Toshiba 14-inch USB Ultra-portable Mobile LCD Monitor
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/413muEQVQAL._SL160_.jpg
- PA3923U-2LC3 14″
- LCD Monitor
- 16:9 – 16 ms
Toshiba pa3923u-2lc3 14″ lcd monitor – 16:9 – 16 msgeneral information – product name – pa3923u-2lc3 widescreen lcd monitor; miscellaneous – package contents – pa3923u-2lc3 widescreen lcd monitor cover usb y cable cd-rom & documentation hybrid carry case/stand; miscellaneous – green compliance certificate/authority – energy star 5.0, rohs; number of screens – 1; screen size – 14″; screen mode – wxga; response time – 16 ms; aspect ratio – 16:9; video – maximum resolution – 1366 x 768; video – color supported – 256k colors; video – contrast ratio – 400:1; video – brightness – 220 nit; interfaces/ports – dvi – no; interfaces/ports – hdmi – no; interfaces/ports – usb – yes; interfaces/ports – vga – no; power description – input voltage – 110 v ac, 220 v ac; physical characteristics – color – matte black; physical characteristics – height – 9.4″; physical characteristics – width – 13.4″; physical characteristics – depth – 0.6″; physical characteristics – weight (approximate) – 2.80 lb;
Laptop Monitor
Toshiba 14-inch USB Ultra-portable Mobile LCD Monitor
List Price: $ 199.99
Price:
Good little monitor, poor out of the box experience,
I’m finally happy with my new Toshiba Mobile USB monitor. It sure didn’t start off as a good experience, however.
First off, I may not be using this like most people would (i.e. as a truly mobile monitor for laptops). I wanted a third, small, monitor for my office desktop setup. It’s used almost exclusively for Outlook and my To-Do List (Toodledo). I already have a 24″ and a 22″ monitor on my desktop so I didn’t want or need something big since I don’t have much room left on my desk. This size and compact form factor the bill nicely for the third monitor. The brightness is decent. The picture is pretty good. Nothing outstanding, but certainly good enough for the my intended purpose.
But, I was so very close to giving up on this monitor. First of all, they provide you with a mini-USB to dual USB cable. One USB is for the picture and the other is for power. They say that some computers will power it through a single USB 2 cable. Not mine (a newer Dell). The USB cable that they supply is only about 12 inches long and didn’t even come close to reaching from the top of my desk to my Dell Tower under the desk. And, since it’s a mini-USB to dual USB cord, it’s not as easy as grabbing one of the many USB cords that we have sitting around. So, I ordered a USB hub from Amazon with a long cord. I then plugged the two USB connections from the Toshiba to the USB Hub. No go. It still would not get powered through the USB hub. So, I finally purchased two of the AmazonBasics USB 2.0 A-Male to A-Female Extension Cable (3.3 Feet/1.0 Meter thank goodness for Prime!). And, we finally have a winner!
So, after a week of buying different things and waiting for deliveries from Amazon, I was finally able to turn on the monitor and display my desktop! Now, for the drivers. The drivers that Toshiba includes are HORRIBLE on Windows 7. They are dated from March 2011. Do not install them! I have read other stories that they work equally as bad on Windows XP and Vista. I was getting constant screen flickers. When you let your PC go to sleep and came back it would not display ANYTHING on the primary monitor. The #2 monitor and the #3 Toshiba did light up. So, I had to CTRL-ALT-DEL to login in the blind. Once you logged it, the primary monitor would finally wake up. Doing almost anything in Photoshop would cause all three monitors to flicker and then the entire PC would lock up. You had to power off and restart. This happened four or five times over the first day and I was about to pack the thing up and send it back. Then, I found some new drivers on DisplayLink.com (verson 6.0 M1 dated October 10, 2011). After almost a full day of running the new drivers from DisplayLink, everything finally seems to be good.
My advice to you:
1. If you need more than 12″ of cable, search for “AmazonBasics USB 2.0 A-Male to A-Female Extension Cable” and grab TWO (2) of them. They come in a variety of lengths and are cheap (much cheaper than Best Buy, Staples, OfficeMax, etc.).
2. Then, when you get the monitor, forget about the CD. Go to DisplayLink.com, click Support, and download the drivers for your OS.
Follow these two steps and you should have a much better experience than I had.
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|Not the mobile monitor for me, here is a comparison of three models,
The concept of a mobile monitor is great! I am so used to my two 25-inch desktop monitors that working from my laptop screen alone has become cumbersome and inefficient. These mobile monitor products allow me to have an extra screen for doing side-by-side data comparison and other multi-tasking needs.
I tried three different mobile monitor products and the Toshiba was the worst of the three for my needs. The Toshiba 14-inch mobile monitor had the following problems: even though my laptop is new, the Toshiba required that I use both USB ports on my computer to power it. The cord they included didn’t reach both of my USB ports at the same time. It used up both of my USB ports and would not work with a multi-port adapter unless the adapter was powered. It was also too tall to fit in my laptop bag, not because the viewable screen area is bigger, but because they included a wide strip of plastic under the screen. The AOC e1649Fwu was nice and much cheaper ($130). It ran well from one USB port. The picture was good, and the screen is 16 inches which is larger than the other two. Even though the screen was bigger it still fit in my laptop bag. The drawbacks of the AOC were that the screen was not anti-glare, it was thicker and round on the back so it took up more space in my laptop bag, and it didn’t come with a protective case. The Lenovo was the best one for me and it is the one I kept. The Lenovo works well off of one USB port, has an anti-glare screen, fits very nicely in my laptop bag, includes a protective case, has easy brightness adjustment, and draws less power than the other two (5W). It is more expensive ($199) but well worth the extra money for me.
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|It is a great start,
I travel a lot for work, but when I do get the opportunity to work from my office or from my home office, both spaces are fully equipped with 2 external monitors for my laptop. I have grown so accustomed to using 2 or 3 monitors when I work (or play) that I found myself getting overly frustrated being limited to only a single display when traveling. So I did a Google search and found this little gem. It is the only one of it’s kind (that I am aware of)and was so excited to see that I could have the convenience of an extra monitor while traveling or at a client location.
Since receiving it only 2 days after ordering, I have already starting bringing it around with me for work. It is a great product. I love the fact that it does not require an A/C adapter, and I have used it with both my business and personal laptops and both computers only needed the one USB plug. The picture is not the best, and I thought at first that it had a poor refresh rate because I kept getting the flickering as described in one of the other reviews. But after reading that review, I removed the software I installed from the CD that came with it and let my computer do its automatic software download, and ever since I have not had any flickering. It is not the best for viewing videos or anything like that, but it is clear enough for me to do work in any of the programs we use at my company.
It is very quick and easy to setup and use, and have found it useful when I am working one-on-one with someone or in a small team when I need to show them something on my screen. It is super light and portable and have no complaints.
I look forward to seeing if this product takes off and hopefully have someone find a way to make this same product with a higher resolution and faster refresh rate so I can use it to watch my Netflix from the hotel while traveling. 😉
Overall, I think it is a great product and have recommended it to my IT department to hopefully offer it to all of our personnel who spend most of their time traveling. It is definitely worth the money,.
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