A brand named Lukos has introduced a 14-inch super ultrawide portable 4K monitor with an odd 32:9 aspect ratio, offering more ports than something its size should, and at a rather palatable $419 price for a niche PC accessory. This is not a unique invention considering Asus already offers the ProArt Display PA147CDV, a similar secondary portable monitor.
Super ultrawide monitors, despite being outrageously expensive, are slowly catching on. Even though professional gamers aren’t exactly fond of the idea because of the unfair competitive edge they offer, power users tend to prefer the productivity boost they provide. Just take a look at Samsung’s Odyssey G series super ultrawide curved monitors with a wild 1000R curvature. Lukos has a slightly different take on this design trend, however.
The resolution of Lukos’ 4K monitor stands at 3840 x 1100 pixels with an extremely wide 32:9 aspect ratio. The $1,600 Sceptre C505 super ultrawide monitor also offers a similar aspect ratio, but it scales things up to a ginormous 49-inch form factor. The Lukos 4K monitor goes for one-fourth of that price and the panel is said to cover 100 percent of the sRGB color gamut. Lukos touts the monitor’s gaming prowess with features like 2ms response time, but the screen refresh rate is capped at 60Hz, and there is no mention of features like Nvidia G-Sync or AMD FreeSync for minimizing issues like screen tearing. The aspect ratio is a gaming caveat in itself, and scaling issues aside, even modern consoles like the PlayStation 5 lack support for ultrawide monitors, so there’s that too.
A Love Or Hate Monitor
When it comes to the content-watching experience, Lukos promises “an iMax-style 4K cinematic viewing experience,” but finding content that fits that 32:9 screen without cropping or letterboxing is going to be a chore. One area where the monitor might excel is running apps in split-screen mode, as the screen quickly snaps into two “normal” 16:9 windows. Thanks to a dedicated processing chip, it can also display four 4K signals in split-screen mode. Owing to the small 7-inch size, however, the windows would best serve as a reference screen, and absolutely not for tasks like media editing. Flip it 90-degrees, and things suddenly get better. Just like the absurdly thin Elsonic EK-MD088 monitor, Lukos’ offering also sounds like the perfect screen for doomscrolling Twitter. A wireless remote control lets users quickly launch split-screen mode and adjust brightness, among other basic tasks.
Screen-centric drawbacks aside, the Lukos 4K monitor is fully decked out with other goodies. It features three DisplayPort outlets (two v1.4 and one v1.2), a USB-C port, three HDMI ports, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. It even comes equipped with a fan for cooling that has its own dedicated switch. There is also a solid hinge mechanism that allows for height and tilt adjustment - something that Apple’s $1,300 iMac desktop can’t accomplish. The best part is that Lukos’ monitor is portable, which means it can be folded up and lugged with ease. Now, the bad part. Currently going at $419 for early bird backers, this super ultrawide monitor is still a Kickstarter project. That means there’s always a risk that the product might never actually ship, even though Lukos is well past its super ultrawide portable 4K monitor stretch funding goal.
Source: Lukos/Kickstarter