Capsule Review: GeChic's On-Lap 1301 Laptop Monitor

Conclusion

What we have with the GeChic On-Lap 1301 is a good idea unfortunately marred by some serious drawbacks. As a multi-monitor aficionado (my desktop sports three 24” 1920x1200 displays and I find them to be more practical than a single large display), I’ve frequently found myself wishing for a second screen when I’ve been on the go with my ThinkPad X100e. Be it screenwriting or article work, I always have at least a second document or window I want to have open and I like the order that comes with having Windows see two discrete displays. If you’re at all like me, the On-Lap is going to be a very compelling product.

Where GeChic fouls things up a bit actually isn’t with the mounting system, which is surprisingly firm (the suction cups are big and well-made, and I found even just two on the back of my ThinkPad was enough to support the On-Lap’s weight), but with how unprotected the screen itself is and the way cables are routed. The USB cable feels like it’s a bit too short, essentially forcing you to plug the screen in on the right side or rear of the notebook. That’s not a huge drawback but I can see it causing problems depending on what your laptop’s port placement is like. And while having that thin cable coming out of the side is helpful, running the monitor cables out of the bottom is not. The green rubber standing blocks are lousy, leaving the monitor tilted back at least 45 degrees no matter how you place them, and with the video cable coming out of the bottom it winds up not even mattering since the screen is going to be bumped up regardless. You can try to stand the screen vertically (resulting in a 768x1366 effective resolution), but even then it’s off-center due to the notch for the hinge being off-center. All this, and there isn’t included any kind of protective sleeve for the screen to travel in.

This is a potentially useful product that needs a revision. The screen needs to basically be facing the lid of the notebook and then slide out on a railed hinge similar to what Lenovo used on their dual-screen W-series notebooks. Display cables should also come out of the side instead of the bottom. I understand this design would prevent the On-Lap from being used as a display that faces outward for presentations, but the horrible viewing angles of the TN panel coupled with middling brightness honestly prevent that from being a realistic usage scenario anyhow. Finally, I’d like a built-in stand instead of the terrible green blocks so that users who don’t want to mount it can still use the display without too much hassle. The screen is so light even a basic swing hinge made of cheap plastic on the back should be more than adequate.

There are good ideas here. Honestly I don’t find fault with the mediocre display quality or low brightness simply because the On-Lap is portable and powered off of USB; you can forgive a lot when it’s this easy to add a second screen to your laptop. GeChic has a strong first try here, and there’s nothing else out there quite like it; the closest competitor is a 14” DisplayLink monitor from Toshiba, but that monitor can’t be mounted to your notebook, can’t use your notebook’s internal graphics (and thus doesn’t benefit from them), and will draw more power. At $199 MSRP the GeChic On-Lap 1301 is a reasonable investment if you have a need for a portable second screen, but I’d personally like to see a revision come down the pipe before going investing.