Make ANY Video Game System Portable with WiMaxIt Portable Monitors

In this episode, we show you how you can Make ANY Video Game System Portable with WiMaxIt Portable MonitorsShow more

Over the last 10 years, having dual monitors for my personal work has been invaluable, it gives me so much more real estate if I'm working in Photoshop or editing video files. In recent years, many of these portable monitors have also been available for playing your video game systems on the go & not having to rely on a tv if you are traveling. The folks over at WiMAX it have sent us two of their latest models, both of them featuring a touch screen, & each one having its own special wrinkle.

The 12" version features dual USB-C ports, one for power & one for signal input, & a mini HDMI input. The other side features a scroll wheel to navigate through your menu, it also acts as your volume rocker, & it also has an exit button & headphone jack on the same side. It also features stereo speakers for sound.

The 7-in version is designed to be a portable display with a Raspberry Pi mini-computer mounted to the back of it. This features a micro USB for power, a full-size HDMI input connection, a 3.5 mm headphone jack, a volume rocker, & all the hardware you need to connect a Raspberry Pi 3B or 4B to the back.

The Setup & initial configuration of both of these monitors was super easy. Some portable monitors will allow you to power a monitor & transfer data using one connection. Unfortunately, these models do not, at least not with all of the different cables & units that I tried. One of the wonderful things about the 12-inch monitor is the fact that it does have a number of game modes for lower latency, I really appreciate that.

For testing, I wanted to see if I can simply connect my Nintendo Switch to these displays & have them work. I connected a power supply to the 12" monitor, & a USB-C to C cable for the 12-in, it fired right up & played beautifully! I will say the game mode is a definite improvement over their previous models as it felt very responsive, the colors looked great, and overall it was a wonderful experience. The one thing I couldn't eliminate for some reason was a capture flicker as I shot the screen. The display indicated it was outputting 1280x720p at 60 fps, & often flickers such as this occurs when there's a discrepancy between the screen refresh rate & the camera shooting rate. No matter what I changed on my camera I couldn't eliminate it, but I will tell you to the naked eye I did not have these issues.

To test out the 7-in display, I actually used an all-in-one cable for the Nintendo Switch, & once again once power was supplied it worked beautifully. This was less of a surprise as I was going into an HDMI port versus going into a USB-C port, but it was still nice to see. Again the colors were super vibrant, there was no lag or delay issues, it was an exceptional experience

The final thing to talk about here is the touch screen nature of both of these monitors. Initially, I thought I had misremembered that the 12-in was a touch screen as it never worked in any of my tests. Then, while editing, I connected a USB-A to USB-C cable for power to my laptop. Once I did the touch screen on the 12-inch display worked perfectly. It was really weird having touch screen capabilities on a secondary monitor but is really nice as well. As the smaller 7-in display is intended to be used with a Raspberry Pi, there were no issues with the touch screen on that at all.

Why it RoX:
- Definite improvement over previous models
- Game modes function terrifically
- Much improved stand included
- VESA mounting holes on 12-in model
- Touch screen
- 7-in version compatible with Raspberry Pi 3 & 4

What could be improved:
- No integrated speakers on 7-inch model
- Speakers on 12-in model are not great
- Requires separate power source versus powering from USB-C device
- No screen cover included for transportation
- No cover included to protect the 7-in display & your Raspberry Pi

Should you buy one?
I love these little portable monitors, I have become so much more efficient well working on the road when traveling to conventions. I've also been able to play my Switch on the go on not having to worry about connecting to a hotel television. I've even been able to play on show floors if I wanted to. The 12-in display will probably be replacing my 15.6 in one when I travel, it's simply more convenient to take & the touch screen is superb. I'm not sure that I will get much use out of the 7-in version until I can get my hands on a Raspberry Pi of my own to mess with. It doesn't offer enough features for me to use a standalone monitor at this time. But for folks looking for a handheld Raspberry Pi on the go, this is exceptional. Thanks to WiMaxIt for sending us samples to check out, I'm really glad to see that they have improved over what they sent me two years ago to test, & the improvements are definitely noticeable.

#GamingMonitor #WiMaxIt #NintendoSwitch