DomyFan is a portable touchscreen display with built-in stereo speakers, mini HDMI and USB Type-C inputs, and an unusual aspect resolution. It’s a 12.3 inch, 1920 x 860 pixel screen with a 16:7 aspect ratio.
The Chinese company behind the DomyFan says it will have a retail price of $259 when it begins shipping in April, but the company is running a Kickstarter campaign and offering backers a chance to save 50% or more.
While I wouldn’t be surprised to find that DomyFan is rebranded version of an existing product that may already be available in China (this happens pretty often with Kickstarter campaigns), I couldn’t really find any other consumer devices with 1920 x 860 pixel displays, so it’s unclear where the company is getting the display panels for this device, or why they decided a 16:7 aspect ratio is a good idea.
But as Grant Russell noticed, it looks like that least one similarly-sized display with that resolution was released (and discontinued) a few years ago. It’s unclear if that means the makers of DomyFan have managed to get their hands on some existing stock of that display or if there’s another 1920 x 860 pixel display panel on the market.
The DomyFan supports 10-point multitouch input, has a kickstand that lets you prop it up on a table, and VESA mount holes that also let you connect it to a wall mount or monitor stand. The DomyFan features an aluminum body that measures 387.4 x 149.9 x 25.8mm (15.3″ x 5.9″ x 1″).
The company says the screen is an IPS LCD with 172 degree viewing angles, up to 300 nits brightness, and 100% sRGB color gamut. The screen can be used in portrait or landscape orientations.
Ports include a mini HDMI input, two USB 3.1 Type-C ports that can be used to connect a display, power the display, or for data transfer and two USB 2.0 ports that can be used for a mouse, keyboard, storage device, or other peripherals.
If you’re using the display with a PC that supports USB Power Delivery, you may be able to use a single USB-C cable as a video, touchscreen, and power input. But you’ll probably need a separate power source if you plug in a smartphone, game console, or other devices.
Keep in mind that backing a crowdfunding campaign is not the same thing as pre-ordering a product though. While the company says it’s “confident that our reliable supplies and manufacturers can help minimize unforeseen problems in the production process,” it’s possible that DomyFan units may not ship on schedule or at all.
via Geeky Gadgets
If only it had a built in battery so it could turn my Samsung phone into a Dex laptop.
Looks like it’s probably this panel: https://www.panelook.com/C120HAT01.3_AUO_12.0_LCM_overview_50559.html
Based on the wide range of operating temperatures, my guess is that it’s a panel meant for the automotive industry. Maybe an info-tainment panel, or a digital gauge cluster panel.
Good find. I forgot about that site and just found myself looking through Alibaba and AliExpress for products with that display resolution.
I got a kick out of this incredibly inaccurate section on the DomyFan Kickstarter page: “The 16:7 design allows you to enjoy any game you want, as almost all games are designed to fit this aspect ratio. Most people use a 16:7 monitor, so the DomyFan product with a 16:7 aspect ratio is a more appropriate choice for a great gaming experience.”
“We have studied you humans, and we have found that you play games on 16:7 monitors”
It’s not quite 16:7, but feels appropriate to call it that given the resolution. Though if I wanted to be more accurate, I wouldn’t call it 16 : 7.17, it’s more of a 20.1:9 screen… and that’s still a very bad/odd ratio, but it’s somewhat common on Android phones.
Ironically, 19:9 to 20:9 on phones is the worst offender. Most content is still 16:9 with “smart scaling” which fills the rest of the screen to prevent black-borders. And when you occasionally do get something made for Ultrawide (21:9), well you can’t display it properly either. It’s the worst of both worlds. For phones, I think the best aspect ratio is actually 17:9. It gives you an uninterrupted 16:9 viewing screen, plus a little extra lip display. That extra can be used to round off the corners for aesthetics, display the Notifications Shade, and house the Navigation Buttons. You can even put a notch in it, it won’t interrupt the 16:9 space, which is the important part. It keeps the content to the shape, making the physical device more space efficient. Then again we’re talking about 4-6 inch range.
This device is 12 inches. Tablets are usually this sized, and for them the ideal range is min 9:9, 12:9, 12.7:9, and 14.4:9 at max. But then again, these are meant to be used in-arm, rotate to different orientation, interacted often and closely. The DomyFan is instead meant to sit on your desk, next to your keyboard/monitor, not get rotated, and get little interaction from a distance.
To be honest, it really depends on what you want to display on it. For videos, you’re going to lose a lot of content from the limited vertical space. Or it’s going to get stretched badly. Or you’re going to have to make the display smaller with letter-boxing. For emulation, it’s worse as most games run at 16:9 or 15:9 or 12:9. Modern games may adapt, but you could have the HUD and UI Elements get distorted. Websites have plenty of whitespace for margin of error. Excel and Word should be fine. Displaying Stock Prices may be okay depending on the Application.
the only real advantage to this that I see is gaming, where using a bluetooth speaker could result in unavoidable (and possibly intolerable) lag
At least the price is good, despite the odd resolution