36 MARCH2020|COMPUTER SHOPPER|ISSUE385
PORTABLEMONITORSREMAINaniceidea
thathasyettobefullyrealised byasingle,
must-have product. The AOCI1601FWUX
(Shopper368)made adecent attempt for
attractively little money, but at the costof
some deeplymediocreimage quality.
Thankfully,Lenovo’s ThinkVision M14
finds muchgreater success. At 14in and £211,
it’s smaller and more expensive than the
I1601FWUX,but by makingfar fewer
compromises it endsupasthe betterchoice.
FINE LINES
One of its greatest strengthsis, fittingly,
portability.The M14weighs 570g and, if
anything, it feels even lighter than that. It can
be carried quite comfortably with atwo-finger
pinch, let aloneapair of hands or abag.It
helpsthat the monitorissoincrediblythin
–4.4mm at itsnarrowestpoint,and stillonly
12mm when the little integratedstand is
folded in –and can slipeasily intothe included
felt carry-case.Some very narrow bezels help
keep the dimensions down,too.
The stand also beats that of the
I1601FWUX by using amore freelyadjustable
hinge, rather than afolding,tablet-style sleeve.
Insteadofbeing fixed at asingle angle,then,
the M14 can be positioned anywhere between
bolt uprightand completely flat, making it
much easier to get comfortable with.
On the underside of thestand is another,
smaller hinged flap that props the screen
upwards slightly. Angle adjustment would
have been abig advantage on its own, but
Lenovo has gone ahead andadded atouch of
hhheeeiiiggghhhtttaaadddjjjuuussstttmmmeeennnttttttoooooo.
It’s also on thestand where you’llfind the
M14’s ports and controls. This is theonlyarea
we’d sayLenovohas skimpedon. Rocker-style
buttons forbrightnessand abutton forthe
low-blue-light mode (which givesthe screen
an ugly but less eye-straining orange tint)are
bothwelcome inclusions, but they also
representthe sumtotal of thedisplayoptions.
There’s no conventional onscreen display
(OSD) menu, like you’d getonadesktop
monitor,and that means no profiles,contrast
controlsorcolour balancetweaking.
Connectivity is more fleshed out. While the
two DisplayPort-enabled USB Type-C inputs
don’t soundalot,having oneoneachside
means you have achoice of where to plug in
yourlaptop or 2-in-1; using the leftport,for
instance, will prevent thecablegetting in the
wayofright-handed mouse users.
These ports also support whatLenovo calls
pass-through power. Insertingapower adaptor
intoaType-C portcan simultaneously power
the display and charge alaptoporother device
connectedtotheotherType-Cport.Gettingthe
mostout of this, however,involves meeting
someveryspecifichardwarerequirements.
The adaptor mustsupportthe PD (Power
Delivery) 2.0 standardand be plugged intothe
right-side port, leaving the leftport forthe
videodevice. Frankly,it’seasier to simply plug
in alaptop withits own charger, andsince
pppaaassssss-ttthhhrough onlyworksfor power,you can’t
use theeese twoportsfor external storage.
ONETOWATCH
Still, it’sssbetter to aim highand missthan to
merely offer thebare minimum, and you can
always justuse the data ports on your
conneccctedlaptop or handheld anyway.
Ultimatttely, then, there’snorealharm done
to theMMM14’sotherwise excellent design.
We havvven’t even mentioned buildquality,
which ismuch sturdier than itsslimness
wouldsssuggest, includingonthe hinges.
The screencomponent of the M14 is a16:9,
Fuuull HD (1,920x1,080) IPS panel. At 14in
dddiagonally,it’s slightly smallerthanthe
15.6inI1601FWUX,but there’sstill
suffiffifficient space,and the resolution is
neither so low as to look blurry nor so high as
to make anyonscreen text toosmall.
It’s alsohardtoworryabout a1.6in
differencewhenthe M14issofar ahead on
picturequality. Thisisbest demonstratedby
itsincredible colour accuracy:wemeasured an
average delta-E of just 1.3, on par with
professional-grade desktop monitors and far
superiortothe I1601FWUX’s dreadful 6.5.
We wouldn’tgoasfar as to callitanideal
photo/video-editing monitor,assRGB gamut
coverage comes in at 89.9%,which is
reasonable butnot outstanding. Still, this also
makesfor amorevivid-looking screen than
that of the I1601FWUX,which only managed
52.3%.Similarly,the M14’s peakbrightness
is afairly average 311cd/m^2 ,yet looks much
betternext to the I1601FWUX’sduller
223cd/m^2 ,while contrast is averyrespectable
1,200:1. The mattfinish does agoodjob of
seeing off reflections, and viewingangles are
nice and wide; another benefitofusing IPS.
TRAVELLING COMPANION
In theend, the M14isn’t quite theall-supreme
championthat portable monitors have been
missing, butit’s definitely theone thatcomes
closest so far. Displayquality exceeds
expectations, and the sleek designisboth
stylish and smart. Maybe the ports aren’tas
versatile as we’re usedtofrom the Type-C
platform, butnoportable monitor is –oreven
needstobe–ahub of connectivity.Where
theM14 succeeds, it succeeds by adistance,
and is therefore worth the money even
without any pass-through shenanigans.
JamesArcher
LENOVO
ThinkVisionM14
★★★★★
£221•Fromwww.ballicom.co.uk
VERDICT
This phenomenally thin portable monitor
marries strong design with asurprisingly
high-performing IPS panel
FULLHD PORTABLE MONITOR
SCREEN SIZE14in•RESOLUTION1,920x1,080•SCREEN
TECHNOLOGYIPS•REFRESH RATE60Hz•VIDEO
INPUTSUSBType-C•WARRANTYThreeyears RTB•
DETAILSwww.lenovo.com•PART CODED18140FX0
SPECIFICATIONS
CONNECTION PORTS
USB Type-C x2
