AOC e1649Fwu

With the AOC e1649Fwu ($139 list) you're no longer limited to just a laptop screen while traveling. This 15.6-inch portable monitor lets you extend your current laptop display for use with large spreadsheets, or you can use it for presentations or in a dual monitor setup to display different applications on each screen. Its swiveling support arm lets you use it in portrait or landscape mode, and it has an auto-pivot feature that automatically changes the screen orientation when you rotate the panel. It's a bit bulkier than the Lenovo ThinkVision LT1421 ($199.99 list, 4 stars) however, and its glossy coating and cabinet showcase every fingerprint smudge.

Design and Setup
At 2.3 pounds the featherweight e1649Fwu weighs exactly the same as Lenovo's 14-inch LT1421 even though it offers a bigger screen size. However, at 1.4 inches it's almost twice as thick as the LT1421 (0.37- 0.85-inches) and its curved cabinet design is not as sleek looking as the LT1421's ThinkVision design. The cabinet is 9.2-inches high and 14.6-inches wide, and has a glossy piano black finish, which looks nice when it's clean but can quickly become a smudgy mess after handling it for a while.

The 15.6-inch TN+ panel is framed by thin 0.50-inch bezels on the sides and slightly wider 0.75-inch bezels on the top and bottom. The bottom bezel sports a silver AOC logo. Like the rest of the cabinet, the bezels and screen coating are glossy and prone to smudging. And while the shiny screen helps give colors some pop, it can be very reflective under certain lighting conditions. Around back is a support arm that folds into the cabinet when not being used. The arm is mounted on a swivel mechanism that allows you to prop up the monitor horizontally on your desktop for use in landscape mode or position it vertically to view it in portrait mode. The monitor automatically changes screen orientation according to how the monitor is positioned, so you don't have to do it manually in the graphics control panel.

As with the Lenovo LT1421, the e1649Fwu only has a single mini-USB port on the back and lacks function buttons, a power switch, and picture controls. But the LT1421 has a brightness control, while the e1649Fwu does not. The e1649Fwu doesn't require a power cord as it pulls power from the USB port. It comes with a CD containing DisplayLink drivers and a Y-shaped USB cable with two connectors on the PC end (some PCs may not provide enough power through a single USB port, in which case the second connector must be used).

Installation is easy enough: Simply load the included DisplayLink software then plug the small end of the USB cable into the monitor's mini-USB port and one of the two regular sized USB connectors in your PC. A DisplayLink icon will appear in your system tray; right click it to choose how you want the e1649Fwu to behave. You can have it mirror your laptop's screen, use it as an extended desktop, or set it as your main monitor. There's an option to optimize it for video, but that doesn't do much to improve the choppy video that comes as a result of transferring a video signal via a USB 2.0 port. In addition to the software CD and USB cable the e1649Fwu comes with a three year warranty covering parts, labor, and backlighting.

Performance
Despite its mirror-like characteristics the e1649Fwu's glossy screen delivers nice, bright colors and natural looking skin tones. It had no trouble displaying even the smallest text from the DisplayMate Scaled Fonts test, and there was no trace of tinting anywhere in the grayscale. However, it struggled to reproduce the darkest and lightest shades of gray from the 64-Step Grayscale test. In other words, it performs like a typical laptop screen.

Viewing angle performance was also typical of a laptop screen; there was some color shifting from the far side angles and significant darkening from the top and bottom angles. The top and bottom angle performance can be problematic when you use the monitor in portrait mode as it will now have very narrow side angle viewing issues.

The AOC e1649Fwu is a neat little 15.6-inch monitor that lets you bring a dual-display setup on the road. Its auto-rotate feature makes it easy to switch from landscape to portrait mode without having to use your graphics control panel, and it displays vivid colors and crisp text. Grayscale and viewing angle performance could be better however, and you'll have to keep a polishing cloth handy to wipe away fingerprints. If you prefer a thinner, sleeker model with a non-reflective screen, the Lenovo LT1421 is a better choice.

COMPARISON TABLE
Compare the AOC e1649Fwu with several other monitors side by side.

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