While Apple’s laptop range comes with great screens, from the 13-inch MacBook Air up to the 16-inch MacBook Pro, there are times when a second display while travelling or presenting is extremely useful. Enter espresso Displays. This Australian company has created some gorgeous portable displays that meet the needs of the most demanding travellers.
espresso furnished me with its 15-inch espresso Touch for review.
espresso Touch 15-inch specifications
| Display Size | 15-inch (also available in 13-inch) |
| Weight | 850 g |
| Dimensions | 358 x 256 x 5.3 mm |
| Resolution | 1920 x 1080 (FHD) |
| Brightness | 300 nit |
| Colours | 16.8 million |
| Refresh Rate | 60 Hz |
| Response time | 10-20 ms |
| Panel type | LCD |
| Connection | USB-C |
| Ports | 2 x USB-C |
| Speakers | In-built |
| Price | $749 |
Set up
When plug-and-play was first invented back in the 1990s, it was a bit of shambles. But I simply plugged the espresso Touch into my MacBook Air using the supplied USB-C cable and voila! It just worked without any extra software or messing about.
As well as receiving video over the USB-C connection, it’s also powered through that one connection. That’s convenient, reduces the number of cables you need to carry and minimises desktop clutter.
It’s important to note that not all USB-C cables are the same. I’ve covered the confusion around USB-C before. espresso ships a high quality cable with its displays that ensures the display works reliably.
As the name suggests, the espresso Touch is a touchscreen. While Apple doesn’t support touchscreens directly through macOS, espresso offers a free app, espresso Flow, that adds this capability to its display. It comes in both M-series and Intel versions so it works with older Macs as well as more recent models.
Installation of espresso Flow is very easy. The software lets you rearrange displays, rotate the display, switch from extended desktop to mirroring and scale easily without having to find your way through Apple’s display settings.
Performance
Having used several different portable monitors in the past, it’s fair to say you get what you pay for. A quick scan of Amazon reveals plenty of portable 15-inch displays for under $150. But none come with a robust stand and picture quality can be quite variable.
YouTube, Apple TV+ and other streaming video services looked great on the espresso Touch. And being able to play/pause by simply tapping on the display was handy.
I spent some time editing photos using Pixelmator Pro and found the colours to be crisp and clear.
I used the espresso Touch to work on documents, presentations and spreadsheets and it was excellent. While the resolution is limited to FHD rather than the 4K many people demand, as a second display that was more than adequate. Looking at a spreadsheet in Excel, it was able to display 29 columns at Excel’s default column width. With Microsoft Word, I could display two documents side by side at size where I could read and edit both.
The internal speakers, while adequate, would be best described as “business quality”. They’re not optimised for watching movies. But for the occasional YouTube video and videoconference call they are good enough.
The stand
The espresso Touch stand deserves a mention of its own. Cheaper portable displays typically don’t come with a stand. Most have a cover that wraps around the display and can be folded to create a stand, a bit like an iPad case. But espresso has invested resources to create something far more user friendly and robust.
The espresso stand can be folded flat for storage and transport. It has two hinges that are sufficiently firm and enable the display to be raised, lowered and toiled to suit most needs. This is important as the espresso Touch can be used in either portrait or landscape mode. That can be easily toggled using the espresso Flow app.
Whether you’re working at a desk or presenting to a small group, you can position the screen perfectly.
I’ve picked the stand up with the monitor attached and held it upside down and the monitor didn’t move at all, even when adjusting the position of the display.
Recommendation
The espresso Touch is a great display that would make a worthy addition to the travel bag of many mobile workers and to the desktops of those seeking a compact solution that can be easily stashed away when working from home.
While some may be put off by the cost – $749 puts the espresso Touch very much at the premium end of the market – it is an excellent display that shows what Australian companies can do when they apply their know-how to solving a problem.
If you’re looking for a great portable display then the espresso Touch is highly recommended.
Anthony is the founder of Australian Apple News. He is a long-time Apple user and former editor of Australian Macworld. He has contributed to many technology magazines and newspapers as well as appearing regularly on radio and occasionally on TV.