7 Best Portable Gaming Monitors

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Penned by Kody Wirth

Kody is our expert Destiny 2 and shooter genre writer. He lives in Oregon.

Reviewed by Benjamin Barr

Gaming on the go is the new normal. We’re no longer limited to mobile-only games as you’d find on the PlayStation Vita or even the Nintendo 3DS. Instead, you can play AAA console experiences thanks to the likes of the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation Remote Play, Google Stadia, and the incredibly promising xCloud.

Unfortunately, even these experiences are limited by smaller screens. You can game on the go, but the experience isn’t quite the same. 

What if we told you there was a solution — a way to bring full-HD and sometimes 4K gaming with you on a much larger scale that replicates your at-home experience? We’re happy to report you can achieve just that with a portable gaming monitor.

Zoom In: The 7 Best Portable Gaming Monitors

It’s only within the last few years that portable monitors have been designed with gaming in mind and reached the heights of stationary screens. They’re typically limited to cheap peripherals meant as second screens for traveling business professionals, meaning that many of the options out there are lackluster and incredibly similar to one another.

To help you navigate this new and complicated landscape, we’ve compiled the top seven best portable monitors available.

1. ASUS ROG Strix XG17

The best portable HD monitor for gaming

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Display Size: 17.3“ | Weight: 2.34 lbs |  Resolution: 1920 x 1080 | Ports: USB Type-C, HDMI | Price: 💰💰💰💰

We typically wouldn’t recommend going with a portable monitor for your permanent second screen, but the ASUS ROG is just too impressive. Sitting at 17.3 inches, with a native 1080p IPS display and a consistent 240Hz refresh rate, you wouldn’t think this is a portable unit. What gives it away are the included magnetic folding case, extendable tripod mount, and the carrying bag — all of which are nice additions that help you put this monitor to use on the go.

The embedded battery is another excellent touch, letting you use your monitor anywhere (even without an outlet) for up to 3.5 hours. After that, simply plug in the USB Type-C to recharge. 

Unfortunately, such a high-quality display does come at a hefty premium, but it’s well worth the price if you want a screen that works at home and on the go.

2. G-STORY GSV56QM

The best portable 4k gaming monitor

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Display Size: 15.6” | Weight: 5.6 lbs | Resolution: 4k UHD | Ports: USB, USB Type-C, HDMI | Price: 💰💰💰

Again, the G-STORY GSV56QM proves that even a portable monitor can be a great primary monitor for your setup. It achieves native 4k UHD, has HDR support, a 165Hz refresh rate, and is compatible with Nvidia G-Sync and AMD FreeSync. All-in-all, it’s an impressively powerful screen in a surprisingly compact package.

The monitor’s quality is easily protected with the heavy-duty adaptable screen cover. Sadly, the portability features end there. The lack of an internal battery and heavier weight are frustrating design choices for an otherwise high-quality device. It’s an unfortunate trade-off that allows the monitor to achieve 4k resolution and low latency. Who knows — you might find the exchange worth it if you use this monitor more at home than on the road.

3. ASUS ZenScreen

The best USB-C portable monitor for gaming

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Display Size: 15.6” | Weight: 1.72 lbs | Resolution: 1920 x 1080 | Ports: USB Type-C, USB Type-A | Price: 💰💰

ASUS has a knack for making high-quality devices at multiple price points. While the ROG Strix may be the overall best option, the ZenScreen offers the best balance of quality for the price. Just don’t expect it to be built exclusively for media and gaming like its more expensive counterpart.

The automatic screen orientation, smart pen, and adaptable power options make this monitor a great choice for remote work. The native HD resolution is impressive, though there’s a disappointing lack of other optimization features. There’s no HDMI port, no HDR, and only a 60Hz refresh rate, meaning you won’t be hitting the pinnacle of performance and are limited to laptop or phone connections. 

Despite missing out on some premium gaming features, it’s still a great option for streaming, laptop, or mobile gaming, even if those aren’t its core purpose.

4. GAEMS Guardian Pro XP

The best portable console gaming monitor

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Display Size: 24” | Weight: 35 lbs | Resolution: 1440p | Ports: USB, HDMI | Price: 💰💰💰💰

The GAEMS Guardian Pro XP is a true portable gaming monitor. Its design holds your console or PC directly within the monitor casing, and the case itself is literally a briefcase. The massive 24 inch ISP display achieves an impressive 1440p resolution that can maintain a 9ms response time when set to Overdrive.

Don’t expect to be pulling this thing out at a moment’s notice — the hefty design, while useful for transporting consoles, is extremely heavy. Another downside is that, for being an expensive “all-in-one” gaming monitor, the lack of in-device WiFi or cellular service seems like a bit of an oversight. 

Those gripes aside, if you find yourself traveling and want to bring your console, this is simply the best portable gaming monitor for PS4 and Xbox. Just be ready for a higher cost.

