By Evan Ackerman
As much as I love my netbook, the tiny size and convenience does come with drawbacks, not the least of which is the lack of screen real estate. Taking out my netbook after working on a pair of 30″ HD monitors at the office can be a shock, to say the least. The Mimo mini USB monitor provides an extra 800 x 480 pixels, which is a significant addition to the screen of any netbook, and it runs purely off of USB: no batteries or power cords and there’s a video card inside. It has reasonably decent brightness and contrast and can be used in either horizontal or vertical orientation. At 1.3 pounds, it’s light enough to carry around with your netbook, but the $130 pricetag is a bit steep… Especially considering that you can get a second netbook for about twice that much, or a full size external monitor for less. Oh well, that’s the price you pay for convenience and portability, I suppose.
It’s rather remarkable just how much the Mimo USB monitor looks like the D-Link SideStage USB monitor, which is supposed to come out at the end of the year for about the same price. It’s got pretty much the same specs, down to the weight. Not sure what’s up with that, but the most relevant point I guess is that the Mimo is available now. Or, at least sooner than the end of the year, at ThinkGeek.
[ ThinkGeek ]