Zenscreen: Would you like a little more?

The ZenScreen is an additional monitor for your computer that only requires one cable – and is flexible in terms of form factor and can be positioned very freely – including a cover that can be folded up so that you can easily extend it on the move without straining your back. So far, so understandable.

And anything but a novelty – “small extension screens” have been around for years – but let’s be honest: most of the ones we’ve seen so far are seriously flawed – colour greyness that makes you despair of Excel, energy consumption like the event lighting at a rock festival and manufacturers whose complaints competence is more than dubious. But now that we have one in the magazine, have the devices grown up? Read more!

What is it exactly?

First of all: The “ASUS ZenScreen OLED MQ16AH” (catchy name!) is a portable 15.6-inch OLED monitor (total size including housing 16 inches, weighing 600 grams), which extends the desktop with FullHD (1920 × 1080) and supposedly 100 per cent DCI-P3 – according to Asus with 1 millisecond response time and HDR 10. Mini HDMI and USB-C are available as connections.

And the colours?

The screen is OLED, so the colours are much richer than LCD. But be careful: According to Asus, it is not intended as an “external Class-A monitor”, but for GUIs, light media consumption and all the other things that are normally summarised under the term “productivity”. For those who want more colour fidelity, we will be testing Asus’ “ProArt” screen in the next issue or two – same principle, but designed for colour. But back to the ZenScreen: The various modes in the menu show that it is a flexible helper with no claim to perfect colours. The presets available are: Standard, sRGB, Landscape Mode, Theatre, Game, Night, Reading Mode and the ever-popular Darkroom Mode – it’s clear what that means.

The landscape mode and the theatre mode have extreme gamma and contrast – and are presumably optimised for “outdoors” in order to be able to see anything at all in poor monitor conditions.
But even if it’s not the main application, we couldn’t resist a little measurement – and Calman says that the CIE Illuminant D65 target was hit quite well with a CCT of 6,528 K – with a black point of 0.002 candela, a luminance of 120 candela and a measured contrast of 74,907:1. We measured this with the Calibrite Display Plus HL probe.

The values summarised mean that the screen would be usable for SDR/on-the-go grading (with lightbox) – with the proviso, of course, that transport and lugging around make regular remeasurement necessary. By default, the ZenScreen comes with the standard preset of a P3 Colorspace – so Asus doesn’t want a perfect 100 percent sRGB view, but rather bright colours that make everything more colourful. The panel could be better if it wanted to be, but we are complaining at a high level here.

But in practice..

Let’s be honest: it’s not complicated – just more screen space that interacts with the system in a completely predictable way and is recognised as an additional monitor – and because it doesn’t make any problems and offers solid colours, it quickly became the dedicated “near” screen in everyday editorial work, while “communication” and browsers were running on the other screens – the familiarisation time was minutes. For video processing (in this case with Premiere), we used the entire additional area as a transcription window – and in one case as a waveform area.

As you can see in the screenshot, the screen (attached to a small tripod) was directly above half of the keyboard – while the main screen is directly above it. As both brightness and contrast are excellent for everyday use, this feels very much like a classic typewriter – especially if you’re not typing completely blind. Other applications are possible! Thanks to the tripod thread and the low weight (650 grams), microphone arms and the like are also possible – if you want to have it at a specific workstation position. And of course, the standard thread means that there are cheap accessories for every situation – be it clamps, stands, holding straps or anything else.

Screen in a box

A very clever idea from the developers was to make the box multifunctional. The transport “case” made of sturdy, black cardboard with a few small magnets can be folded into a “light protection bonnet”, which makes a good picture on the DIT trolley or during a streaming job, for example – or provides a certain amount of privacy in other applications. Four “foam corners” are included for fastening, and there is plenty of space under the screen for cables and accessories – or even the emergency flat man (we’ve all had SUCH productions!) really everything in a small box. By the way: If you often use the screen when travelling, you can also order a screen protector in the exact dimensions (see here: is.gd/amazon_schutzfolie_asus).

Pro

What we like about the ZenScreen: A great deal – for small, light, flexible, surprisingly usable panel and it fits into the workday without bitching as long as you have a USB 3/USB-C port. With its low power consumption, it won’t drain your laptop battery, and “firmly” set up and positioned, it noticeably increases efficiency. And, also cool, is the box – a sturdy mount that’s big enough for two people to see. Although it’s not as sturdy as a dedicated photo viewing cover, Asus cleverly avoids packaging waste – the box is sturdy enough for occasional use, and if you throw it away, it’s really your own fault. There is also a “proximity sensor” – so if the device is attached to the laptop but you walk away, the screen won’t drain the battery.

Cons

Sooo, but let’s get down to the niggles: It’s just another device on the table – and if you want to set it up as “cleanly” as possible, you might want to get an angled USB cable. And the second gripe? The stand cover has exhausted our (admittedly extremely rudimentary) origami skills – and we simply used a tablet stand for “permanent use”. And then after a few days we replaced it with another “mini stand”, which meant that the height was ideal. So: neither of these complaints are deal-breakers, but we just wanted to say so.

Conclusion

So, to summarise, who is the ZenScreen suitable for? In our opinion, for anyone who needs more screen space but doesn’t have room for a “full” monitor – as well as for those who want to work more efficiently on the move or have jobs where they want to use more complicated software. We can definitely recommend it – the average price on Amazon is 450 euros, used/refurbished devices are also often available at around 350 euros.

At Asus: is.gd/asus_zenscreen_mq16ah

Display size: 15.6 inch
Aspect ratio: 16:9
Visible area: 344.21 x 193.62 mm
Panel: OLED, 10-bit
Viewing angle (CR≥10, H/V): 178°/178°
Resolution: 1920 x 1080
Colour space (DCI-P3): 100 percent
Brightness: 360 cd
Contrast (HDR, Max): 1,000,000:1
Contrast (Typical): 100.000:1
Response Time: 1 ms (GTG)
Refresh Rate (Max): Typically 60 Hz
HDR Support: HDR10

Video Feature
Trace Free: Yes
Colour Temperature Selection: Yes (4 Modes)
Colour Accuracy: ∆E≤2
GamePlus: Yes
QuickFit: Yes
(Photo/Alignment Grid)
HDCP: Yes, 1.4
Dark Boost: Yes
DisplayWidget: Yes,
DisplayWidget Lite
Low Blue Light: Yes

I/O
Two USB-C ports (DP Alt Mode)
Mini HDMI
Digital Signal Frequency:
HDMI: 60 HZ (V) / USB-C: 60 HZ (V)

Power consumption
Consumption: 4.84 W
Standby: < 0.5 W
Voltage: 100-240 V, 50/60 Hz

Dimensions
Without stand (W x H x D):
359 by 227 by 9 mm
Lightbox (W x H x D):
550 by 390 by 125 mm
Weight: 650 grams
Thread: 1/4″ tripod thread

Accessories
Mini-HDMI to HDMI cable
Power plug
Quick start guide
USB type C to A adapter
USB-C cable
Tripod thread cover
ZenScreen “Smart Cover”