- It just barely fits and it does, oh, my God. (chuckles)
What Xebec is this?
(tense suspenseful music)
Today we're gonna be looking at the Xebec Tri-Screen 2.
It's like a extra two displays that attach onto your laptop
allowing you to have the triple screen experience
which is amazing because nothing's more frustrating
than getting really used to having multiple monitors
and then having to go work on your laptop
for a long amount of time and it's just brutal having to....
You're always fiddling with your Windows
and stuff like this.
This allows you to maintain a semblance
of portability without having to deal
with to having a tiny screen
and I'm pretty excited about it.
So let's take a look.
Let's, what do they say on the back
of the box about the Xebec Tri-Screen?
Is it Xebec or Xebec?
I don't know.
So, "The future of work re-imagined.
The Xebec Tri-Screen 2 adds two additional screens
to any laptop, maximize productivity
without sacrificing portability."
Time to free myself, let's open it.
This is a fun presentation.
Looks like right here they have a QR code
for, like, a quick setup guide.
That's nice.
Wow, "Welcome to the Xebec Family."
I'm part of it.
So what we have in the box is here,
the screens itself.
inside we have a user guide with a QR code.
So if you wanna...
If you don't like paper, additional accessories
and cables, two HDMI to Mini-HDMI, two USB-A to USB-C,
USB-C 90 degree pass-through charging adapter,
a Velcro cable tie, two USB-C to USB-C cables
and a USB-C extender.
(plastic rustling)
Oh, and look at that.
Some stickers.
There's a little bit of background to this short circuit.
A few months ago on "Linus Tech Tips",
we covered a product called the Kwumsy P2 Pro
And we were pretty excited about it
because it was like, this product that had,
for so long had been, like, hinted out
with phrases like, "Project Valerie" or whatever.
What you'll see in that video is that we've found
that there was another company called Portabl,
that was doing a Kickstarter at the time
and they were basically a scam artist is what we've deduced.
Apparently they haven't shipped anything.
I haven't looked up recently if they have,
Kwumsy was able to, you know, deliver a product.
However, we got an email from the CEO of Xebec,
who wanted to tell us his side of the story.
Kwumsy has allegedly infringed
upon Xebec's patents, two of them.
So they have active lawsuits going on right now.
This doesn't mean that Kwumsy actually did that
but there's a tendency
form these no name Chinese manufacturers
to find, like, a good idea on a Kickstarter
and then they can ramp up production and get to market
before that Kickstarter can actually go through it.
So lots of times you'll see companies do things,
like, they'll make a product for another company
and then sell it out the back door as their own product.
The CEO of Xebec told me
about how their first manufacturer was actually doing this.
So they had to move and find another manufacturer.
Kwumsy, basically just found their product,
copied it as closely as possible
while making enough changes to kind of get away with it.
But Kwumsy even went so far as to use these guys' manuals.
They would, like, actually just put in the Xebec manual
and it would have a link to Xebec support.
So when people had problems with their Kwumsy monitors,
they would go and clog up Xebec,
like, it would screw Xebec over.
So they had to deal with, like,
all of this extra, like, BS
just because Kwumsy was using it.
I had a lot of issues with it.
You can go see that video
on last "Tech Tips", Linus liked it, but it did.
It did things but it didn't do anything particularly well
and it seemed like a very first generation product.
What I'm hoping is that the Xebec Tri-Screen 2 also being
the second generation of this product,
has ironed out a lot of those kicks.
So we're gonna take a look at that today.
It comes folded up like this.
I'm trying to figure out how I even open it.
There's a kickstand here.
Okay, that comes out.
Ah.
Okay, it's interesting.
So you would take your laptop.
let's just take this MacBook again.
So what the Kwumsy would do is that
it would, like, we have a button
it would extend outwards
and then you could just kind of ratchet
and adjust it to the exact dimensions of your screen.
This one does not have that kind of ratcheting mechanism.
So I believe that that's what this strap is for
but I don't know how it would stay.
Maybe there's stickers or something.
Already, I'm noticing one thing that I like about this
and that's that your screens are protected
when they're closed.
When they're on the back of your laptop, they're not exposed
to the rest of the world, like, they were with the Kwumsy
which was, like just fricking stupid.
Oh, I see.