5. Lepow 15.6-Inch Portable Monitor

The best cheap portable gaming monitor

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Display Size: 15.6” | Weight: 1.7 lbs | Resolution: 1920 x 1080 | Ports: USB Type-C, Mini HDMI | Price: 💰💰

We had the chance to get hands-on with the Lepow 15.6-inch portable monitor, and to put it simply, we were impressed. In many ways, the Lepow represents everything you would want from a portable monitor. It doesn’t have the most visually-impressive screen or the best optimization settings, but it works consistently with everything. It’s a true plug-and-play device.

It won’t give you a premium gaming experience, but it may give you the best portable experience you’ll ever have. Don’t just take our word for it — take a look at the 2,900 positive reviews rating this the best portable gaming monitor on this list. 

6. Duex Pro

The best portable gaming monitor for laptops

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Display Size: 12.5” | Weight: 1.6 lbs | Resolution: 1920 x 1080 | Ports: USB Type-C, USB Type-A | Price: 💰💰

If you’re looking for a portable monitor built for a laptop, the Duex Pro is your best option. This screen is built to be a companion piece that can sit alongside or directly attach to your computer. It offers impressive versatility, allowing you to use the screen in landscape or portrait mode, or flip it around up to 270 degrees around your laptop screen.

Just as a heads up, this monitor is really meant to serve as a second screen. It’s on the smaller side considering the price, it lacks built-in speakers, and the off-laptop setup isn’t consistently stable. All that aside, if you’re looking to extend your screen with a high-quality and lightweight device, the Duex Pro will do just that without breaking the bank.

7. Prechen Portable Touchscreen Monitor

The best touchscreen portable gaming monitor

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Display Size: 15.6” | Weight: 1.94 lbs | Resolution: 1920 x 1080 | Ports: USB Type-C, Mini HDMI | Price: 💰💰

Touchscreens are synonymous with mobile devices, but that’s not necessarily the case with portable screens. Enter the Prechen Portable Touchscreen Monitor, a full HD screen, 15.6-inch, multi-touch device. 

It directly reflects your smartphone screen with a USB Type-C connection, which makes any touch inputs a one-to-one representation of what you’d see on your phone. You can also do this with the HDMI and micro USB connection, but don’t expect consistent results. 

That inconsistency may be the unfortunate undoing of this device. While it works great with most laptops and mobile devices, the actual performance is all over the place. While the listing claims compatibility with gaming consoles, the actual results based on reviews don’t seem to support that. 

If you absolutely need a touchscreen, this is a great, low-cost option. But if you want more versatility, you may want to choose a different option from this list.

Buyer’s Guide: Portable Gaming Monitors

Finding the best portable monitor for gaming can be a complicated task. Like we said before, there are just so many cheap and similar options out there. Here’s the trick to narrowing down your search — there are only three things you need to care about.

As you go through our guide, make sure you know exactly what you want when it comes to the following categories:

1. Portability

This may seem like a no-duh category, but it’s the first thing you should consider. While many monitors claim to portable, their actual design may prove to be the opposite. You need to look at the weight, size, storage situation, power source, and port options to understand the product’s actual portability better.

What are your expectations for a portable monitor, and what elements of portability do you care about? What does gaming on the go mean to you and your setup? Once you know your specific needs and limits, you’ll be able to move on to the next category.

2. Features and Performance

Features and performance directly correlate with portability. In many cases, more portable devices are lacking in features or offer lower resolution. This isn’t a hard and fast rule, but you may need to make sacrifices if you’re looking for high performance in a small package.

Decide what you want regarding features and performance ahead of time. There won’t always be a lot of variety, so this list will often come down to: 

• Convertible casing
• Audio output
• Screen resolution
• Device compatibility
• Provided connection cords
• Remote controls

3. Price

The last thing you need to consider when purchasing a portable monitor is the price. For a reasonably good experience, you can expect to pay anywhere from $180 to $220. For an experience comparable to a traditional monitor, you’ll need to spend two or three times that amount.

Think about how often you’ll be using the monitor, know your budget, and pay close attention to what the actual benefits of higher-priced monitors are. You may find that a slight increase in performance, a carrying case, or a lighter frame isn’t worth the extra hundreds of dollars you’d have to shell out for an incremental gain. Identify what you want and stick to it, especially when it comes to price.

Our Process

For this guide on the best portable gaming monitors, our writers spent 3 hours researching over 60 of the most popular options from brands big and small. After comparing this data, we then read over 200 user reviews and narrowed our list down to the top 7 portable gaming monitors on the market. All of this research adds up to recommendations you can trust.

Whether you’re taking it on the road, using it as a second screen, or as your primary display, we hope you’ve found the best portable gaming monitor to fits your needs. If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to our email list to stay in the know. If you know of others looking for a portable monitor, please share this article on your favorite social platform.

Happy Gaming!

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