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

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

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

PROSIn-Plane Switching (IPS) panel
Sharp 1080p picture quality
Accurate colors
Mac and USB 2 compatible
CONSMiddling dark-grayscale performance
Bundled USB cable too short

Display
Panel Size: Wide Screen 15.6"(39.6cm) 16:9
Panel Type : IPS
True Resolution : 1920x1080
Display Viewing Area(HxV) : 344.16 x 193.53 mm
Full HD 1080P : Yes
Pixel Pitch : 0.179 mm
Brightness(Max) : 200 cd/㎡
Contrast Ratio (Max) : 700:1
Viewing Angle (CR≧10) : 160°(H)/160°(V)
Response Time : 25ms
Convenient Hotkey
Brightness Adjustment
I/O Ports
USB Port(s) : 3.0
Power Consumption
Power Consumption(Typical):<7.5W
Power Saving Mode:0W
Power Off Mode:0W

Mechanical Design
Chassis Colors : Silver+Black
Slim Design : Yes
Dimensions
Phys. Dimension(WxHxD):379x236x8.5mm
Box Dimension(WxHxD):435x297x57mm
Weight
Net Weight(Esti.):0.8kg
Gross Weight(Esti.):2.0kg
Accessories
ASUS Smart Case
USB 3.0 cable
Quick start guide
Support CD
Compliance and Standards
BSMI, CB, CCC, CE, C-Tick, CU, FCC, PSE, RoHS, UL/cUL, VCCI, WEEE, WHQL (Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7)
Note
Minimum System Requirement : Windows 7 with 1.4GHz Core 2 Duo, 1GB RAM, Mac OS X 10.8.3* (not compatible with MacBook and MacBook Pro)

Recommended Requirement : Windows 7 with 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo or above, 2GB RAM

Video Playback Recommendations : Windows Media Player, Cyberlink PowerDVD, Core WinDVD

*Ezlink Utility software supports Window based operation system only

Auto rotate function only works under Win7 and Win8

in this review we're gonna be taking a look at what is deemed as the world's thinnest lightest weight portable monitor on the market today okay and you're looking at it right here and I'm gonna have done if I have extended the display of this HP Spectre notebook over to this beautiful mb 169 B+ that's the model number I'll have a link in the show notes this is an asus monitor it's portable it's USB powered it is an IPS display for ultra wide viewing angle it is a

full 1080 HD so it means you're gonna get 1920 by 1080 pixels and this is LED so you're gonna get that IPS which was gonna get you some nice frame rates so you could do some mild gaming on this if you wanted to and there's a 100% powered by USB type-a okay there there is a tight C version of this they call it the Zen screen I'll have a link in the show notes for that so if you've moved on from the type a USB and you're rocking like a MacBook Pro or whatever there is a

USB type-c version of this that you can purchase and it's pretty much the same thing - its Type C versus type a this is a 15.6 inch screen again full HD this comes in now they're billing it to be the thinnest lightest weight so it comes in at 1.76 pounds you're barely gonna notice it in your in your backpack or your laptop bag or whatever you're carrying it in it has Auto rotating display so you can use this in a horizontal or a vertical mode or portrait landscape however you want to

say it and it also comes with a blue light filter to reduce eyestrain if you're using this up close in darker situations or whatever so it has a lot of features that we're going to try to take a quick look at here so the first thing is you can see here what I've done is I've extended my display from my HP Spectre so say I'm out and about and I have through these things with me in my backpack I need to set up shop and even be ex productive I can have a second screen so if I

need to do work on the road or whatever I can basically come in here and as you can see here I can go ahead and minimize ie I can drag it across that can maximize it over here and I have a completely 15 inch new working space that I can utilize so the cool thing about this is as you can see here there are no ports whatsoever look how thin that is okay that is super duper thin we're talking i phone 7/6 in this is then that there are no ports on it anywhere except this side right

here okay and on this side you're going to have the power button the brightness button and then your USB 3.0 port right here which you plug in and you're going to type plug it in to a type a USB port which I did here this powers the monitor puts the video through the monitor so you're sending everything through this type a port the monitor comes with this little thin carry case it acts as the stand as you can see right here I've folded it out and produced a little stand

