Asus MB16AP Zenscreen Go 15.6" Full HD IPS USB Type-C Portable Eye Care Monitor

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I usually buy mostly everything on Amazon, but I bought this model elsewhere since Amazon didnt have it when I checked a few weeks ago. It now shows up and the page says it was available since Oct 2nd, 2018. So strange. Anyway, while there are numerous Zenscreen models, this one is the first one with an internal battery and goes by the name Zenscreen Go. So lets start with the Pros.. 01-Perfect size and Portable. Thinner than my laptop and about the same size. Fits in my laptop travel/messenger bag (barely). 02-Fit and finish is amazing. 03-Comes with a protected magnetic cover that acts like a stand and holds it up quite well. And while it is a very good cover/stand, I may get an actual fold-able stand for the monitor so that I do not overuse the cover. 04-Light and thin, even with the cover on. 05-Has a battery. (Previous models didnt). 06-One cable hook up. (this is a blessing in disguise as well as a obstacle in certain uses). In the pro column, it extends your laptop desktop (or phone) with no wall adapter or too many cables. 07-Quite bright. I read previous reviews mentioned that the brightness was lower than the laptop they were using and I was willing to accept that, but this model I have to say, the brightness is as bright as my Samsung Notebook 9 Pro 2 in 1 laptop at 75%. 08-Works with Samsung Note 9 phone and DeX. This is the main reason I wanted this monitor. Besides for traveling purposes. I didnt want to go the route of getting a HP Elite Lapdock for using the Note 8/9 and DeX. This caught my eye and when they released the battery version I had to get it. It works flawlessly with DeX. No black outs or hiccups messages. But there is one con listed below when using the Note 9 with DeX. 09-Multiple monitor capability. Asus says you can connect numerous Zenscreens and while I do not have another ZenScreen to test that theory, my laptop uses displaylink to connect the 3 monitors in my setup. When I connected the Zenscreen to the laptop, it appeared as monitor 4. Nice surprise. 10-Has a pen hole. Comes with a real pen to insert in the hole to prop up the monitor instead of using the cover. I actually like that. 11-Portrait and landscape mode. (Although I havent tested the portrait mode yet. Cons (subjective, depending on your use)... 1-Its not touch screen (although a newer model recently announced will be called the Zenscreen Go Touch and coming out in a few months). 2-The one cable hook up when hooking up to a cell phone. While convenient, it does not allow for adding a usb mouse or keyboard. One has to have a bluetooth keyboard or mouse nearby or rely on the mobile phone to use it as a keyboard and mouse and that is easier said than done. Asus should have included an USB-C hub attachment to allow to connect other devices and pass through signal for mobile devices. 3-No other USB-C cable works so far. This is concerning since if I lose it, its a problem. You cant buy it even on Asus website. Plus the cable has no indication that it is by Asus, Displaylnk etc. I plan on adding a label to wrap around the cable to indicate it is for the Zenscreen to differentiate between other USB-C cables. I just may try out the USB-C 3.1 Gen 2 cable by NekTeck (B0718Z1MWF) and see if that works.. 4-Not enough control buttons. There isnt an immediate back button for the controls. One has to continue through the menus to get back to the starting point. (A temporary solution is to download the Asus Display Widget controls from Asus website onto your laptop, you can then use your mouse to go through the controls. see one of my pics) 5-No external power/USB-C port or two USB-C ports. While its convenient to have just one cable to connect to a laptop or phone, it would have been nice to have an additional USB-C port to power the monitor without having to suck up your laptops or phones power on the other side of the monitor. 6-Force to use the mobile phone touchscreen as a mouse for Samsung DeX mode. The DexPad cannot be used for this monitor since the DeXpad outputs via HDMI and the Asus monitor inputs via USB-C. Since the Note 9 has the ability to go into DeX mode with its USB-C cable directly, there is no way to use a wired mouse or keyboard or even a wireless one. One has to use a bluetooth keyboard or mouse. Other notes: While the screen is bright for me, and it is mainly all metal construction, I will not be using this outside. It is thin and Im afraid of knocking it over and getting it damaged. While it may be cheaper elsewhere, I would have bought this on Amazon since if anything goes wrong with it, Amazon has a better return policy than outside vendors. I may want to get a tiny bit bigger carrying bag. the tomtoc 15.6 bag I have is a little snug with both the Galaxy Note 9 Pro laptop and the Asus Zenscreen together in the bag. I plan on getting either a bluetooth keyboard/mouse combo unit or separate ones for travel, just havent decided which ones. I would do a video review, but I never sound good in videos. Hope this help folks who are thinking of getting the Zenscreen MB16AP. Edit of 2018-11-05 Usb-C cable replacement: I bought the USB-C 3.1 Gen 2 cable by NekTeck (B0718Z1MWF) on Amazon and Im happy to report it is a suitable replacement for the Asus supplied USB-C to USB-C cable. It is 3.3 feet long (40 inches long) the same length of the Asus supplied cable. Battery Usage: I tested how long the battery takes from a 0% back to 100% and it takes about 2 and a half hours to recharge using the supplied Asus USB-C cable and wall charger. I started at 7:30 PM at 0% and it completed at 10:00 PM (give or take 5 mintues since I didnt actually stared at it near the end). Drawing power: As for a question of if the monitor continues to draw power from an attached laptop or phone even if the battery is not empty. There is a onboard setting (see latest image) that allows you to choose what is being attached to the monitor, be it a PC/Laptop or a mobile device. That same setting allows you to choose whether to draw power from the PC/Laptop or not. But it does not seem to allow you to choose whether to draw power or not from a mobile device. I ran Youtube videos till the the monitor was down to 5 % and if connected to the phone, the phone will not charge the monitor. If it connected to the PC/Laptop and it goes down to the 1% mark, the monitor will shut down. Thus forcing you to connect the monitor to a wall plug to recharge. But once you charge the monitor for about 5 minutes, it has about 6-8% juice, thus allowing you to reconnect the cable to the laptop and when it reconnects. It will then show a popup asking you if you want to power the monitor using the laptop. If you do, the laptop will then start recharging the battery and allow you to use the monitor as a secondary screen. Portrait/Landscape mode: Using the Samsung Note 9 phone, try as I may, I do not see a way to set the Zenscreen Go monitor into portrait mode. Since it goes into DeX mode I do not see a setting in DeX to place the phone into portrait mode. I assume this is by design since DeX is always in desktop mode and most desktops are in landscape mode. Now using my laptop, it goes into portrait mode automatically one of two ways.. (It helps to read the manual lol ) Option 1: Using your laptop/PC display settings and selecting the monitor and then change it to portrait. Option 2: is way better. Using the Asus Display widget app, once opened the monitor automatically switches to portrait mode or landscape depending on its orientation. And it works really well. (See image).

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I bought my unit when it first came out. I really do like the unit. However it isnt perfect. Ill list the pros and cons. PROS: - 1 cable solution via USB TYPE C is simply awesome. I work out in public on a regular basis with my laptop and the ability to just plug and play via 1 cable for video and power is amazing. - Very slim form factor and tiny bezel. I can throw this thing into my bag easily without worrying about bulk. The included case, even though I dont use it for propping up the display, is a nice inclusion for protection against bangs and scratches while being carried. For those interested, I am using this for the stand. Its tiny, extremely portable and adds a bit of height to make it more eye level. Highly recommended. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01M0A7EAE/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1 - FULL HD 1920 x 1080 is a nice resolution to work with. For those of us who doesnt actually need 4k on the go, 1080P is plenty. CONS: - For some reason, my battery drains even when directly plugged into my laptop and I have the option set to draw power from laptop. Even if I were to plug in at 100% to my Alienware gaming laptop via 4 PCIE 40gb Thunderbolt USB TYPE C port, it constantly drains all the way down which when it reaches 0%, then it starts to charge back up to 100%. At first, I thought that the power delivery was not sufficient to power the unit from my Thunderbolt Type C port, but that is clearly not the case since when it reaches 0, then it gets all of its power from my laptop and charges the battery back up to full while in use even with full brightness setting. Then once it reaches 100% again, then it rinses and repeats where it goes to 0 and charges back up to 100. This is VERY annoying. I am needlessly cycling through my battery from 0 to 100 thereby shortening the lifespan of the lithium ion battery. If this is some kind of a bug and if anyone knows a solution, please share. - As someone who exclusively uses this as an extended monitor to my notebook and not anything else like my Samsung Phone, I wonder if there is even a point of having the more expensive MB16AP (my model) with the battery vs the MB16AC without the battery. To the best of my knowledge, the two models are identical, with the only difference being that one has the included lithium ion battery while the other doesnt. If someone can confirm that there are not any added benefits to the MB16AP such as brighter and better color, I think Ill return this to AMAZON (im still within 30) and exchange for the cheaper MB16AC. - Some have mentioned that the screen is dark while the some have mentioned that the screen is bright. In my opinion, its somewhere in the middle. Its definitely not dim like some claim where its unusable or hard to see in brightly lit room, but it also isnt so bright as I have seen claimed. I guess "bright enough" is the best way to put it. - Color accuracy. There are certain colors like bright green for example that just appears dull. I definitely see certain websites rendering with off colors compared to my OLED/IPS displays. I guess this is a minor gripe since I shouldnt expect amazing colors for a portable unit. - There is a sticker on the front bezel of the unit that you are supposed to peel off when you receive your unit. When I tried to take it off, it literally almost ripped the lower front bezel off with it. Meaning, the adhesive on the promotional sticker on the front is strong enough that it can potential rip the bezel off if you aggressively try to peel it off. I luckily didnt rush it and slowly peeled it off so I noticed it and stopped before I can further damage it. But I did see the PCB underneath, and the electronic components under the plastic before I had to pop it back in. Its now securely popped in so its not loose or anything like that. Just be aware when you are removing the front sticker. These are my .02 cents. Please feel free to ask me any question.

