The Best Travel Monitor for Filmmakers (With One Big Problem)
Editing while traveling sounds great until you actually have to spend hours working from a 14-inch laptop screen.
At home, I’m used to editing with a much larger second monitor connected to my MacBook Pro. I have space for my timeline, footage, scopes, and full-screen playback without everything feeling crammed together. The second I leave that setup behind, though, editing becomes noticeably less comfortable.
That’s what made the UPerfect GR19BU interesting to me.
It’s a 19-inch portable 4K monitor that’s actually designed for gaming, but I wanted to test it for something completely different: filmmaking.
The combination of a larger screen, 4K resolution, and an extremely slim design sounded almost perfect for a filmmaker who regularly edits away from home.
And after using it, there’s a lot I really like about it.
Unfortunately, there’s also one major problem that could make it a deal breaker depending on the kind of work you do: color accuracy.
Why I Wanted a Portable Monitor for Video Editing
My usual desktop setup includes a 24-inch second monitor alongside my 14-inch MacBook Pro.
Once I travel, that extra workspace disappears.
Technically, I can edit entirely from my MacBook Pro. But when you’re used to a larger editing environment, squeezing everything onto a 14-inch display can feel uncomfortable pretty quickly.
So I started looking at portable monitors.
The problem was that a lot of the options I found seemed to land at two extremes.
A 14-inch portable monitor didn’t appeal to me because that basically gives me another screen around the same size as my laptop.
On the other end, some portable monitors stretch toward 24 inches, which starts feeling too large for something I actually want to travel with.
That’s why this 19-inch model caught my attention.
For me, 19 inches looked like it could be the sweet spot: noticeably larger than my MacBook Pro without becoming so large that I wouldn’t want to pack it in my luggage.
What Comes With the UPerfect GR19BU?
One thing I appreciated immediately was that I didn’t have to start buying a bunch of accessories just to use the monitor.
The monitor has an adjustable stand built into the back, so I can position it fairly upright, which is how I prefer to use it, or tilt it much farther back if that works better for the setup.
It also comes with the cables you need to get started:
A USB-C cable for power
Another USB-C cable for connecting a laptop or smartphone
An HDMI-to-micro-HDMI cable for connecting other devices
That means you shouldn’t need to immediately hunt down extra cables or adapters.
But my favorite included accessory is actually the carrying case.
The monitor slides into the padded sleeve, and there’s a zippered section on the back where I can keep the cables and accessories together.
For something specifically designed to travel with me, that matters more than it might sound.
Why the 19-Inch Screen Works So Well for Editing
This is probably the biggest reason I find this monitor interesting for filmmakers.
The screen is large enough that it actually feels useful.
With a smaller portable monitor, I’d still feel like I was working with another laptop-sized display. At 19 inches, I get enough additional screen real estate that it starts feeling much closer to the desktop editing experience I’m used to.
The 4K resolution also makes the display incredibly sharp and detailed.
When I’m playing footage full screen, the larger display makes it easier and more enjoyable to actually look at the image and discern details.
That’s ultimately what I want from a portable second monitor.
I’m not looking to carry around another tiny display just because it technically gives me more screen space. I want something big enough that it meaningfully improves the editing experience.
For me, 19 inches does that.
What Is It Actually Like to Travel With?
Of course, calling something a “portable monitor” doesn’t automatically mean I want to carry it through an airport.
At 19 inches, this monitor obviously isn’t going into the laptop sleeve in my camera backpack. That sleeve fits up to a 16-inch MacBook Pro, and I’m already using it for my laptop anyway.
This is where the included carrying case becomes especially useful.
I can keep the monitor and its accessories together, then slide the whole package into my carry-on.
The monitor itself isn’t heavy, and its design is extremely slim. Despite the larger screen, it still maintains a relatively small footprint when packed away.
There is one thing I’d be careful about, though.
The included case has some padding, but it’s still a soft case, not a protective hard case. I wouldn’t want to drop it and expect the monitor to come out completely unharmed.
So while it’s easy to travel with, I’d still treat it delicately.
Where This Monitor Actually Makes Sense
There’s another important difference between something being portable and something being practical everywhere.
Because this is a 19-inch display, you still need a decent amount of desk space.
I can see myself comfortably using it in places like:
A hotel
An office
A co-working space
A coffee shop with a larger table and nearby outlet
An airport seat?
