GIANT Phone Gaming! – Gemini Portable TOUCHSCREEN Monitor
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2019-05-06
·
2,825 words · ~14 min read
0:00
So there's no doubt that dual monitors increases your productivity dramatically,
0:05
whether you're in the office or on the go,
0:08
be it at the airport, in a coffee shop, or just, you know, hanging out at a friend's house.
0:13
But it's clear that when it comes to taking two monitors with you,
0:20
there are a couple of disadvantages.
0:23
One is that the typical desktop monitor is a little on the heavy side.
0:28
And two, it's going to require access to an AC power outlet,
0:38
something that you won't necessarily have with you when you're at, you know, the average airport,
0:43
unless, you know, the airports where you're from are better equipped than the ones around here.
0:48
So today's video then is all about creating your own perfect productivity space
0:54
that you can take with you and set up virtually anywhere.
0:59
Yeah.
1:00
But not like that.
1:02
Like this.
1:04
Oh, that does look better.
1:06
With GlassWire, you can instantly see your current and past network activity,
1:10
detect malware, and block badly behaving apps on your PC or Android device.
1:14
Use offer code Linus and get 25% off GlassWire at the link below.
1:26
So the thing about these portable monitors is they're not exactly a new concept,
1:31
which sort of raises the question, why exactly are we featuring these ones?
1:36
Especially,
1:38
when they don't look that impressive.
1:41
Portable monitor, display terminal equipment.
1:44
I thought that was the company's name, but it's not.
1:47
No, it's just, this is display terminal equipment inside the box.
1:50
And in case you were wondering what kind of resolving power it has,
1:56
they didn't even check one for us.
1:58
Okay.
1:59
Have you ever heard resolution called resolving power?
2:03
Yes, in the context of like a space telescope.
2:07
So for all,
2:07
it's rudimentary.
2:08
Ness assuming that that's a word,
2:10
the packaging is actually not bad.
2:12
I think it'd be very unlikely to be damaged in the box.
2:14
And they've got actually a pretty decent accessory package inside.
2:18
You've got a,
2:19
oh,
2:19
that's kind of a shame to see in 2019,
2:21
but you've got a regular sort of,
2:23
wow,
2:23
what are these called?
2:25
DC adapter.
2:26
Yeah.
2:26
That kind of connector.
2:27
Yeah.
2:28
I forget what they're called,
2:29
whatever cylinder plug,
2:32
a remote that actually looks kind of like the NVIDIA shield TV,
2:34
one HDMI cable type C to type a,
2:40
and finally a type C to type C cable.
2:44
So this is pretty nice.
2:45
Actually,
2:46
the first thing I'm noticing is the bezel.
2:47
Yeah,
2:48
actually except the bottom.
2:50
But if you think about how it's intended to be used next to a laptop where
2:54
almost all of them have that,
2:56
that large bottom bezel,
2:58
then I,
2:58
it's not going to stand out whatsoever.
3:00
And in fact,
3:00
it might even be better for synchronizing your mouse movements across the
3:03
displays.
3:04
Okay.
3:05
So it looks cool as a tablet,
3:06
but how does it actually stand up?
3:08
No,
3:08
no,
3:09
I've seen,
3:09
yeah,
3:09
I've seen ones like this before.
3:11
So the mechanism honestly doesn't feel amazing.
3:13
In fact,
3:14
you can see a little bit of kind of flex in the
3:16
back there.
3:18
Um,
3:19
I mean,
3:19
I don't think it's coming off or anything,
3:21
but I think a couple more screws right here and right here
3:24
under the hinge would have gone a long way towards making that
3:27
feel a little less flexy,
3:28
but the actual kickstand mechanism feels pretty good.
3:31
You can go all the way from quite vertical and it's pretty
3:35
sturdy,
3:36
actually all the way down to about as low as I
3:38
think you'd need to like my worst case scenario,
3:40
I think,
3:40
is like jammed onto like a plane.
3:43
Assuming I can actually balance this on the dinner tray thing.
3:46
This is metal though,
3:47
right?
3:47
Yeah.
3:47
Yeah.
3:48
Do you think that's a little scrapey?
3:50
You think that was scratch a desk?
3:51
Maybe honestly,
3:53
I'd be less concerned about scratching and I'd be more concerned about
3:56
just slipping in general.
