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MINISFORUM is probably best known for making min PCs, but one of the company’s latest products is a display… or rather two displays. The MINISFORUM MDSA156 is a portable dual-screen monitor with two displays connected by a laptop-like hinge, allowing you to fold the device in half for easy transportation and storage and unfold it when you want plenty of screen space.
It’s also one of the most affordable devices in the growing category of portable dual-screen displays. Earlier this year I noted that this type of product used to sell for $500 and up, but prices for some recent models had fallen below the $400 mark. The MINISFORUM MDSA156 costs just over half that much: it’s available from the MINISFORUM website for $231.
For that price you get a device with two 15.6 inch, 1920 x 1080 pixel IPS LCD displays with up to 250 nits brightness. They’re connected by a hinge that allows you to either position that one is above the other, lie them flat on a table, or tilt them so that they’re nearly back-to-back in a tent-like configuration so that you and the person sitting across from you can each see one screen.
It’s sort of like having a single 23.8 inch, 1920 x 2160 pixel display with a big line through the center. But while you could theoretically expand a single application across both displays, this sort of design really comes in handy for multitasking, allowing you to position one app or set of apps on the top screen and a different set on the bottom.
The MDSA156 also has a pair of stereo speakers built in, two USB Type-C ports that can be used for power and video input, an HDMI input, and a 3.5mm headphone jack.
MINISFORUM says you can use a single USB Type-C cable to connect the monitor to a computer for both power and data… assuming your PC outputs enough power over USB. Since the system is designed for use with 30W or higher power supplies, if the screen flickers or has other problems, you can use one USB-C port for power and the other (or the HDMI port) for video input.
The MINISFORUM MDSA156 has a metal body with an integrated kickstand. The company says that the whole thing measures about 0.95 inches thick when folded in half, and weighs either 2.2 pounds or 3.5 pounds (depending on whether you believe the 2.2 pound weight listed in a promotional picture of the 3.5 pound weight listed in a spec sheet on the MINISFORUM website).