ASUS MB169B+ 15.6" Full HD 1920x1080 IPS USB Portable Monitor

Received the MB169B+ today and so far it's pretty awesome! The image quality is surprisingly good. Not sure what I expected after reading the reviews, I thought it would be "decent for a portable monitor" but it's absolutely as good as a typical desktop monitor. I'm running the monitor from a single USB3 port on a Lenovo W530 that's about 5 years old. Installation was painless, installed the drivers from Asus and then it's literally plug and play. As far as the brightness is concerned I think it's excellent. It gets very nearly as bright as my laptop screen at full brightness. In a fairly well lit room I actually turned it down a bit to avoid eye strain. The brightness is perfect for pretty much anything other than sunlight, and even then the matte screen helps maintain legibility a bit. I chose this over the MB16AC for a few reasons. One, I hate glossy screens since the reflections are a show stopper for me in anything but a dark room. Two, despite ASUS' specifications it seems that anecdotally the MB16AC is actually dimmer than the MB169B+. One review which measured the MB16AC brightness reported about 170nits which is far below the spec of 220. Three is for the larger bezels. Less sexy but also you can use a clamp to mount it to a laptop screen without obstructing part of the screen. The case is nice and secure for storage. As a stand it works OK indoors but a stiff breeze would blow the screen over outdoors. There is only the tiny lip of the case to keep it from falling over backwards as well (see other user submitted pics to see what I mean). It's good enough but if it gets bumped I expect it will fall over quite readily. Input lag: If you're a hardcore super-1337 video game athlete who demands a 1MHz refresh rate for your *ahem* superhuman reflexes that totally surpass those of olympic athletes and fighter pilots, then why are you even looking at this? For anyone else, it's fine. It's perceptible if you wiggle the mouse around quickly but in normal use (and for movies/Netflix/whatever) it's not noticeable. I opened an assembly I'm working on in Solidworks 2017 and there's no performance degradation on the Asus screen. Works just like any other secondary monitor. Very happy! Should have bought one of these years ago. Can't speak to the durability but there isn't much that needs to be said. It's a screen designed for light weight and portability. It isn't intended for military use as should be obvious. Treat it carefully and I'm sure it will last quite a while.

While traveling on business in 2015, I was in an airport and saw a fellow traveler with a snazzy thin travel monitor plugged in to her laptop’s USB port. We had a brief chat about this wonderful ASUS portable monitor and she laughed telling me how many times she could have sold it to another business traveler, and that she’d make a killing on sales commission. I ordered my first ASUS travel monitor via Amazon right there at the airport. This monitor travelled with me all over the world and never let me down. And I too could have made a killing in commissions for referring other business travelers, friends, and family to this amazingly useful piece of technology. In 2019, my amazing monitor met its doom in a dog-induced scuffle. The monitor was in its case, resting against the wall on a desk, our beloved Mastiff bumped the desk with his 125 pound body, knocking the encased monitor to the floor just as I had lunged forward to grab a coffee cup midair. The good news was that the dog, coffee cup, and I were all unharmed, but I stepped on the monitor and cracked the screen big time. It was never the same, but it is still being used by a neighbors college-age daughter (cracks/stripes and all). A few weeks later, I ordered this ASUS travel monitor again with the same specifications as the one I’d bought in 2015. It is now August 2021 and I this is the monitor I used to travel with (pre-COVID) and have been using while working from home since. It goes non-stop 10-14 hours per day, 5-6 days per week, without any issues. It is lightweight - easy on the back and shoulders when traveling. It is thin - easily packs away in its case in a laptop bag and can put folded up and put away when not in use. It is reliable - great resolution for 12 hours per day on average for years. It receives data from and is powered by one single USB 3 cable connected to a laptop, which can’t be beat for portability and convenience. The case doubles as a monitor stand and is the only monitor stand I’ve used with it since day one. This is the best long-lasting technical investment ever.

