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 bought this display and set it up today. It works great right out of the box with my 16" M1 Max MBP on Ventura -- I'm actually quite impressed at the quality, considering its price and that it's not retina.
I never even thought to look for drivers. Of course, I have the splendid [BetterDisplay](https://github.com/waydabber/BetterDisplay) app running, which might be providing some support for it.
I'd suspect the features like match brightness / resolution and auto-arrange require the drivers.