here so you just take it out of this case and use the steam like this and you're good to go you can use this in landscape and portrait so if you flip it to portrait mode you can see right here let me go ahead and spin the monitor a little bit for the camera no it says it's auto sensing rotation now I have not got it to auto rotate at least with this HP laptop I have to go in and change it to a portrait mode in the display settings and then I can use it in the vertical mode okay so that out of rotation piece you know it's build to have it I just don't see it okay and it's even says right

here auto rotate not working for me as of yet now some limitations to this guy I have tested this on numerous machines okay if you're getting this for a Microsoft Surface pro any of them the pro 3 the pro 4 the brand-new one and I don't even know about the surface book this does not work ok the surface does not produce enough power through its USB ports to power this guy and I've done a lot of research I even used a surface dock and plug this directly in as the surface docks try to extend this play no bueno did not work so if you're getting to get this to use with

the surface don't do it I could not get this to work with type C devices I tried to trick it out ok so I bought a USB C 2 USB 3.0 cable plugged it into the new MacBook Pro 2017 couldn't power I'm sure it wasn't a power problem it's probably just the way that the cable and the the conversion is done it just doesn't allow it it doesn't work so any type C devices you're not going to be able to use this one with you're gonna have to get the Zen screen which is the type C version of this it will work with the new MacBooks ok I tried to get this to work on a MacBook

Pro late 2011 edition that has USB type a 3.0 wouldnt work okay it's build to work with mac books and windows I could not get it to work with a 2011 MacBook Pro and it was the type a a USB 3.0 don't know why it just wouldn't come on so you know it's hitting this I am basically one out of three getting this to work on portable machines now I plugged it in some desktops and it works just fine I had a couple desktops sitting here in my lab and plugged in the USB 3

on my another screen so you know but that's not what you bought it you bought this because of its portability right yes again super thin the back here is a little shiny they've kind of got a nice little display on here or a little logo with some metallic looking kind of back side to it one thing about the viewing angle it's kind of limited even though it's ultra wide the viewing angles for the vertical is this kind of okay it's not great but for the most part you know it works you can

turn this however you need it to get the best visibility but the viewing angles on the widescreen I wish were a little bit better but it is what it is it's a good solution for people that need to expand the real-estate when they are on the road and they don't want to have just the single screen that to work on a lot of people use two screens at home and it work do it on the road portable set chop it up in a coffee shop you have two screens to work on make yourself more productive

right that's the beauty of it so anyway guys check the show notes I will have a link where you can pick this up I will have a link to the Zen screen which is again the type see it's a little bit more like you know it's the newest version of it and it is gonna work with your newer laptops especially the Apple branded ones okay I did want to show you real quick so I'm just gonna unplug this like this and tell power everything gone this just folds right back in and

put it in like this I'll show you how it looks when you're toting it around the cable that's been in here to the nice thing too about this cable is it's very long so this is how its packs into your bag I have no problems getting it into my laptop bag there is a 15 inch laptop the case does add a little bit of bulk this is 15.6 total so hopefully you know if you're got a 15 inch laptop and it's already tight in your case this may not work in your backpack I did want to also show you the

cable length as you can see here this is just the type a USB 3.0 on this side and then your standard USB three on that side this is the monitor plug that I'd like I said I did buy a cable that was this two types II couldn't get it to work thought I could pimp it out and try but no bueno again this is probably about 2 no 5 4 foot cable so plenty of room to you know expand out if you have a distance to go to your laptop to this desktop to this if you're gonna use it that way

so that's kind of nice to have a little extra long cable link there again this was working with the HP Spectre and I used it on some other laptops too that weren't mine and it worked so you know just definitely no surface Pro's and at this point I couldn't get a toured with Apple so I'm just saying if you have any one of those probably not the monitor for you .

