Ask Slashdot: Portable High-Resolution External Displays?

First time accepted submitter paragonc writes "I am a software engineer who works remotely. I'm amazingly lucky to live in Austin, Texas where I have access to multiple high quality co-working facilities within biking distance. While these places are great for networking and establishing a rhythm to daily life, not having a permanent desk forces me to pack my gear in and out each day. This means i pack light. My current Go Bag includes a 13.3 inch MacBook pro, and an iPad running avatron Air Display. This has worked well, but i'm sorely missing having a real high resolution external monitor. I've looked at a few of the USB powered external displays, but the resolution seems to only hit 1366 X 768. I'd be curious if slashdotters have any tricks up their sleeves on how to implement a high resolution portable external displays."

Re:This is retarded

[FatdogHaiku]

Exactly. He also mentioned "biking" to locations and I can't think of a lot of monitors I'd like to bungee to a bike frame... unless said bike had a really nice softail. Laptops will take a bit of shaking, monitors, not really. I do see a 5.8 pound, 22" ( 1920 x 1080) LED/LCD unit under $130.
http://us.aoc.com/monitor_displays/e2251fwu [aoc.com]

USB displays

[Collin]

I'll take my guess at what the OP is asking. He refers to USB-powered displays, but complains that they are too low-res. They really are a great idea and I could see a bunch of uses for them.

Here is a 16" USB-powered display [amzn.to], which combines a DisplayLink USB display adapter with a flat-panel LCD display. The problem is that its pixel resolution is only 1366 x 768, which is pretty low density for that panel size. It's like a typical entry-level 15.6" laptop panel. If you look at 15.6" laptops, they start at 1366x768, then as you move up the model range, the pixel res goes up to 1600x900, then further up, 1920x1080 is about as high as it goes at this size.

I suspect that the OP would like a product just like this display, but with a 1600x900 or 1080P display panel like those used on higher-end laptops. This would totally make sense, but some quick searches didn't turn anything like this up on Amazon. So his real question is if anybody knows of one of these types of displays that has a higher-res panel. Personally, I'd consider one of these as well for on-site video editing.

There is a similar 21" USB-powered display [amzn.to] which does run 1080P but it's up to the OP as to whether he still considers that portable or not.