That feels like overkill to me.
You’re dealing with the width of the monitor, your laptop, and the fact that you need access to power.
So I wouldn’t think of this as the kind of portable monitor you casually pull out anywhere.
I think of it more as a portable workstation monitor.
Once I get to wherever I’m staying or working, I can quickly set up a much more comfortable editing environment than I’d have with my laptop alone.
The One Big Problem: Color Accuracy
This is where things get complicated.
As filmmakers, we work in a visual field.
What we’re seeing on our monitors matters.
Ideally, I want my display showing me colors that accurately represent what my finished video is going to look like.
And this is where the UPerfect GR19BU struggled for me.
I tried matching it to my MacBook Pro display.
I was able to change the monitor’s color mode to P3, which gets it closer to the color space I’m using on my MacBook.
But even then, I noticed a slight color shift.
So I went into the monitor’s RGB controls and tried manually adjusting the image.
No matter what I did, I couldn’t get the two displays to match perfectly.
I could get them very close, but the portable monitor still had a slight magenta shift.
If I tried correcting that by adding more green, the image immediately became too green.
There just wasn’t enough fine control for me to manually dial the monitor in exactly where I wanted it.
Connecting an iPhone Made the Difference Even More Obvious
The color discrepancy became even more noticeable when I connected my iPhone.
I found it basically impossible to make the monitor and phone display look the same.
The colors on the external monitor could look very different from what I was seeing on the phone itself.
For general use, that might not matter much.
For filmmaking, it deserves serious consideration.
Does the Color Issue Make It Unusable?
Not necessarily.
There’s a pretty simple workaround.
If I’m editing in Adobe Premiere Pro or another editing program, I can use the UPerfect monitor for the majority of my workflow and then move what I’m doing back onto my MacBook Pro display when I’m ready to make final color decisions.
The problem is that the image you’re looking at while editing on the external monitor can still be misleading.
You might spend a bunch of time looking at an image that appears one way on the UPerfect monitor, only to move it back onto your laptop and see something noticeably different.
Whether that bothers you enough to make the monitor a deal breaker is going to depend on your workflow.
I definitely wish the display were more color accurate.
There may be calibration options that could improve things, but when I tried to manually match the screens, getting them exactly aligned was extremely difficult.
Who I Think This Monitor Is Best For
After using it, I think the UPerfect GR19BU makes the most sense for filmmakers and professionals who regularly edit remotely or on the go.
If you travel frequently and hate being limited to a small laptop screen, the 19-inch display can make editing significantly more comfortable.
You get enough workspace that it feels like a legitimate second monitor rather than just another small screen.
The 4K resolution looks incredibly sharp.
The monitor is slim.
It packs easily into a carry-on.
And the included carrying case keeps the monitor, power cable, and connection cables together.
If those are your priorities and you can work around the color accuracy issue, I think it’s a really interesting option.
Who Should Probably Skip It
There are two situations where I’d be more hesitant.
First, if your work depends heavily on accurate color, I don’t think I’d make this display the monitor I rely on for critical color decisions.
Second, if you do almost all of your editing from home, I’m not sure you need a portable setup like this at all.
If portability doesn’t matter, you can go with a more traditional desktop monitor and potentially get a larger display along with other features and upgrades.
The portability is really what makes this monitor interesting.
If you don’t need that, one of its biggest advantages disappears.
So, Is This the Best Travel Monitor for Filmmakers?
For the right filmmaker, I genuinely think it could be one of the more interesting options.
The 19-inch screen is large enough that I actually want to use it for video editing.
The 4K resolution is sharp and detailed.
And despite the larger screen, the monitor is still slim and compact enough that I can bring it with me on travel projects.
Most importantly, it makes my remote setup feel much closer to the editing environment I’m used to having at my desk.
That’s exactly what I wanted.
But the lack of perfect color accuracy stops me from recommending it to everyone.
If you travel frequently, want more editing space, and are comfortable doing your final color work on another display, this monitor makes a lot of sense.
If color accuracy is critical to your workflow, though, that one limitation may outweigh everything it gets right.
And that’s ultimately the decision I think every filmmaker should make before buying one:
Is having a larger, sharper, genuinely portable editing workspace more important to you than having an external display you can completely trust for color?
For some filmmakers, absolutely.
For others, that one big problem could be enough to look elsewhere.
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