I bought this Asus portable USB monitor the mb 169 it's I already have a model but I didn't do a review so I bought a second one for my laptop because I wanted a second one I already took that out and unpacked it just to make sure you know Amazon didn't damage it and then you see if the MB 1 6 9 B as like you know kind of like a I guess what is called as the USB 2 not exactly sure what this plugs called maybe it's like a HDMI or something cable and it's to a USB 8 plug and it also comes with a cover which is pretty slick too kind of wraps around the

portable monitor nicely and keeps it protected and as seconds as a stand which I used before and I didn't really like so I went ahead and bought these cab con I bought these Cap Cana tablet holders but I already have experience with this because I took it with me on my trip to Japan for a month and it slides in pretty nicely that's a pretty nice little package Asus does a really good job I'm very happy with this monitor so let's go ahead and set it up fire it up make

sure it works alright so i got and mount it on well not really mounted it I set it down on this nice cap con tablet holder and it holds pretty steady and I also haven't plugged in to this USB a two thunderbolt plug I have it because I have the identical monitor right here so let's fire it up and check it out so as you can see I have my Asus monitor mounted now and this is my complete set up so that's the other asus monitor that I actually bought about - I guess it's three months ago

and it's the same model that Asus MB 169 beep plus it's like fifteen point six inches of viewable space or something like that and it runs off USB and I have these two both hooked up to a USB adapter so it's like USB 3 USB a 3.1 second-gen there's something like that two USB see Thunderbolt plug on my HP excuse me on my dell XPS 13 laptop so these three monitors are actually all linked up to one one laptop so let me just show you so here's the calculator and I can move it around so if you have any question about whether your Dell XPS 13 can run two

additional exterior monitors it can't so it also has the it's on those chi-chi cap con laptop tablet holders so it's at a right height for me so this is what I see every day and so yeah it cost about these laptop monitor is portable which is great for when I go traveling they cost me about 180 a piece off Amazon so they're pretty reliable the color range isn't bad I I don't game so I don't

know how fast the reaction time is but for what I need to do it's good enough and I have them set at a resolution of 920 by 1080 and so it's exactly what I need so if you think you're in the market to buy one I would recommend this one I know they came out with the mb 169 C which is the plug straight to a thunderbolt USB C and that's also pretty good but I didn't bother getting that because I'd rather have since this one is already a USB a I wanted them to be

identical just in case I needed to change cords or I wouldn't have to worry about you know miss matching or whatnot and although my XPS does have a thunderbolt plug if this one was a HP USB C plug it had to take this one completely dedicated and then this monitor would take the second or actually just USB eh and I figured well I'll just have them both connected and attached to an adapter and so they're both attached to this bad boy back here which is then plugged to my thunderbolt plug outlet for the XPS .

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

the 169 b-plus portable USB monitor this is what it actually looks when it's all backed up it's quite nice it fits in my lap the backpack very easily just to compare it I've got a very slim small laptop here my HP I'll take it out in a minute the size is quite good let me take both of and I'll show you guys what what they're like here they are both of my HP shouldn't be the highlight of this this monitor which is a really really good product I have two of these and as you can see

from the view I'm away yeah I'm on vacation and I have it with me I don't really travel for long times without without this thing with me so it's quite light I'm sorry I don't have a stand for the camera so I'm gonna have to keep it in my hand just see how thick they are there's certain areas where the laptops a lot thicker than the monitor so and it's very very very light you can you can easily pack it with you mix the laptop and you will not feel the thing the thing in the

back right so this is the cover that you're getting with it which doesn't only I'm sorry it doesn't only protect it it's also used as a stand you've got a lasting elastic thing here it helps you keep the cable when you're traveling and it allows you to set two different levels for your screen to be tilted grab this again I'm with one hand because I don't have a camera stand but I'll get one so you have to bear with me so this is one it's slightly tilted backwards and you can also have it at

the 90 degree 90 degree angle this nice space back here I use it a lot for cables as I've got chargers and everything coming through here even this is its port that connects to the computer you can see the cable here it's regular USB and it goes through here and comes out right here on the other side I have a bit I'm a bit crazy when it comes to having things tidy on my desk so it's quite useful that I can hide things behind that that cover and yeah it's sturdy I've never had

