What's the one feature a portable monitor can't do without? ARZOPA is a cautionary tale

This article was self-funded, not a sponsored post! Pure original with no AI pollution—read with confidence!

Introduction

In my previous article I introduced the highly cost-effective 14-inch aigo portable monitor

At the same time I also picked up another 14-inch ARZOPA portable monitor, model A1 GAMUT SLIM

I hadn't heard of this brand before, but the product is quite refined—supposedly CNC metal unibody.

Bought it in October for 348 yuan, a bit over 80 yuan more expensive than the aigo14 from the last post. Let's see if it's worth it~

(It's already gone up to 409 yuan now 😑)

Specs

• Resolution: 1920*1080
• Refresh rate: 60Hz
• Panel: IPS
• Weight: 0.6kg
• Brightness: 250nit
• Contrast ratio: 800:1

Packaging

The packaging is pretty nice. Paired with the energy-efficiency label in the upper right, it has that small-appliance shopping feel

The back is a huge QR code. This design doesn't look as good.

There's a slogan on the side too, but it's much more low-key than aigo's 🤣

Unboxing

The protection is okay, but unlike the aigo14 which has foam all around, this one only has foam on the upper layer of the box

But the protective pouch and stickers give off a premium vibe

Accessories

Compared with the aigo14, it has one extra cable: mini HDMI and C to C cables, plus a USB to Type-C cable.

Manual and warranty card

Exterior

Let's look at the exterior details

Buttons

The metal body does have a nice feel. The buttons are on the upper left side.

Ports

Display ports are on the lower left

Front

The bezels are fairly thin; it looks pretty good.

Here's another shot, sitting right on the desk.

Rear stand

This stand is way better than the aigo14's. It supports stepless adjustment, up to 80 degrees

OSD

This on-screen menu is customized by the manufacturer

The UI looks much better than the aigo14's ancient interface

Maybe that explains why this monitor doesn't support DDC/CI 🤣

Screen impression - compared with Jige 14x

Let's compare it with the Jige 14x's screen

This monitor's aspect ratio is 16:9, so it looks a bit longer. That's different from the Jige 14x's own 16:10 ratio, but it doesn't matter much.

Let's compare the three screens

They are, respectively

This portable monitor is a matte screen, which can resist reflections to some extent, but it doesn't look as good as the aigo14.

The aigo14 still has nicer colors. The ARZOPA is a bit on the white side.

Compared with MacBook

Monitor order as shown in the table

Issues

This portable monitor does not support DDC/CI! You can't adjust the monitor's brightness and contrast directly from the computer!

This is a really bad point! I can't figure out why such a refined monitor doesn't provide this feature.

Wrap-up

This monitor really is gilt on the outside and rotten within.

They made the build quality so good, yet gutted the critical DDC/CI feature. Unfathomable.

Of course some people might not care about this feature, in which case it's still worth considering. This portable monitor is truly much more refined than the aigo14 I introduced last time 👍