AOC e1649Fwu Black 16" (15.6" viewable) 16ms USB Powered WLED Backlit Widescreen LCD Monitor 200 cd/m2 500:1

Pros: The monitor work great. Out of box, installed drivers and up and running with in 5 minutes. Love that it auto detects the monitor orientation and adjusts but it could be a con if I am also moving it to adjust while setting up workstation. Great price compared to most other online stores and with the Free case. I bought another as a gift 2 weeks later.

I was able to get several other people at my work to purchase as well.

Cons: so far, none

Other Thoughts: I wish that it was driver free. Maybe that can be something build in with the next version of windows?

Pros: USB X 2 for a mobile video solution. Ease of install. The drivers loaded from the web powered this guy up. Looks pretty cool too.

Cons: The NOISE! Good lord! I can't take it anymore. A high pitched whine that makes me think that the gates of hell are just a double USB connection away. I hate powering this guy up when I am alone at the office.

Other Thoughts: I can't believe it. I was jazzed to get this USB monitor. Great for the road and presenting to a couple of people. Better than the cords and pounds of even a small projector. Then, within the last 14 days, this thing has started to emit a high-pitch screech that... well, I went to church for the first time in 5 years as I think my e1649Fwu has a VPN to the depths of the underworld. For real, the monitor is so load that I no longer use it with donors or dev team members as it is distracting.

Don't buy it. While I was excited at the start, I now here the voice of Satan each time I power it up. Oh, and I never received a free cover for it. Bad deal. Low eggs.

Pros: This product has exceeded my expectations. It is a perfect solution to getting another display to carry around with you so you can have dual displays with your laptop.

Cons: It could be a thinner. It seems the shape of the casing wastes a lot of space. Also, it could come with a cover like the Lenovo version does.

Other Thoughts: Keep in mind how this device works. It utilizes the CPU to drive the display. If you're running on an older machine, or a netbook, you may not get the results you are after.

Pros: Was able to extend the desktop in Portrait mode...

Cons: ... for a couple of weeks. Does not work at all now.

Was not happy with the image when it did work either. Refresh rate was bad and no options to change it.

Other Thoughts: I only picked this up for a test case and am very glad for that now. I will be going to an alternative and maybe this will get replaced through warranty, maybe not.

If you are planning to buy this to pair with a laptop for a mobile deployment: BE WARNED! This unit is not very durable and it takes up more space than I expected.

Pros: Just a little more info from my initial pass at a review.

1) I fixed the "weird cable angle" issue with the StarTech.com USB2HABM3RA cable. The "B" connector has a 90-degree elbow that makes the cable go down. MUCH easier to plug in than the "straight-in" cable that ships with the product.
2) VERY usefull in my office for that little bit of extra screen space when it is needed. Works perfectly with MS office tools and has a nice crisp text -- nicer than my "primary" monitor.

Cons: Although I get good youtube performance (even full screen), this is not a gaming monitor. Thought I would try as an adjunt monitor on FSX; FSX gets all confused and basically does now work with the monitor plugged in. I do not see any compatibility issues with the driver and Track-IR, however. Track-IR works fine even after the monitor driver is installed. Have not tried the configuration with A10 or Black Shark so no opinion there (yet), but definately no go for FSX.

Pros: Display is fine even in indirect daylight. I had no problem getting applications to display; essentially I can just drag whatever windows I want onto the new screen, and it just works. Installation process was okay, and I installed the latest driver as directed by the AOS website. Procedure was: 1) download; 2) run it; 3) reboot; 4) plug in unit; 5) wait for windows 7 to auto-install some more "driver stuff".

After the last of the three drivers Win 7 went out and found installed, the unit just fired up and ran fine. I am always amazed when Windows does something like this and it actually works!

I agree with others that say that the USB plugin on the back of the unit is harder to get at than it should be. I could see how it ** might ** cause a problem if you were continuously travelling with it and setting it up again and again during the day (e.g., sales calls) but for me, it will be an adjunct screen I use occasionally at my office. I expect it will be just fine for that.

Cons: While certainly bright enough to use, I did not find an ajustment for brightness and contrast. Given that, I think brightness is set at a good level that will be okay for both lit and darkened rooms.

The monitor also has a slight electronic "hum" that is noticable but not overwhelming. If you are in a busy office I do not think you will notice it much. If you are gaming you will not hear it unless you are running without headphones with a very low volume. This is the main reason I rated the monitor a '4' instead of a '5'.

Other Thoughts: Overall a good value that I think will do fine for light-to-medium use. NewEgg also delivered the "free throw-in" case that usually costs about $30 as promised, and with the $100 pricing it is a great buy.

Pros: Love the USB interface, size and portability

Cons: Due to being USB only, it can't handle too much of a load, or at least mine couldn't. IT died about a month after I had it. Started flickering like crazy, I thought it was my usb ports, but I switched it from port to port then even did both USB connectors. After flickering for a few days after reporting it to AOC and then having it run ok for a day and thinking ok maybe it was just being fussy, it started shutting off and turning on on its own. I hope I just got a defected unit, not that the product isn't worth buying.

Other Thoughts: Told it comes with a 1 year Warranty, and I didn't expect to have to use it. I was excited for the product, but not so much anymore. I'm giving it 1 stars solely because of mine's lifespan 1 month.

Pros: - small
- decent picture quality
- bright
- fairly easy to get running

Cons: - picture frame type stand

Other Thoughts: Bought this as a cheap small screen for my zotac ID80. At first I had some trouble getting it to function as my primary monitor but managed to fix that.

Only real downside is the picture frame type stand, a true stand would be nice but for what its intended use I cant complain.

Obviously this screen won't display video during boot until the welcome/logon screen so if you're like me and using this as a main monitor you'll need a traditional one if you have to work in the bios or change boot options prior to boot.

Pros: Got this on a daily deal. Wanted to use it as a portable side monitor for home and office. I was almost ready to RMA the unit. It would show apps fine, but freeze on any video and other apps would not function properly. Emailed support and received help in a couple of days (sent request on Saturday, replied on Monday. Juan, support tech, was great. I had tried it on several laptops and computers and had the same problem (win 7 pro). Juan sent me a link to diplaylink.com to get the most recent driver. Problem fixed. Monitor now works perfectly. Works well in adjusting main monitor settings to default settings of unit.

Cons: Poor documentation. AOC website was not current with latest drivers. Unit is a little pricey for what it does. Applications work fine on one usb port. On several computers had to use the 2nd "Y" for stable video playback.

Other Thoughts: The unit would have gotten 1 star if not for the support from AOC providing a fix for the initial problems. Very satisfied with the unit and would recommend it as a good second monitor that is flexible to keep multiple apps open.

Pros: Lightweight, cheap, USB-driven

Cons: 16ms, poor TN panel quality, DisplayLink drivers are buggy. Does not work well when used on same system as ATI x-fire and TrackIR.

Other Thoughts: I purchased this to use as a 4th monitor in conjunction with Cougar MFDs for DCS:A-10C and Falcon BMS. My system is a triple-head rig (3x 23" ASUS LED-LCD), driven by two ATI/Sapphire 6970 2GB cards in X-fire+Eyefinity. The display drivers for this USB monitor cause very buggy performance with the ATI x-Fire/Eyefinity configurations. Several system hangs, GPU crashes, scan lines when it wasn't crashing, and the drivers for this monitor also caused problems with TrackIR. Uninstalling this monitor + drivers resolved all of the issues. (Note that I didn't use this USB as part of the eyefinity group, this was a 4th monitor just for extra cockpit displays).

As a stand-alone portable external USB monitor, this will get the job done. It is not suitable for what I needed.