ZenScreen 22” (21.5 viewable) 1080P Portable Monitor (MB229CF) – Full HD, IPS, 100Hz, USB-C PD 60W, Speakers, Carrying Handle, Kickstand, C-clamp Arm, Partition Hook, Subwoofer, 3 yr Warranty

About a year ago, a customer support rep from a company I work with was raving about the "portable monitors" her team had acquired. I remember being intrigued by the concept but I'd yet to encounter an application for such a thing -- both my home and on-site offices were already equipped with full-sized, dual screens. However, since then, my wife and I acquired a travel trailer, out of which I plan to work remotely on occasion. I started thinking about using the trailer's onboard HD TV as a second monitor but it's really too far away from my workspace to serve as a 2nd monitor. I then thought of hauling and extra, full-sized monitor along but the work to set it up, tear it down and find storage space seemed to outweigh the benefit. Then I remembered that conversation last year about portable monitors .... The ZenScreen seemed to garner good reviews, and I've been happy with other Asus products I've purchased in the past. Mine arrived yesterday and I gotta' say that I'm rightly impressed. I'm not sure why you'd want to consider the larger models as those seem to fly in the face of portability. But the 16" model (15.6" viewable) is lightweight and small enough to coexist with a laptop in most computer bags. Setup is fast and easy – a quick-connect kickstand allows you to place the display right next to your laptop at the perfect angle. Power and video are simultaneously delivered via a single USB C connection. And brightness, contrast and image quality really exceeded my expectations. My local Target store has a similar Asus 16" ZenScreen for twice the price. The performance specs seem identical to this one. The only difference seems to be that it has an integrated folding stand verses the screw-on "kickstand." While the integrated stand seemed a bit more convenient, it didn't look as sturdy (especially when propping up the display in portrait mode) and I couldn't justify twice the price. Obviously, I have not yet had enough time to speak to the long-term reliability of this product. I'll be sure to edit this review in the future if I encounter any issues. However, this Asus backs the ZenScreen with a 3-year warranty and, as I said, the company has a good reputation for quality. So far, I enthusiastically recommend the ZenDesk portable display for those who travel with a laptop and have the need for dual displays.

I'm a software engineer who travels about 25-50% of the time for work. Mainly, I code apps and websites and as such, I almost always prefer to work with multiple screens. My primary work laptop is a 2018 MacBook Pro 15 and my sidecar "hobby" machine is a 12.5" Asus Chromebook C302 that I absolutely adore (seriously, see my review of it). At home and work I have a plethora of displays setup on my workstations to service both of these machines and over the years I've become used to being able to "spread" my work out... Communications and productivity apps on one screen, code editor and output browser/simulators on another and one just dedicated to debug terminals and consoles. It really is workflow bliss... And then I got the new gig... Traveling 1-2weeks out of the month, living in hotels... trains, planes and automobiles... pop-up meetings in restaurants/coffeeshops/conferences. Suddenly my workflow bliss started feeling like a single-desktop pile-on. It's not that I need to drag several 30" displays on the road with me... just some more breathing room. And then a friend told me about this line of ASUS monitors that sounded way too good to be true... So, I picked one up just to see if it could give me the breathing room I needed w/o the inconvenience of hauling around an external display, power brick and connection cables. Happy to say, this device hits all 5-stars at a price that's comparable to a low-end desktop monitor. It has the same footprint as my 15" MBP and slips in right next to it in my bag w/o a fuss. Yeah, it adds a little extra weight to my bag, but no more than a hefty USB battery brick or extra Apple MBP wall charger. For me, the big-win is that it does everything over a single USB-C cable, data, image, and power... just magic. Pros: - Light weight and low-overhead, just need the device and a USB-C cable that's DisplayPort-over-USB certified - Same footprint as a 15" MacBook Pro - Great resolution and color - Power and image over USB-C, no need for a power-brick - Easy to use adjustment settings directly on the device - Sturdy and low-profile magnetic cover very similar to the covers you can get for Android tablets and iPads - Solid metal/plastic construction Cons: - Doesn't have the ability to auto-rotate on MacOS - No USB-C pass-thru... it eats a whole port, so have a port-expander dongle with power pass-thru for your other port - Doesn't support HDMI input on the device (I've heard you can get an HDMI-to-USB-C DisplayPort adaptor, but I've yet to source one/try it, would love to have for on-the-road console gaming) - Hard to find replacement USB-C data cables that support DisplayPort over USB-C I've been using this for about 2 months now and it's been a worthwhile travel companion... I even crack it out at the home office on occasion to mirror my screen for small 2-3 person group demos/presentations. I haven't tried gaming on it, but video playback and color matching to my MBP screen are great.

I love this monitor, It is my office when I'm away from my office. If not plugged in it does drain the laptop battery but that is expected, I always carry external batteries anyway. The size is perfect, the clarity is as good a my macbook, and it just works.

The screen quality is crisp and bright, and the portability makes it perfect for travel or dual-screen work on the go. Setup with USB-C is simple and reliable. However, the build feels a bit delicate, so you need to handle it carefully. Overall, a useful portable monitor with a slightly fragile feel.

