UPERFECT UGame K118 – A Nice Portable Monitor
What’s Included and Specs
The specs of this monitor are pretty impressive. Coming in at 18 inches, weighing a little over a pound, the display supports up to 144Hz via USB-C (only up to 120Hz via HDMI), and has a 2560 x 1600 resolution. It also supports Freesync, giving gamers an edge to higher framerates. It also supports HDR, sRGB, and DCR. (Touch is not supported.)As far as I/O goes, here’s what’s included:
- two USB-C ports
- one mini-HDMI port
- headphone jack
- volume rocker
- speakers on both ends of the monitor
- VESA mount on the back
And here’s what you get with the box, in addition to the monitor itself:
- two USB-C to USB-C cables
- one mini-HDMI cable
- 30W power brick with detachable USB-C port
- magnetic cover
- instruction manual
General Use
You can fold the cover on the go to protect the screen, then unfold it and attach the monitor to the magnet, allowing it to function as a stand. The two small slots on the bottom of the cover allow you to position the monitor at a higher or lower angle.
To power the display on, simply connect one of the included USB-C cables from your device to the monitor. The display’s built-in speakers should start working right away. In most cases, power should be efficient enough, but you can also attach the included power brick to provide additional juice. In the case of the Steam Deck, while it’s possible to use the display without the power brick, you can’t increase the brightness to anything above 2. Trying to increase the brightness beyond that will cause the display to temporarily shut off and revert to default settings, as the Steam Deck doesn’t supply enough juice. Once you connect the power brick to the monitor, you can easily increase the brightness to as high as 10, while also charging the attached device (or battery drain will be slower if the power brick doesn’t supply enough juice).
One neat thing about the display is that you can flip it. The reason you would want to do this is so you can position the I/O on the opposite side. Say the I/O on the left-hand side is awkward to get to with the cables. You can rotate the display 180 degrees, then turn the monitor upside down. Now, the I/O will be on the right-hand side, making it easier to access depending on where your cables are.
Display Options
Pressing the volume rocker will bring up a menu in the bottom-right corner of the screen. From here, you can do the following:
- adjust brightness and/or contrast from 1 to 10
- change the color environment, such as movie, game, or vivid
- turn Dynamic Contrast Ratio (DCR) on or off
- adjust screen sharpness
- change color temperature from 9300k, 6500k, sRGB, or a manually adjusted RGB value
- adjust hue, saturation, and low blue light values
- turn Freesync on or off
- adjust volume from 1 to 10, or mute it entirely
- change language: 10 different languages supported, including Italian and Spanish
- rotate the display 180 degrees
- turn HDR off, auto, or “2084”
- change aspect ratio to 16:9 or 16:10, or to “auto”
- change PCM from native to sRGB, from Adobe to User
- change input
- reset everything to factory defaults
Volume can also be simply adjusted by moving the knob up or down.
The menu options can be navigated by using the knob. To go into a sub-menu, the knob needs to be pressed again. Holding the knob down will go back.
Available color environments (referred to as “ECO” in the menu) are Standard, Game, Movie, Photo, and Vivid. Each preset will offer a different set of colors depending on the environment you’re in. It’s pretty difficult to explain the differences on paper, so I’ll just show you a snippet of the different presets so you can get a good idea. I personally prefer the “Movie” preset, as it’s pretty rich in colors. The game preset is surprisingly a little washed out.
In case you’re not familiar with why Dynamic Contrast Ratio (DCR) does – as the term implies – it will dynamically adjust the contrast of the screen depending on what’s displayed. Dark areas in a game will be darker, and brighter areas will be warmer. Both the “brightness” and “contrast” sliders in the menu will be grayed out, as DCR handles this for you.
When gaming, it makes the experience a little more surreal. However, I don’t recommend it for everyday use outside of gaming, as when browsing on the desktop, the screen will be way too dim, especially if most applications you use have a dark theme. Even when gaming, brightness/contrast may adjust a little too quickly for your eye to keep up. I would recommend using DCR with caution. In some cases, it works great with gaming. In other cases, the screen may be too dim, or the color adjusts too quickly, which may lead to eye strain.
By default, the “Sharpness” slider is set to 3. It can be anywhere from 1 to 4. In my testing, I didn’t notice any real difference in “sharpness” quality when adjusting.
You can manually adjust the color temperature yourself in “user” mode. By default, R, G, and B are set to 50. These values can be adjusted from 0 to 100. Alternatively, you can use the 6500k, 9300k, or sRGB preset. As with the color presets, this one is also difficult to explain in words, but let’s just say sRGB has the best color temperature. 9300k is a little “cooler,” as the color has a slight blue tint, whereas 6500k is… well, I don’t quite know how to describe that one.
