The Espresso 15 Pro offers everything Apple users want in a high-end portable monitor. 4K? Yes. Gorgeous. Oh, yeah. Touchscreen? Got it. USB-C? Check.
It has an all-aluminum body that makes it look great from any angle. And as a bonus, it comes with an innovative stand that lets you position the screen where you want it, even above your notebook.
I used the Espresso 15 Pro display in my home office and when working remotely, and am simply blown away. Here’s why.
Espresso 15 Pro review
You use a 27-inch monitor in your office — and maybe one even larger — but then somehow think you can be just as productive on the road with the only 16-inch screen in your notebook? You’re not. With less room to work, everything takes longer. Don’t do that to yourself.
While you can’t slip a 27-inch screen in your luggage, a 15-inch one is completely portable. And if you choose the Espresso 15 Pro, you get an amazing one.
So amazing you might use it all the time. That’s because it can be the touchscreen Mac you’ve always wanted.
There’s no surprise it was named a CES Innovation Award Honoree after being announced in January. The portable monitor just hit the market, so it can be ordered today. But first read my Espresso 15 Pro review.
Designed for modern work/travel professionals, this 15.6" 4K multitouch monitor from Espresso is built with an aerospace aluminum frame and hardened, scratch-resistant glass, allowing it to better withstand use while on the go. Complementing its tough build is a 4K touchscreen with a peak brightness of 550 nits and built-in speakers. Also featured are dual USB-C ports, which transmit power and video.
- Gorgeous 4K display
- Touchscreen
- Bundled with clever magnetic stand
- Underpowered speakers
Table of contents: Espresso 15 Pro review
- Portable monitor with beautiful 4K goodness
- Your touchscreen Mac today
- Ready to go with you
- All USB-C
- Take a stand with Espresso Stand+
- Plus speakers
- Espresso 15 Pro final thoughts
- Pricing
Portable monitor with beautiful 4K goodness
Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac
Comments on some of the portable monitors I reviewed in the past go something like, “1080p? Ha! Come back when you have a 4K display.” Well, here you go — the Espresso 15 Pro is 4K. To get technical, it’s 4K UHD, which is 3840-by-2160 pixels with a 16:9 aspect ratio. That’s the most common resolution for 4K TVs. And on a 15.6-inch monitor, that works out to be 284 pixels per inch.
Beauty comes from more than high pixel density, though. The LCD displays 1.07 billion colors with 100% DCI-P3. That’s top-tier performance. And its backlight also goes up to 550 nits — brighter than many rivals.
Perhaps the best way to talk up the portable monitor is by comparing it to a MacBook Pro. Espresso’s LCD offers 284 pixels per inch, better than the 254 PPI of the Mac’s LCD. And both have 10-bit color. A MacBook Pro comes out ahead in backlights, though, going up to 1,000 nits compared to Espresso’s 550 nits. The Mac screen also wins in 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio vs. 1,500:1 for Espresso. And finally, MBP goes up to 120Hz, while the third-party display is 60Hz.
But that’s just specs. How does the screen look? Of course, this review included a side-by-side visual comparison, and the Espresso 15 Pro looks better than a MacBook. The higher dots per inch come through in crisper images. That said, I had to peer very closely to discern the difference, and I can’t see a difference when looking at text on the two screens.
What you want in a portable monitor is one that can match your MacBook’s high quality closely enough that it’s not jarring when you look back and forth between them. This one from Espresso easily meets that goal. It’s stunning.
Your touchscreen Mac today
Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac
Apple is reportedly working on a large computer with a touchscreen, either a MacBook or an iPad. It is a logical next step. But you don’t have to wait. Connect an Espresso 15 Pro to your Mac and you have a macOS touchscreen tablet today.
To test it out, I leaned back with the portable monitor held in my lap and clicked around on the web with just a touch of my finger. It was a bit like using an iPad — the biggest, highest-resolution iPad I’d ever seen. I really enjoyed having all the screen real estate, as this 15.6-inch display offers a noticeable improvement over a 12.9-inch tablet.
That said, the experience isn’t perfect. Apple designed macOS to be controlled with a mouse and cursor, not a finger on a touchscreen. The same goes for third-party apps. Some of the icons, buttons, etc. you need to tap on are very small for a fingertip. That’s why, when using the Espresso 15 Pro as a tablet, I kept a mouse or my MacBook positioned so I could do anything my finger was too chunky to easily handle.
