AOC e1649Fwu portable USB monitor

Likes

• Light
• USB powered
• Standard mini-USB port
• Display quality looks ok (same as my Lenovo G580 anyway)
• 3 year on-site warranty 
• Has a leg that can display in both orientations
• Has automatic orientation sensing

Dislikes

• Thick
• Makes this high-pitched sound (I think it's some oscillator to increase the voltage, like a camera flash charging)
• Needs a hard cover to protect the display if it's meant to be portable
• No controls for brightness, contrast etc.
• Narrow vertical viewing angle - if you use it in portrait mode, your left and right eyes see different colours

Ok I noticed some banding in grey menu bars, which isn't visible on my G580's screen. I suspect this display isn't capable of displaying that many colours (the specifications say only 262k colours). I tried to take a picture of this, but it wasn't visible because of the moire.

Update 18 Nov 13

Measured the power consumption using my PortPilot Pro. It uses 1.29 A, or 254% of the official USB's limit of 0.5 A. About 6 W. That's pretty efficient. I wonder how it gets the USB port to deliver so much current?

Introduction to flat screen displays

http://www.engadget.com/2011/08/19/engadget-primed-all-mobile-displays-are-not-created-equal/
I thought this was a better title than the original. Putting the link here because Engadget's search system is rubbish.

Samsung SyncMaster 740N Auto-Adjustment Locked

I wasn't able to adjust many settings on a Samsung SyncMaster 740N monitor. I was only able to adjust brightness and contrast. The image was shifted and scaled, resulting in a non-1:1 ratio between output and actual pixels, causing blurry images. I found the solution at http://www.fixya.com/support/t553848-samsung_syncmaster_740n_17_auto. Surprisingly, all you have to do is hold down the Menu button! I wonder what the lock does, then?