(September 2, 2021: Corrected the title to say 15.6-inch instead of 14-inch as the KD2 is a 15.6-inch monitor.)
After launching the original KD1 portable monitor late last year, GMK is now ready to ship the KD2 portable monitor with significant improvements across the board. The monitor and carrying sleeve are currently on sale together for $409 USD after applying the coupon code '$90OFFKD2-NBC-BTS' on the official GMK retail store.
The manufacturer has sent us a sample for our impressions and the changes from last generation's model are immediately noticeable. The edge-to-edge glass, for example, now covers the entire front of the unit instead of only a portion while the rounded "2.5D" edges add a more modern aesthetic. Port options remain the same gen-over-gen, but weight (993 g vs. 822 g) and dimensions (354 x 222 x 14 mm vs. 321 x 208 x 12.6 cm) are actually slightly heavier and larger, respectively, due to the use of more glass and the larger bottom bezel. It's a fair tradeoff for the stronger and more rigid build of the KD2.
The full retail specifications of the KD2 can be found here and the Amazon product page here.
Top 10 Laptops Multimedia, Budget Multimedia, Gaming, Budget Gaming, Lightweight Gaming, Business, Budget Office, Workstation, Subnotebooks, Ultrabooks, Chromebooks
under 300 USD/Euros, under 500 USD/Euros, 1,000 USD/Euros, for University Students, Best Displays
Top 10 Smartphones Smartphones, Phablets, ≤6-inch, Camera Smartphones
Interestingly, the maximum brightness we're able to reach is 432 nits when HDR is disabled which affirms the manufacturer claim of 400 nits. When HDR is enabled, however, we're only able to measure a maximum of 463 nits compared to the manufacturer claim of HDR600 or 600 nits.
GMK doesn't advertise the response times of the KD2 for good reason: they're very slow to put things lightly. Users will notice a lot of ghosting when playing modern 3D games meaning we recommend 2D games for a better experience. The latest displays with 3 ms or 5 ms response times are an order of magnitude faster than what the KD2 is capable of.
Pulse-width modulation or screen flickering is present when the brightness is set to 30 percent or lower.
The display will consume just over 15 W at most when the brightness is set to maximum. The difference between minimum and maximum brightness is around 8 W. If you want to the exploit the full brightness of the display, then you'll have to make sure that your power source can provide at least 20 W.
Color temperature is overly warm when set to the default settings. Calibrating the panel with our X-Rite colorimeter raises the color temperature from 5820 to 6715 while improving grayscale and colors significantly to deltaE levels of under 2. Solid colors strangely remain much more inaccurate against the AdobeRGB standard which suggests that additional fine-tuning via the onscreen settings menu may be required.
Surface temperatures are warmest toward the bottom since that is where the PCB resides. The hot spot near the USB power source can reach over 37 C during use.
Color space covers all of AdobeRGB compared to only 71 percent on last year's KD1. Image quality is excellent when compared to cheaper portable monitors like the Vissles or Auzai, but colors don't pop as much as they would on a high-end smartphone since the overlying glass is on the thick side.
Audio quality from the integrated speakers remain unimpressive with poorer bass and volume than most laptop speakers. Unless if these are your only option, then it would be better to stick with your laptop speakers instead.