I'd recommend getting the latest drivers from DisplayLink.com directly, in which case you'd only need to use the included CD (or the newer version of the software available on ASUS' website) if you want the display orientation to automatically rotate when you physically rotate the display. I tend to be a minimalist when it comes to software I install on my PCs, so I installed only the drivers, at which point it works just as you'd expect. The 1080p resolution and IPS panel both make it look great, and brightness is very good, though I didn't test it outdoors. It's also much lighter than you'd expect for something this size, and the carrying case that doubles as a stand is a nice touch, although I admit it took me a second to figure out how exactly to set that up. Also be aware that this will cause your laptop's battery to drain noticeably more quickly if you're using it while your laptop isn't connected to a charger. There are only two factors keeping it from 5 stars, the first of which isn't entirely this unit's fault but that also has a fix that may be workable for some prospective buyers if they even care about it: The first is that while this display works perfectly well for most productivity cases that don't involve a large portion of the on-screen content changing at once, DisplayLink-based displays such as this aren't ideal for full screen video, at least not when the display is 1080p like this one. And I was testing while connected via USB 3.0 to a PC with a fast CPU and GPU. Note that it doesn't really matter what the resolution of the video content itself is, but rather how much display area it's filling. When I watched sub-1080p quality video playing full screen on this display, it would occasionally exhibit a slow-mo effect followed by a fast-forward effect. It averaged out to being synced with the audio, but this behavior is a consequence of DisplayLink's proprietary compression algorithms and/or USB 3.0 not always being up to the task of driving a display where a significant portion of the display area is changing from frame to frame. When I watched the same video on the laptop's built-in panel, it worked perfectly. Again, if you're using this for email, browsing, spreadsheets, or even Photoshop and the like, in which case most of the display area is consistent from moment to moment, it will be absolutely fine -- in fact even watching that same video in a smaller windowed portion of the display worked fine. But if that video limitation bugs you AND your system has a USB Type-C port that's capable of DisplayPort output (which most are), then consider ASUS' USB-C version called the MB169C+ instead. That model does NOT use DisplayLink compression technology because USB-C allows the PC to send a native DisplayPort signal, and not needing to compress display data to transmit over conventional USB means that the USB-C version would not suffer this limitation. The catch is that that model is not backward compatible with earlier USB connectors, even if adapters are used, so it will ONLY be usable on systems with USB-C that have DisplayPort output capability. And the other minor gripe is that the carrying case doesn't provide a great way to store the USB 3.0 cable, which is an odd oversight. The elastic loops aren't especially great for the task, so I've ended up just folding the cable, placing it along the top edge of the display in the case, and then folding the flap of the case over in a way that leaves space for the cable to sit wedged up there. It hasn't fallen out the side of the case, but it's not ideal.

It's been an adventure trying to find a portable monitor to work with my Surface Pro 3. I've tried the GeChic 2501H, the AOC e1659Fwux- Pro, and the ASUS MB169B+ and MB169C+. The ASUS MB169B+ wins. Cons: --It should come with a Y cable (the AOC does), but I had to buy one in order to get enough power to the ASUS due to the low power output of the SP3 USB port. (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005M0ICG2?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s00). --The case is supposed to double as a stand, but it's just weird and not as stable as I'd liek, soI bought a different style stnad which is working great. (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B014GCTGFM?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00). Pros: --The screen is GREAT. Very crisp and clear images and non-glare. --The display colors are not as good as the SP3, but very close, and not really enough to be noticeable, unless you are doing photo editing. For the average school work/job, surfing or gaming this screen will be great. (Pictures included so you can see for yourself.) --Easy to get up and running. Just plug in, download the driver and it worked. --It's super light weight. --Comes with protective case. I wish it was a hard case, but it's pretty sturdy as soft cases go and MUCH better than what you got with the AOC (a neoprene soft case that is VERY tight to get on and is likely to rip out after just a few uses), or the GeChic 2501H (nothing at all). --It works with my Surface Pro 3. A BIG DEAL! Who knew the SP3 was such a pain to get a portable monitor for?! --The Tech support was great. (The first MB169B+ I got was DOA, but just to be sure, I walked through some tests with the ASUS Tech Support and they were great! In the end, I had to return it and get a replacement, which went flawlessly.) As for the ASUS MB169C+, I could never get it to power up with the SP3, so I'm not sure if it's a power issue, a DOA issue, or just that I was using a converter cable to go from the USB-C to USB 3.1 connection to the SP3. For more details on the GeChic 2501H, see my product review.

I travel and have multiple locations at each client that I have to spend time in. Sometimes I have an office, sometimes I do not. I move building to building quite a bit, and am, like many consultants, squatting in whatever space is available, which you can get kicked out of at any time. Having a portable 1080p monitor is a huge boost in my productivity and general comfort while moving around place to place, office to office. It's color is good enough for office use, browsing, etc - it's bright enough as well, though it's not as bright or as clear as a dedicated monitor, but then again it weighs less than 1 lb, so cut it some slack! There is only 1 thing thus far I don't like/could be improved. At first, I like the dual purpose case, however after taking the monitor down, and putting it away and setting it up again several times in one day, I would greatly prefer a kickstand and have the case just be a nice case. They should make this a tiny bit thicker and put a recessed flap in the back of this, with a wire channel, so that you could prop this up and take it down rapidly and tuck in the cable and go. One very nice thing about the case is it does have several (2) elastic loops that allow you to never have to fully remove the power cable that it uses. I.E. set your length, put it in the loops and when you are taking it all down to put in your bag, you just tuck the ends of the cables into the case and velcro it shut - easy. So far everywhere I've gone with this people immediately want to know where I got it, how much, do I like it, etc. If you work in IT or any profession where several monitors is the SOP, this thing is a must have for your travels. No regrets. We will see how over time this product performs, but after the first few weeks - It's brilliant. NOTE: you need USB 3.0 and above for this to work. I've seen people complaining about this that it's not clear, so I'm restating this. Also, know that right now most laptops aren't ALL USB 3.0 - some only have 1 or 2 USB slots that are 3.0, so make sure you know which is which on your particular machine.

