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Ace hardware recommendation - ARZOPA Portable 13" HDR QVGA Monitor
I recently picked this up to have an extended monitor experience (to my laptop) when onsite with clients. QVGA in mac-speak is Retina resolution (it matches the Retina display on the 13" MacBook Pro).
Considering this only cost £149 (and a quick check on Amazon.com shows this is even better value in the US at $159), I had expected the HDR performance to be significantly worse than that in the M1 iPad Pro, but it's near-identical. The M1 is definitely the better of the two but by a very fine margin.
amazon.co.uk/ARZOPA-Portable-Monitor-2560x1600-Speaker/dp/B09FPRQB4K
amazon.com/Portable-Arzopa-2K-External-Speakers/dp/B099DKQS8C
And talking of the M1 iPad Pro, both LumaFusion and Imaginado's VS are able to make use of an external monitor properly (they're not limited to mirror mode). And much as the Shiftscreen app isn't a true extension to an external monitor, it does allow a Safari-like web browser or/and a PDF reader to be placed on the secondary screen, which is perfect for having reference material on the second screen without having to split the available real-estate on the iPad. It's also worth knowing that the likes of Netflix, Amazon Prime and Disney+ will use the full QVGA resolution when accessed via the web browser rather than their apps. Perfect for true 2k playback on a larger screen if you have an iPad Mini or 11" iPad Pro; or even a recent generation iPhone for that matter.
The other thing I've been doing with the monitor is hooking it up to an 8GB Raspberry Pi, and then using Synergy to share the laptop keyboard and trackball to the Raspberry Pi.
And for the gamers amongst you, Nintendo Switch will also play ball (as does the Playstation 5 or latest-gen Xbox's, although I'm not sure of the value of using a 13" screen with a latest-gen console!).
For the money, I would have been happy with a compromised experienced but considering the quality of the screen, I couldn't be happier with my purchase.
Comments
I bought the 1080p version of that monitor. Works great.
The only black mark I'd give them is that the stand is pants (works great as a screen protector but little more). Given the wide variety of old tablet stands I have scattered around the house, that wasn't a major issue.
That would pair nicely with a Mac mini for remote gigs. I’ve used the iPad as the primary screen for a Mac mini using duet display before, and it’s cool, but a dedicated monitor would be nice.
Damn - looks perfect for use with a Raspberry Pi. I only ever use 'em headless, but this could change my mind. It doesn't mention Linux compatibility, but it shouldn't care, should it?
I didn’t know Ace Hardware carried computer monitors!
And on that note...
It works perfectly well with the Pi 4 as they go up to 4k. I overclock my Pi 4's to 2.1Ghz from its base of 1.5Ghz (and the GPU gets a slight uptick to 600 from 500). Running at 2560 * 1600 doesn't stress things at all, although you have to tweak your window manager settings for the extra pixel density.
The biggest speed bump you'll get is by running the OS off a fast NAND based stick drive. These are portable enough and significantly faster than micro SD. And the bonus is that one of the cheaper brands is one of the better performers with Pi 4's (Transcend JetFlash)
I run arm64 Raspberry Pi OS but then strip everything back and install xfce4 as my desktop (you can always start with Server and build up). It provides more contemporary aesthetics whilst using minimal resources. Gnome Terminal is worth a download too as it's far nicer than the default RP OS terminal and I find the Nemo file manager from the Cinnamon desktop finishes off the desktop package nicely.
The only reason I use the default 64-bit Raspberry Pi OS is because it's the only 64bit OS that allows you to install and run Mathematica for free. In fact, you can't even use the commercial version of Mathematica on any other Linux distro on the Pi as they only compile the Linux version for x86-64 hardware. You end up with the 32-bit version of Mathematica, but it runs normally.
I must be a glutton for punishment, working from home on my company-issued Microsoft Surface Pro without secondary display. Full-size Dell/LG/Asus monitors are a little cheaper at MicroCenter but nowhere near as portable. Might look into these Arzopa monitors.
https://www.arzopa.com/
@jonmoore That YouTube video is a bit of a gimmick but its a solid idea… a M1 Mac Mini and 3 of these displays would be a 3-monitor portable desktop that fits in a laptop bag. That would be impressive
I agree. If you're prepared to fork out a little more, they make a 15.6" 4k model. Now that I know the quality of the display on the smaller model, I can see myself being tempted by this model as it's just as portable. And as you say, fitting multiple monitors & Mac Mini into a laptop bag is a nice portable option.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09FQ3LDT7/
Thanks for the very, very useful information about use with the Pi 4 @jonmoore. 👍🏼
I haven’t watched that video yet, but saw it posted somewhere else too. I will watch it. I thought that was an iPad in the photo, didn’t know it was a portable monitor.
I have to find my pi (3 B+ I think),I can’t find it in the house but know it’s here somewhere. I run my soundcraft ui24r from a chrome base velcroed to the back of a 22” touchscreen monitor, but I have a feeling the pi may be faster.
@mrufino1 I wouldn’t bother with that video. It’s a guy who 3D printed a plastic case to house his MacMini with a iPad Mini and hold it in a laptop shape. I give him a few points for ingenuity, but completely impractical for a lot of reasons. MacOS on a 8” screen, no thanks
@jonmoore yes! two of those 4K 15” monitors and a MacMini. Thats a setup that could do anything from anywhere, and still fit into my laptop bag.
Oh, it is an iPad in the video, got it. Every YouTube video seems to have some kind of clickbait picture now, it gets silly. I have used my iPad mini 2 as a screen for the Mac mini, but that’s a 2011 Mac mini running audiogridder, I don’t have to interact with it much.
I wish the iPads will get real external monitor support. There are touch monitors out there but I think Apple will only support that when they come out with a portable touch monitor for the iPad themselves. Eh… what am I thinking. The actual Apple strategy is that you should buy other Apple computers and then use universal control.
Looks like the US Amazon store is sold out of the 15" UHD With Kickstand monitors. Odd that there would be a with and without kickstand version.
I thought the same…
Having lived with the monitor for a couple of weeks, I find I use it most often as a Raspberry Pi powered ebook reader. As mentioned earlier, using Synergy to share my keyboard and trackball from my laptop or main desktop means that the extra screen feels like an integrated part of the system even though it's powered by the Pi (Synergy shares the clipboard too).
There's a wonderful file viewer for Linux systems called Zathura. This is controlled via key bindings alone so it has a minimal interface (meaning you don't have to run it full screen). Even though it's only a 13" screen, I find that I can view virtually every PDF file I throw at it with a two-page layout and the pixel density makes everything crystal clear (even if the actual font size is smaller than with a normal desktop display).
I also use Doom Emacs to view PDFs as it uses the same Poppler PDF renderer as Zathura, but it has the added benefit of allowing you to annotate to a plain text file which is auto-synced at sentence level with the PDF file (you need a bunch of third party packages to make this possible, but one of the reasons I use Doom Emacs is that it bundles many of these modules/packages and allows you to auto-config Emacs to your specific needs). Another benefit of Doom Emacs (probably the biggest benefit from my perspective) is that its creator has built an unapologetically Vim flavoured distribution, so you get all the benefits of the Emacs (its hackability) but with the mnemonics of Vim's intuitive interaction design. If you've ever attempted to learn Emacs arcane (and RSI inducing) key bindings, you'll understand the benefits of the Vim style UX all too well.
The 2560 x 1600 Arzopa 13" model, weighs little more than a Kindle, so I often find myself picking it up and reading its content in much the same way as I would with a Kindle. My iPad Pro is the weight of a tank by comparison, so even though they each provide the same highly readable pixel density, I now far prefer to read newspaper/magazine content via the Arzopa screen. And the iOS Shiftscreen app means that I can hook up the Arzopa to the iPad Pro via USB-C to read browser-based or PDF content whilst still accessing secondary apps on the iPad. And the weight difference means there's even an advantage to accessing mirrored apps on the Arzopa (I read newspaper and magazine content via Apples News app in this way). When mirroring, I drop the screen brightness on the iPad down to a minimal setting and even though the iPad is powering the Arzopa screen, the overall battery depletion on the iPad is less than running the iPad Pro screen at full brightness alone (I tend to run the iPad Pro at full brightness to get all the benefits of the Liquid Retina XDR).
I purchased the Arzopa with mobility in mind, so I'm surprised at how it's become such an integral part of my daily workflows with my permanent studio setup and as a secondary screen with my laptop (which tends to be used when lounging on a sofa or suchlike at home). This is in part because of the portability of my Pi as much as the Arzopa itself (I seldom use the Arzopa literally as a second screen for the laptop at home, it's mainly a second screen for an iPad or a primary display for my Pi, but the laptop provides the keyboard in the case of the Pi). But I didn't have these specific use cases in mind when I purchased the Arzopa, so it's been a pleasant surprise.
Much as I can see myself purchasing one of the 15.4" models, I'm not sure it will be so deeply integrated into my daily life at home as the bulk and weight increase is enough that I'd be less inclined to pick it up and use it as an ebook reader (the weight goes from 1.4Kg to close to 2Kg). The 13" 2560 x 1600 resolution seems to be the sweet spot for me. Plus you've got to consider that you're moving from £149 to a £269 outlay when purchasing to 15.4" 4k model.
The 13" Arzopa really is an 'ace' purchase (wizard, super, awesome, brilliant or any other suitable synonym you choose to use).