Monduo 16-Inch Pro Duo
The $800 Monduo Pro Duo isn’t the only dual portable external display accessory on the market, but of the major ones I’ve seen it comes the closest to approaching the high-end specs of the built-in displays on Apple’s notebooks. Optimized for 16-inch laptops like Apple’s larger MacBook Pro, the Pro Duo’s displays each measure in at a very similar 16 inches, with 100% DCI-P3 color support, 2560 ✕ 1600 resolution on each display, 500 nits of brightness, and variable refresh up to 144Hz.
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That gives it a bit larger footprint than my 16-inch MacBook Pro while being slightly lighter, but it’s nearly twice as thick. Still, if you have a spacious computer bag with a couple of compartments as I do, there’s a chance the Pro Duo could slide right in there.
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Once everything is physically connected, you’ll need to download the Monduo app, which manages the display drivers to support high-resolution options and synchronization with the built-in display.
I don’t understand why, even with USB-C, all these portable displays seem to need drivers. I ended up giving up on the AOC display because the drivers didn’t always work and seemed to cause crashes.
Previously:
- Portable External MacBook Pro Displays
- The Impossible Dream of USB-C
- Roost and Nexstand Laptop Stands
- Razer’s “Project Valerie” Triple Display Laptop
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They need drivers because they are all basically variants of DisplayLink, the technology that enables CPU-driven rendering, and bypasses the 2-display limitation of the M1/M2 Pro.
FWIW when I last used DisplayLink adapter, the drivers had finally become fairly stable and were user-mode only. Works very well for programming and such but not games, as there is no HW acceleration for graphics.
I bought cheap Chinese 15,6” 4K portable display. No drivers needed. Works with Nintendo Switch, MacBook, iPad and HDMI inputs. Has 2 usb-c, one only for power. Second usb-c can also be used to power the display from device. Supports pass through charging. Only issue is that it loses settings sometimes but defaults are fine.
I'd suspect the features like match brightness / resolution and auto-arrange require the drivers.