I wasn't supposed to take this out.
Mistakes were made.
Okay, so what this elastic band is gonna do is that
it's gonna make this so that it stays tight to your laptop.
It prevents you from pulling it out super far
and it would just fall off.
So what I will do is I'll take it,
I'll extend it, I'll place it on the top of the laptop
and as you can see it's pretty heavy.
Your laptop hinge is not gonna be able to handle this
on its own, which is why they include this kickstand.
It's kind of flimsy though.
Do you see that bend?
That's a lot of flex there.
I wish it was metal.
You actually will need this to be the full length.
This is kinda having the...
Is there another one on the other side?
No, this is kinda having the same issue
as like the Nintendo Switch kickstand where it's like...
(funky music)
Bada Bing bada boom baby!
Here we go.
Oh yes and it curves in.
Another stupid thing about the Kwumsy monitors is that,
they were like, "We have 270 degrees of movement."
But the 270 degrees was like from here to, like here.
Whereas this actually has a way to pull it in.
So I'm not so wide, like,
'cause then I could still have the screens
but I'm not taking up a ton of space.
All right, so let's get her plugged in.
So this is already showing why they give you
so many goddam cables is because if you're
in a scenario where you're on an older laptop,
like, this MacBook and you don't have USB-C,
you'll have to adapt to the USB type A,
which is great that they give you adapters.
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All right, let's plug her in.
I'd want it, like this, so that the wires are away from me.
Okay, are there buttons on the top?
So on the top of each side,
there is an onscreen display button,
and a plus and minus button.
I imagine those will typically be for brightness.
They are also for navigating the display.
They also sent us, like, this adapter,
which I guess will allow it to be USB-A to an HDMI,
and a USB-C and then what's this?
A USB-C to A.
Arrangement from the display menu, that's not in here.
All right (beep) the MacBook we're going elsewhere.
- [Bell] So you're just gonna restart to, like...
- Oh, we tried getting it to work on this thing real quick
but it was having troubles.
There are drivers, we just didn't wanna go
and install all of them.
We didn't wanna go through the rigmarole
of doing exactly what they've laid out for us
in the instructions.
This is 14 inch HP Elite Folio.
Here's the downside.
If you have an ultra slim, like, laptop
that does not have very many ports,
this is gonna take up two of 'em.
Ey, it's says "Xebec" on both sides.
Oh and it worked automatic.
It's already on.
It was that easy actually.
The screen sizes are not correct.
This one's, like a little bit off on the size,
but that, we can fix that real quick
by adjusting our display settings
and then we're gonna adjust.
Oh I should set up screen capture now.
We don't have OBS on this do we?
I have OBS on here already.
(laughs) We're switching again.
Yeah, get on there little dog.
(laughs) (dog barks)
Okay, so we're just getting the display set up.
The nice thing is that it is,
like, recognized immediately as a display.
We can adjust the brightness using this,
using the tops of each display
and that's nice that they have individual brightness
because if you're say, you're sitting in the sun,
there's a bit of an angle, battery life's always a concern.
This is gonna start sucking a lot of battery.
This is probably using, like, pulling 10 watts
like, five watts each out of your battery.
So that's really gonna have an impact
on how long you're gonna be able to use your computer.
So this is kinda the thing
that you might wanna be using
(indistinct) your laptop plugged in for.
So as, speaking of charging,
you can actually use the screens as a pass through
to charge your laptop
in case you're in the scenario like, with the Elite Folio
that we had earlier where you only had two USB-C ports.
So you're not totally stuck.
You can still charge with pass-through charging,
probably at a lowered speed.
So each display is 10.1 inches and is 1,920 by 1,200.
They're LCD IPS displays.
They have 60 hertz refresh rate,
180 degrees screen rotation.
I mean, that sounds about right.
Adjustable brightness, we also have other settings
in the onscreen display, color temperature.
You have HDR on these?
No.
How?
Yeah, their variance and brightness is not huge.
This is disappointing.
You know, I was talking about, like quick portability
and being able to just kinda lift up and move it wherever
because of the plug being down here.
It prevents you from being able
to slide in the laptop while keeping everything plugged in.
So if I wanna, like, move, I have to take this out
and then this out
and then and now I can go.
But, like, at least it's still, like,
"Okay I'm done, I can throw it in a bag."
