This massive new portable monitor boasts over 1 billion colors, and clocks in with a 4K resolution

There’s a certain internet personality that’s a big lover of matte black — and it’s likely that espresso Displays’ brand-new portable display, the espresso Pro 17, will be right up their street. Covered in a glorious matte black paint job, the 17 Pro looks to be one of the best portable displays that money can buy, and espresso has filled it with some proper premium features to make sure that it’s going to scratch the itch for the professional on the go.

With high screen resolution, a portable power bank, touch technology, and a wicked new stand, the espresso 17 Pro is something that we can’t wait to try out. Proudly made and designed in Australia too, and will hopefully rank high on the list of the best portable monitors for Mac.

Pro — more than just a name

These days, it seems like Pro means more than just ‘professional’. It seems instead like it means just ‘the best version of’, with the likes of the AirPods Pro 2 and iPhone 15 Pro using the moniker instead of Ultra, or other words to separate them. The espresso 17 Pro is not one of these however — this is a display built from the ground up for the professional, with some wicked specs on board for artists, designers, and others that might need a hi-res touch panel on the go.

First up is that 4K resolution, which espresso says boasts 1 billion colors on a 10-bit spectrum. That is a colorful display, ensuring that artists are served well for all their drawing or editing needs. It’s bright, too, up to 450 nits, the brightest of any portable monitor out there. That panel is a touch screen as well and works with the espresso pencil so that you can pan around your MacBook screen with the espresso Flow software and drivers.

That MacBook plugs in the side with a USB-C port, both powering the display and sending the display signal. Espresso had to come up with a power solution, however — that 4K panel uses a lot of juice to stay alive. To keep it going, espresso has made the espresso Charge, a kind of USB-C battery bank that slots into the bottom of the sturdy-looking espresso stand, providing 27,000mAh of battery.

That stand has a cool feature as well. Listening to artists who use their displays for drawing, the firm has put a special lock in place so that you can click the screen at an 18-degree angle, the perfect angle for drawing. That stand is metal too, so you can slap your display on the magnetic attachment point and not worry about its longevity.

Finally, there will be a range of different accessories that you can get with the display, like a folio-style case that will double as a kickstand for when you’re really tight on space in your bag. We’ve been testing espresso’s 15-inch screen over the last couple of days, and if that’s anything to go by then the 17-inch variant should well be an absolute stunner — especially with its mere 9mm thickness.

The espresso Pro is available to preorder now for release in late November. The essentials bundle containing the display, the stand, and the Charge will cost $999, while the Studio bundle is $1315. That contains the display, the stand, Charge, paperlike screen protectors, the espressoPen, and the folding folio case. You can preorder from the espresso website.