3:57
I'd want a rubberized foot or something along there just for that.
4:00
Even what's up with that.
4:02
That looks like rust.
4:03
So here's the thing.
4:04
This is a Kickstarter project.
4:07
Um,
4:08
so these are pre-production samples,
4:10
but I guess this is our opportunity to give them feedback
4:13
for when they do the finished ones.
4:15
Uh,
4:15
I would consider rust on a product that has just been
4:19
taken out of the box to be,
4:21
um,
4:21
how do you say it?
4:23
Unacceptable.
4:25
However he does it.
4:27
It's magnetic.
4:28
Those are the rusty magnets.
4:30
Oh,
4:30
and then here,
4:31
you've got some labels for the buttons.
4:34
Rear labels.
4:36
Why is this as bad?
4:38
There's not enough room on the bezel for them.
4:40
Is that as bad an experience as I think it is though?
4:43
Uh,
4:43
well I did play with it a little bit earlier and it sucked.
4:46
Yeah.
4:46
I didn't like it.
4:47
One of the things that's actually special about these guys is that they've got a
4:52
built in battery so you can use them without access to a wall plug,
4:57
which is sort of part of the joke we were making at the beginning of the video
4:59
where I was carrying around a full size monitor.
5:01
It's a 5,000 milliamp hour battery and they claim it'll last you five hours,
5:06
which is pretty sweet because you don't want to drain your laptop's battery.
5:09
That's all.
5:10
It's ready at a premium.
5:11
Yeah.
5:11
And that's the way that most of these external laptop monitors have worked in the
5:15
past is just by plugging in via a couple of USB plugs so that they can take
5:20
both display and power from your laptop's built in battery.
5:24
Okay,
5:25
cool.
5:25
Well why don't we go ahead and set them up and take a look at the two different
5:29
models.
5:29
So my understanding is this one is actually 4k and that one's 10 80.
5:34
Yes.
5:35
So I'll take this one then.
5:36
Yeah.
5:36
Well jokes on you because this one's touchscreen and that one's not.
5:39
Oh,
5:40
okay.
5:40
Well that's actually kind of cool.
5:41
So there are a couple of things I immediately notice hooking this thing up.
5:44
One is that interestingly,
5:47
you can turn on HDR and wide color gamut.
5:51
So technically this appears to be an HDR display with the only
5:55
problem being that if the out of the box experience is anything to go
6:00
by,
6:00
it is not nearly bright enough for me to consider it to be really
6:05
truly HDR ready.
6:07
The spec says 300 nits.
6:09
Ooh.
6:11
So after trying to enable HDR a handful of times,
6:14
including disabling the built in display here,
6:16
we've determined that it's not turning on.
6:20
And quite frankly,
6:21
given that it's really not much brighter even than the display built into my
6:25
blade stealth,
6:25
which is not a particularly bright display,
6:27
I would say that you're not going to be having a true HDR experience on this
6:32
thing anyway.
6:33
So I probably wouldn't stress out about that too much.
6:35
So the 4k one has got HDMI in and it's 4k,
6:39
60 Hertz by the way.
6:40
So that would be HDMI too.
6:42
It's got mini DisplayPort.
6:43
It's got USB type C,
6:45
and then it's actually got a couple type a ports.
6:48
So that USB type C is an uplink.
6:50
You can use the thing as a hub,
6:51
plug your keyboard and mouse into it,
6:52
which is a pretty useful feature in the age of the dongle,
6:56
given that you can't take for granted that your laptop will actually have a
6:59
type a port on it.
7:00
Speaking of things you can't take for granted on modern devices,
7:03
a headphone jack.
7:04
So if you're using HDMI and you've got audio over HDMI,
7:06
then you can pass that through to yourself.
7:08
How's yours looking?
7:09
No DisplayPort mini or otherwise,
7:10
but we have HDMI.
7:12
We have two instead of one,
7:13
but they're the tiny,
7:14
tiny kind.
7:15
I hate mini HDMI.
7:16
Why do you hate it?
7:17
It's a really flimsy connector.
7:19
So both the receptacle and the plug itself are prone to
7:23
easy breakage because it's so thin and so wide.