If hue is maximized to 10, the screen’s color will be greener, while reducing it to 0 will make it appear more magenta. Setting it to the default of 5 is the balance between the two. Saturation is pretty self-explanatory – the higher the value, the more saturated the color will be. Setting it all the way to 0 will make the screen black and white.
Adjusting the low blue light will make the display more yellow-ish. While I didn’t extensively test this at night to see if it’s even worth fiddling with, I would say the maximum value of 10 is a little too yellow. You’d probably be better off setting it to 5 for a good balance of a little yellow without too much of a color deviation.
Here’s a neat feature of this monitor: Freesync. After enabling this via the menu, you can turn on VRR via the quick access menu on the Steam Deck. This is going to make a nice boon in terms of framerates. The framerate boost will vary depending on what game you’re playing and how demanding it is, but the difference is certainly noticeable. On average, I see a boost of at least 10 FPS, sometimes even 20.
As for HDR, there’s off, auto, and 2084. I don’t recommend setting it to 2084. The screen will become dim, and the only thing you can adjust is the sharpness. You can’t control brightness, contrast, color temp, etc.
Issues
I’m not particularly a fan of the little ridge in the middle of the knob – repeatedly pressing it gives some discomfort in the skin of the finger. I wish they had just added a few extra buttons to navigate the menu to avoid this discomfort.
The 30W power brick isn’t powerful enough to charge the Steam Deck. While the display won’t shut off when not receiving enough power, the Deck won’t be charging – the discharge rate will just be less. So I had to use the Deck’s 45W AC adapter to power the monitor while charging the Deck.
Here’s another odd thing. Say I want to connect a USB-C dock to my Deck. If I want to use any of the ports on the dock while keeping the external display on, I have to do the following:
- Connect the mini-HDMI cable from the dock to the display.
- Connect the Deck’s AC adapter to one of the monitor’s USB-C ports.
- Connect a USB-C cable from the dock to the monitor.
It probably sounds complicated. And while on paper “everything just works,” on occasion there will be issues with the display temporarily shutting off then turning back on. Sometimes the screen randomly turning off and on happens so many times, it gives me a headache. The Deck’s power brick may not be supplying enough juice to the display while I have all the cables connected to the USB-C dock.
At the same time, VRR will sometimes be grayed out in the Steam Deck’s QAM. I’m not sure why this happens. To make the toggle not grayed out, you’ll have to restart the Deck and reconnect all the cables. Even then, you might have to do this several times.
As I mentioned earlier, DCR can be a bit of a headache with brightness/contrast changing too fast or not being bright enough.
While not necessarily a criticism, it would have been nice to add touch functionality to the screen.
The built-in speakers are mediocre. They do what they’re supposed to, but they aren’t that loud, even at maximum volume. And the sound quality, while not bad, isn’t spectacular either.
Is it Worth it
I have to say, this is a really nice monitor. The included carrying case doubles as a built-in stand with two adjustable viewing angles. With the VESA mount on the back, you can attach it to a stand (and perhaps even attach it to the Deck, so you have a gigantic Nintendo DS-like setup?). Cables can be routed in either direction, thanks to the ability to flip the monitor and display upside down. Freesync, HDR, 144Hz refresh rate, high resolution, and plenty of options to customize the colors on-screen are nice touches.
The downside of this monitor is the edge of the volume knob for accessing the menu, which can hurt your finger with repeated presses; a power supply that may not provide enough power to charge your device; substandard speakers; missing touch functionality; constant flickering of the display when a docking station is connected to your device; and VRR sometimes disappearing from the Steam Deck's QAM. Even if DCR is a nice feature, it can be a bit disturbing to your eye if the brightness/contrasts change too quickly and the image is sometimes too dark.
All in all, however, the advantages definitely outweigh the disadvantages. It is a great monitor to take with you on the go, and in most cases, you don't even need a power adapter.
TL;DR
The good:
- 144 Hz refresh rate, 1600p resolution
- built-in speakers
- Nice carrying case that doubles as a stand
- VESA mount
- Freesync, HDR, and DCR support
- a wide selection of color temperatures and modes to choose from
- Depending on which computer you connect and what your requirements are, you may not need a power adapter
- Display/monitor can be turned upside down to place the I/O on the other side
The not so good:
- The speakers are not very loud and not great quality
- Your finger can get sore if you press the volume control too hard
- no touch functionality
- The display can randomly flicker on and off when a USB-C dock is connected to the computer
- VRR is sometimes grayed out compared to QAM
- The included power adapter is only 30W; this may not charge your device
- DCR is a hit-or-miss; it can be a feast for the eyes or too dark
Original Author: Mark Dougherty
Reprinted from: https://linuxgamingcentral.com/posts/uperfect-portable-monitor-review/.
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