If you are looking to maximise your productivity on the go, then having an external monitor is the way to go. I cannot work with jut one screen. At home, my M1 MacBook Pro is hooked up to a wide screen monitor. This allows me to work on four browsers. Just as a point of reference, here is how four browsers look like.
I got this wide screen monitor from Prism+.
This is how my set up at home looks like. I have my MacBook Pro on a stand hooked up to this external monitor.
The issue with the older MacBooks is that there could only be one external monitor. The latest M4 MacBook Air can support two external monitors with the MacBook Air open. That would result in 3 screens in total.
You might be asking, “why do you need so many screens?”
Trust me. When you start using multiple screens you will never go back to using a single screen set up. I am severely handicapped when I am forced to work with my laptop alone with no external monitor. It is excruciatingly painful to not be able to have at least two screens. One screen will be my working screen and the other screen will be for me to reference information from.
Point of reference. This is my set up in office. I have an Asus external monitor. I use that monitor for all my chats at work. My working monitor is on my right and my reference monitor is on my left.
Let me be clear. I was initially fine with that Asus portable monitor. If I needed to work on the move or if I were travelling, then I would disconnect the Asus portable monitor and bring it along with me. It works well as a second monitor for my MacBook Pro.
That was until I got to know about this…
What is that you might ask. Well, that is a game changer. In technical terms, that is the Jsaux FlipGo Lite portable Dual Monitor. Now what is better than a single screen portable monitor? The answer is simple. A dual screen portable monitor.
Oh and that reddish orange thing is a protective case. Here is how it looks without the case.
This is how it looks open.
Important thing to take note, there are two modes. An ultraview mode and a duoview mode. My MacBook Pro can only recognise the ultraview mode. The duoview mode results in the monitor duplicating the extended screen. Oh and I connected the Jsaux FlipGo Lite portable Dual Monitor using the provided USB-C cable. I did not need to use an external power supply on the Jsaux FlipGo Lite portable Dual Monitor. It drew power from my MacBook Pro. I read reviews telling me that if I did not plug in the Jsaux FlipGo Lite portable Dual Monitor to an external power source, the brightness would peak at 10% capability. That seemed enough in a typical office setting. Also, the Jsaux FlipGo Lite portable Dual Monitor does not come with an external power adaptor out of the box.
Here is how I set it up with my MacBook Pro.
I have my MacBook Pro on a stand. The stand is stuck on the bottom of the MacBook Pro and I can prop it up. I bring my Logitech M Keys and MX Mouse whenever I take my MacBook Pro out. If space permits, I will set up the MX Keys and type on that instead. If not, the MacBook Pro keyboard is sufficiently comfortable.
Oh but then Apple has a party trick. We can use an iPad as an external monitor as well. Could I actually have my MacBook Pro set up with the Jsaux FlipGo Lite portable Dual Monitor and an iPad Air?
The answer is yes!
So now I can have my iPad Air on the left of my MacBook Pro and the Jsaux FlipGo Lite portable Dual Monitor on the right. Do note that the MacBook Pro is recognising the Jsaux FlipGo Lite portable Dual Monitor as one monitor and not as two. Hence it recognises it as one long vertical monitor. You can use Split View on the MacBook to split that long vertical monitor into two halves.
You can add your iPad as an external display in the settings of your MacBook.
You can arrange the displays to how it is displayed so that your cursor transitions from one screen to the next seamlessly.
Now imagine if I set that up in a Starbucks somewhere…
A small caveat. The monitor is not the best for gaming. It is geared towards productivity. I can tell that the MacBook Pro’s screen is of much higher quality when comparing the Jsaux FlipGo Lite portable Dual Monitor side by side. My MacBook Pro has the M1 Pro chip so it is a few generations ago. The refresh rate should also be lower on the Jsaux FlipGo Lite portable Dual Monitor. It should be 60hz. I believe the MacBook Pro has a 120hz refresh rate of some sort. Scrolling seems marginally smoother on the MacBook Pro’s screen. Anyway I bought this portable monitor for work and not gaming.
For reference, My MacBook Pro has a 16 inch screen, the Jsaux FlipGo Lite portable Dual Monitor has two 15.6 inch screens and my iPad Air has a 13 inch screen.
Kudos to productivity and multiple screens!
From first impressions, this is going to be extremely helpful for me to work on the go.
Yours sincerely,
Daryl
Here is my unboxing of the Jsaux FlipGo Lite portable Dual Monitor:
