Asus ZenScreen Touch (MB16AMT)

amazon Asus ZenScreen Touch (MB16AMT) reviews

Two things set the Asus ZenScreen Touch (MB16AMT) apart from almost every all-in-one portable monitor we’ve reviewed. First, it has a touchscreen, a feature it shares with interactive pen displays like the Wacom Cintiq 16. Second, it has a built-in rechargeable battery, which could be a boon if you view content from your phone or if your laptop battery is running low. This 15.6-inch monitor, best suited for use with Windows computers and Android phones, is packed with features and a joy to use. It’s not cheap, but it’s very capable.

ZenScreen Touch measures 9 x 14.2 x 0.4 inches and is housed in a sleek silver-gray case. At its center is a 15.6-inch, 1080p (1,920 x 1,080 pixels) touch-sensitive IPS panel.

As is the case with all of these monitors, ZenScreen Touch worked with my latest Dell XPS 13, with no compatibility issues despite the difference between laptop and ZenScreen in screen size and original resolution. (XPS 13 has a 13.3-inch, 4K UHD display, with double the vertical and horizontal pixels as the 1080p display while keeping the same 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio.) ZenScreen Touch should also fit the screen. 15.6-inch laptop or larger, as long as it has a DisplayPort-over-USB-C video output connection.

The display supports 10-point capacitive multi-touch input, which means you can control the screen with standard finger-based touch gestures like pinching, stretching, or scrolling. Asus also offers a stylus that comes with the display. You can use its soft “eraser” tip for scrolling, clicking links, and other Touch functions. At the other end, it’s a pen that writes — on paper, in ink.

It’s fun to navigate with ZenScreen Touch with just my finger (and sometimes the stylus). But whether I use my hand or the stylus, the screen is very responsive to my Touch. I tested it primarily with my touchscreen Dell XPS 13, but ZenScreen Touch can also be used with a Mac, albeit with limited touch functionality.

Also, although the display can connect to the Apple iPad using the USB-C port, you’ll have to use the tablet for touch control, as ZenScreen doesn’t support touch input on iOS devices. It works better with Android devices if they run Android 6.0 and support Hosted mode and HID multi-touch function with Asus ZenScreen Touch App installed. (Asus has a list of supported phones, but it doesn’t seem to be updated very often, so check with the company if you have questions about compatibility with recent devices.)

Note that ZenScreen Touch’s touch controls, while suitable for general use, lack the precision of a touchscreen designed for artists. If you’re looking for an interactive, touch-based display for creative work, you’ll want to use a pen display like the Wacom Cintiq 16 I mentioned earlier. It has a very responsive stylus for artistic work, although that model doesn’t support finger-based Touch. (For that, you’ll need to upgrade to the Cintiq Pro line.)

Built-in energy boost

In general, portable monitors draw power from the computer or device to which they are connected. That is impractical for smartphones with limited battery capacity, which only connect to a power source when charging and will have to supply power to both themselves and the display. Asus solves this problem by equipping ZenScreen Touch with a built-in 7,800mAh battery to run independently, eliminating the need to draw power from the phone. According to Asus, the screen can run for up to 4 hours at full brightness on a single charge. The only other similarly equipped portable monitor I’ve tested is the Asus ZenScreen Go. If you plan to use Touch with your phone, be sure always to charge the display’s internal battery.

Popular among portable monitors is the case/stand combo, and Asus offers an origami-style case that can act as a stand. As a case, it wraps around both the front and back of the display and magnetically sticks to it. A magnetic stripe on the case runs the width of the ZenScreen Touch glued to the display at the back to support the stand. You can adjust the screen’s tilt by placing the screen’s bottom edge in one of the two notches. There are several ways to fold the stand, including supporting the display when placed in portrait orientation.

Asus also designed a quick and easy way to prop up the monitor without a stand. Push the stylus/pens that Asus provides— any similar-diameter pen or pencil, that matter—first through the hole in the bottom bezel of the ZenScreen Touch, from the back, all the way up when about an inch of the pen protrudes forward. The pen acts as a stand; The screen is on the bottom edge with the pen held upright, slightly tilted back. It is surprisingly stable. A pen will also support ZenScreen Touch when it is placed in portrait orientation. That is not a temporary solution; Asus shows this configuration in promotional photos for Touch and describes it in text.

Joyride via OSD

The other two portable displays in Asus’ ZenScreen series, ZenScreen (MB16ACE) and ZenScreen Go, have two controls in the lower-left corner for navigating the on-screen display (OSD) settings. However, ZenScreen Touch has only one.

ZenScreen Touch has only two buttons: the power button in the lower right corner and the control button. But at a glance, you might mistake the second button for a regular button; it’s a five-way controller, similar to the miniature joystick controllers you find on many monitors play games. You can press the inner button, usually to enter commands, or you can push up, down, or sideways to navigate.

On the left side of the screen are two ports, one USB Type-C, one micro-HDMI. ZenScreen Touch comes with a USB-C cable that supports DisplayPort over USB-C (which allows the display to receive video or data, as well as power), as well as a USB-A-to-USB-C adapter, and micro-cable HDMI-to-HDMI.

Pressing the controller once launches a menu of its functions. Pressing it again takes you to the main menu. Moving it to the right will close the menu; turning it to the left allows you to control the speaker volume; pressing it upwards allows you to control the input source, and pressing it down lets you choose whether your input device is a phone or a PC.

The functions accessible via the OSD are surprisingly comprehensive, on par with those you might find on an Asus desktop monitor. The main menu has eight items identified by icons. The first mode, called Splendid, actually opens up a submenu showing eight picture modes: Standard, sRGB, Landscape, Theater, Game, Night View, Reading, and Darkroom. A second blue light filter lets you choose from four levels of blue light reduction to reduce eye strain, especially at night — or you can turn it off. Third, Color lets you control color temperature and saturation as well as brightness and contrast. Next is Image, which controls sharpness, aspect ratio, and more. The fifth item, System Settings, lets you control settings like Auto-rotate (so text or images on the screen will remain on the right whether you’re in landscape or portrait orientation), Eco mode, and Language. Sixth, Shortcuts lets you jump to widely used settings like brightness. Next is my favorite, which lets you set, save, and access favorite settings. The last item is the menu exit option.

The ZenScreen Touch OSD is one of the best I’ve seen on a mobile display, packed with options and a button to navigate using its mini-joystick control. Additionally, many of the monitor’s functions can be controlled from a PC through a Windows desktop application called Asus DisplayWidget.

Check brightness and Color.

I performed brightness, Color, and contrast tests using a Klein K10-A colorimeter, a Murideo Six-G signal generator, and Portrait Displays CalMAN 5 software. Plenty of portable displays claim brightness ratings (brightness per unit area) over 200 nits (candelas per meter squared), but only a few achieved that in our testing. The ZenScreen Touch is one of the few to be satisfied, testing at 240 nits, just below its 250 nit mark. Its 1,260:1 contrast ratio far exceeds the 700:1 rating, thanks to its ability to render shadow areas.

In our color test in Standard mode, ZenScreen Touch covered 69.1% of the sRGB color space. The triangles represent colors, including sRGB — essentially, all colors can be created by mixing different percentages of red, green, and blue. The white boxes show the locations of the data points for a full sRGB display. Some of our test points — the black circles — are within the triangle, indicating limited color coverage on the red and purple sides of the spectrum. In contrast, the blue dot in the lower left indicates the range micro coverage is slightly wider towards blue/green.

This color chart shows a very similar pattern to nearly all the mobile displays we’ve tested since late 2018. In terms of its color coverage, the ZenScreen Touch did the same thing as the Asus ZenScreen Go (72.7% sRGB) and ZenScreen MB16ACE (69.8%), better than AOC I1601FWUX (61.4% sRGB capacity only) and slightly better than Lepow’s 15.6-inch Portable USB-C Monitor ( 65.4% sRGB). We’ve tested the only portable monitor that performs significantly better is the Lenovo ThinkVision M14, covering 97% of sRGB. (We typically look for at least 95% sRGB coverage in desktop monitors.)

This limited color gamut reveals itself to dull-looking reds and purples in videos and photos that we viewed from our standard test suite. These results are similar to what we’ve seen on many other mobile displays we’ve tested recently.

ZenScreen Touch has a pair of internal speakers, which can be very useful if you’re watching, say, content from your phone. Though not good enough to warrant switching to these from my laptop’s speakers, the volume and sound quality are decent.

Touch control

Be sure to check out the Asus ZenScreen Touch (MB16AMT) that you need a touchscreen mobile monitor — this model supports both multi-touch based on your finger gestures and touch control with your finger. Pen/Pen eraser included. It also — like the ZenScreen Go — has a built-in battery to let you use Touch with your Android phone or provide enough power to run the display if your laptop battery is running low. These two features set it apart from other all-in-one portable monitors, and combined with a good set of features (including its comprehensive OSD and its mini joystick), make ZenScreen Touch a must-have.

Our only caveat: ZenScreen Touch comes at a premium for a versatile portable display. But it’s well worth it if you need its touch controls and the extra juice its battery provides. One drawback to its performance is the tendency for certain colors (mainly red and purple) to look dull, an artifact of relatively limited color coverage, but many recent mobile displays also show a similar shortage.

where can you get a Asus ZenScreen Touch (MB16AMT) online

ASUS ZenScreen 15.6″ 1080P Portable Touch Monitor (MB16AMT) – Full HD, IPS, 10-point Touch, Built-in Battery, Foldable Smart Case, USB-C Power Delivery, Micro HDMI, For Laptop, PC, Phone, Console: Buy it now