Lenovo Thinkvision M14
Portable second screen gives you double vision while out and about
This portable laptop screen won’t be for everyone, but it’s an impressive design
This has to be the smallest monitor nitor we’ve seen that wasn’t designeded to sit on a video camera. At 14in, it’ss a portable second screen for yourur laptoplaptop, p, from which it draws power throughrough the th he same USB-C cable (a metre-longng one iis s supplied) as its data, which cann plug in n either side. If you prefer – although,ough, to o be honest, it’s hard to see why you wowould ould – you can plug a PD 2.0- compliant liant USB-C mains charger (not supplied) plied) into the right side of the monitor tor and your laptop into the left to charge both that way. The USB-C setup isn’t clever enough to act as a hub, so you can’t connect accessories like a mouse or external SSD to your laptop through the monitor. Nor is a webcam built in, but your laptop should already have one.
Among the few rival products is AOC’S I1601FWUX (£160 from Amazon www. snipca.com/33914, see our review, Issue 537, page 26), which offers the same Full HD resolution in a larger format for £60 less. It’s cheeky of AOC to market this as 16in when it has the same 15.6in diagonal measurement that everyone calls a 15in laptop, but it does make your Windows desktop a more comfortable size.
The Thinkvision M14 fights back, however, with several advantages. It’s skinnier (tapering to just 4.4mm) and lighter to carry. And where AOC relies on a tablet-style cover that folds to prop up the screen, Lenovo has built in a stand with a laptop hinge for full control over angle and a secondary flap to adjust
SPECIFICATIONS
14in IPS LCD • 1920x1080-pixel resolution • 2x USB-C ports • Requires Windows 7, 8 or 10 • 323x220x12mm (HXWXD) • 570g • Three-year warranty www.snipca.com/33915 height. It still folds flat to slip into a bag.
The screen is much more accurate, covering 90 per cent of the standard SRGB colour range compared to AOC’S 52 per cent, and brighter, reaching 311cd/ m² versus 223. It’s not perfect for serious graphics work, but still very good, with a non-reflective matt finish and wide viewing angles.
This is all quite convincing, but a monitor no bigger than the screen your laptop already has is not the easiest sell, at twice the price of a comparable 24in 1080p desktop screen. You wouldn’t choose this for home, and you’d need an accommodating cafe or very empty train to set yourself up on the move. But it could make sense as a transportable setup for something like shooting and editing Youtube videos, or to present to others on the second screen while operating your own.