- I've been looking for a second monitor
to go with my Apple Studio display and my Mac Studio.
And I think I found the right solution
with this 14-inch display from Dell.
Hey, I'm Jerry.
And for the last few months,
before I got the Mac Studio and Studio display,
I was using my 16-inch MacBook Pro
with an Eve Spectrum 4K Display.
Historically, I would use the MacBook Pro
to the side of a big display or in clamshell mode.
But for some reason I started using it
sitting right in front of me
so that I had the MacBook display
and the bigger display right above it.
I really fell in love with that setup.
Now that I'm using the Mac Studio as my primary machine,
I wanted to try and replicate that same experience.
And I found this Dell C1422h portable display.
The awesomely named C1422h is a 14 inch
1080p full HD display
that connects via USB-C and gives me a similar setup
to the MacBook with an external display.
Inside the box for this display,
you get a wool travel sleeve
which actually feels really nice,
a USB-C cable for connecting the display,
and of course the display itself.
Okay, so this display is pretty minimalist in its design,
and that's what I really, really like about it.
It has black bezels that are thin and modern,
especially for the size of the display.
And on the back, it's just silver.
On the left side of the base
you have a USB-C connection and a power button.
And on the left side of the base,
you have another USB-C connection.
You have brightness up and down and you have a button
for comfort view, which I'll show you in just a sec.
This whole display weighs something like 20 or 21 ounces.
It's an extremely light portable display
that folds up to go inside that wool sleeve
that it comes with.
And actually, let me show you that real quick.
So this guy is not too bad.
It's actually a nice, thin sleeve
that will protect the display or give the display
a little bit of protection at least.
And then, of course, slide easily into a backpack
or travel bag of some kind.
It's really kind of nice that they include that.
I like that a lot.
And I guess they should, because it's a portable display.
So like I said, the display bezels
are very thin on this display.
The whole thing is super light.
Like I said, around 20 or so ounces.
And it does have a variable angle adjustment, which is nice.
So you can place it on a desk and get just the right angle
that you're looking for.
Now, it does not go fully vertical.
It goes maybe five or 10 degrees back
and that's the max forward that it can go,
but it then can go almost completely flat or down very low.
So depending on what angle you're looking for,
you can probably find it with this Dell display.
Generally it stays pretty well in place.
It's got these rubber feet on the bottom,
which keep the display from moving.
But as a desktop set up secondary display,
I'm not really touching the thing or moving it very often,
so it's not a concern.
Now when it comes to the display itself,
let me just say right now that no, this Dell C1422h is,
you know what?
I'm not going to say C1422h anymore.
That's just ridiculous.
Why the heck can't companies
come up with decent product names for their stuff?
Apple doesn't call the Studio display the MK0Q3LLA.
That'd be stupid.
So why can't this be called something like the Dell?
Well, Sidecar would make sense,
but that's taken, so how about Tandem?
The Dell Tandem display.
That makes more sense than C22h or 1422.
I digress, but let me just say that this display
is not in the same league as a liquid retina
XDR display on a MacBook Pro,
or even the retina display on a MacBook Air.
So if you're already using a MacBook
with an external display, I would just keep doing that.
But if you're looking for a secondary display
to use with a desktop setup,
this is a good display for some things.
So let's talk about specs of this display itself.
This is a 14 inch, 1080p full HD display.
This is a matte coating on the screen.
And Dell says it can get up to 178 degrees of viewing,
but as you can see, there's quite a bit
of brightness drop off as you move
to the side of the display.
So it's not great, but it's fine
if you're just looking at it straight on
like you normally would in a regular office type setup.
Color wise this panel gives you 98% of the SRGB color
and 75% of P3 color, which is not fantastic,
but it's really not bad as a secondary display.
This display gets up to 300 nits of brightness,
actually 311 with my testing equipment,
700:1 contrast ratio,
and no, those numbers are not great,
but for a secondary office display,
it's fine for that type of stuff.
It's got a single cable connection to your computer.
So with a single cable, you will get power to the display.
And of course the video as well.
This does actually have a second USB-C connection
on the other side, like I was saying,
so you can actually do pass through charging
of a laptop or another device through this display.
So if you're using this as a portable display
to go with a laptop and you're on the go,
you can actually connect this
and just power it from the laptop
or you can pass power through this display to the laptop.
You can pass up to 65 watts
of power through the display to the laptop
and that is more than enough for charging most laptops.
So MacBook Air, MacBook Pro,
they're gonna charge just fine off of 65 watts.
Now, if you're running blender tests for 40 hours straight,
you're probably gonna get some battery drain
on the 16 inch MacBook Pro, but for regular computer use
and even high usage for limited periods of time,
you're not gonna have any issues with that 65 watts.
Like I said before, there's also this button over here,
this comfort view button, and what that does
is essentially limits the blue light
coming out of the display.
So if you have sensitive eyes, you're working at night,
your eyes are tired, whatever,
you can reduce that blue light on the display
by simply pressing that.
