Review: MIMO 710 USB Monitor

I wrote an entry about the newly-available Mimo monitors a while ago, which I thought would make a nice accessory for laptop users. I’ve decided to bite the bullet and order the Mimo 710.

The total cost with shipping and brokerage fees to Canada was very close to a full-sized LCD and in some cases, even less. Is it worth the price?

Introduction

If you haven’t had the chance to backtrack a couple of posts, let me explain the concept behind these bad boys. Mimo monitors are USB-controlled (and powered) 7 inch monitors that sit on your desktop using an adjustable stand in either portrait or landscape mode at a resolution of 800×480. The Mimo 710 is the barebone model while the Mimo 740 sports a touchscreen, built-in microphone and a webcam. They also differ in looks: the 710 has rounded out corners while the 740 have them squared. While I prefered the look of the 740, I couldn’t justify spending the extra dough for it’s features since they’re all accessories I already own.

Packaging

The monitor arrived at my doorstep buried in a pile of packing peanuts in a standard corrugated carboard box in surprisingly good condition compared to the items I usually get. The unit’s packaging was pretty standard, but pretty sleek: a black, semi-glossy box with a few shots of the product and general information. Opening the box reveals a flap with the words “Good friend” printed in gray, which I assume is some sort of Chinese greeting that’s been awkwardly translated.

Under said flap, is the first glimpse at the unit. It then becomes obvious that Mimo cares about it’s product’s quality. The unit is snugly encased in a soft plastic shell, wrapped in fabric foam a under a protective plastic layer found over the unit’s screen. Lifting the unit and removing it’s plastic encasing, a second row of items is revealed: the dual-port USB cable, drivers CD, instruction booklets and the unit’s surprisingly sturdy metal stand and chromed fastener knob.

The unit itself feels a bit light and its plastic frame a bit cheap, especially compared to the stand, but it’s obvious they haven’t skimmed on the paint. The high gloss piano finish is gorgeus and matched the finish on my monitor perfectly. Of course, glossy means it’ll be a dust and fingerprint magnet, so keep your gear clean. On the right side of the monitor are three buttons: up, down and the power buttons, which control the unit’s brightness and power state. The buttons are chrome-painted plastic and have a solid ‘clicking’ feel when pressed. Behind the unit, we find standard exhaust vents, a sticker with general electrical information standards and the USB connector port at the bottom. In the middle is the metal screw hole for the fastener.

Installation

Screwing the monitor to it’s stand using the fastener knob, I was pleasently surprised at how sturdy and high-quality the stand was. It’s thick metal shell had been coated with a layer of what feels like rubberized powder paint. Rubber feet have been glued under the stand to prevent it from scratching your furniture when moved around. The plastic fastener has been chrome plated (or chrome painted rather), even though you’re only going to see it once or twice after the initial installation. The moving neck of the stand is stiff (as it should) and it doesn’t feel like it will be wearing out any time soon. Unfortunatly, should it wear out, there doesn’t seem to be a screw we can simply tighten to restore it, so don’t play around with it too much.

Once the screen has been attached to the stand, you’ll need to plug in the USB cable to the bottom of the display, which is easier said than done if you’ve chosen to install the monitor at it’s lowest position on the neck. Unfortunately, a standard ‘long’ USB connector was used rather than a much more space effecient 90 degree connector. Once that’s done, simply plug one or two of the dual-port USB cable into your PC, depending on how much power your USB ports allow. In my case, it used a single port on my laptop.

Pop in the drivers CD, select your model number and the drivers are installed in less than 5 minutes. A quick reboot was required to activate the applications. The unit came to life the second I booted into Windows.

Initial Impressions

The monitor will appear in your display panel as a regular monitor would. You can drag the icon around and place it at it’s proper location in your configuration so your mouse enters the screen as it should when reaching the edge. The installed application alows you to quickly change options from a right-click on your taskbar and offers various display modes such as mirror, extend, span and also controls portrait or landscape modes.

One of the first things that struck me about the monitor is how clear and crisp the image was. Considering it’s size and resolution, the monitor packs a pretty high pixel density factor which allows small text to be easily readable and the image quality to be above all reproach. It’s also very bright at it’s default setting, and can further be increased using the arrow keys found on the site of the unit. I was impressed to see there were several more brightness levels than the already vivid default setting.

Panning around the unit, I had a hard time finding a viewing angle that did not give me good image clarity unless placed in an akward position, not that it should happen anyway, since you can customize your monitor’s position fairly accuratly for comfort.

Performance

Having tried low performance USB-to-VGA converter boxes before, I was a bit skeptical about the unit’s capabilities. I have to admit that my fears were laid to rest once I started dragging windows around with absolute fluidity. To be blunt, you will rarely, if ever, notice that the unit is USB controlled and on limited bandwidth. It’s just that good. Wether you’re working on spreadsheets, browsing the web or even watching fast-paced full-screen videos, the unit delivers beautifully. I don’t know how they managed to pull it off, but they did it right.

However, that’s not to say there is no setback. Since the unit is solely controlled by USB, it does not benefit from video acceleration and must be processed by the CPU. In a nutshell, this means your processor needs to render the image, rather than your video card, thus consuming some of your processor’s cycles. In my tests, the consumption during idle times was around 4% of the CPU and up to 12-13% when playing full-screen video, which isin’t too bad, even when gaming. Playing World of Warcraft on my primary monitor while watching full-screen videos on the Mimo did result in a small drop in framerates, but was still very much playable and very enjoyable. It also makes it a breeze to look up information on quests while playing, or keeping an eye on your messenger, or email applications. I like to have my music player in the Mimo will playing so it grants me easy access to my library and quickly allows me to change the track simply by moving my mouse off the screen.

Wrap-up

Is the Mimo worth your hard-earned cash? I’m still on the fence. If you’re stuck on a laptop and have no additional VGA ports but require an additional monitor to stash your applications, then definitely. If you’re debating on a full-sized monitor or a 7in Mimo, then that may not be the case. In my situation, it’s a great purchase. It allows me to keep my desk clutter free, looks fantastic and makes watching videos and keeping track of my messenger applications much more enjoyable.

At the time of the writing, the Mimo 710 was available at 130$ US and its touchscreen, microphone and webcam-bunbled counterpart, the Mimo 740 for 200$ including free shipping to the US. Canadians will need to add an extra 20$ for shipping, and between 25$ to 40$ for international brokerage fees.

If you have any questions regarding the monitors, feel free to leave a comment and I’ll do my best to answer them.

Note: My camera is currently out of action – I will do what I can to get a few shots for you folk as soon as I can.