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Recently obtained this item after becoming aware that there was a battery powered version of the MB16AC (which I also have). This model (MB16AP) works pretty much the same as that model with the difference being is that it includes a battery that can power the display device which sounds good and it is as that allows one to use a smartphone with it. Was able to use the Galaxy Note 9 with it and it works well. The issue I had with this monitor in particular was with the Surface Book 2 15. When the Surface Dock is connected (with no other peripherals drawing power from it) I could not get monitor to turn on when using USB-C. When Surface Book dock was removed from Surface Book 2 and the SB2 was running on battery power, the monitor does come on but appears to drain from screen with USB-C. The only way to effectively use the SB2 with this was to use the USB-A to USB-C adapter and even then it drains from screen battery. The monitor works fine with USB-C on my wifes HP Spectre 360 Convertible with no issue, and functions normally as it should. If you plan on using this with the Surface Book 2 you probably should return it (as I did) and get the MB16AC. Interestingly enough, the non-battery powered version of this monitor (MB16AC) works fine with USB-C and USB-A with the Surface Book 2 with the Surface Dock.

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Ive had this for a few days now, long enough for a couple full days of work and some other light use. I needed something for an extra screen at home and at the office as I split work time between the two, and I often travel for work so wanted something I could take with me to use in hotels, etc. Here are the pros: - Very portable, light, slim, fits perfectly in my backpack in the "laptop" space while my Surface Go fits in the "tablet" space - Color quality is visually appealing - Many image settings add a lot of flexibility to use - Mixed mode allows for both display port alt mode and displaylink for direct data connection via USB-C and USB-A - Software is easy to use - Max brightness is good enough for high light office environment - Case adds confidence to the portability and has several placement options - Pen stand capability is actually kinda slick but not sure how often I will use it vs the case - Small bezels and overall design and materials are visually appealing - Built in battery doesnt cause additional drain on my tablet Now the cons: - How the battery function is handled is less than confidence inspiring, even if you specify to use the laptop as power source it still drains the battery of the display. Asus claims this is by design to use the display battery until it is "low" (I think 20%) and then switch to USB power. But, it can still continue to drain, particularly if the brightness is up. There are a couple problems with that... If the battery drains too far, it simply wont turn on until you charge the battery. And since it doesnt consistently use USB power, it doesnt stay topped up for periods between use, so is very possible to toss in your bag before a trip and have it be depleted by the time you need it, if you dont have opportunity to charge. Very inconvenient. Also, the brightness is fairly poor on the "eco" mode it switches to when at 20%, USB power should be plenty to drive the display at high brightness, it can drive much larger monitors. - Screen has pretty significant back light bleed. Asus claims this is normal for IPS displays, which is true, but really only of IPS which have poor bonding. Anyway, not a huge deal because the image quality is really pretty good and I dont use this for movies or other applications which have a dark screen. - The screen doesnt have a tablet-like glass front, it is recessed slightly behind the bezels, is more fragile as a result (especially as you often may find yourself pressing on the screen with thumbs/fingers while grabbing) and cant easily accommodate a screen protector - The USB-C port in the corner feels a little loose and likely pretty fragile so need to be careful when the cable is plugged in - The USB-A adapter dongle is included, which is good, but is not attached to the cable, making it less convenient and easier to misplace - The on screen menu system is pretty unintuitive - The back is metal, good, but bezels are flimsy plastic - While the case is slick, having a built in kickstand and more durable screen would have completely negated the need for it, for me Overall, it is good, and does what I need. The flexibility of connectivity is definitely a high point. But I think more thought into the design, to make it more like a Surface in design, would am have been great. I also am very unimpressed with the way the battery is handled. I will give it some more time but right now really kind of wished I had just saved money and gotten the non battery version just for consistency of experience. I dont know if this one has higher possible brightness because of the battery, but at least the non battery would presumably always work when plugged in. The first time this one doesnt turn on even with USB power, I will be not be pleased. Edit: On USB 3.0 power, or USB-C (not DisplayPort Alt Mode), the power drain of the battery continues until the monitor shuts itself off. It cannot power itself sufficiently from those ports to keep the display on, even in Eco mode and low brightness. The majority of my time using it would be while I have access to AC power, if it cant even stay on when plugged in and set to pull power from my device, its worthless for me. When connected to USB-C directly to my device and using DisplayPort Alt Mode, it does supply enough power, but I dont have enough USB ports to make that work. Its going back and Im going to try the regular MB16AC without the battery.

