DUEX Plus – A Second Monitor for your Laptop!

As someone who’s used to working most of the time at a desktop computer setup with multiple monitors, I’ve always found it difficult transitioning to a single screen when I’m away from my desk and using my laptop. When you’re used to having a second monitor to the side (or in my case, a 3rd and 4th up top too) to use, for example, as a reference monitor when writing video scripts or articles such as this one then it can feel extremely claustrophobic and cumbersome being restricted to a single laptop screen and constantly having to alt-tab between windows.

That’s where something like the DUEX Plus from Mobile Pixels comes in; it’s a second monitor for your laptop meaning you’re no longer constrained to that single-screen way of working when out and about.

When you unbox the DUEX PLUS, you’re presented with the screen inside a mounting system which sticks to the back of your laptop’s lid via 4 magnets which allow the entire assembly to slide horizontally. The magnets come with sticky pads pre-applied and you also get an Alcohol Pad in the box so that you can clean the 4 corners of your laptop before sticking the magnets in place.

After giving the surface of my laptop a thorough clean and letting it dry to give the magnets the best possible chance of sticking, I peeled off the sticky pads and pressed the DUEX Plus into place as per the Assembly Guide, pressing firmly. It’s then just a case of connecting the USB-C on the side of the monitor to a spare USB port on your laptop, and handily the supplied cable comes with both USB-A and USB-C ends so it doesn’t matter how old or new your laptop is.

The DUEX Plus is Plug-and-Play, so I didn’t need to install any drivers or do any complicated setup; Windows recognised that I’d plugged a USB-powered external display in and immediately began setting it up for me.

After a minute or so, it appeared as a second display in Windows and I was able to select the option to Extend my Display into it in the normal way.

Unfortunately, whilst getting it setup I ran into my first issue because when I slid the screen out from the side the whole thing just fell off straight away! Disappointing, I thought, but fortunately they also include a kickstand in the box so I got that out and magnetised it to the back of the screen, so it sits freestanding on the table next to the laptop:

The kickstand is a great idea but unfortunately it doesn’t work very well – the plastic folds and bends at the back, to enable it to be stored flat, but the folds are too stiff so it’s almost impossible to get the screen to stand up at the angle you want without falling over or detaching from the magnets at the top (the kickstand only uses the top 2 magnets).

At this point I was feeling pretty disappointed because I could see that it was a great-looking screen which worked well but was being let down by the mounting options. I decided to try again sticking the magnets to my laptop’s lid because – very fortuitously – Mobile Pixels give you a couple of spare sets of sticky pads in the box. Using a knife, I levered the magnets off the rest of the enclosure and I was suitably impressed by how strong these tiny little magnets are! Then, using the cardboard template in the box I lined up and reapplied the magnets with new sticky pads:

And OH, what a difference that made! As soon as I’d stuck them on individually and without pressing into place via the screen itself, they stuck solidly and as I write this over a week later, they’ve never come loose once. With them in place, I was able to stick the entire enclosure to my laptop as originally intended and it works brilliantly!

So my advice to you, dear reader, is to ignore the initial Attachment Guide which comes in the box and to stick the magnets on individually using the template guide (which, as far as I could see, is intended more for subsequent fittings to other laptops).

With the initial problem fitting the second monitor to my laptop out of the way, I was able to start really appreciating this device and all the benefits it will bring me. I mean sure, it’s technically possible (and probably cheaper) to plug a full-size mains-powered computer monitor into a laptop to use as a second screen but that’s a horribly heavy, bulky and inconvenient solution whereas this sort of becomes part of my laptop; it’s lightweight, doesn’t require a separate power adaptor and is ultra-thin so my laptop still fits in my laptop case with the second monitor attached.

A couple of days after unboxing and setting up the DUEX Plus, I had a work trip down to Leamington Spa to do some video production work and this is the first instance where this device really shone and made a huge difference. My laptop is a Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon and although it’s showing its age now, it’s still a great little laptop but its major downside is the low-resolution display when using software applications which need more screen space, such as the Audio mixer controls in the ATEM Software Control.

Not only did the second monitor mean I could leave the audio mixer display open and visible all the time whilst using the main display for other purposes, but it also effectively UPGRADES my laptop to feature a Full HD display where it didn’t before. When you think about it like that, this gadget is worth the price alone just for the screen upgrade it buys you!

A few days after using the DUEX Plus as a second monitor in a video production studio environment, I was down to DJ at a charity Christmas party in a pub near to my house so I also made sure I had the DUEX Plus with me once again. This time, it wasn’t so much the HD display that I was benefitting from but just the sheer fact of having a second display so everything didn’t have to be bunched up on a single monitor.

Using the DUEX Plus as a second monitor for my laptop meant that I could run Rekordbox (the Pioneer DJ software) in split-screen mode for the first time when out and about. This meant that my deck visualisations, BPM and key info etc. could all be on the primary display with space to spare whilst my music library and playlists etc. could all be on the second monitor. No more peering at the bottom third of the screen and only being able to view a few songs in the list without scrolling – I could fill the entire second screen with my songs and it made it much easier and more pleasurable scrolling through the list of songs to select the next one to play.

The DUEX Plus from Mobile Pixels is a very versatile monitor and it even features auto-rotation so you can use it on the left-hand side of your main screen if you prefer, and it’ll flip the image for you. What’s more, you can also us it with the likes of a Nintendo Switch and with some Android phones. Sadly my OnePlus Nord doesn’t seem to support working with extra displays via USB-C so I couldn’t test that out, although that’s no great loss to me – this thing does what I want when it comes to a second laptop display, and it does it very well!

Any downsides/what would I change? There’s very little to fault with this monitor, other than the issues I had initially setting it up. My suggestion to Mobile Pixels would be to package the magnets separately, and to advise sticking them on individually using the template card like I did. I’d also redesign the kickstand as it’s a great addition to the package, but just needs to stand a bit more reliably to be truly useful.

So in conclusion, is the DUEX Plus a good product and should you buy one? Overall I’ve been really impressed by so if you’re like me and need some extra room when working on a laptop (especially if you’re used to a multi-monitor desktop setup) then you certainly won’t be disappointed with this.

You can find out more information on the Mobile Pixels website, or check pricing and availability on Amazon in your area by clicking this affiliate link: https://geni.us/MobilePixelsDuexPlus.