How to Make a Cheburashka Out of a Laptop. Review and Personal Impressions of a System of Two Additional Portable Displays

Hello everyone! I am Anton Komarov from MTS Digital. Today I will tell you about my personal experience of working on a laptop with three displays at once.

My main computer is a powerful laptop connected to three monitors. I once bought this laptop cheaply in working condition, but with a broken display. Then I saw that replacing the screen would cost me a pretty penny, and decided to turn it into a desktop. With laptops it's easy: connect external monitors – and voila, everything is ready.

What I didn't expect was to get used to three screens so quickly. A few months after installing this system, I went on a business trip with a regular laptop. It was hard to work – there weren't enough additional screens. To avoid suffering next time, I bought a special system of two portable displays and now I'm sharing my experience with it.

Portable displays and their characteristics

I use Teamgee S6. There are other similar models – in my opinion, the Chinese produce them all at the same factory, or assemble them from the same components. Only the format of the stand changes, and the characteristics are practically the same at the same price.

There are 14- and 15-inch screen options. I chose the second one. At home I have 27-inch displays, so the larger the diagonal, the better.

The system consists of a laptop stand and two monitors. They are connected to the stand on the left and right of the laptop screen. Moreover, the position can be changed from vertical to horizontal. If desired, the monitors can be installed separately from each other – here everything depends on the capabilities of the stand and the preferences of the users. Here is a screenshot from the seller's page. Everything is as it is, nothing is embellished.

Specifications:

• Screen size: 15.6 inches;

• resolution: FHD 1080p, recommended – 1920 × 1080;

• type: LCD;

• brightness: 300 cd/m2;

• connection: USB-C;

• viewing angle: 235 degrees;

• Number of USB ports: three for each monitor;

• total weight: 2.39 kg;

• Price: $399 USD.

Display installation options may vary:

The monitors are light and thin, which was a pleasant surprise. The surface is matte, another plus. The image is clearly visible in bright light (I worked outside for a couple of hours during the trip, in the hotel courtyard) and, of course, indoors. The monitors can also be used with game consoles or even a phone with USB-C.

An important point is that the power is connected via the USB ports of the laptop. I tried three different models – there were no problems with any of them. Unfortunately, the specifications do not mention the power consumption of the displays. As far as I can tell, they consume little, since even a low-power laptop with a 2A adapter was enough to power it.

Equipment

The kit includes a carrying bag, several cables (more on that below), protective films, and a stand. Everything is assembled very well, no play.

Connection

I connected the first monitor to the USB-A port (power) and HDMI output of the laptop. To my surprise, the image appeared immediately, without dancing with a tambourine.

But then the problems started. The connection turned out to be not very logical, at least for me. The second screen was supposed to be connected using this cable:

This is an adapter, inside it is a built-in memory with driver files for Windows and MacOS. There is no such thing for Linux, but in the comments I saw that for Linux users everything started “out of the box”.

The instructions clearly stated: connect the adapter, install the driver and everything will work. So I did. The image appeared, but not this:

Whatever I did, whatever USB port I connected to, nothing changed. The computer stubbornly refused to display the image on the second screen. So I fiddled around for a couple of days. I tested different laptops (I have three of them – from a relatively old one to a two-year-old laptop), tested adapters and cables. Nothing worked. I even bought two additional USB cables of HDMI to USB-C format.

But there was still no image on the second display. When I swapped the screens to check their functionality, everything remained the same. Connected via HDMI, it worked, but via the standard adapter, it didn’t. In the end, I decided to go with one display: it’s still better than nothing. And then I accidentally connected a regular USB-C cable to the second USB-C port of the second screen, and… everything went crazy. And the instructions didn’t say anything about it — all the examples were given with an adapter that didn’t want to work for me.

I solved the connection problem the day before the trip, which I was very happy about. Perhaps someone will find the order of connecting cables to displays useful. The picture above shows the connection of the system:

• USB-C (laptop) to USB-C with DP (right monitor) cable,

• HDMI (laptop) to USB-C (left monitor)

• USB-A to USB-C (powered by laptop USB port).

Here is a photo of the displays (the first photo is for the monitor on the left, the second is for the monitor on the right):

Impressions from work

This section is the smallest. No complaints at all: after I connected everything, nothing glitched, flickered, crashed, etc. The image did not disappear, and everything was fine with the display resolution. Software setup, i.e. assigning monitors 1, 2, and 3, is a matter of a couple of minutes.

I was very pleased with the matte surface, since neither bright sunlight nor the lamp glared.

It was comfortable to work – just like I'm used to at home, only the displays themselves are smaller in size than my 27-inch ones. I had to adapt to the laptop keyboard, since I work on a split keyboard at home. But a couple of hours of training – and my fingers remembered what it was like to type on a laptop keyboard.

Most of the reviews I read were from people who were also used to a three-display system and were looking for an alternative for their trip. But I can also recommend such a system to those who work only with a laptop screen – try three, you might like it. By the way, some manufacturers have tried to launch laptops with three built-in monitors. For example, Razer with its Project Valerie:

But for some reason it didn't go into production. And even if it had appeared on sale, it would probably have cost as much as a Boeing wing. But I spent $399, getting a good working tool for trips. I've already worked with Teamgee S6 on two business trips, everything is great.

To be fair, other Chinese companies have similar systems. Just search for triple monitor laptop on AliExpress or Amazon – there will be a sea of ​​results. As I said above, I suspect that they are made from the same components, only the stands themselves are different.

If you have also worked with a similar system, tell me how you like it? Questions, comments on the topic – write, I will try to answer everything.