by James S. "Newegg Gechic 2501C"
Pros:
First of all, the lightness of this monitor is amazing. I think it might just weigh less than a first gen iPad (ok...likely not, but it sure feels like it when you pick it up for the first time). This fact alone certainly makes it attractive as a portable monitor. Add that to the fact that the monitor itself is very thin and you've got quite the winning combo.
I purchased this monitor for use with a first gen MS Surface Pro to allow me additional room for work related activities (Visio, Excel, Word, Visual Studio, General Email/Web Browsing). I think one of the greatest productivity boosters for me is having the ability to utilize multiple monitors and this fits the bill nicely. I'm connecting to the monitor via HDMI and I have no issues at all connecting it up right away to the Surface Pro with a Belkin DisplayPort to HDMI adapter. By the way, only the HDMI adapter is included in the box, so if you plan on using a VGA connection then you'll need to pick one up.
The monitor sprung to life quickly once connected and powered up by the single USB 3.0 connection from the Surface Pro. The controls on the monitor are fairly easy to understand and for the most part work well. They are touch based controls though, so there is no tactile feedback when using them. The stand/cover comes attached to the monitor and works pretty well in landscape mode. Brightness of the monitor is more than enough for office/inside work, but I imagine it could be washed out quickly in bright sunlight. Glare seems to be pretty minimal. Although not a glossy display, it's not exactly full matte either. I've yet to notice any stuck pixels or other killer display issues as of yet. The inclusion of speakers was a little surprising to me, as I really just wanted the monitor, but I suppose if you were to use this monitor to perhaps watch video or play games from a cell phone or tablet that having them might be seen as a positive. Overall the design of the monitor is nothing spectacular, but it is most certainly not off-putting either. I'd say that it's a rather attractive portable display.
One thing I was concerned with was power draw, since this unit draws power exclusively though a USB port. However, I ran the monitor on nothing but the Surface Pro's battery for well over 3 hours and to be honest I didn't notice a ton of difference in the normal runtime of the Surface Pro without it. That's nice, but most certainly don't take this short experience for the gospel truth as it was only a very quick rudimentary test.
Cons:
Let's just get this part out of the way quickly... sitting next to a high DPI display of any kind will make this monitor look very poor. Colors are washed out, contrast is not great, resolution can make some things a bit fuzzy and viewing angles are troublesome. Are these issues to the point of not recommending this? I think they're not and I think for the price that the overall display performance of the monitor is about what I'd say is to be expected. I think the best word to describe the graphics on this monitor would be, "acceptable".
Other Thoughts:
Look, is this thing going to replace your Cinema Display or other high flying 1080P/4k Monitor? Of course not... But for around 2 bills you're not going to find a better productivity booster for use in Hotels, Customer temp cubes, at the coffee shop, or other places outside your office where you might actually want to get "real" work done. It's lightweight, has acceptable image quality, and has a nice profile and integrated screen cover for portable multi-monitor bliss. If your needs are leading you to think that you could squeeze such a tech item into your mobile office lifestyle, then I'd say it'd be hard to go wrong with picking one of these up.