REVIEW – I’ve tried a couple of portable USB monitors in the past, and they’ve disappointed me. I’ve tried a dual monitor setup that sort of wrapped around my laptop to give me a total of 3 monitors, and I could never get it set up just right. The viewing angles weren’t great. Whenever I folded them in from the side a bit, it angled them upward slightly, so it didn’t match the angle of my laptop monitor. It turned out to be thicker than my laptop when folded away, making traveling with it not ideal. Next, I bought just a single portable monitor with a cover that doubled as a stand. Boy, was that a mistake. It was constantly falling flat, and I could never get it to stand up as flat as I wanted. I just wasn’t happy with either, but would begrudgingly use them when I really had to. But then came the offer to review the Arzopa 16.1″ 2.5k portable monitor. It had higher resolution, a higher refresh rate, and a stand that appeared to be what I was looking for, so I begged (just a little) to get to review. Guess you know by now the begging worked because, well, here we are. Is it actually what I wanted? What were the trade-offs? Will this one be relegated to the closet or given away? Let’s find out.
⬇︎ Jump to summary (pros/cons)
Price: $189
Where to buy: Amazon
What is it?
The ARZOPA Z3FC is a USB-powered portable monitor with a 2.5k resolution and a 180 Hz refresh rate that’s about a thin as you can get. It comes with a nice travel sleeve and all the cables you need to get up and running in a flash.
What’s included?
- Z3FC Portable monitor
- Travel sleeve
- Straight USB-C cable
- 90-degree USB-C cable
- Mini-HDMI to HDMI cable
Tech specs
Screen Size-16.1 Inch
Panel Type-IPS
Aspect Ratio-16:9
Resolution-2560*1440
Display Color-16.7M
Color Temperature-6800K
Visual Angle-H: 85°/85°Min V: 85°/85°Min
Contrast Ratio-1200:1
Brightness-300cd/m2
Color Gamut-100%
Input Interface-Mini HD(Video Signal), Type-C Full Function(Video Data, Power Supply ISDN)
Speaker-Built-in Speakers(1W*2)
Refresh Rate-180Hz
Design and features
The Z3FC comes with a 2.5k QHD IPS screen. It offers beautiful, bright colors and good black levels. It also has a matte finish to cut glare, which helps a lot in a bright room like my office. The 180 Hz refresh rate makes every movement silky smooth, whether it’s just your mouse cursor going across the screen or my favorite Vault Hunter from Borderlands unleashing havoc on all the surrounding baddies.
The Arzopa Z3FC has its controls and ports all on the left side. This may not sound like much, but have you ever tried to use a portable monitor with the ports on one side and the controls on the other? Trust me, it ain’t good. The control buttons are sufficiently tactile to know when you’re pressing them, too. No squishy buttons here. Again, maybe not important to you, but I’m weird and appreciate them. The controls themselves open the On-screen menus, allowing you to choose brightness levels, different modes, and adjust volume. Yep, the Z3FC has stereo speakers as well.
The stand of the Arzopa Z3FC is a godsend. It’s more of a leg, and that leg allows you to set the monitor at almost any angle without collapsing. You can also flip it on its side and use it vertically very easily without sitting on a cable or inadvertently pressing the controls.
Finally, the Z3FC comes with a travel sleeve allowing you to carry the monitor and its cables together. The sleeve isn’t thickly padded, so you’ll still want to be careful how you pack it, but the cables have a separate pocket so they won’t be scratching up the screen.
Assembly, Installation, Setup
The only setup is to decide how you want to connect the Z3FC to your PC, Mac, PlayStation, Switch, or other compatible device. I use power over USB-C, so I only need one cable. But you can use the HDMI cable and a separate USB-C compatible power source if needed.
Performance
The Arzopa Z3FC performed admirably, whether I used it for Teams meetings, watching videos or movies, or playing a game instead of working like I was supposed to. The colors are bright, the picture sharp, and the movement smooth. I also have 2- 27″ 1080P monitors I use for work that only support a 60Hz refresh rate. Now, just scrolling down a PDF is terrible when compared to the 16.1″ Z3FC. I took some pictures to try to show you the quality of the image. Just know that my office has a lot of natural light. The monitor looks better in person than my pictures show. Blacks are deeper, colors are brighter, and the image is not washed out at all.
Final thoughts
The Arzopa Z3FC has found a permanent place on my desktop. I love being able to have a place to park some windows on it, but still have my work up top on the other monitors. Even watching all those HR training videos is bearable on the Z3FC. I said bearable, not enjoyable. Anyway, I like this portable monitor. It fits my needs, and I think for the money, it’s a good buy. Go check it out if you’re in the market for a portable monitor. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
What I like about the Arzopa Z3FC portable monitor
- The stand!
- Good picture quality
- Slim
- Simple setup
- Wide compatibility
What needs to be improved?
- Nothing
Price: $189
Where to buy: Amazon
Source: The sample of this product was provided for free by Arzopa. Arzopa did not have a final say on the review and did not preview the review before it was published.
Check out these other reviews!
- Arzopa Z1RC 2.5K 16 inch portable monitor review – a bright laptop companion
- KYY 15.6” 3840×2160 4K UHD USB-C portable monitor review – a nice 4k option at a nice price
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