I’ve always been a desktop kinda guy. Multiple monitors to display my work so I can keep an eye on many tasks at a glance. That’s great for when I am home or at a workplace that accommodate such luxuries but when I finally ditched the old tower for a more modern laptop-only approach, one thing was evident. If I don’t have a hub to support those monitors I absolutely hate working on a single laptop screen.
My Dell 13” was purchased so I could travel light and take my work wherever I was but I find it near impossible to work from a single screen. Even if I had opted for a more generous screen size it wouldn’t have made a difference.
Additional portable screen space was always a consideration but for me, not a cost effective option. Until now.
The guys at Laser have outdone themselves by releasing three new monitors and true to their reputation they have delivered quality products at a reasonable price.
Just last week Daniel at EFTM published the announcement of Laser’s 14’ and 15.6” portable monitors and I had to have one.
Now I don’t need high-end performance with the ability to display cinema quality resolution when I am only using my monitors for spreadsheets, publishing EFTM articles and for asking my new best friend Claude for information.
Laser’s three options of a 14” model and a non-touch and touchscreen 15.6” options was ideal. I opted for the biggest and the touchscreen version. At only $159.00 this thing is amazing. At $149.00 due to Harvey Norman price matching The Good Guys it made it even better.
What’s in the box?
In the box you get what you expect. A monitor and an instruction booklet. What I didn’t expect was that I also received two cables thrown in. A USB-C to USB-C plus a HDMI to Mini-HDMI cable as well. At this price it came as a pleasant surprise. The unit comes with three input ports, 2 X USB-C and one mini-HDMI. The monitor also comes with an in-built kick stand which is adjustable to whatever angle suits you. The entire unit weighs only 875g so it ideal for travelling.
Firing it up
Now let’s not get carried away. When you turn it on by connecting the USB-C cable it displays your image, just like you would expect. The image was crisp, no dead pixels and of a sufficient size to allow me to display what I require. Audio isn’t a strength of this display but it does have built-in speakers, plus a 3.5mm headphone jack. Again something you probably wouldn’t expect for the price.
Connecting a single USB-C cable from my laptop to the inputs on the left hand side was all that was required as it can carry power and picture. If you choose to connect via the HDMI port then the separate USB-C cable is required to power the monitor. Both options worked flawlessly, however I was not successful in getting an iPhone or Android tablet to mirror onto the monitor despite using the supplied cable.
The right hand side of the display has the familiar control buttons to adjust picture and choose your input (although Laser does the job automatically after connecting the cables anyway)
Touchscreen
Now this needed a bit of getting used to. The touchscreen works as you would expect, allowing you to touch the screen to perform standard tasks usually reserved for a mouse but it also acts as a giant touchpad to 2-finger expand and contract the images on your other screens. That certainly was not anticipated.
Full specs below
| Item | Spec |
| Product Spec: Product Dimensions (cm) | 36.5×1.3×23 |
| Product Weight (kg) | 0.875 |
| Screen size: | 15.6in |
| Panel type: | IPS LCD |
| Display resolution: | 1920×1080 |
| Aspect ratio: | 16:09 |
| Refresh rate: | 60Hz |
| Response time: | <5ms |
| Maximum brightness: | 250 nits |
| Contrast ratio: | 1000:01:00 |
| Colour gamut coverage: | 45% NTSC |
| Number of colours displayed: | 1.67 million |
| Viewing angle: | 178 degrees |
| Freesync: | Yes |
| Touchscreen capability: | Yes |
| HDR support: | Yes |
| Speaker wattage: | 1W x2 |
| Headphone or audio output: | Yes (3.5mm) |
| Video input ports: | 3 (2x USB-C, 1x Mini HDMI) |
| USB-C video support: | Yes |
| USB-C power delivery support: | Yes |
| HDMI version: | 1.4 |
| VESA mount support: | Yes |
| Blue light filter or eye care mode: | Yes |
So a monitor is not the sort of thing you can extensively review as it is such a functional device. It does it’s job, does it well and all for not a lot of money. To me, if you need a cost-effective portable monitor for productivity based tasks, it is extremely difficult to recommend anything other than the Laser range.
The elder statesman of the EFTM team, Rob has been a long time listener, reader and follower – He’s “Producer Rob” for the EFTM podcast and looks after our social media posts. To be fair, he’s probably the most tech-savvy bloke in the crew too!