But it would've been really nice
if these could have stayed plugged in.
So like, if we had them on the outside,
I do understand how that would introduce a lot
of extra cable length to have to go around the other side
and that again would be its own set of issues.
So it's a trade off that they had to make.
I'm neither here nor there on it.
I think it's fine.
I will say the size is being 10.1 inches is kinda small.
I know it allows for extra flexibility.
I've changed it to HDR and now all the colors
on this are very wonked.
My battery's running low.
I might wanna plug in my PC.
See, as I said, it does consume battery quite quickly.
I was at 20% when I put this on and attached it
and now it's gone.
Yeah, I don't know if I'd call this HDR
but it's actually quite a good looking display.
I don't hate it.
This is like, so...
This is like, a lot of this
is what I wish the Kwumsy monitor did.
It takes a lot of the issues I had with that
in terms of its fit and finish, its usability.
Just unplugging this and sliding in.
This mechanism is not perfect on this side
and I wonder how it's gonna hold up being all plastic
but like, this is the exact thing I would want.
This is exactly what I was kinda looking for.
The price is $500, which sounds like a lot
but think about it like this.
You get not one but two 10 inch screens
and you get this convenient form factor,
plus a ton of cables.
Like, they really wanted you to cover every single use case.
They didn't want you to be stuck
without a way to use this on your laptop.
I wonder if this would work
with some of the bigger 17 inch laptops.
Like, let's use this (indistinct) real quick.
Hmm,
lttstore.com.
It's water bottle. Drink.
Just, just barely fits.
(laughs) And it does. (adult screams)
Oh my god.
(host laughs)
I do wish that maybe it was bigger than 10.1 inches.
I wish they went to like, 12.
I know that's not really the most common panel size.
What's limiting a lot of manufacturers is that
if you need a display,
you can't get it in just any size you want.
10.1 inches is like a common tablet size.
So that probably made it a lot easier
for them to get these displays.
What is happening here?
Whoa, wait, what the hell?
How come they're both on the same one now?
These just come off of this rail.
See how there's this whole exit point.
So when you push it back in, I don't know
it seems to not be doing today.
- [Andy] Oh! It's doing it.
- [Host] Oh, it happened.
- [Andy] It fell off of the track.
- [Host] This one fell out. - [Andy] Yeah.
- It seems like, I mean, there's other companies
that make these, there's a company called, like Mobile Pixel
that I believe makes a similar product.
The really hard part about this is not the displays for me,
I don't really care that much
about the quality of the display.
'Cause this is kind of an office work thing.
It's about the mechanism.
Like, this doesn't sit flat, you know,
like, I use this once and now I can't get it in flat.
Okay, if I press the bottom of it,
so if I go like, this and then I press down here
then it lays flat, I'm disappointed.
I'm a little sad.
There's already like, plastic and stuff rubbing off,
just from the few times I've opened it.
You can see scrapes along the bottom.
You can get a really high quality portable monitor
for like, 400 bucks.
Like, this ASUS ROG Strix 15.6" monitor,
that's like, designed for gaming
and also has the same kinda thing as a built in kickstand.
Yeah, it doesn't suspend here
but how many scenarios where you're using this thing,
where you can't use a portable monitor,
like, you don't also have enough table surface
for portable monitor, maybe on like, a train or a plane.
And maybe this is really important to you.
Try to portable monitor first.
If that really doesn't work for you
then maybe look into this.
What do you think?
Is this a dream worth chasing?
Is this something that we need to see more
of in the market and it's just not quite there?
Or is it a little bit of a nightmare?
- I can answer that.
I'll be the judge of that. - Yeah, sure.
- What am I looking at?
It's another tri-screen. - Oh, God. This again.
- But this is the one from the company that is suing Kwumsy.
- Oh, yeah, cool.
- So we covered it, but it's-
- Kinda Kwumsy? It's a funny joke.
(adult screaming)
- It's kind of Kwumsy. - I'm going now.
- If you like this short circuit, tell your friends,
if you didn't like it, shut up.
No one likes a whiner.
If you would like to watch another video
why don't you watch the one about the "Star Wars TV",
that Plouffe did is the "Star Wars" on your TV?
What?
I feel bad.
- [Bell] Why?