The Best Portable Monitor

We recommend the Asus ZenScreen MB16ACV , a quality 1080p monitor that can also work over USB-A if your laptop doesn’t have a USB-C port. And if you’re looking for a higher resolution option, the LG Gram +View has a fantastic 1440p display.

But aside from impressing the half-caff crowd, portable monitors are a useful way to add another screen to your laptop, especially when you’re on the go.

Rolling up to a café with a laptop and a portable monitor lets the whole room know you’re a busy professional who needs to get work done.

If you want a simple, affordable portable monitor that’s easy to use, we recommend the Asus ZenScreen MB16ACV. It has a 15.6-inch display with a 1080p resolution, which looks equally good while typing up documents and watching videos. Its integrated stand means you can use it in landscape and portrait orientations, and it connects to your laptop via a USB-C cable. You can also download additional software that lets you use a full-size USB cable to transmit video to the portable monitor, so it can be used with older laptops or as a smaller secondary monitor for desktops.

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Not many portable monitors add features to your computer, but Windows users can add a touchscreen to their laptop with the Asus ProArt PA148CTV. This 14-inch, 1080p portable monitor also has a great menu for adjusting color performance and a well-placed tripod mount for use in studio setups. And the software integrations with Adobe Creative Cloud allow you to use touch controls while editing your photos and videos.

For a higher-resolution display and great colors out of the box, we recommend the LG Gram +View. Its 1440p display is better than our other picks for working with small text, if you spend a lot of time looking at spreadsheets and documents. Aside from its image quality, we liked the monitor’s magnetic cover that doubled as a stand.