I've had several mobile monitors that utilize DisplayLink over the years, this is my fourth so far. In the past, I started with the 14inch Lenovo LT1421, I went to 15.6 inch HP, then finally to the 14 inch HP S140u before moving to the ZenScreen. Each had their upsides but all had basically the same downside, resolution and color quality. For comparison the only one fair to benchmark the ASUS ZenScreen against (from what I've used) is the HP S140u as that is still available for sale by HP. The ZenScreen is worlds better. First off, with such thin bezels on 3 sides of the ZenScreen, you get 15.6 inches of screen instead of 14 inches of screen for almost the same total size, a huge plus. Secondly, the ZenScreen actually fits better in my bag even though it is marginally bigger overall; it is very thin for being a monitor and most important to me is the thickness is consistent across the unit. The HP had a rounded back that made it less convenient to have in my laptop bag and created a strange "bulge" when all packed up. That, plus the ZenScreen is just a bit lighter, was a win on its own. The most important factors here though are resolution and color quality. The resolution is full 1080p which is far better than what I've used in the past. There is no resizing of documents etc when you drag something over from your primary laptop monitor (granted their may be a little bit depending on the resolution of your laptop but at 1080p this is very minimal and hardly noticeable from other models, such as the HP S140u I've dealt with). I realize ASUS has other screens with 1080p but their stands before the ZenScreen are so ridiculous and non-user friendly, I always avoided them. On that point, the stand on this screen is pretty smart. Some point this out as a flaw but honestly in the mobile monitor space, no one has a perfect solution (the S140u wasn't bad as it had a similar concept, but still I think ZenScreen is superior). The stand is effectively the case that wraps around the unit and with a few simple folds, strong magnets hold it in place as a stand. There are two degree's you can have it at (at least, with the fold option I prefer - I guess there are a couple in the instructions only one of which I remember) and they seem to be all I need (I really only change the angle if I am experiencing glare); Oh, and you can also use a pen if you prefer to prop this up - I've yet to use this as the case is so quick and effective to fold, but an option none the less. As for color quality, I am not an expert on the levels etc but this screen, although the colors are a little different from my laptop, are the best I've experienced in a mobile monitor; there are settings you can play with native to the screen that allow you to adjust certain aspects which was key in getting the colors to line up pretty well. Again, not perfect compared to my laptop monitor but close enough where after the first week of using it, I didn't even noticed anymore. All in all, this monitor is easily worth the $250. In my experience, it is the best I've used and I'll use it until something eventually is more sophisticated, but I suspect this won't be for a while as this screen (compared to others I've used) seems ahead of the game.

Happened to be in Taipei during the Computex Electronics show and saw this new ZenScreen on the show floor at the ASUS booth. Was so immediately blown away by the road warrior practicality of it that I ordered one from Amazon right then on the show floor. Then later when I got back to the hotel room I ordered another one (why stop at two? My MacBook Pro has 4 USB C ports!). Have had the ZenScreens for a couple days now and I love them. Can't wait to hit the road again so I can put them to work in hotel rooms, coffee shops, etc. The work flow I've developed works best on a 3 monitor setup, which I have in my home office, but I always lose that when I travel and am confined to laptop. So being able to take my workflow with me now and have all my dashboards setup on additional displays the way I need to is a godsend. Overall, I find this one of the most oddly practical and magical "accessories" to come out for a long time. Blows my mind that the ZenScreen gets both power and video from the same cable. That you don't have to find additional power outlets to plug it in makes it so much more practical. Also find it amazing that a phone can power the display (plugged it into a Galaxy S8 and the screen powered on and got video - doesn't work with all phones though). Also love that it just gets detected as a display, so you can set it up how you want to - landscape or portrait. The screens are big and I think deceptively lightweight for just how big they are. I like that you can avoid lugging around the covers/stands if you want to save some weight and just rely on a pen (included!) to prop up the displays. Since getting them I've already had half a dozen friends and work colleagues pick one up.

phenomenal device, incredible value, no compatibility issues whatsoever. Ultimately I concluded that I need a touchscreen - disappointing because that costs a premium vs non touch models. If you can sacrifice touch, 10/10 recommend this device.

The external monitor was very nice for the first 60 days I had it. And then it stopped connecting to all my devices. One fine morning, as I am starting to work at the hotel, I plugged in the monitor and it did not connect. I thought maybe it was a fluke, rebooted the laptop and all, still nothing. Since I'm more than 1000 miles from home, I went and bought a new cable, thinking the cable had an issue. I plugged in with the new cable and again, nothing. At this point I can't do much other than work on one screen for 3 more days. So I get home, and thought maybe it was my laptop, so I plugged it into my PC, and again nothing. To be clear, the monitor is on, the brand name ASUS displays, and then the monitor says no connection and shuts down. I tried plugging into my personal laptop, my phone, even my television screen and nothing. I called Asus more times than I can remember and they offered to send me a new one. So I sent back the original, and never got the new one. It was a decent screen for remote work and travel. But it doesn't work.