Review: Kensington Makes Dual Monitors Simple

Dual-monitor configurations on desktop PCs can go a long way toward enhancing productivity. (That is, for those who aren't too easily distracted by having too many applications and widgets in front of them at the same time.) <P> Twice the viewing space means a person can see more data at once. It means a person can more quickly access multiple applications. It means a person can get more done. If you doubt this, try to find someone who has had multiple monitors attached to a PC and hasn't liked it. It's a good bet that won't be easy. <P> Component makers and PC manufacturers have acknowledged this by making it much easier to find snap-in video cards, or desktops and notebooks that support multiple LCDs. Peripheral-maker Kensington has acknowledged this, too, with its Dual Monitor Adapter for PCs -- a nifty peripheral that we've looked at in the Test Center lab. <P> The Dual Monitor Adapter, despite its unassuming product name, is just terrific. Street-priced at about $119, the device creates a second LCD port via USB 2.0 connection. Installation consists of loading the driver software, hooking up the USB device, and connecting the second LCD. That's it. We tried this on a custom-built PC running an Intel Core2 Quad Q6700 at 2.66 GHz, with on-board graphics, and 4 GB of memory. <P> The adapter features extended and mirrored desktop modes in Windows Vista, DVI-I and VGA input, and comes with a VGA adapter. Kensington says it works with Windows XP and Mac OSX 10.4.11 with downloaded beta drivers. (We only looked at it on Vista.) <P> We can easily recommend Kensington's Dual Monitor Adapter as a nice peripheral that can add value to a desktop.