Review on QQH Z12 Portable Monitor, 15.6-inch 1920x1080P, 60Hz, HD, External Computer Display by Robert Boldelait

It's quite long, so here's the summary: solid build quality, competitive price, bright enough for indoor use, plug and play cable on my Macbook with USB-C, limited tilt options, very desaturated purples. Box-Bad Contrast This is a fairly well built portable monitor. It feels very solid and all ports feel good, although the scroll wheel's "click" can be a bit finicky to activate. The monitor comes in an iPad-style case with a magnetic closure. The case folds down to allow the monitor to stand upright, with a choice of two corners (determined by the grooves that the base sits in) so corners are limited. You can see in my photos that it has an HDMI mini port and two USB-C ports on one side and a power button, menu scroll/click wheel and headphone jack on the other . The monitor comes with a USB-C to USB-C cable (which can deliver power and video from a compatible source), a USB-A to USB-C cable (to provide power when needed), a USB -A power adapter, HDMI to HDMI mini cable and microfiber cleaning cloth. Connecting the monitor to my MacBook with just a USB-C to USB-C cable provided power and display with no drivers or software. It shows us as a "Z12" monitor. To rotate to portrait mode I need to go to System Preferences > Display, select the monitor and choose the correct rotation. One of the first things I noticed was that the colors on my laptop were much more saturated (especially pink/magenta), with deeper shadows and better contrast. Look at the difference between the desktop background in the photo of my laptop and my monitor. To test the colors I selected some NTSC color bars and as you can see (remember this is a cell phone screen shot so not a perfect image) the magenta spots look pretty dull. The other colors look pretty good and I can see the separation in all the almost black boxes below so it doesn't mess up the detail in the shadows. As it moves across the resolution chart, everything between all shadow and highlight levels is rendered sharp and with definition, although again the magenta block looks a bit dull. I noticed that there is a small dark ring around the edges of the screen, slightly visible in the image. After checking them, I calibrated the monitor. It was a fairly balanced color across the RGB channels, and my meter forced me to reduce the red color by just one point. With a 6502K target in my calibration software, my gauge read 6377K, which is pretty close. This monitor works brighter in the center than in the corners. When the lightness of white in the center was 142, I got 123 (top right), 132 (bottom right) and 135 (bottom left) - the top left box was blocked by the dialogue, so I didn't measure there. As you can see in the comparison of the magenta image (again taken from my phone so not entirely accurate) it suffered from pretty poor magenta performance. After calibration, pink and magenta look better, but the screen still lacks adequate contrast. to get deep, dark colors and saturation. It works fairly well as a second screen, but I wouldn't do any critical color work on it. The out-of-the-box monitor also had a warm hue, and calibration helped bring colors back to more neutral. All in all I think it's a good little monitor and it's handy that it's portable. I wasn't expecting anything too precise from a small $160 monitor. I'm a bit disappointed with the meager contrast ratio with milky blacks and faint shadows, but at least it's not overwhelming shadow detail or highlight clipping. Keep in mind that color-accurate monitors tend to be expensive, and that deep, dark shadows are more of an OLED benefit (and these 15-inch portable monitors are around $250 for a decent one). I wish the iPad style case had more angles. Options for the monitor but that's a bit of an issue as I'm ok with the more vertical angle option. So as long as you keep your expectations in check for a portable monitor of this size and price it will serve you well and I think you will be pleasantly surprised at the build quality.