Screens are a part of our lives; phones, tv, monitors, etc. and we love them even more if they are big. So if I tell you that you can enjoy YouTube videos or play video games on a bigger screen and that too being portable; you will be interested, right? I bet you will. I am pretty sure by now you have guessed what I am talking about. Yes, it’s a portable monitor, something that is versatile and mobile. I have with something similar with me for review today and its the Auzai Portable Monitor.
Right off the bat, I was amazed by how good the packaging was. The box came in with soft cousins and had a stylized setup which made me feel of opening something grant. You can tell a company’s outlook and its product’s quality just by looking at how much effort they put into their packaging. A nice addition is the extra number of accessories that come with the box. It includes 1 X USB to USB Type C cable, 1 X Type C to Type C cable, 1 X HDMI to HDMI mini cable, 1 X screen protector and a cleaning micro fabric cloth.
AESTHETICS
The Auzai Portable Monitor sports a black matt body that is sturdy and shines a silver brand name on the front. It has a gloss display and attracts fingerprints but there’s no need to worry as you get a cleaning cloth included in the box. I love how Auzai has maintained a standard black theme across its accessories as well; everything including the cable, the leather cover is in black color. I love black setup on displays as it brings out the content on the screen more and doesn’t let the color of the bezels or cables distract you. The leather cover has a nice texture to it and comes with magnetic pads that allow the cover to act as a stand too. The built quality and the looks make it feel classy despite the plastic body.
DISPLAY
With a 15.6 inch display, the Auzai Portable Monitor is ideal to carry around and the supporting 1080p resolution is big enough for things to be visible and appear crisp. The IPS Panel provides good color accuracy and great viewing angles. With the growing demand for display technologies, adding AMD Freesync to this monitor was a good move by Auzai. If you are connecting it to your PC or Laptop and have an AMD GPU, the Freesync option would come in really handy while playing games to get those smooth frames on this 60hz monitor. I have an Nvidia GPU and so I wasn’t able to take any advantage of this feature.
Although the display is about 250cd/m2 bright, I still feel the lack of brightness at times. This and the glossy display hinder the true power of this monitor but it is compensated by the rich and vibrant colors on the display. Adjusting the light sources in your room will help in minimizing glare. By default, the ‘Color Temp.’ setting in the On-Screen Display(OSD) menu is set to 6500K, I would suggest to change it to User option to get the best possible experience.
Now let’s talk about the HDR mode. It has been a hit and miss for me. For some applications and some modes, it looks better but then looks worse in the others. It took me quite some time to figure out how to set up the HDR mode properly with games and applications. There are two options, ‘Auto’ and ‘2048’ in the HDR settings and upon testing, I found out the Auto Mode to be the best option between the two. Some games don’t allow you to select HDR mode unless you turn on the ‘Play HDR games and apps’ from the Display settings in Windows and also require you to turn on the HDR option from the OSD menu for the monitor. In other cases, some games don’t need any extra setting except for turning on the HDR option from the game itself. The reason I said it has been a hit and a miss is that when you have ‘Play HDR games and apps’ option turned On in Windows and HDR mode in OSD menu set to either of the two options, the screen looks super washed out. On the other hand, if you have ‘Play HDR games and apps’ option turned off and HDR mode set to 2048, the screen becomes too contrasty/darker. So, the best option is to keep ‘Play HDR games and apps’ option off and HDR mode in the OSD menu set to Auto unless you are playing a game/watching something and which shows better results with the 2048 option but always keep ‘Play HDR games and apps’ option OFF. I know after reading this but trust me you will figure it out. Also, using the Auto mode automatically enhances the visuals while watching any HDR content. If you ever feel that HDR content appears too dark, you can adjust the contrast from the menu.
FINAL FANTASY XV – HDR mode turned off
FINAL FANTASY XV – HDR mode turned on
The OSD menu has a lot of important settings such as Brightness/Contrast control, Color control, Audio, and some interesting sub-settings such as Color Gamut selection. It offers 4 different color gamuts such and SRGB, Adobe RGB, DCI_P3, and NATIVE, giving you the freedom to choose the color space you want to work in.
SOUND
The sound quality on the Auzai Portable Monitor offers a great value for its price point. The stereo speakers at the bottom provide a rich, clear, and sophisticated audio. The bass is decent and doesnt distort on full volume. With I/O on the side, you are forced to keep the monitor stand on its bottom which in turn muzzles the audio coming out of the speakers. I feel having speakers on the side would have been a better option but I can also see why Auzai didn’t do it since it increases the thickness of the body as well as the width of the bezels. The loudness of the audio also depends on the source it’s connected to. In case, you don’t want to use the built-in speakers, you can also plug in your headphones via the 3.5mm audio jack.
CONNECTIVITY and CONTROLS
With Auzai Portable Monitor, you get the flexibility to connect to a variety of devices such as smartphones, desktops, laptops, PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, or even something that outputs over the supported connection standards. It comes with 1 X mini HDMI port, 2 X Type C ports(1 as Power Supply), 1 X 3.5mm Audio jack, and a Menu button and a Power/Return button. All the necessary cables come included in the box so you don’t have to go around asking around for cables:D. Connecting any device to this monitor is fairly easy. Simply connect one end of the corresponding cable to the monitor and the other to the device.
I have a Galaxy S8 and I have tested it with this monitor on both Screen Mirroring and Samsung Dex mode. I do find the Dex mode to be more vibrant than the screen mirroring mode but it just might be my phone or something for Samsung in particular. I haven’t been able to test out with phones that have non-USB Type C ports with the help of a converter but that just might work as well. Let me know in the comments down below if anyone has tried it out. While connecting to PCs or a laptop that doesn’t support USB Type C, you will need to provide external power through a USB cable to the Type C port on the right side of the monitor.
On the left side, we have got a power button which also acts as a back button and a menu button. To power on/off the monitor, hold the power button for 3 seconds. To access the OSD menu, push the menu button on the inside, move it up to move up in the selection, or increase something and vice versa. To select something, push the menu button on the inside again.
VERDICT
Amongst a plethora of portable monitors, Auzai stands tall with unrivaled features and quality, something that is hard to find at its price range. Except for some minor issues like HDR complexity and peak level brightness, I feel Auzai outperforms its competition and is worth every penny. It’s available on Amazon for 187$ at the moment and If you are interested, click here to visit the store page.
