Lepow Lite H1 portable display review

When it comes to the best monitors on the market — particularly high-res gaming monitors  — you can often expect to pay north of $300 for the vivid privilege, and such monitors are rarely mobile. The Lepow Lite H1 portable display, on the other hand, is just as portable as any Chromebook, and roughly the same size. Whether you want it for work or play, this 14-inch 1080p external monitor is an excellent accessory for pedal-to-the-metal productivity, no matter where you take it. 

Lepow Lite H1 portable display pricing and configuration options

You can pick up the Lepow Lite H1 for $230 on Amazon, but as of this writing, it was on sale for $200, which is a substantial price drop. If you’d like a tad more screen space than 14 inches, Lepow has 15.4-inch and 15.6-inch options ranging from $170 to $219 each. These models are also designed with portable gaming top-of-mind, featuring pop-out stands that let on-the-go gamers prop them up just about anywhere.

Lepow Lite H1 portable display design

The Lepow Lite H1 is equipped to connect to a computer, phone, or tablet via USB-C or Mini HDMI. It has a minimalist design — for a potential gaming accessory, anyway. The 1920 x 1080p screen is surrounded by a sleek gunmetal gray bezel emblazoned by the company logo at the bottom. 

The Lepow Lite H1’s removable cover converts to an origami-style folding stand in seconds, allowing for both vertical and horizontal orientation. At 12.8 x 8.1 x 0.6 inches and 1.7 pounds, it’s roughly the size of a large tablet, and when I powered it on for the first time, I mistook the new display for the Chromebook touchscreen it was connected to, and started tapping away to no avail.   

I did some light traveling with the Lepow Lite H1, and by the time my testing was over, there were some very noticeable scratches on the bezel. It’s not a deal-breaker, but you might want to be careful as you schlep this thing from point A to point B.

Lepow Lite H1 portable display ports

Turn the display around, and you’ll find two speaker grills, the flip-out stand/cover, and a few ports: USB-C (power-only), USB-C (full-function), Mini HDMI, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. A power button and roll key (for menu selections) round out the external controls. 

Lepow includes a Mini HDMI-to-HDMI cable, a Type-C to Type-C cable, and a Type-C to USB-A cable in the box, along with the folding cover, a screen protector, and a wall charger. Just like any other external monitor, this one needs a power source to function; you can plug it right into your laptop if you’ve got a capable USB-C port. Otherwise, you’ll need to tether your tech to a nearby outlet or charging brick; the display requires a 5V/2A (or higher) power source. 

Lepow Lite H1 portable display OSD menu and speakers

If you press the roll key it’ll pull up the OSD Function menu, which is where you can adjust the display’s brightness, contrast, black level, sharpness, aspect ratio, color temperature, and more. Without tweaking these settings at all, the screen was every bit colorful, sharp, and bright as the 13.3-inch Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 Chromebook I was testing it on. 

The built-in speakers are predictably tinny and weak, but still better than nothing, I guess. If the device you’re connected to is missing a headphone jack and Bluetooth audio isn’t an option, you can use the Lepow Lite H1’s built-in 3.5mm port to tune in to your media. It’s a welcome addition that any gamer will appreciate for sure. (Also great for watching movies on a plane from your phone, I found.)

Lepow Lite H1 portable display performance, color, and contrast

The Lepow Lite H1 is a 14-inch, 1920 x 1080-pixel ISP flat panel with a native 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio and 60Hz refresh rate. These specs pale in comparison to full-on gaming displays like the MSI MPG Artymis, a 2560 x 1440 model with an impressive 165Hz refresh rate, which is designed for more demanding titles and ideal for lag-free, tear-free gaming. Nevertheless, you can’t go very far with a 32-inch monitor, unless you have a dedicated butler for your gaming gear. 

What can you do with an ultra-light 14-inch display with all this high-res connectivity? That all depends on your imagination, I suppose. Throughout my testing process, I used it a bunch as a second display for that aforementioned Chromebook, which instantly turned the duo into a multitasking powerhouse as I toggled between web pages and apps. Since my Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra is connected to my Chromebook (including text messages), this setup soon became my main messaging station throughout any given workday.

But that’s not all! My phone is equipped with a relatively large 6.9-inch touchscreen, which is a little small for watching movies or TV shows. During my holiday season travels, it was pretty handy to have the Lepow Lite H1 around for catching up on Succession, the John Oliver Show, and Looney Tunes over HBO Max to combat my insomnia. 

When it comes to my home office writing space, my current setup involves a 27-inch Samsung LC27F398FWNXZA curved monitor paired with the 17-inch HP ZBook Fury 17 G8, which packs a powerful punch in terms of sheer visual real estate in front of my eyeholes. I’m always optimizing my workspace, however, and adding a third display to my desktop allowed me to compartmentalize my productivity in new ways. For example, I felt like a multitasking master when I used the Lepow Lite H1 as a dedicated messaging screen (for Slack, Signal, WhatsApp); the ZBook Fury 17 G8 as a dedicated web-searching screen (for the billions of Chrome tabs I always have open); and the Samsung LC27F398FWNXZA as a dedicated word processing screen (since I’m always editing something in Google Docs, and favor the largest available screen for that activity). 

Regardless of the device I was connected to, I never experienced any lag when I used the Lepow Lite H1 as a second monitor. Colors were vivid and well-saturated during my testing, and it was a pleasure watching the Roy family antagonize each other in glorious 1080p on HBO. The busy cityscapes scenes were smooth as butter, with accurate details and adequate brightness stretched out over the NYC skyline. 

Lepow touts this as a gaming monitor, so I fired up Fallout New Vegas on Steam (admittedly not the most resource-heavy title), maxed out all the visual settings, and set out to kill some irradiated mutants. 14 inches is an excellent size for mobile gaming, and I didn’t experience any lag whatsoever as I jogged across the post-apocalyptic landscape. The cloudy sky was beautiful to behold, and all of the surrounding details appeared crisp and clean. 

Bonus: My friend has a PS4 at home, and since the Lepow Lite H1 is PS4-compatible, she got the idea to play it remotely from my apartment (via the PlayStation Remote mobile app, plus one of her gaming controllers). Once she tethered her Android phone to the display and paired it to the controller, she was playing Rayman Legends via SharePlay from her apartment while she was sitting in mine. Once again, no lag. Pretty cool.

Bottom line

At $230, the 1080p Lepow Lite H1 Portable Display might cost the same price as a decent Chromebook, but if you look for price drops on Amazon, you could snag one for less than $200. 

Thanks to a handy-dandy built-in stand, a few different connectivity options, and plenty of tweakable settings, you’re unlikely to regret this mobile accessory, which adds an instant upgrade to any smartphone or tablet display. 

From where I’m sitting, students, gamers, and multitasking mavericks of all ages will find something to like about the Lepow Lite H1.