Sold via Amazon, the $199.99 Lepow C2S is a 15.4-inch portable monitor. (A 15.6-inch version is also available.) It’s a worthy second screen for a laptop in the 14-to-16-inch range, with a generous port selection and a fold-out stand. Although it’s not the brightest mobile display around, the color coverage is quite good for a budget panel, and it does well in rendering photos and video. The C2S is a bit thicker than many portable monitors, but takes advantage of its extra depth to offer more features. It’s our new Editors’ Choice award winner among budget-priced mobile displays.
A Fold-Out Stand, and Ports Galore
The C2S is a vision in black, with a matte finish and an anti-glare screen, rounded corners, and relatively wide side bezels. It packs an in-plane switching (IPS) panel with full HD (1,920-by-1,080-pixel) resolution. Lepow lists the monitor’s weight at 1.8 pounds and its dimensions as 8.9 by 14.6 by 0.3 inches (HWD), but the last figure was clearly measured at its thinnest point—except for an inch or two around the edges, it’s really a little over twice that thickness. This is due to a protrusion in back that houses the monitor’s speakers, ports, and controls and supports its fold-out stand. So although the C2S not the thinnest portable monitor on the market, the extra depth is space well spent.
The metal stand is fastened to either side of the rear protrusion near the top. By unfolding the stand, you can adjust the screen’s tilt to as much as a 45-degree angle.
On the right side of the bulge (when viewed from the back) are the side-facing ports. The C2S offers a generous selection, led by two USB Type-C ports. One is strictly for powering the monitor; the other, which Lepow calls a full-function port, can draw power from a laptop as well as receive data and video content. In addition, the C2S packs one mini-HDMI port and one mini-DisplayPort connector, and tops things off with a headphone jack at left rear, next to the controls. The monitor also has a pair of built-in speakers, of decent audio quality but modest volume.
Icons identify four buttons on the left side as Power, Return to Previous Screen, Plus, and Minus. They’re primarily used to control the onscreen display (OSD), with the last two raising and lowering brightness, contrast, and speaker volume. The buttons are preferable to the wheel or “roll key” that we saw in the Lepow 15.6-inch USB-C Portable Monitor and the Lepow Lite H1; the wheel was poorly placed on the latter display. Still, whether the OSD is controlled by a wheel or buttons, the principle is the same.
From the main OSD menu, which you access by pressing the Return button, you have six choices: Brightness (which lets you control brightness, contrast, black level, and sharpness); Image (which lets you enable Eco Mode and Dynamic Contrast Ratio and change the aspect ratio); Color Temperature; OSD Setting; Reset; and Miscellaneous, which includes an HDR mode.
Testing the C2S: Good sRGB Coverage, Moderate Brightness
I performed our color, brightness, and contrast testing using Klein K-80 and SpyderX Elite colorimeters, a Murideo SIX-G signal generator, and Portrait Displays’ CalMAN software. Lepow rates the C2S’s peak luminance at 220 nits (candelas per meter squared). I tested the panel’s brightness with the SpyderX Elite and got a reading of 165 nits. The SpyderX Elite measured the display’s contrast ratio at 900:1, exceeding its 700:1 rating.
The C2S covered 96.1% of the sRGB color gamut when tested with the K-80. Though short of the H1 Lite’s 99%, this is a very respectable score; the sRGB coverage of most budget portable monitors seldom exceeds 75%, though we have seen a bit of an uptick over the past year. Even a 96% gamut is enough for colors to look both pleasing and accurate.
In my ad hoc testing, I viewed video clips in standard, DCR, and HDR modes. The image was reasonably bright and colors looked vivid and true. When I enabled Dynamic Contrast Ratio, video looked much the same as in standard mode. With HDR enabled (the setting is called “2084,” the HDR10 standard used by nearly all HDR monitors), colors in both HDR and non-HDR content seemed oversaturated, so I stuck to standard mode.
The C2S did well in displaying photographs. It rendered realistic-looking color, retaining detail in both bright and dark areas.
A New Budget Champ
The Lepow C2S Portable Monitor isn’t as bright as the ViewSonic VG1655, our previous favorite economy portable monitor, but it had much better color coverage—the ViewSonic covered just 61.1% of the sRGB gamut in our testing, with muted and dull colors. The C2S also edges the VG1655 in ports, with the addition of a mini-DisplayPort connector. Both displays have fold-out metal stands, and the ViewSonic’s mini-joystick controller and OSD are slightly more convenient than the Lepow’s buttons.
But ultimately, it’s the Lepow C2S’s color coverage and ability to render photos, video, and other content effectively that puts it over the top. It’s our new budget portable monitor Editors’ Choice winner.