You’ll also probably want to keep a keyboard nearby. macOS does not include an onscreen keyboard like iPadOS does.
That said, you can annotate and draw on the touchscreen with the espressoPen ($89), which offers 4,000-plus levels of pressure sensitivity. That includes working in full-featured creative applications like Adobe Photoshop.
I find the Espresso 15 Pro an ideal option for someone building a macOS sales terminal. You’d have control of the user interface and could make everything fingertip-friendly, and employees could use it without ever needing to resort to a mouse/trackpad.
Sadly, none of the touchscreen features work with iPad. But that’s a limitation of iPadOS — I can’t blame Espresso Displays.
Ready to go with you
Espresso Displays designed the 15 Pro to go where you go, and look great while doing so. Unlike many portable monitors, it’s wrapped in aluminum, not plastic. The look is very professional — just what you want to use in front of important clients.
The 15.6-inch LCD determines the overall size, as the screen bezels are relatively small. The whole device measures 14.1 inches by 8.8 inches by 0.4 inches. The unit weighs 1.75 pounds.
All USB-C
You’ll find a pair of USB-C ports on the right side of the Espresso 15 Pro. Plug one of these into your Mac for both power and data — no other cable is required. It’s very convenient.
Connect the second USB-C port to a charger and you can power both the external monitor and your MacBook or iPad.
Note that there is no HDMI port. As an Apple user, you don’t need one, but this matters if you’re expecting to connect this display to something that requires HDMI.
Take a stand with Espresso Stand+
Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac
My review of the portable monitor found that a highlight of the Espresso 15 Pro is the Stand+, a magnetic folding travel stand with a brilliant design. Any good stand holds your screen next to your notebook, but Stand+ can hold the display above your notebook.
The all-metal accessory weighs 1.3 pounds, which is a noticeable extra weight when carrying your screen around. But it’s necessary because you need strong support for the portable monitor. Flimsy isn’t what you want.
Connecting the 15 Pro to the Stand+ is as easy as putting the screen in place. Magnets hold them together tightly. No slipping, even when you tap the touchscreen. And because the connection is magnetic, you can easily change from a landscape to a portrait orientation.
Plus, the screen and stand look great together. Which is good, because they ship together. Stand+ is bundled with the Espresso 15 Pro.
Plus speakers
Espresso Displays built a pair of speakers into the portable monitor, but I’ve yet to hear speakers built into any portable monitor made by any company that I’d recommend. These are typical: a bit quiet.
For this Espresso 15 Pro review, I tested them with a decibel meter, and the volume maxes out at around 60dB a couple of feet in front of the screen. That’s enough for a quiet room — barely — but unsatisfying where there’s much ambient noise.
Just use the speakers in your MacBook or iPad, as those are much better. Or put on your AirPods, or connect a Bluetooth speaker.
Espresso 15 Pro review: Final thoughts
Photo: espresso DIsplays
Espresso Displays makes the best portable monitors I’ve ever tested, and its latest is no exception. The 15 Pro stands toe-to-toe with the gorgeous screens Apple builds into its notebooks and tablets.
Plus, the portable monitor can give you the touchscreen Mac you’ve been hoping for. And don’t overlook the useful innovation of Stand+.
★★★★★
Pricing and release date
The Espresso 15 Pro costs $699 in the United States. It goes for 649 pounds in the United Kingdom and 799 euros in the European Union. Those prices included the Stand+.
Buy it from: B&H
I call this the best portable monitor, but maybe you need a larger size. I also reviewed the Espresso 17 Pro, another 4K touchscreen from the Australian company that bumps up your working space even more.
Or if you can get by without the touchscreen and 4K, there’s the Espresso Display 15. It costs less than half as much but still looks beautiful.
Designed for modern work/travel professionals, this 15.6" 4K multitouch monitor from Espresso is built with an aerospace aluminum frame and hardened, scratch-resistant glass, allowing it to better withstand use while on the go. Complementing its tough build is a 4K touchscreen with a peak brightness of 550 nits and built-in speakers. Also featured are dual USB-C ports, which transmit power and video.
- Gorgeous 4K display
- Touchscreen
- Bundled with clever magnetic stand
- Underpowered speakers
Espresso Displays provided Cult of Mac with a review unit for this article. See our reviews policy, and check out more in-depth reviews of Apple-related items.