When working on my MAC laptop or Surface pro 3, I find the need to have an extra monitor to fully do what I need to seamlessly. I didn't want to minimize other applications or be unable to do comparisons side-by-side. I spent a 1/2 day trying to get it to connect my Surface Pro 3 but it wouldn't stay on and kept showing a black screen. I did some research and found that people were having issues with the same thing and that it was a Windows 10 problem, update the drivers. I did that by going straight to Displaylink, website, using the August 15th latest release. Still didn't work. I even downgraded my Windows 10 to 8.1 - still didn't work. Then gadget geeks mentioned to buy the y - cable 3.0 usb which I have on order. I will update to see if this works when I receive my y cable. I emailed Asus customer service - no reply yet. I gave up and tried it on my MBP, installed the driver that came with the monitor and it worked! I was sooo happy! The screen resolution was sooo clear and it was beautiful. I bought an Anker (http://smile.amazon.com/Anker-Multi-Angle-E-readers-Smartphones-Compatible/dp/B00D856NOG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1442509803&sr=8-1&keywords=anker+stand) to lift it up a little more off the table so I can use the space underneath for my papers. I didn't use the case that came with it but I did try it and it works fine. The case just bugs me because the flap was in the way. If you have an iMac, be in for a surprise, it is the exact same OS platform as my MBP, it will give you a black screen and mirror all the monitors instead of extending it. When you extend it, you will see everything but once you start working on it, the screen will start showing a black trail left behind from the mouse movements and typing. This is also a known issue that DisplayLink referenced to take it back to Apple. I would give it a 5 star but knocked off 1 because of the issue with Windows 10 Surface Pro 3. The product itself definitely has a classy look to it and it's ultra light, seemingly fragile but not cheap. UPDATE: Upgrade from 4 to 5 stars. I received my y cable usb 3.0 today from Cable Matters. The cable is short but it suits my needs. I plugged it into my Surface Pro 3 and it works. I was able to do this because I have the docking station with it. If you don't have a docking stations, you would need to buy a usb hub but keep in mind that the power will be drawn from the built in port of the usb and cause the Surface Pro 3 to get warm quicker. I am loving it. UPDATE: 9/30/15 One of the comments left mentioned the usb port that is on the SP3 power brick - totally forgot about it. It works that way as well but I didn't feel like getting a usb extension since I already had the docking station. If you are anything like me, the less cables, the better - I have a thing for cable management.

The Asus MB 169N+ was pretty good for the first 10 months. It was quite light and thin and suited my needs of a portable monitor reasonably well. It had issues every once and awhile where I would have to unplug and plug the monitor in again to get stuff to display to it. On the first 10 months I'd rate it a 4. However, at that point it quit working. I could tell it was getting power as the power light was on. I thought maybe it was a driver issue and reinstalled the driver on a couple different machines with no luck. Finally I sent sent the monitor back to Asus for warranty repair given it has a three year warranty. They indicated the screen had scratches and sent a few photos which didn't really show much in the way of scratches to me. I thought maybe the screen was scratched during shipping as it didn't have scratches when I sent it. In any case, what the photos showed looked to be trivial at best so I said leave the screen as is and just fix that it doesn't display. Their response was they would only fix it as a whole, to the tune of around $175. For that much I could pretty much by a new one. After a few email exchanges they sent the product back without being repaired. At which point I found it didn't even have any scratches on the screen. This was my first and last purchase of any Asus product. No matter how good your product is, if you don't stand behind it then I'm not going to buy it. Having a three year warranty and then making up excuses not to honor it seems borderline fraudulent.

Had this for a couple years now: long and short of it is this: it works, it is lightweight and portable. For power-user types, it's a must have if you're on the go a lot. That said, bang for your buck, I would expect more in terms of brightness--not to give ASUS a scapegoat but that might be a limitation of the device being usb-powered. The stand is pretty flimsy but any stand designed for a tablet, that uses a ledge to rest/cradle the tablet will suffice, not the claw-arm types. There are many options on the market that are cheaper but do your research, many are obviously cheap and images in advertising are ALWAYS doctored in the chinese market. I'm content with it but only because it serves its purpose and augments my ability to work with several windows without the need to use virtual desktops.