7:27
And quite honestly,
7:28
it's just pretty poorly designed.
7:30
Then what else do we have here?
7:32
Well,
7:32
instead of having your full size USB A's,
7:34
you have micros and then you've got a USB-C again.
7:38
And again,
7:39
your headphone jack.
7:41
So this is all pretty cool so far,
7:43
but one of the key pieces of information that's missing up until this
7:47
point is how exactly these stack up against other options available on the
7:52
market.
7:52
Because if you can get something like this for the same price from a
7:56
brand that you've ever heard of,
7:57
maybe one with slightly better build quality,
7:59
obviously I would recommend going that route instead.
8:02
So we fired up B&H and it turns out the Zen screen go 15.6 inch IPS monitor
8:07
from a CX.
8:08
This is the same monitor from a Seuss is $289.
8:13
So that's actually less than the MSRP,
8:15
but more than the Kickstarter pre-order price for the 1080p model here.
8:21
And it's got a 7,800 milliamp hour battery.
8:25
And that is a significant increase.
8:27
Yeah.
8:27
So these are 5,000.
8:29
However,
8:31
we haven't been making this video for nothing.
8:33
I swear there was a reason that we bothered and that's this.
8:37
The main difference here,
8:38
this has a touch screen interface and that just isn't something that we've
8:43
seen for as cheap as this in the past.
8:47
So that is pretty darn cool.
8:51
If you've ever tried to find a touch screen monitor,
8:55
like not a replacement for your phone or anything like that,
8:59
but a touch screen monitor for your computer,
9:01
you'd be shocked to find out how expensive they are.
9:04
So $300 for one like this,
9:06
that's honestly not the most amazing,
9:08
amazing display I've ever seen in terms of the trails behind objects or the
9:13
contrast.
9:14
But what it does have is something that's utterly unique right now at this
9:19
price point.
9:20
And that is touch capability also a matte finish on the screen,
9:24
which is very unusual for a touch screen as for the 4k model.
9:27
Well,
9:28
this one's quite a lot more expensive at around $500,
9:31
but it's a 4k portable monitor,
9:34
which again,
9:36
at the time that we requested,
9:37
these was not something,
9:38
something that we had seen before.
9:40
It's definitely sharp,
9:41
but it is not the best looking 4k display that I've seen.
9:45
How was the color accuracy on this guy?
9:47
I think the Delta E's were around five.
9:49
Okay.
9:49
So that's better.
9:50
Acceptable if you're not a pro,
9:52
but we kind of introduced this as being useful for those people doing remote
9:57
work.
9:57
If you're a contract graphic designer or something,
9:59
you want to be at a coffee shop.
10:01
Well,
10:01
how about gaming then?
10:02
Yeah.
10:03
How about gaming?
10:04
Let's go.
10:06
Okay.
10:07
I've got a type,
10:07
I've got a type,
10:07
I've got a type C to HDMI,
10:09
and then I can go ahead and plug into,
10:11
we've got the 10 ADP touch model here.
10:13
And theoretically I should be able to fire up the fortnight.
10:20
All right.
10:21
Play some fortnight,
10:22
baby.
10:23
Is this even going to be worthwhile?
10:25
You got to tap the screen.
10:27
You're not holding a controller.
10:28
We could hold a controller.
10:31
BRB.
10:32
Is that you or me?
10:34
Nice.
10:35
That's not bad.
10:36
That's pretty sweet.
10:37
That's pretty cool.
10:39
Being able to just like unpack your 15 inch display.
10:43
You already have a phone,
10:44
pull out a controller and dongle.
10:46
So now that we know with a little bit of searching for a
10:48
controller that doesn't brick things,
10:50
we could have basically a mobile console experience just with this and a
10:56
controller packed in our bag,
10:57
a couple of cables.
10:58
Uh,
10:58
but James wants to try something else.
11:00
So this one actually has a USB type C input.
11:02
So we're going to get rid of this crappy HDMI mini and try this and see what happens.
11:07
Do you actually know what's going to happen?
11:08
Nope.
11:09
Oh,
11:09
well,
11:09
I looked at their Kickstarter page,
11:11
so we've got the aspect ratio difference here,
11:14
but that's possibly something we could adjust as well.
11:17
Actually.
11:17
I want to know,
11:18
but this is touch screens on.