issues with it it's got a nice thick leather or fake leather finish at the front which which is very useful because the the other material can get dirty at times you can see it here so up here where the most contact happens it's quite protected so it's pretty good pretty good cover stand and product overall and this is my usual working set up work setup you can see it's quite bright although it's a very very bright day it's not as bright as my that's a much more expensive much

much stronger much better display I think that's an Allred as well but the screen is bright enough to work in these conditions and yeah it's large enough it's just perfect I might be biased when it comes to USB powered portable monitors cause that's one thing I love about this it just requires this cable and it gets its power from from the laptop let's look at how thick thin they are you can see they're quite both quite thin this laptop force force way for an external monitor

it's really really good yeah and I'm sure if you're looking for a laptop like this it's easy to take away easy to set up easy to use and has pretty good quality this this is it for you what else can I show you the cables is a set going underneath it's got a power of on button and display adjustment so I write this adjustment on the left side it does have a light sensor somewhere here and you can see it here it's supposed to be able to adjust again when I take things and my left

hand it gets difficult to control the camera if you use its software I think it adjusts the brightness automatically or I think Windows does that as well and I believe there's a newer model or I don't believe I know it's new there is a newer model it also has touchscreen touchscreen and it does not require display link Windows 10 will automatically detect this everything anything lower than Windows 10 we require you to download the display link

software and the newer model I believe does not require the display link and maybe that's more than this it's probably more expensive well it's not probably I know it is more expensive this was quite cheap yeah if you want to find out more about prices and what other reviewers have said about this product check out our or page business travel dot reviews this again this is the best laptop the laptops great as well amazing battery life and performance and it's very light

and it's gorgeous but the portable monitor is amazing it's just if you're looking for a portable monitor something that you can grab with you and that can be reliable this is it or something within this from this generation this generation of products this series of products cuz I can tell you I've traveled with this one a lot and it's just that's what you need it has never let me down so far.

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

I have the ability to connect to devices like this external monitor / Thunderbolt which are also powered by that same single cable so here we go it's an MB 1/6 9c + 15.6 inch TFT 1920 1080 Oh give this a try should we plug the plane just plug it in and use it packaging what else is in here ok ok let's start with the case ok velcro so yeah for traveling you know I put the screen in somewhere and your luggage in de that would be a way to protect it a little bit so let's get into

the device stuff here directions say to plug it in but there is some sort of power switch looks like these directions are sealed I just leave in the bag I make sure this thing works first instructions in a bag sorry cable in a bag well that I'm going to need so everything's Woodfield plastic you've seen for this product that is a rather long cable it could be good or bad I have a let's see I have an 18 inch one of these around - I'll probably use that alright there you go remarkably

light feels like a like a third of the weight of a laptop or yoga or something so so I'll press with the very light weight and there we go camera nice and close we've got a fancy sort of marketing sticker stuff it's this logo or a chest when you know how you like to say it you SPC being bragged about there and I'm not actually sure if think of a thunderbolt logo anywhere so it could just be USBC okay there's 9 February 2017 brushed spiral pattern there that's very nice

on the back and on the edge we do have auto focus going power so power up power down and some sort of volume like rocker and then the USB connector itself nothing else to look at on any of the other edges so I think it's time to give this a try alright USBC connect it and gos PC connected it's come flickered plug and play sound happened and it's not the power switch yet detecting like it knows the device is there I go into display settings on the new build of Windows

that came out all of yesterday creator update it looks like it's already marrying displays so whether it's on or off it detects the devices there I'd have to push and hold this to turn okay I feel a little silly now what's that Quick Start manual thing again it says to push it I guess alright sure felt like a volume are its brightness okay so pushing in just going to turn on there we go but on out that was easy so currently clones display mode how about I try extended display

mode oh yeah we have the new nightlight setting all right so duplicate the displays I'm going to say extend these displays keep the changes and now you can drive from display display now because I'm 4k on the left that is going to have some size effects so how about I go with changing the resolution on the left down to 1920 1080 - god I hit the wrong thing let me get my finger look like that finger that one okay so now we got scene size screens to them next to each

