FlipGo Dual test: a portable monitor for digital nomads

With the rise of digital nomads, portable monitors are becoming increasingly popular. Fellow editor Jan Johannsen recently highlighted their fundamental advantages and disadvantages here. Simple models are available from as little as 150 francs. If you want more surface area and better image quality, you’ll have to dig deeper into your pockets. For example, I’m testing the FreeVoice FlipGo Dual, which costs 649 francs.

For this higher price, you get a fold-out double display. The two 16-inch screens are arranged one above the other, and in Windows, you can also rotate them 90 degrees to operate them side by side. They draw power either from a power supply unit or via USB-C from a laptop. Here are the specs:

• Format: 2 × 16 inches, 16:10, matt coating
• Resolution: 2,560 × 1,600 pixels each, 189 ppi pixel density
• Brightness: maximum 500 nits
• Frame rate: 60 hertz
• Colour space coverage: 100 per cent sRGB
• Connections: mini HDMI, USB-C
• Weight: 1.59 kilogrammes

The manufacturer doesn’t provide any information on response time. Since nobody wants to game on a portable display, this hardly matters.

Restricted mobile operation

The FlipGo Dual’s supplied with a hinged stand. It’s small, but surprisingly stable. I place the display next to my 16-inch MacBook Pro and connect it via USB-C. Since the port is on the left, I place it to the left of my laptop and feed the cable through behind the external display. In the opposite arrangement, I’d have to move it slightly backwards so the plug isn’t in the way.

The portable monitor also works via USB-C without an additional power supply. This way it’ll drain the laptop battery, of course. With my MacBook Pro, I can work for around five hours. It lasts more than twice as long without an external monitor.

Power option number two: I plug the power supply unit into the second USB-C port. Maximum brightness increases and the portable monitor becomes a docking station, charging my MacBook. However, the 65-watt power supply unit’s too weak for two devices. If I increase the brightness of the display and charge the laptop at the same time, the FlipGo Dual becomes unstable and constantly restarts – this can result in an endless loop since I can’t get into the menu quickly enough to lower the brightness again before the next restart.

A more powerful power supply, like the one on my MacBook Pro with 140 watts, solves the problem. Otherwise, the full brightness of 500 nits can only be used when the laptop battery’s charged or if I connect the monitor via HDMI. Such a design flaw has no place in a premium product. As a minimum, energy management should lock the brightness before the power supply unit panics and pulls the emergency brake.

Colour accurate, nice and bright when connected

With a resolution of 2,560 × 1,600 pixels each, both displays have a relatively high pixel density of 189 pixels per inch (ppi). Most other portable monitors have to make do with Full HD resolution – although this is also sufficient. There’s a big difference in brightness between use with or without a power supply unit. The display only achieves 78 nits when connected to a laptop. At best, this’ll be fine in a dark room. With the power supply unit, it’s up to 493 nits, a decent value. The monitor doesn’t support HDR.

Greyscales are well under control, the gamma curve shows no major outliers. Brightness gradations are displayed fairly accurately as a result. The white balance is too cool by default, which, fortunately, can be remedied with manual RGB settings. The maximum contrast is 1,200:1 – a typical value for an IPS display.

How do you read shades of grey in graphics?

The graphic on the right shows the balance between red, green and blue. Ideally, all three lines will be exactly in the centre. If not, the grey will have a colour cast. The graphic below shows how strong this deviation is in different shades of grey. The gamma value on the top left shows how good the gradations between the grey tones are. The grey line should be as close as possible to the yellow one, which shows the target value of a 2.2 gamma curve. Otherwise, the contrasts are wrong.

Colour accuracy’s fine too. The display’s tuned to the DCI-P3 colour space, which it covers by 99 per cent. There, the average DeltaE of the colour deviation is 3.3, a solid value. The AdobeRGB coverage is also impressive (96.2 per cent). After calibration, the FlipGo Dual would certainly be suitable for professional graphics work.

Works better with Windows

I normally arrange several screens next to each other. The concept of two on top of each other is unusual, but I’m surprised at how much I like it. I move less important windows to the top half. This means they aren’t directly in the focus of my field of vision, but can still be seen without changing windows if necessary. The FlipGo Dual triples the work surface of my MacBook.

However, there’s a catch: I can only use the display in portrait mode under macOS, and only in Ultra mode. In this case, the system recognises it as a single large monitor. If I maximise a window, it enlarges over both parts. Not great, as my view’s interrupted in the middle by bezels, so I have to adjust the windows manually.

The second disadvantage in macOS concerns scaling. The display’s only sharp in native levels – i.e. either 2,560 × 3,200 or «like 1,280 × 1,600». The original resolution results in a tiny display. Double the size, on the other hand, is very large when I place the FlipGo Dual at laptop distance.

These problems don’t exist in Windows. Here, I can scale the system interface in 25 per cent increments and the image always looks sharp. Using DisplayLink software, the FlipGo Dual can also be divided into two virtual screens or rotated by 90 degrees.