Sometimes the simplest ideas are the best. But sometimes, for reasons we’ll never find out, occasionally they just don’t work.
As regular readers will recall, a few weeks back I managed to sneak a week off on the fabulous Cocos Islands where I also had the opportunity of testing out the new DJI 360 camera and have an extended play with a DJI Flip drone.
What was also in the plans was a real-life scenario run with an Espresso display, but as I’ll explain shortly, that just didn’t work out.
Australian Designed
If you have not yet come across this Australian designed and engineered marvel, it can be described in very simple terms; Espresso makes a series of lightweight external monitors that simply plug into a host unit via USB-C. They come in various sizes and configurations, and the one I had been sent (at my request) was the smallest at 15”.
(That figure is the diagonal measure by the way and for some unbeknown reason, the industry is insistent in still using imperial measurements here.)
The concept is very simple. By using the freebie Espresso Flow software (both Mac and PC), you easily increase the desktop area of your existing laptop buy setting up the configuration any way you want.
For example, you might want to have the Espresso in a vertical orientation while the laptop is in a horizontal one. Its all very customisable and drag and drop and a snap to use, and if you are using a mouse or stylus, you simply “glide” from screen to screen. Layouts can also be saved if you have specific ones for specialist apps or uses.
The auto rotate functionality means that the Espresso screen will switch according to the orientation you place it at, and joy of joys, touch screen is supported.
So, having said all that, what is it that didn’t work?
Head Scratching
Well, my laptop is a Gigabyte Aero I have had for a couple of years now, but no matter I – with assistance from Espresso engineers – did, it simply refused to work. On the slight off chance I had a dud unit, Espresso sent me a second one and that too failed to light up.
I mean, how simple can it be? All you need to do (in theory) is plug in the USB-C cable and voila! But nope, nary a peep.
Plan B was to use a special HDMI-> USB-C cable Espresso has for this purpose (or say to use the screen as an adjunct to a camera via the HDMI port) and that too refused to play the game.
Much scratching of heads all around.
Microsoft Surface
Out of curiosity though, I pulled out the original Microsoft Surface I have had for about 6 years or more. This is one of the very first Surface’s released and is a little long in the tooth, but acts as a nice portable workhorse for email, web browsing and writing stories on planes or on holidays when I cannot be bothered dragging along the Gigabyte beast.
And bingo, it worked a charm! The Espresso Flow software installed quickly and easily and within minutes I had it all setup the way I liked it.
In hindsight, this is a good move as it now gives me the functionality of the much bigger and heavier Gigabyte with a smaller and more portable form factor, usable for all the stuff I would do away from the desk in the studio.
I can even create basic rough cuts of videos as although the 8GB of RAM it doesn’t support DaVinci Resolve, it will at a pinch run Vegas Pro or some of the less system hungry apps.
I intend to spend the next few days getting more familiar with the pros and cons of the Espresso, especially the use of the extremely clever magnetic stand design, so stay tuned.
You can get more info on the Espresso monitors, the available range and accessories at https://au.espres.so/explore
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[…] in September last year I reviewed the 15” Espresso tablet and explained my frustration at not being able to get it to work with a relatively new Gigabyte […]