[darkteflon]

Slightly incidental, but after years of working out of hotel rooms, I’ve found that a 15.6” 4K portable display placed on a small tripod (Arca-Swiss mount) sitting directly above the main display of my 14” Macbook has been the perfect travel setup. It’s a dual-display setup, portable (similar area to the computer itself), similar desktop area and font resolution to the native panel, and prevents you from craning your neck.

[alexitosrv]

I agree. This has been my setup as of lately https://imgur.com/a/1CjpS8G

. Portable 4k screen (the glare in the photo is not really visible in front).

. Custom mount for the laptop and a

. Wireless thinkpad keyboard with a trackpoint (which I love).

The cabling management has improved now, but this setup gives plenty of screen real estate, both displays are touch, and in comparison with a tablet where the applications context is lost the majority of time, here I can be more productive and is a joy to work with it.

[mncharity]

> Custom mount for the laptop [...]

I've done a similar setup, but for a minimalist mount, used two 12in rulers, and gaff tape to make a hinge, a strap connecting the other ends, and a stop on one of them. So a heavy thinkpad sits on the desk ruler, leaning back against the other and the strap, with the bottom keyboard edge sitting between strap and stop. It's fragile, and I fear someday there will be a bump, crash, and sadness, but it's light, compact, and easily recreated.

[AdrianEGraphene]

I see you still have working feet for the trackpoint keyboard... I've broken the foot on 3 of those.... any secrets you've got to preventing that?

[roflyear]

what do you do for work?

[alexitosrv]

I work as an infra architect at an MSP, so mostly Teams calls and Visio (sometimes even MS Whiteboard). and heavy web browsing.

[tokamak-teapot]

Mind sharing which one you have please? I’d like to drop one in my laptop bag sometimes.

[darkteflon]

Sure, I have an Innocn PU15-PRE. Just to reiterate that a 15.6” 4K is definitely the way to go. I also tried 14” 4K and 1440p panels but - on account of the way scaling and font rendering works in MacOS - they’re a big step down. Even moreso if you’re doing anything graphically intensive - you’ll want to use non-native scaling on a 14” 4K which is expensive for the GPU. The 15.6” panel doesn’t have this problem because the “effective 1080p resolution” divides cleanly into the native 4K panel resolution.

I spent ages working through this.

[vosper]

> I also tried 14” 4K and 1440p panels but - on account of the way scaling and font rendering works in MacOS - they’re a big step down

You can probably fix this with BetterDisplay (formerly known as BetterDummy?). I used it with my 3440x1440 monitor. https://github.com/waydabber/BetterDisplay

[darkteflon]

I tried it - it’s okay, but a bit flaky - especially disconnect/re-connect. While it does _improve_ font rendering on sub-Retina displays, it’s still nowhere near as nice as font rendered on a display recognised as Retina-capable by MacOS - which any 4K display is. It’s particularly noticeable in the setup described above, as your eyes are constantly moving between the in-built Retina display and your external display.

It might be a good solution if you already have an, eg, 1440p display and want better font rendering, but if you’re putting together a setup from scratch, MacOS just works hassle-free with 4K displays. You’ve got to stare at these things for hours every day, so.

[culopatin]

But limits the output to 60hz and I get random flickering when reconnecting 60% of the time. However the devs of that app have been super active and it has improved a lot in just a few months so I’m sure it’s temporary.

[tmikaeld]

I was looking for a stand, but couldn't find one that's portable, what are you using?

[darkteflon]

I use a small [Neewer tripod](https://amzn.asia/d/dhkt0hd) connected to an Swfoto Arca-Swiss tablet holder (link below in this thread).

[dwighttk]

Aw man, not your fault, but the Amazon app does not handle the switch from US to Japan store smoothly at all

[opan]

https://www.amazon.com/Neewer-Portable-Desktop-Mini-Tripod/d...

amazon.com link to what I believe is the same product.

[nailer]

Same here - a photo would be great! I want a portal monitor but it has to be at eyeheight. Otherwise I will use a crappy laptop raiser thing.

[darkteflon]

Yep, this is at eye height. For me this solution is better than using a laptop raiser because: you get two displays instead of one, and in a setup no wider than a laptop, and you don’t need to pack an external keyboard, mouse and/or trackpad. Plus a tripod and portable display packs way better than most laptop raisers I’ve seen.

The upper display becomes your main display, the lower one your secondary. You still have to look down sometimes at the secondary but that is vastly better than craning your neck the whole time.

Edit: [Pic](https://imgur.com/a/sdLmYJG). Bad photo but you get the idea. In reality, both those panels are perfectly angled for viewing when I’m sitting down in front of them, with no overlap.

That’s great that you guys are into this. I feel like I cracked the code with this one. I told my irl friends and they just shrugged.

[tmikaeld]

This is EXCELLENT, I've been looking for this the last +10 years

Thanks for sharing!

[darkteflon]

Sibling, stoked to hear that! Enjoy glorious pain-free travel productivity.

I often use it at home, too - just to get out of the home office from time to time. Can work from the kitchen table without compromise. Takes less than a minute to set up.

[localhost]

How do you mount it to a tripod? Also do you know if you can horizontally flip the image so it could be used with a teleprompter?

[darkteflon]

I use [this](https://amzn.asia/d/a74Tepm). Not sure about flipping the image but I’ve put the model number here in the thread.