There's no options to adjust the amount
or anything like that,
but it's nice to have, if that's something that you need.
If you need to reduce the blue light
coming into your eyeballs.
So, as I mentioned before, I've been using this
with my Mac Studio and my Studio display,
which has been fantastic.
You can also use this as a portable display,
as I also mentioned.
So whether you're sitting at home
or work and you need it with your desk setup,
or you're on the go and you're in a hotel or wherever,
and you just need that secondary screen
for additional screen real estate,
this is a pretty good option.
It works really well.
Now when it comes to dual display setups,
usually a lot of people will have two displays side by side.
And I thought about going this route
with a second Studio display,
and placing them side by side,
but beyond the price,
which is a lot for a second Studio display
I'm not a big fan of this type of setup.
I don't like that there's a border
right in the center of the two displays,
and you always have to turn your neck left or right
to see everything that's on the screens.
Years ago I liked having a display right in front of me
with another display off to the side.
And this worked really well
because I just keep the lesser used stuff
on the second display.
However, with the larger 27 inch displays,
it just still feels way too wide for me,
and it's just not comfortable to use.
So I like the smaller MacBook display
below a larger Studio display,
because I don't have to turn my head left or right.
I can just look up and down.
It feels more ergonomic and more comfortable to me.
Now, could I use iPad in Sidecar,
because I have iPads laying around?
Sure. That is a good option.
If you don't wanna go spend
somewhere around $300 for a portable display like this,
then that is a good option.
Sidecar is just always not 100% reliable for me.
Sometimes it doesn't connect.
Sometimes I have to go into display preferences
and reset up the configuration.
If I want the iPad below the screen,
sometimes it just does not realize
that I'm trying to drag the mouse
from the main display down.
It just wants to go to the dock.
And sometimes there is a lag
from the wireless connection of those displays,
which of course you don't get with a wired connection.
All right, so the good and bad
of this Dell portable display.
Good is the design.
The design actually looks pretty good.
Despite it being plastic, it's super simple,
super clean and super modern with those thin bezels.
I think it looks great by itself
and it looks great sitting underneath the Studio display.
I think that the angle adjustments
on this display are exactly what you need.
So whether you're using it with a laptop
as a secondary display on the go,
or having it set up in a permanent configuration
with a desktop setup in a larger display,
it's easy to find the exact angle that you're looking for.
I like that it's a single cable connection,
especially for a desktop setup.
So I don't have to have
a whole bunch of extra wires to manage.
I like that the cable is actually down here on the base.
I know some other portable displays have a USB-C connection
coming out of the side of the display.
I'm not a fan of that.
I really like how this one is just outta the way
on the bottom and you really don't see it.
And it's nice to have that secondary USB-C port
on the side for pass through charging if you need it,
or you can use it to connect to your computer
from either side.
So whichever side makes sense,
you can connect that single cable to your laptop or desktop.
Now I mentioned the colors a few minutes ago.
About them being not the greatest colors
and not the greatest contrast ratio.
So what really is this display for?
In my opinion, this display
is really for a secondary display.
This is not something
that you're going to be editing videos or photos on.
Not something that you're gonna be watching videos on
or other content.
This is really kind of like the note taking laptop
or research laptop, or email,
or logging into servers like I do every day for my day job.
It's great for just logging into servers to get things done
on that display or whatever.
Not your main content that you're looking at.
Just reference material is how I've been using this display.
Where it is not great at all is its response rate.
This is a 60 hertz refresh rate display,
but the response time, how fast the pixels
can change from one color to another, are pretty bad.
As you can see on this display response test,
there's quite a bit of a tail on this rectangle
as it moves across the display.
That's because it's really slow
at actually changing its pixel color.
So for regular office work and documents,
you're really not gonna have an issue,
but for even watching videos, even YouTube videos,
on this display, it's not gonna be great.
You see tearing across the screen as there's motion.
It's just not a good multimedia display.
So is this Dell C1422h any good?
In my opinion, yes. I think it's what I need.
Again, this is a secondary display to my Studio display,
so I don't need anything super fancy.
I don't need this to be a pro display XDR
or a liquid retina display XDR
like on the 16 inch MacBook Pro.
It'd be nice to have that quality of display,
but if I wanna use a desktop computer like the Mac Studio,
then this is a pretty good option as a secondary display.
This is perfect for office work notes,
websites, research, reference, documentation, whatever.
It's not great for multimedia.
I wouldn't edit photos on it or anything like that.
But for what I need it for, it fits the bill,
and it does it pretty well in a nice clean package.
But what do you guys think?
Does this Dell display have what it takes
to be a good secondary Mac desktop display?
Let me know in the comments below.
If you're still trying to decide
on a main display for your Mac desktop,
maybe you're looking between the Apple Studio
display with its speakers and webcam and 5K display,
or maybe you're looking at the Eve Spectrum 4K
with its 144 hertz panel.
Definitely check out this video right over here.
Hit the thumbs up button if you liked it.
Hit subscribe if you want.
And I'll see you next time.