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- Affordable
- USB-C and mini-HDMI inputs
- Full HD resolution
- Low brightness
- Colour palette is limited
- Plastic build feels creaky
Personally, I prefer to have at least two monitors on my desk when I’m working, but not everyone has room – and travellers are usually even more restricted. This is where portable monitors such as the Asus ZenScreen MB169CK come to the rescue.
For £120, the MB169CK adds a 15.6in, Full HD display to your laptop – or desktop PC, or portable games console – and as it weighs less than a kilogram, you can carry it from room to room, down to your local cafe or into the office without breaking so much as a sweat.
Asus ZenScreen MB169CK: What do you get for the money?
Compared with the dual-screened luxury of the Asus ZenScreen Duo OLED, the MB169CK is an entirely more ordinary proposition. It’s nice to see Asus has made an effort, though, with the textured plastics on the rear and front bezels mimicking the brushed metal of Asus’s high-end laptops. Get up close, though, and it’s clearly more PLA 3D printer than high-end CNC.
It measures 36cm wide, just shy of 22cm high and 12mm thick. It is fairly light, though, weighing a very baggable 780g on its own, and 858g with the simple kickstand screwed into place.
The Asus’ build quality is basic. Twist the MB169CK roughly and the plastics creak and whimper in defeat. However, I didn’t notice any rippling or showthrough on the display itself, so while the construction feels flexible, it does seem to protect the IPS panel adequately.
Given the budget build, Asus has hedged its bets: a padded sleeve comes as part of the package. This isn’t fancy, but the hardwearing exterior fabrics and light padding allow you to absentmindedly shove the MB169CK in and out of a bag without worrying about damaging the display. It’s just a shame that there isn’t a pocket for the cables.
Talking of which, you get both a one-metre HDMI to mini-HDMI cable and USB-C to USB-C cable in the box, which is good to see at the price. However our MB169CK review unit didn’t come with a USB-C power supply as standard.
That’s not a problem if you’re using the USB-C connection to a laptop or device, which can send power and data over the single cable, but if you want to use the mini-HDMI connection you’ll also have to connect a USB-C power source. Asus’s specifications quote a power draw of just under 8W, so even relatively low-powered USB-C power supplies should work.
The MB169CK’s OSD is typically well laid-out and useful. It’s easy to navigate thanks to the small four-way clickable joystick on the display’s bezel, and we love the compact menu that appears when you click it. By default, this provides quick access to picture presets and blue light filter mode, but you can change the default quick menu options if you prefer.
The screen also has an auto pivot mode, enabling you to use the display in portrait mode. You’ll have to download and install Asus’ DisplayWidget Center on your laptop to make this work, but once done Windows will automatically rotate the desktop to match whenever you physically rotate the panel.
The only issue here is a purely practical one: the supplied kickstand is a bit iffy in portrait mode. Sensibly, it screws into the back of the panel via a 1/4in tripod mount thread and this works fine in landscape mode, with the hinged design giving a tight couple of degrees of fore and aft tilt adjustment.
However, the extra leverage generated in portrait mode means you’ll need to be a tad more careful. If the mount isn’t tightened adequately, it has an unhelpful habit of flopping left or right suddenly and allowing the display to fall backwards.
You may note that there’s a circular hole in the tip of the stand, and rather unexpectedly this isn’t just for show. Some of Asus’s website photos show the MB169CK hanging from an oversized push pin in a fabric-clad office divider. It’s slightly questionable whether any normal human being will have a suitably jumbo-sized push pin to hand, but the extra flexibility is still welcome. If you want to hang the display in an awkward setting – from the underside of a bunk bed or dangling from a cord, for instance, this is entirely within the realms of possibility.
How good is the image quality?
If you’re expecting stellar image quality then you’re in the wrong place – colour accuracy and portability require a far more generous budget. If, however, you’re happy to be pleasantly surprised by what you do get for the money, then the MB169CK is unlikely to disappoint.
The 15.6in Full HD panel has a matte anti glare coating and this does a good job of softening and diffusing glare from bright light sources. The Full HD resolution is a good match for the screen size, too, and this keeps text looking crisp enough for day to day use.
Colour reproduction and brightness are where you’ll just have to accept compromises. Brightness is the least problematic of the two, however. Asus quotes a maximum brightness of 250cd/m2 and I measured it a little lower at 205cd/m2. That’s still perfectly serviceable, though, and fine for most sensible lighting conditions. The only issue here is if your power supply or laptop struggle to provide enough power. If that’s the case, you’ll be limited to 50% screen brightness which I recorded at a far dimmer 114cd/m2.
The Asus’s IPS panel is only able to cover 62% of the sRGB colour space, and that translates into images that lack the vivid, saturated colours you might expect from a genuinely decent display. For context, even affordable monitors and most laptops can reproduce at least 90% of the sRGB colour palette.
That inability to reproduce a wide range of shades means colour reproduction and accuracy goes straight out of the window. With my X-Rite colorimeter and a copy of DisplayCal I recorded an average Delta E error of 5.4 and a maximum of 24. Upon closer examination, you can see most colours are washed out compared to their vivid, intended tones.
There is an sRGB mode, but I wouldn’t bother, given the panel’s limitations. It doesn’t boost colour coverage and the only effect I was able to measure was that it lowered the screen brightness to 136cd/m2.
A large reason why all these mediocre numbers don’t translate into unbearably bad image quality is because contrast is perfectly acceptable. The measured contrast ratio of 1,016:1 is by no means top of its class, but it’s enough to mean that there’s just enough solidity to images to make the MB169CK perfectly usable for everyday stuff.
And, crucially for a monitor which you might possibly use alongside a Nintendo Switch, Steam Deck or similar, the panel’s response times are fine. Where some portable monitors hit double digit response times, the Asus’ claimed 5ms grey-to-grey transitions are right on the money. One of our usual tests, Aperture Grille’s SmoothFrog, gave the MB169CK a clean bill of health. The fast scrolling brightly coloured amphibians didn’t reveal any visual nasties, and the 60Hz refresh rate is fine, too.
Should you buy the Asus ZenScreen MB169CK?
At the time of writing, the MB169CK is retailing for a mere £99. At that price, it seems churlish to quibble with a display that offers good enough image quality, sensible design and single cable USB-C simplicity.
Admittedly, image quality borders the line between mediocrity and adequacy, but the decent brightness levels and good response time allows it to wear both productivity and gaming hats without looking too far out of its depth.
It might not be a particularly exciting bit of tech, but if you’re looking for a cheap and versatile portable monitor then your search is over: the Asus ZenScreen MB169CK is it.