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I know what youre thinking... a 4-star review for something that only lasted you a week? First off, know what youre getting into before you buy this device. If you understand its inner workings, youll have a fine experience with it. Plenty of reviews, both on Amazon and out in the wild, have covered how this screen works over a USB type C connection. So I wont get too into that. My use case was with a previous-generation MacBook Air, which only has type A 3.0 ports. I often work with a 2nd monitor dedicated to playing back some sort of background video. I like having random content from YouTube, Netflix, Plex, etc, showing on a second screen, while Im doing "real" work on a primary screen. But my company-issued MacBook Air is the last generation prior to the recent refresh, which means no USB type C. The fact that Asus included a type A adapter was a big selling point for me. I had some Anker USB 3 A to C cables lying around and they worked great. So I left the factory cable and adapter in my backpack for backup use. If youre using a device which doesnt have a type C port (and supports DisplayPort output), youll probably want to head on over to the DisplayLink site and install their OEM drivers. They worked perfectly smooth on my MacBook Air, both on High Sierra and on Mojave (just make sure you pick the right driver download). This leads me to the biggest caveat to consider if youre on a type A connection, and one I havent found in other reviews. Youll see CPU usage go up when using it on a type A port. If you think about it, this makes sense. In a type C environment where the port is sending a video signal via DisplayPort output, your graphics chipset is doing the heavy lifting of pushing all the pixels around on screen. Your CPU only needs to tell the graphics subsystem what needs to be drawn. But your average graphics chip isnt normally hooked into a standard USB type A port. So your CPU has to do double-duty and uses the DisplayLink drivers to translate what would normally be a video stream into a data stream that the monitors DisplayLink chip decodes. When playing back 1080p video, I routinely saw the drivers consuming 50-60% CPU usage (of a dual-core i7). This could easily take a 20-30% hit off of your laptops battery runtime. I usually set up in a conference room, so having AC outlets nearby resolved this for me. But think about your specific usage before you jump into this. I used this daily for a week before it died on me. One morning, it wouldnt power up after charging. The LED indicator was stuck showing green, or fully charged. Despite everything Asus tech support asked me to try, it wouldnt reset and power up. So it went back to Amazon. But during that week, I was very happy with how it performed. I dont fault Asus for churning out one bad unit. As mentioned elsewhere, its not the brightest screen. But in any office, home, hotel, conference room setting, it is perfectly useable. Its operating power is 9 watts, and theres only so much brightness you can achieve at that wattage. With standard USB supplying 5 volts, youd need 1.8 amps to power it fully. This means that youre running on mostly battery power on a type A connection and your computer is basically slowing the monitors discharge rate. I was getting a hair over 5 hours before needing to unplug and recharge it. So an hour more than the factory stated 4-hour runtime on battery alone. Type C could theoretically power it indefinitely if your laptop can supply that wattage and youre on AC power. Which leads me to the only real gripe I have about this screen, the lack of power input options. I get that Asus wanted to create a "one cable" implementation, but that limits how useful it can be. If there was a port on either side of the device, you can plug into the laptop on one side and use a power adapter on the other side. Or even a powerbank if you wanted to run it with your phone. Theyd even be able to "overdrive" the brightness to something closer to the 300 nit range of most premium laptops. I plugged my Samsung Galaxy S8+ into it and screen mirroring worked exactly as I wouldve expected. So if you wanted to, you could charge both devices up fully and get a couple of movies in without having to use up precious mobile hotspot bandwidth (like if you were to tether to your laptop).

