Is a smart display a smart choice as an external monitor?

June 15, 2013 3:42 PM

I currently have an Asus Netbook that serves as my primary computer (although I tend to travel with my iPad on short trips and leave the netbook at home). I'm a PhD student and know I'll need to upgrade within the next year before I start the heavy dissertation writing. However, right now I'm thinking of getting an external monitor to use at home for more screen real estate (useful for reading articles and taking notes). Should I get a smart display or a regular monitor?

Is a smart display (such as this one...forgive the Best Buy link!) something I should be considering or not? I like gadgety stuff, and I think it's neat that this operates as it's own tablet (meaning I could pull up articles on it without connecting it to my netbook). However, I'm wondering if it would be useful as a second display or if the inclusion of the extra tablet stuff degrades the quality somehow.

When it's time to get a new computer, I think I'll wind up with a laptop again (and not a gigantic one). I don't have the desk space for a full desktop computer, and I like being portable. So having a desktop computer probably won't happen. Whatever I get will wind up being connected to the newer laptop.

Are these types of displays useful? Reliable? Or should I get a plain monitor? Cost is a small factor. I don't want to get a super cheap monitor, but I'm not planning on getting a top of the line monitor to play HD games or watch HD movies on (got a TV for that!).

posted by MultiFaceted to Technology (4 answers total)

I have never heard of Smart Displays before and could not imagine what one would be.

Following your link, what I see looks like instant obsolescence to me.

It seems like Acer wedged some fairly low end Android tablet guts -- (which, with a 7" screen attached, would cost you about $100 from Deal Extreme) -- into a not-interesting monitor which would cost you about $100-$150 without the tablet guts, then put a touch screen on, which probably makes the display look not great, and for a big screen is a pretty shitty interface because of fingerprints.

There are some youtube reviews out there but I didn't look at them.

Now honestly, the only thing I can see this thing being really useful for is a kiosk display for commercial or info-desk use with pre-loaded software. For anything else, I don't think it's got long-term value. The computing hardware in it will be out of date in a year or two, while the monitor portion will be good for 5-10 years probably. And either it has your grody fingerprints all over it, or you never use the touchscreen, or you wreck it in a month trying to keep it clean.

Instead, just buy a good monitor, which will last a long time and serve you well.

You could bump up to a 24" monitor and still spend less than $200.
posted by seanmpuckett at 5:52 PM on June 15, 2013 [1 favorite]

HDMI dongles running android can be had for much less than $100, which would allow you to turn a regular display into a "smart display" if you decided you really needed one.

I'd rather have a decent 16:10 monitor.
posted by Good Brain at 8:19 PM on June 15, 2013

Wait wait wait wait. You have an ipad? You realize there are apps that allow you to use an ipad as a second monitor, right? example.

Much cheaper than blowing an extra four hundred bucks on a monitor...
posted by paultopia at 10:02 PM on June 16, 2013

A second monitor is super productive, especially if you intend to spend long hours looking at two different windows/ displays. Context switching will become a breeze.

I've seen colleagues use a USB-powered portable second monitor from Lenovo (similar to this one I think). Browsing through Amazon and NewEgg, seems like you should be able to get something from $99 to $139 from Toshiba, to a HDMI-compliant screen for $179-odd. There's quite a bit to choose from, between brand reliability, resolutions and how the monitor gets its display signal, whether through USB or HDMI. (HDMI is obviously more useful than USB, in the sense that you wouldn't need to 'convert' the signal, and you can play video, which you can't with USB's limitations. Also, seems like most portable monitors use two USB ports.)

In short, if portability and having a second monitor are your considerations, $399 seems a bit excessive. There's a lot to choose from at the lower end of the market.
posted by the cydonian at 10:05 PM on June 16, 2013