PC second screen costs just $2.57 on AliExpress — but this sub-1-inch USB-connected display won’t be for everyone

Second screens can be a great asset, and easily pay for themselves by precipitating a productivity boost. They come in all shapes and sizes, leveraging a broad range of technologies, but some products could leave you scratching your head about the best way to fit them into your setup. Especially tiny sub 1-inch screens.

A peculiar case in point we noticed today is the $2.57 WeAct Display FS, listed on AliExpress. That price point seems irresistible for a highly-portable USB interface second screen. However, its postage stamp dimensions (it has a tiny 0.96-inch diagonal screen), means it is something of a curate’s egg. This tiny screen isn’t going to worry the makers of the best portable monitors, but could have its niche use cases.

The dimensions of the WeAct Display FS are more like a typical thumb drive storage device than a portable monitor. Specifications suggest the entire device measures 43 x 14.5mm, but we don’t have a thickness measurement to share.

Another significant way it strays from the portable second screen norms is that WeAct’s tiny screen doesn’t accept a USB-C or HDMI connection – it has a captive USB-A interface (again, like many USB thumb drives). The connector is reversible in this instance, with an insulator pad supplied for the unused side.

One side of the WeAct Display FS is almost entirely taken up by its screen. As mentioned previously, this has a 0.96-inch diagonal. Using a bit of math, we can work out that the actual screen measures ~0.429 x 0.858 inches (~10.9 x 24.4mm).

Across this tiny display, there are 160 x 80 pixels (thus a 2:1 ratio). We also know the display uses the RGB565 (16-bit) color format, delivering up to 65,536 colors, which should be ample for its touted applications.

WeAct reckons that its little Display FS device is going to be useful for both system monitor and media projection applications. Indeed, two Windows applications are supplied, which are crafted for these purposes.

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CNX Software notes that the code upon which the WeAct Studio System Monitor is based is open source. Thus, it is theoretically possible to use the WeAct Display FS and this app on systems other than Windows. Any Python supporting OS should do the trick, but you’ll have to do more leg work to use this device as a tiny second screen on macOS or Linux, for example.

The origin of the WeAct Studio Screen Projection app isn’t known, and it is thought to be a Windows-only app which emulates a Windows display. It is shown being configured to replay images / video from other screens. CNX Software expects it to be able to be used as a full-screen YouTube video or photo gallery playback device.

If this kind of tiny second screen has you intrigued, but the WeAct Display FS is too small for you, we spotted similar but larger devices on AliExpress. Moving the budget up to $10.76 means you could grab a 3.5-inch IPS Type-C Computer Secondary Screen, which is advertised as a great AIDA64-based system monitor (a very similar screen is $26 on Amazon). Stylishly circular 2.1-inch IPS screens with USB-C connectivity can be grabbed from $27.16 via AliExpress. But that’s a significant circular premium to pay. Remember to check postage costs on AliExpress, too.

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