other which means if I brighten this up and lean it forward let's see this brightness stickers on the way we have menu options hopefully you can see that pretty well hmm okay I'm having trouble navigating that touchscreen so combination of up-down and the rocker so there we go alright so you bring that closer here see you better push in to get the menu okay but on the rocker brings up the blue filter top of the rocker brings up that menu all right I didn't really

need an alignment grid hitting X got rid of it let's try that again so it's a clumsy menuing system because right here you would think going up and down would do something it doesn't seem to alright well guess I'm gonna have to work on brightness in a bit I really just want to show is that you have the same scale and that's the idea basically I'm in a hotel room I have two monitors of the same dimensions and there's nothing wrong key about moving between the two it should just work let's try that resize this and then get low okay we've got a sizing issue on the

right so window scaling is in effect here so time do you head back to now see alright so display settings yep so scaling is our problem there we go over to this screen and we can see on this monitor it's going to say 200 200 K 1 so there's a problem and now perfect everything's good exposure down little so I now have a very nice setup for when I'm on the road I won't feel so much like I am roughing it and the dimensions are almost identical the Dell Precision 55 10 to

the left with the 4k screen looks like it's a little taller ok the stickers probably driving you nuts - so let me just take that off there we go so the dimensions here if you can see them bring it up again the lit area ever so slightly lower here so the screens are very very close to the same but not quite identical probably blew it in 5% of each other so you can see the misalignment up here but down at the bottom pretty much a perfect climate ok so they're slightly different sized

anyhow this looks very good to me just got to figure out that brightness now turns brightness and color Knight mode is now off if we do the brightness on the laptop it's all I'm going to change the screen on the left so that make some sense so yeah looks like we're pretty much faced with having to use those clumsy menus to get the brightness changed let's try that again push in to get the menu up help it I just push up see what happens yeah it's working so it's our

blue filter so as you would expect I was able to scroll through it at this menu I don't really see anything about brightness let's go into this menu okay that's a little weird all right well let's wrap in this Sigma 2 review I'll go ahead and record another review once I figure out how to separate this in the right if there's definitely more to cover here we've got the tent mode of that carrying case what I want to do so using a box like you saw me do and also point out that I did figure out the menuing haven't change the brightness of it basically you tap this twice I didn't

see a need that anywhere in the Quick Start Guide and how we get into a submenu and now things start to make sense pushing in chin again and do not use the top and bottom volume let's try it again push twice go down in and once you get to the submenu stick with that controller alright this is braised is going to go if you hit the X which is the top of the rocker it just goes away twice click look at the menus color tab smart view vivid trace for you game mode splinted gamma mode ,Theatre darking load looks a little wonky I jameelah reading mode dark

ground mode seems like standard is what I want all right how we doing on brightness now comparing the two sorry about the back reflections alright so now I got two white screens yeah very similar let's get the exposure if you camera down and so we're doing all right here so now it's time to figure out the tent and that would be in this QuickStart so which is carrying it it's got a very rubbery back so even though that looks like stainless steel let's go to a rubbery feel is

that a covering that I peel off apparently no so getting some finger printing action going already but most part I think it hides two fingerprints of almost viewing angles front is not a touchscreen don't really want your fingerprints on it alright so for travel probably yes okay just like this no it's pretty tight and yet it saying to click this / okay that becomes back so that's three triangles Volker here and velcro here disappears - so that's going to be our tail - angle

alright boys I doesn't really want to hold like that and they're showing me okay somehow holding onto there so what they're Shana do but obviously something's wrong it's not going to just hang out in place so if we fold this up and out now we put the monitor there and we have ourselves a monitor stand in or motel room or whatever so that's the extent of that looking too hard I see a power light went on roll screen the screen went on okay but that didn't have to do

anything so once that initial power on I did by pushing in pretty hard on this it seems to it remember that's a little tricky that this is here because of course it touches your screen next to it so if we're going to do side by side we probably want to reverse the positions here but that's not always going to work out because of the way your hotel desk is or preference or whatever but now cable is not obstructed .