Thanks to the popularity of mini touchscreen monitors, these little screens are more available and affordable than ever. For this reason, now might be a good time for photographers to add one to their existing setup.
Once in a while, someone creatively uses an existing product in an interesting way. This week, Nik Moe of Work From Hype is that person when he decided to take a mini monitor used in Raspberry Pi projects and integrate one into his desk setup. The great thing about this idea is that anyone who uses a computer and needs some extra screen space could do so for as little as $60.
The video goes through Moe's thought process for using the mini screen as well as some of the factors to look out for when picking one of these up. He highly recommends getting a housing for such a purchase as they traditionally come without one. We are then shown some potential applications of such an addition to the office, from an activity monitor to having the tiny screen as a home for various panels in Photoshop. This last example is what got me excited by the concept of having a mini monitor. Moe talks about the various panels in Photoshop that he likes easy access to but doesn't necessarily want front and center on his main screen. This is something many of us photographers can probably relate to when editing on a busy Photoshop screen.
Moe goes on to discuss both the benefits and the downsides of owning such a tiny screen and concludes that this monitor may not be for everyone. I love the idea of getting something this size and the DIY nature of such an addition is right up my street. I could also see the potential for adding a power pack to such a screen so photographers could use it while out in the field. If you are looking for a little extra screen space this monitor may just be the answer to decluttering your digital workspace and speeding up your workflow a little. All for the princely sum of $60.
What are your thoughts on this mini monitor? Think you could use one on your desk? We'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.
Good article, though $60 is pretty expensive, especially considering that budget lesser branded 20-23 inch monitors (IPS ) can be had in that range, though without the touchscreen functionality.
At the 6-7 inch range, many IPS smartphone screens are in that price range, but at higher resolutions.
For the setup in the video, the mini monitor can be a good fit since he doesn't really have much space to have extra monitors side by side without requiring too much head turning.
For me, I like using multiple 16:9 monitors.
Then for basic info like PC stats, I use the tiny LCD on my Logitech G510 keyboard.
For video and photo work, I will often use a calibrated gallery app to view content from my NAS. (Since many higher end OLED panels on smartphones will offer 100% DCI-P3 and Adobe RGB coverage, with a gamut volume exceeding both of those standards, they provide a good way to inspect content on panels with a very wide gamut using apps like ColorTRUE.
Beyond that, I do have a mini monitor that came with a security camera package that I occasionally use with my PC (a few times per year), though it is more for pulling up my discord chat window when I have a game on one display and full screen anime on another display. The crappy security camera display only has about 70% sRGB coverage, thus useless for any real work, but it is no problem for random text or a chat window on a 1024x768 display.
Someone should build this into a keyboard with some nice software bundled
Such a thing exists, I saw a review on LTT a couple of weeks ago.
Anyone know the name. I might pick one up
Ask and ye shall receive: https://www.amazon.com/Fagomfer-Touchscreen-Mechanical-Keyboard-Multifun...
Or simply release for the Mac a external touchbar keyboard... I personally love it on my MacBook.
Does anyone know what keyboard and mouse he is using? And the wrist pad/mouse pad as well, such a beautiful setup.
Mouse looks like a Logitech MX Master. I've got the MX Master 3 and love it.
Hi, the keyboard he is using is Nuphy Air75
Keyboard is a Nuphy Air75. Wonderful low profile mechanical keyboard, I have two, one with the original wrist rest. Love them!
I could also see multitasking such as watching a video for fun or for productivity on the smaller screen
Can it be just used for a month calendar view with the current day selected?
Why spend an extra $60 when everybody already owns a small secondary screen? Just use your smartphone... There are apps to use them as secondary monitor
That used to be more common in the past, e.g., after the G510 days, Logitech started pushing using the smartphone display, but when phone makers started moving to wide gamut IPS and OLED panels, then the risk of burn-in became too high to continue with that. Many mini displays tend to end up with a lot of static content.