KYY K3 Portable Monitor Review: One to Consider if You Don’t Need Much

6.0/ 10
SCORE

KYY K3

$100 at Amazon

Pros

• Cheap
• Portable
• Convenient one-cable operation

Cons

• Generally disappointing
• Sad speakers
• Doesn’t live up to specs

KYY has managed to become a best-seller on Amazon with the KYY K3. Its $99 price tag puts it up against the decent-but-cheap $95 MSI Pro MP156 E6 and favorites like the Arzopa Z1RC which is frequently on sale for around $120. The K3’s intermittent discounts, dropping the price to $69, is what sets it apart. For that price it becomes a viable budget option despite some overpromises.

The KYY K3 (not to be confused with the K3-1 or K3-2), is a complete package. The 15.6-inch, 1080p screen is bundled with all the necessary cables, a 10-watt USB charger and a magnetic folio cover that protects the screen and doubles as a stand. The display even includes speakers (but more on those later).

As long as you don’t expect too much, you might be OK with the K3. KYY says the monitor can reach 300 nits and provide «vibrant colors» with 72% of the NTSC color space. That should be enough to cover 100% of the sRGB color space. However, none of this bore out in our testing.

I saw the monitor reach 271.8 nits in Game mode (the default mode produced 257) and achieve just 47% coverage of the NTSC color space (49% DCI-P3 and 65% sRGB). The contrast was mediocre at 970:1. Motion clarity wasn’t too hot either, with the UFO proving hard to see clearly in Blur Buster’s UFO test. Adding to the disappointment, the built-in speakers, as you might expect for a thin, portable display, are pitiful. They don’t put out much volume even when cranked all the way up, and they sound like they’re packed inside a cardboard box.

All of that makes for a pretty ho-hum monitor, but if simple utility and a low price are all you need, it’s easy enough to accept. The display is sharp enough to read fine text, and the matte finish helps overcome the limited brightness. The whole unit is also fairly compact, measuring just 0.6 inches thick with the case (0.4 inches without), and it also weighs just 2.4 pounds with the case (1.5 without). Plus, it can operate with a single USB-C connection, and there’s a Mini HDMI connector as an alternative. The monitor even feels nicely built thanks to its largely metal chassis, with plastic only showing up in the bezels. Despite the controls feeling cheap, they at least work somewhat intuitively with a quick input selector and a simple directional switch.

Ultimately, the KYY K3‘s worthiness all comes down to the price when you’re buying. At $99, I’d recommend the lighter, brighter and cheaper MSI Pro MP156 E6 or the brighter, more colorful and much sharper Arzopa Z1RC. However, when it’s on sale for $69 or less, it’s a sensible option for those who just need a secondary, portable display to give them a little extra room to work.

How we test monitors

Measurements for the KYY K3 were taken using a Spyder X2 Ultra colorimeter using DataColor’s Spyder X2 software for SDR. Color accuracy measurements results are reported in Delta E 1976 using Datacolor’s 48-color patch test.

On the most basic models, we may only test brightness, contrast and color gamut. With more capable displays, we may also run tests of user-selectable modes for gaming or color-critical usage, uniformity and so on. We may also run tests to verify how white point accuracy varies with brightness. We also use Blur Busters’ motion tests to judge motion artifacts (such as ghosting) or refresh rate-related problems that can affect gaming.

Keep in mind that individual results can and often do vary from a manufacturer’s reported results for a variety of reasons.