?

This one has a built-in battery and touch-support. Don't know about the actual quality of the screen and build though... But it'd be nice to see some alternatives to find out whether it's just 'bang' or actually 'bang for buck'.

That one you linked has a bigger bump on the back for the battery... it ALSO claims it's a 4k display... looks very fishy for the price. To be honest, I haven't even really thought about something like this product until we were approached to review it, and I've certainly never seen anyone else with one, but I'm really enjoying it on a personal level. I'll keep an eye out and maybe see if I can get another to compare/contrast it with. :)
 
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K
I'm really digging the appeal of this device, but good lord that thing is about $320 on Amazon Australia.
 
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That one you linked has a bigger bump on the back for the battery... it ALSO claims it's a 4k display... looks very fishy for the price. To be honest, I haven't even really thought about something like this product until we were approached to review it, and I've certainly never seen anyone else with one, but I'm really enjoying it on a personal level. I'll keep an eye out and maybe see if I can get another to compare/contrast it with. :)
Ah I only just saw the 4k-notion in the specs. Missed that entirely, as I found it while searching for 1080p display on banggood to make a fair comparison.

I support the fishy-notion, although I see it as a calculated risk when buying these kind of niche-products.
I got myself a 1080p display in a us$180 laptop (Jumper EZBook) which was a gamble as well. This turned out great so got me thinking: 'if it's possible to provide the display+rest of laptop, why should only the display be just as expensive?'
 
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I'm...mostly seeing a solution looking for a problem, really.

-it's portable, but it's not something you can use on the go
-it's not touchscreen, so it loses portability there as well
-the lack of a stand means it loses out to a normal monitor for daily use
-it's a bit clumsy for being a powerbank :tpi:
EDIT: okay, and one reason that's actually NOT for lulz (but perhaps still a bit more sci fi than anything else):
-this sort of technology is more fitted for actual virtual board gaming

About the only reason I can see it being good is for television on another location (hotel room or something). Just plug it into your portable device, and either stream through wifi or from whatever media device you want. It's...a solution. Yes, I'd rather have it with at least a couple gigabytes storage room and some basic navigation, but I admit that part is a bit reinventing the wheel.

But meh...I assume the score comes from the technical standpoint (perhaps weighed against its price). It's not really their fault that the usability is limited.

I dig the board mat! easier than printouts imo and you can toss a grid on a ton of images. Would be worried about scratching the screen with pieces though
Erm...that last part's precisely the point. I'm sure it'll be the coolest-looking breakfast holding plate ever as well, but nobody(1) is going to order something like this for it.


(1): bored billionaires not withstanding
 
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