Now you might not be so familiar with GAEMS, who were founded in 2010 by Dean Mercier and John Smith, but you will probably recognize a revolutionary product that has had huge success in the US; The GAEMS Vanguard/Sentry. Now, they have decided to expand their product line by introducing a range of gaming monitors, designed specifically for portability and performance. Today I’ll be taking a look at the M-155 Performance Gaming Monitor. It’s a monitor I’ve not really seen before, but it’s very impressive and, to the right audience, is something I believe will be extremely useful.
The M-155 is, and namely so, a 15.5” LED portable monitor, with a gloss screen, textured casing, and a tablet-like appearance. The screen is a native 720p display, but it can display 1080p scaled down, which will give you a loss of detail for 1080p games, but still looks pretty impressive. Included with the screen is a case — awesomely called it’s “shield” — which is screwed into the top of the M-155, and has three levels to stand at different angles. Amazingly, it weighs less 2 pounds, being the first thing that shocks you as you hold it in your hands. What else may shock you? How about the fact that it’s powered through a single micro USB? You can either plug into the mains via an adapter that comes with the monitor, into your PC or laptop, or into your console; The USB also splits in two in case you need more power from your USB, something I found is needed from the front ports on my PC. There’s a single HDMI, which can be used for any console with a HDMI, PC and Laptops, but I’ll get onto that a little bit later. The monitor does not have speakers built-in, but it does have a 3.5mm headphone port in which you can plug in either your headphones or your speakers for optimal sound, which is a great alternative. There’s also volume control, brightness, and a few display settings in the menu.
Now, the screen is beautiful. It’s very bright, the colours are vivid, and it looks as good if not better than most standard TVs — at least at the same size. As the screen is gloss, it does attract dust and fingerprints very easily, so just be sure to use your shield and maybe have a screen cleaner on standby. A flaw I have noticed is when plugged into a PC or Laptop, the display isn’t very sharp and the limited settings make it so you can’t improve it. More settings would be the best option, but if GAEMS added a PC profile so you can switch between Gaming and PC, that would improve it’s diversity. The display for consoles, however, is absolutely stunning, with only some slight ghosting you get quickly accustomed to. Although it is a large screen for being portable, you may be able to squeeze it in with your laptop or just in your backpack, taking it anywhere you please that has a single plug socket. Games are moving away from couch gaming (for some reason!), and playing with your friends is becoming an online only experience. But, if you take your console with your M155 monitor to your friends house with your favourite game, you can play together and have a blast anytime and almost anywhere.
Priced at $169.99, the GAEMS M155 is maybe a tad expensive if you don’t think you’re going to use it too often. If you travel often, visit friends, generally think you will make good use of a portable monitor for consoles, then I’d highly recommend it. It might be a better product with a couple of additional features, but being the first of it’s kind by GAEMS, it’s a fantastic monitor. Also, I think that having it to use on a plane or take to LAN events if you’re a big gamer is a huge reason to purchase this beauty for yourself.