Capsule Review: GeChic's On-Lap 1302 Laptop Monitor
by Dustin Sklavos on April 15, 2012 12:00 AM ESTIntroduction
Just three months ago we took GeChic's 13" USB 2.0-powered monitor, the On-Lap 1301, for a test run. What we found was a compelling concept for a product that was marred by some usability issues. Apparently we weren't the only ones who felt like the On-Lap needed a revision; the On-Lap 1301 proved successful, but it wasn't on the market for very long before being replaced by the new On-Lap 1302. The big question is: just how much can be revised over the course of just a few months? The answer is more than you'd think, but less than you'd hope.
If you didn't get a chance to read our review of the 1302's predecessor, the GeChic On-Lap is a USB 2.0-powered monitor that connects over HDMI or VGA. That means that it doesn't employ DisplayLink and thus lacks all the benefits and weaknesses of that technology. Personally, I prefer running over HDMI and VGA since that means the display benefits from proper GPU acceleration and doesn't hit the CPU like DisplayLink can.
So What's New?
GeChic has gone and completely reworked the On-Lap 1302's shell and connectivity. Its predecessor, the 1301, measured roughly 14"x9", was about a half an inch thick, and weighed nearly two pounds. The 1301 was plenty portable and I found that it wasn't so heavy that it would tip over my ThinkPad X100e, meaning any larger notebook shouldn't have any issues with it.
With the 1302, dimensions have stayed roughly the same (albeit much thinner) while GeChic managed to shave a half of a pound off of the weight, and it makes a surprising amount of difference. Also gone is the suction-cup mounting system, but the problem is that while what GeChic has replaced it with is a large part of the reduction in weight, it's also almost strictly worse. The suction-cups were surprisingly effective at keeping the 1301 attached to a notebook, and you could add adhesive mylar pads if they weren't quite enough. The point is that generally, you didn't have to really modify your notebook in any way to get the 1301 to attach. The same is not true of the 1302.
The 1302 uses a bracket mounting system, where one metal bracket is affixed to the lid of your notebook with adhesive tape, and then the 1302's bracket slides on to that. I'm not sure exactly what GeChic can do to improve how the On-Lap mounts to a notebook, but this feels like a step backwards and once again, the way the screen pivots out ensures it's always going to be exposed (and thus prone to dust and dirt.)
Fortunately, the green rubber block stand has been improved. Unfortunately, it's again only an incremental improvement. You can mount the screen to the set of rubber blocks a number of different ways, but the essential problem remains: the blocks themselves are clunky and feel like a kludge rather than a legitimate solution. It's worlds better than the previous design, but the blocks honestly need to just be eschewed entirely and replaced by a single plastic flip-out stand.
Finally, indicative of how quickly the 1302 was rushed to market to replace the 1301, the OSD remains completely unchanged. GeChic smartly moved the buttons to the bottom front of the display (and they're much easier to use as a whole), but the OSD still thinks the buttons are on the back and off to the side. I'm not sure anyone else would notice this (since I don't know how many people would've used the 1301 first), but I did and fixing this is a bit of polish the product could really use.
Update: The firmware for my monitor was pre-production; production versions have the OSD oriented correctly.
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JarredWalton - Sunday, April 15, 2012 - link
First paragraph of the final page: "There are other products on the market that add portable screens to your notebook (we actually have Toshiba's Mobile Monitor due in soon), but none that do it the way GeChic's solution does. Everything else uses DisplayLink; what GeChic has is something no one else does: a USB 2.0-powered monitor that still runs off of the GPU."french toast - Sunday, April 15, 2012 - link
When will you guys have the reviews in for the HTC ONE X?? love your smartphone reviews but you do seem to take a while to get them out? perhaps the time goes to a quality review ;)Perhaps a comparison with the HTC ONE S would be great, thanks
stephenbrooks - Monday, April 16, 2012 - link
That's a Mirror's Edge wallpaper I haven't got yet.adventurebutter - Thursday, May 14, 2015 - link
GeChic 1302 is one of their older models, GeChic has long upgraded their portable monitors to 1080p IPS displays with HDMi, VGA, MiniDisplay Inputs.I would highly recommend: GeChic 1303H 13.3" IPS 1080p display. On Amazon is it much more expensive than AOC, more than $300, but remember it comes with an IPS panel (none of that cheap TN panel AOC uses) and the resolution is 1080p. I had to dish out more money for GeChic, but it was totally worth it. When displayed next to my MacBook Pro with Retina screen, the colors were almost the same- AND i could adjust color settings.
Oh and the best part- you can connect this portable monitor via HDMI to your xbox, smartphone, and everything else you can think of using HDMI
Remember this monitor could be connected to any device via HDMI, VGA. Therefore besides laptops, you can connect GeChic monitors to your smartphone, Xbox, Playstation game consoles, and even use it as a DSLR field monitor. The muti-functionality of this product is why its a bit expensive.
You can find GeChic 1303H on Amazon here: http://amzn.to/1PFJR9U