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We purchased two of the Zenscreen Go monitors with the intention of using them at conferences. So Ill keep this one brief: Pros: 1) Sturdy build, and relatively lightweight 2) Having a built-in battery solves a significant problem 3) Unlike others, once you figure out the origami cover, its pretty easy. Using a pen as a stand? Nothing smart about it. Dont do it. Cons: 1) Only a single USB-C connector. It would be nice if you could power the device with the AC adapter while still allowing for video input 2) Screen brightness is weak 3) Quite possibly the worst on-screen menu navigation of any device Ive ever used. Problem is largely solved if you install Asuss software that allows for the management of settings from your laptop I hope Asus keeps at it. This is a great first step. Future versions would be well served by supporting Miracast and having a separate power input. At this point, theres nothing like it on the market, so despite the limitations, its the only game in town.

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So the screen is beautiful. Perfect size for on the go. I use it portrait mode and plan to buy another zenscreen BUT not the AP model - I"m 90% power reachable when using laptop, so not sure when I need a battery powered screen. Here is where the issues come in: 1. If you deplete the battery power, you cant switch the mode to take power from the laptop to power the screen. Ive been waiting for 2+hours with a tall paperweight. 2. When the power is low, there is no warning so you can switch the mode to take power from the laptop, or shouldnt it do that automatically and just give a notification? Hopefully there will be a firmware update to resolve these issues. Ido plan to buy another zenscreen, but it will be the cheaper model for around $220. the extra $80 seems like a waste of money.

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I was looking forward to using this as a monitor for my Mac mini 2018. Unfortunately, it worked once as a secondary monitor, then after trying to make it primary, no longer works as either primary or secondary, with or without the DisplayLink Mojave drivers installed. Weirdly, it does work with my MBP15 running Mojave, so go figure. The build quality is awesome, but the text is a hard to read on FHD resolution. Update: I can get it to work if I first connect another USB-C monitor, then switch the input over to the Zenscreen. But after a cold power cycle, it no longer works.

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This monitor is simply great for my needs. I am able to fit it into my existing laptop bag (or backpack depending on needs) and take it to jobsites with me. Perfect for data entry style tasks where you need to look at something on one screen while typing into another or for coding where you can keep your editor open on one and your app running on the other. Thanks to the built in batter I dont have to worry about high battery drain on my laptop. It has worked well on my Dell XPS 13 and my Pixelbook. I have not yet tried it with my 2016 Macbook Pro but Ill test it over the next several days since I generally avoid using the Macbook unless I need to build for iOS or MacOS. I havent actually had to play around with the monitor settings much or other monitor features so I cant comment much on that. I cant say it has excellent picture quality but I definitely dont consider it bad for my uses. Do I think it justifies the extra $100 cost over its competitors just because it has the battery? Yes. Do I think it would be worth getting a different monitor without a battery for a higher price but with a touchscreen? No. Given that I can find a laptop such as a Chromebook with a similar size screen for roughly the same price, do I see that as a negative? Yes and no. Yes because if you think about value wise as this only being a monitor but when comparing monitor quality on a cheap laptop or chromebook at that price and the fact that it would run independent of your computer meaning that you couldnt just simply plug it into your computer and drag windows around... then no. What about monitor brightness, reflection, and angles? Brightness is fine in the environments I generally use it. Reflection has been a problem occasionally but the reflection problems are generally because of the angles that it offers you to place it. Because light are generally overhead and light comes in from windows, if you have lights above and behind you or a window behind you, there is a decent chance that because of the angle the monitor can sit that the light will interfere with your viewing of the monitor and might even glare directly in your eyes. Overall though I have greatly enjoyed this monitor so far and have made great use out of it.

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I was looking for a portable monitor for web development and I found this ASUS Zenscreen Go. When I received the first one, I used it for a few hours, went to bed and it wouldnt work in the morning. I returned it and Amazon sent me a new one within a couple of days. (Very fast and great service by Amazon!) The second screen worked great for a month and a few days until it stopped working. I really like the size, build, picture quality and portability of this screen. I would give it 5 stars if it wouldnt have stopped working on two different screens. After the second one quit working, Amazon was amazing about refunding my money even after the return time limit was up. (I was only a few days out) Then I looked at the reviews and it looks like there are many people having the same experience - the screen not working at all or stopped working after a short time.

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