This week Asus unveiled a portable monitor with foldable OLED display that lets you use the Zenscreen Fold MQ17QH as a single 17.3 inch display or two 12.5 inch screens. But with a $2000 price tag, this foldable monitor is going to be a pretty tough sell.
There may be a cheaper option though… if you don’t mind putting up with a line between the two halves of the screen. The DUOONE is a dual-screen portable monitor that you can also use as a single big screen or two smaller displays. It’s up for pre-order now, and supports higher resolutions and higher screen refresh rates than the Zenscreen Fold, has optional touch support, and can support multiple devices at the same time thanks to a Smart KVM feature.
One catch? The DUOONE is a crowdfunded project from a company that has successfully funded other projects on Kickstarter, but some of those products have received less-than-glowing reviews from users.
The DUOONE Kickstarter campaign ended December 31, 2023 and the company says it will begin shipping displays to backers in March, 2024. Potential customers who didn’t get in on the crowdfunding can still pre-order through the InnLead Shop and an Indiegogo InDemand page (although prices are lower if you go through the shop, where you can pre-order an entry-level model for $699).
The DUOONE comes in two sizes:
- 2 x 16 inch, 2560 x 1600px displays (21.5 inches and 2560 x 3200 when treated as a single screen) / 144 Hz / 500 nits / touchscreen optional / 1.5 kg (3.3 pounds)
- 2 x 17.3 inch, 3840 x 2160 pixel displays (22.8 inches and 3840 x 4320 pixels when treated as a single screen) / 60 Hz / 400 nits / touchscreen / 1.62 kg (3.58 pounds)
Both models have aluminum alloy bodies and come with 35W USB-PD power supplies.
When folded in half, the DUOONE looks a lot like a laptop, thanks to the dual-screen design and the extensive selection of ports on its sides, which include:
- 2 x mini HDMI inputs
- 2 x USB Type-C inputs
- 1 x USB Type-C power
- 2 x USB Type-A (KVM keyboard and mouse inputs)
- 2 x 3.5mm audio jacks
There’s also a dial for navigating the display’s settings and two buttons: one for power and another for switching display modes. This allows you to toggle between treating the DUOONE as one big display or two smaller screens.
The dual-screen display also comes with a stand that connects to the back of one screen, allowing you to position the screens so one is on top of the other. While the DUOONE doesn’t support automatic screen rotation, it can be used in portrait or landscape modes. You’ll just need to use your operating system’s tools to rotate the screen.
Or you can flip the screens 270 degrees and stand them up on a flat surface like a tent, allowing you to view one screen while the person across the table from you sees the other.
When used as two displays, you can either set up the DUOONE to act as a dual-screen monitor for a single device, or use the screens independently by plugging in multiple devices. For example, you could connect a desktop to the bottom screen and a laptop to the top.
And thanks to the Smart KVM functionality, you can plug in a single mouse and keyboard and use it to control both devices just by moving your mouse cursor to the screen for the device you want to use. The software-based KVM should also let you drag and drop content between devices.
While the crowdfunding campaign indicates that the DUOONE display is a plug and play display that should work with most devices that support HDMI or USB-C displays, I’m pretty sure you’ll need to install software on each device for the KVM functionality to work, which probably helps explain why ETA Prime’s hands-on video mentions the SmartKVM feature but doesn’t actually show it in action.
which usb version?