[falcolas]

You could also move the camera to film the reflection from the 45 degree glass, if you’re looking for a home office teleprompter solution and not a live presentation version.

[localhost]

Yeah, it's not actually for a teleprompter - I'm using it as my zero-parallax video conferencing solution with a Canon R5 as my webcam. I'm currently using an 11" iPad Pro using the excellent Duet Display software which does the horizontal flip [1] and it works great for that. I'd like the display to be larger though, but that requires upgrading the teleprompter too and I've been toying with that hence my question about monitors that can do the horizontal flip. But I think I'm just going to mirror a 24" monitor underneath my videoconferencing setup so that I can better see presentations during meetings.

[1] https://www.duetdisplay.com/

[KennyBlanken]

...you're using a four thousand dollar (not including lens) mirrorless camera as your webcam for videoconferencing services that are typically barely a few megabits per second?

[localhost]

Thanks! From the manual, it looks like it only has support for rotation and not the flipping.

[liminal]

That must be the problem I had. I gave up using an external monitor because it turned my macbook into a toaster

[lostlogin]

Was that an Intel toaster or an Apple one? I think the Apple ones don’t get so hot.

[darkteflon]

The Apple Silicon models can handle it just fine for desktop use. It’s when you’re using Blender or Unreal or whatever that it becomes an issue.

[fragmede]

Except they only handle one external display.

[liminal]

That one is/was Intel. Getting a bit long in the tooth, but still my daily driver.

[sgerenser]

I'm using a very similar setup for when I want to work away from my 27" 4K display but still need a second screen to be productive (e.g. doing almost anything coding-related). Like the previous poster, I set it up with the external screen directly above my laptop screen which for me is much more comfortable than trying to put it beside the laptop, and ends up at a perfect eye level.

Bought this LG Gram 16" Portable display (2560x1440): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09TS43YMT

This portable tripod: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08LGGXH1J

And this "tablet" mount that gets large enough to fit the 16" display: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08Z7Z7QZ3

Tripod/tablet mount also double as an iPad stand for video calling, etc.

Everything fits easily in my fairly compact backpack along with cables, dongles, mouse, etc.

[Ryanwest6]

This is really neat and I want to find a similar solution. My concern is how long it takes to set things up - does it get tiring to always set up the tripod and mount together before adding on the screen? I wonder if anything exists with just a mount that attaches directly to the monitor (like Vesa but no screws).

And how is the durability of your portable display? I got one and used it for a year but keeping it in a carryon bag in airplanes eventually messed up the display from being pressed and bumped around.

[sgerenser]

It’s a bit cumbersome but it probably takes nor more than a minute or two to get set up if I have it all broken down. The Tripod folds up small enough that I can leave the “tablet mount” part connected to it and throw the whole thing in my bag. Then setup is just extending the tripod, clamping in the display, and connecting the cable.

[darkteflon]

It’s great, isn’t it? Can’t imagine working any other way now when I’m away from my desk.

I recently added keyboard shortcuts (using BetterTouchTool) on my left hand for moving the mouse cursor up and down between the centre of each display, as vertical mouse movements seem to be more tiresome than horizontal on account of the lie of your arm (less of an issue with the built-in trackpad).

[o_____________o]

Interesting that the screen is around the same weight as a macbook pro. Is that right?

[sgerenser]

The screen I use (lg gram 16”) is lighter than even the MacBook Air. Specs say 1.48 lbs (671g) or 2.18 lbs (989g) with the folio cover on.

[charlie0]

This is exactly what I am looking for.

[liketochill]

Thanks for sharing

[Lio]

I'm not the person you're asking but as Asus already make a range of portable monitors you could try one them:

https://www.asus.com/Displays-Desktops/Monitors/ZenScreen/

[WaitWaitWha]

I have two Asus ZenScreen Go MB16AHP. Comes with built in battery and a bunch of other great features.

For me, both of them stopped charging and refused to work right after warranty ran out. Now they are sitting on my shelf waiting to be cannibalized.

I very much enjoyed these screens. They were response, relatively light, fit into the bag, and with their own battery, I could chug along for hours without issue. Oh the joys of getting ready for meetings in airport lounges!

So, Asus portable monitors for me were great design, not so good implementation.

[Bayart]

Uperfect makes 4K ones. AFAIK Asus only goes to 1080p.

[rattray]

How do you attach an arca-swiss mount to a monitor?

[darkteflon]

I use [this](https://amzn.asia/d/a74Tepm)

[rattray]

Ah thank you! Clever.

A US-friendly link to a similar product is https://amzn.com/dp/B09H6QV53R (I searched "arca-swiss tablet mount 300mm" to find it; there are others that only go to 230mm width for folks interested in this with smaller portable monitors).

Personally I am currently experimenting with a Lenovo ThinkVision M14[0] perched (a little precariously) atop a Roost V3 Laptop Stand[1], which is a lower-quality but lighter, more minimal setup than what you describe.

When I'm on Zoom call, which is often, I can move the laptop onto the stand for a better camera angle and put the external monitor beneath.

I'm not doing graphics work and I find the 60Hz, 1920x1080, usbc-on-both-sides monitor sufficient for my purposes (much, much better than an old asus one which was 30Hz or less, and laggy).

[0] https://amzn.com/dp/B07YX5NKK2 [1] https://amzn.com/dp/B01C9KG8IG

[twobitshifter]

apple sidecar gives you this if you buy the ipad.