The Plugable USBC-PDMON aims to take a slice of the portable market pie with a smarter-designed product. This model features a 100-watt USB-C passthrough, allowing you to connect your laptop while having enough juice to keep it topped up under heavy tasks. It’s pricier than its competitors, so let’s see if its performance has merits to balance that out.
Plugable USBC-PDMON Specifications
- Screen Size: 15.6 Inches
- Resolution:1920 x 1080 FHD
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Panel Technology: In-Plane Switching (IPS)
- Refresh Rate: 60Hz
- Response Time: ?
- Contrast Ratio: 1000:1
- Brightness: 300 cd/m²
- Built-in Speakers: None
- Stand: Height – No
- Stand: Tilt – No
- Stand: Swivel – No
- Stand: Pivot – No
- VESA Compatibility: No
- Connectivity: USB-C x 3
- Dimensions: 14.2” x 8.5” x 0.4”
- Weight: 1.85 lbs
Design and Features
The Plugable USBC-PDMON has a very simple design that won’t clash with most laptops, including premium offerings like MacBooks. The device has a matte black finish all over, so its easy to keep the clean look with a few simple wipes. The display has minimal bezels, but they still stand out because of the smaller screen size.
The monitor is as thin as a notebook, so it should slide into your laptop bag easily without overcrowding or overloading it. The device only weighs 1.85 pounds, so most will not think that it is even there. Its also not that larger than your typical laptop monitor, so placement should be easy even if you are working on a small café table.
The Plugable USBC-PDMON’s build quality is plasticky like most budget options in the market. However, it is at most a hundred more than comparable offerings in this regard. It could do better for $200, in our opinion, but it’s not fragile, and it doesn’t seem like it will break easily with minimal force.
This model only has three buttons at the side of its frame, but that’s okay since they are easy to use when holding the screen with two hands. The two are meant for adjusting the brightness, while the bottom key is for switching between the factory presets. The monitor doesn’t have anything beyond that, so it is impossible to manipulate its image output.
The Plugable USBC-PDMON has a folding folio cover that can be formed into a stand for the monitor. That makes it thin and light, but it is flimsy compared to an actual kickstand. It’s easy to knock the screen down by nudging it accidentally, so placement is crucial so you don’t hit it.
Its main advantage is it has three USB-C ports versus the other options which have to make do with one or two. The bottom slots are both upstream ports for connecting a host device, while the other one is for power delivery. Plugable advertises up to 100 Watts of passthrough power delivery, so it should be able to handle a MacBook Pro with top specs and anything similar.
This model doesn’t have speakers, but that’s okay since its not something that’s crucial for the user experience. Built-ins on portable sounds tinny, so they are not really usable for entertainment purposes. Its almost guaranteed that your laptop’s set will sound better for most uses.
Display and Performance
The Plugable USBC-PDMON sports a 15.6-inch IPS panel with a 1920 x 1080 resolution, a 60Hz refresh rate, and an undisclosed response time. The backlight has a 300 cd/m2 output, while the contrast is listed at 1000:1. This model doesn’t have HDR capabilities, but that’s expected from most portable displays.
1080p screens aren’t popular for sharpness, but portables can be the exception since they are smaller and have tighter pixel densities. Legibility is excellent, so its fantastic for reading and typing, as well as games and movies. It also doesn’t take a powerhouse to run one, let alone enable dual display mode for extending your display.
The Plugable USBC-PDMON covers 68% of the sRGB gamut, dropping it behind many budget offerings in the market. Its decently accurate with a 2.45 dE average, so its serviceable if you want a neutral-looking display. It doesn’t have calibration options, and it only relies on factory presets that have middling scores as well.
Using a colorimeter didn’t do much since it only improved the dE average to 1.93. Its not worth it this time since the improvements you net are not proportional to the cost of the tool needed to achieve it. We recommend investing in a better option if this aspect is important to you.
The Plugable USBC-PDMON’s backlight reached 337 cd/m2 at 100%, so it can fight off a decent amount of glare. Its contrast only reached 351:1 at 60% brightness, showing us why it looks washed out in some dark scenes. This makes it less suited for entertainment purposes since some scenes will look too dire.
Panel uniformity for the test sample had some backlight leaks which showed up in some instances. Clouding will appear on dark scenes around the affected areas, but lighter backgrounds are not as affected. Note that this can vary with every monitor made due to tolerances, so there are better units out there.
The Plugable USBC-PDMON isn’t the most responsive monitor out there, but it is usable for casual gaming purposes. Trailing and ghosting can happen in fast-paced scenes, but that doesn’t matter if you’re only playing less complicated titles. The monitor doesn’t have an overdrive feature, so you are stuck with the default performance.
The Plugable USBC-PDMON isn’t compatible with VRR, but that’s understandable since it was not meant for gaming. Its also only a 60Hz 1080p screen, so getting stable framerates is always doable with any system. Its input lag sits at 10ms at 60Hz, so its just as responsive as most of the office monitors in the market.
Thoughts on the Plugable USBC-PDMON
The Plugable USBC-PDMON is a decent choice if you want a true-blue USB-C portable monitor for your work laptop. Its triple type-C ports make it a hub that delivers power to your laptop smoothly while receiving its signal inputs. It’s thin and light, so it’s not a bother to add it to your mobile workstation.
However, there are a lot of deal-breakers on it considering its more expensive than comparable offerings. We expect better imaging performance and functionality if you are spending considerably more. Its not a terrible product, but there is large room for improvement.
Pros:
- Thin and Light
- Up to 100W USB-C Passthrough
- Triple USB-C
Cons:
- Higher Price
- Poor Colors and Contrast
- Limited Features and Stand
About the Author: 
Paolo has been a gaming veteran since the golden days of Doom and Warcraft and has been building gaming systems for family, friends, and colleagues since junior high. High-performance monitors are one of his fixations; he believes that every citizen’s right to enjoy one. He has gone through several pieces of hardware in pursuit of every bit of performance gain, much to the dismay of his wallet. He now works with Monitornerds to scrutinize the latest gear to create reviews that accentuate the seldom explained aspects of a PC monitor.
Leave a Reply