11:21
No way.
11:22
Yes.
11:23
It's working.
11:24
Yes,
11:25
because it's USB-C.
11:26
You can chill like this and then have it kind of out.
11:31
Dude,
11:31
this is like having a 70 inch TV.
11:34
So we're going to try an iPhone now,
11:36
but,
11:37
unfortunately,
11:37
because iPhones don't use USB type C,
11:39
they have lightning.
11:41
Uh,
11:41
we can't just use our direct connection.
11:43
We're going to have to go back to HDMI dude.
11:44
Oh,
11:44
sure.
11:45
Okay.
11:46
And a dongle.
11:49
It picked it up right away.
11:51
Interestingly,
11:52
we are pillar boxed and letter boxed,
11:55
but we're getting audio over the display now.
11:57
Why do we,
11:58
why didn't we get audio ever before?
12:00
Maybe we just have the game volume turned down.
12:01
I might've had it off.
12:03
Those speakers really are not amazing.
12:05
The latency is not terrible.
12:07
It's noticeable.
12:09
So you can see that.
12:10
Yeah,
12:11
but it's usable.
12:12
Like if you're used to gaming on a TV or something anyway,
12:14
I don't think you're going to notice the difference that much.
12:16
I'm actually like considering taking one of these on my trip that I'm going on
12:19
today.
12:20
And it doesn't really add like a ton of weight,
12:24
especially if I chuck it in my carry on instead of carrying in my backpack or
12:27
something.
12:27
That feels very light.
12:28
It's definitely lighter than an iPad.
12:31
The new ones are pretty thin.
12:32
They're pretty light.
12:33
It's impressive.
12:34
I think this probably feels lighter just because it's bigger.
12:37
It's like lower density.
12:38
Well,
12:38
what about the iPad pro that's that size?
12:40
I'm going to look it up,
12:40
sir.
12:41
James gets food wrong.
12:42
In three,
12:44
two,
12:45
one.
12:47
Damn it.
12:48
It's 1.57 pounds.
12:50
So conclusion here,
12:51
then portable displays are as cool as they've ever been even cooler now that
12:56
they have built in batteries.
12:57
And these ones,
12:58
while not amazing are certainly coming in at a price where I think that
13:03
they look pretty compelling,
13:05
especially if you're after that touchscreen functionality.
13:08
Okay.
13:08
So this is the thing,
13:09
I don't know if you guys are familiar with the 4k,
13:10
but the people want to definitive answer.
13:12
So can you give us one of those like emperor gladiator thumb things?
13:18
He lives.
13:19
Okay.
13:19
So here's the thing.
13:20
If money's no object,
13:22
I like the 4k one.
13:23
I'm going to take this one on my trip.
13:24
However,
13:25
money is a concern.
13:27
So they sent us these,
13:29
but if you're actually buying one,
13:30
this one looks like the more compelling option.
13:33
It does have some significant shortcomings.
13:35
I don't like the limited brightness and I don't like the inaccurate colors out
13:39
of the box,
13:39
but at anywhere from 240 to 300,
13:41
depending on whether you preorder it or whether you wait,
13:48
it looks like a pretty compelling value.
13:50
If you have any use of the touchscreen,
13:53
that is absolutely the killer app of this display right here.
13:57
The coves drive wireless earphones feature noise canceling to reduce unwanted
14:01
ambient sounds.
14:02
They've got a built in microphone to answer calls hands-free and they feature
14:06
IPX seven water resistance,
14:08
meaning that the headset can actually be submerged for up to 30 minutes in
14:11
three feet of water.
14:13
The battery provides,
14:13
five to seven hours of playback and they stay in place while being lightweight
14:18
and durable.
14:19
Use code line of 65 to save over 50% for a limited time at the link in the
14:24
video description.
14:26
So thanks for watching guys.
14:27
If you disliked this video,
14:28
you can hit that button,
14:29
but if you liked it,
14:30
hit like get subscribed,
14:31
or maybe consider checking out where to buy the stuff we featured at the link
14:33
in the video description.
14:35
Also down there is our merch store,
14:36
which has cool shirts like this one,
14:39
like it made by us like it,
14:42
but they don't,
14:44
and our community forum,
14:45
which you should totally join.