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This portable display might be the touchscreen iMac substitute you’ve wanted

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There are plenty of portable displays on the market that allow you to mirror or extend the screen of your laptop while mobile, but Australian startup Espresso Display is bringing some new innovation to the space with its mobile touchscreen-powered screens. The new Espresso Displays — available in 15- and 13-inch sizes with and without touch support — are the thinnest mobile displays on the market, measuring just 5.3mm thick.

To achieve this thinness, the company used aeronautical-grade aluminum for the construction. The displays are designed to work with desktops and laptops running Windows and MacOS operating systems, as well as Samsung’s smartphones if you want to run a DeX desktop UI while mobile.

Espresso Display's portable screen can be mounted to a desktop stand to give you an iMac-like aesthetic.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Another big standout with the Espresso Display is that it comes with its own ecosystem of magnetic mounting accessories that brings added versatility when using the mobile screen.

There’s an EspressoStand, which allows you to use the Espresso Display at your desk like a desktop monitor, an EspressoMount to allow you to mount the screen to a wall or attach the screen to a VESA arm, and a CaseGo, which adds a kickstand experience for mobile productivity, similar to the kickstand on Microsoft’s Surface Pro tablets. When mounted to the EspressoStand, for example, the Espresso Display looks like it could be a compact iMac with narrow top and side bezels, along with a chin on the bottom. The accessories work like Apple’s MagSafe for the mobile touchscreen.

And finally, the EspressoPen is a stylus that can add pen input functionality to laptops that don’t support touchscreen or pen experiences, like Apple’s MacBook Pro.

Espresso Display's mounts and accessories magnetically attach to the mobile display.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

The screen of the Espresso Display tops out at FHD resolution, so unfortunately it doesn’t support as many pixels as more premium 4K UHD mobile displays on the market today. The Espresso Displays have a refresh rate of 60Hz and a maximum brightness of 300 nits. There are three models in the second-generation series, including a 15-inch touchscreen version, a 13-inch touchscreen version, and a 13-inch non-touch edition.

The Espresso Display will be up for pre-orders starting December 21, with the non-touch edition going for $339. The 13-inch with touch will retail for $439, while the larger 15-inch model will cost $499. All the mounts — including the mobile case — are priced between $69 and $99, while the EspressoPen is priced at $79.

Chuong Nguyen
Chuong Nguyen
Former Computing Writer
Silicon Valley-based technology reporter and Giants baseball fan who splits his time between Northern California and Southern…
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