The most inexpensive portable monitors can be had for less than $100, and while they have limitations, they more or less do the job. That can make more expensive portable monitors, like the HP Series 5 Pro 514pn, feel hard to justify. But HP makes a convincing argument for the higher price tag with the monitor’s attractive, lightweight design and superior image quality.
Read on to learn more, then see our roundup of the best portable monitors for comparison.
The HP Series 5 Pro 514pn’s technical specifications are a bit unusual for a portable monitor. It has a 14-inch display (technically 14.3 inches), but the resolution is 2560×1600 rather than 1080p. And the display panel is IPS Black with Neo:LED rather than standard IPS or (more rarely) VA, a pair of older technologies. This will become important when I test the portable monitor’s image quality.
The monitor is priced at $299.99 MSRP. It’s not yet available at time of this writing, with the retail launch coming in the holiday shopping season. So you should expect you’ll end up paying around $300, unless you’re reading this from the summer of 2026—in which case, hey, how’s the weather?
The HP Series 5 Pro 514pn’s IPS Black with Neo:LED panel is unusual for a portable monitor, but it’s arguably the design that really helps the 514pn stand apart from the hundreds of alternatives on the market.
It has a solid aluminum chassis that allows very little flex. Aluminum is common even among budget portable monitors, but the HP 514pn ups the ante with a unibody design.
Many portable monitors, particularly those that are less expensive, have a two-piece design where a flat aluminum panel is attached to a separate bezel. Here, those two elements are one piece of aluminum, which makes the monitor rigid. Most portable monitors feel like I could snap them over my knee if I really put some effort in, but there’s no way I could do the same to the 514pn.
The monitor also has a built-in kickstand with 90 degrees of movement, which translates to 45 degrees of tilt. This isn’t a rare feature: the MSI Pro MP165 E6 also has a kickstand, and it’s much less expensive. However, the HP 514pn’s kickstand is wider and made from aluminum, which makes the monitor feel planted. It’s seemingly impossible to knock the monitor over unless you yeet it straight off your desk.
In horizontal orientation, at least. The kickstand also supports vertical use, but it’s less stable and doesn’t offer tilt adjustment, instead sitting at a fixed angle of about 21 degrees. This is a common downside for a portable monitor, however.
HP also ships the monitor with a clever magnetic screen cover instead of a sleeve or case. The magnetic cover completely covers the display, but it’s extremely light, which keeps the monitor’s all-in weight down to just 1.4 pounds. It’s also just 0.35 inches thick. The downside? It’s possible for the screen cover to slip off if other items rub against it. I do like HP’s approach, but that’s something to keep in mind if you travel with your portable monitor stored in a suitcase alongside other items.
The HP Series 5 Pro 514pn’s design and build quality is certainly a highlight. I’ve complained in the past that mid-range portable monitors, like the Dell Pro 14 Plus, don’t always do enough to stand out from budget peers. The HP 514pn is a different story. It’s attractive and light, yet functional.
The HP Series 5 Pro 514pn’s connectivity is easy to explain. It has two USB-C ports, one on each side, and both provide Power Delivery. Power pass-through up to 65 watts is supported, which means you can connect a USB-C charger to the 514pn and then pass power to a connected laptop, which will also charge.
Of course, that also means the monitor lacks HDMI, which is a notable omission. HDMI remains an incredibly common video standard, of course, and one you might need to use if connecting an older device. You’ll need an adapter or HDMI to USB-C cable to do it here, and neither is provided with the 514pn.
HP does provide an L-shape USB-C cable, though, which is handy. This style of cable puts the cable at a 90-degree angle to the USB-C connector, which reduces the profile of the cable when it’s connected to the monitor. That keeps the cable out of your way and reduces clutter on your desk.
The HP Series 5 Pro 514pn has three buttons on the right flank; two for brightness and one for power. Holding down the brightness up button for two seconds opens a color mode menu, which has a few basic options like Warm, Cool, Neutral, and Night (a low blue light mode).
Monitor options can also be controlled with HP Display Manager, but image quality adjustments remain limited. HP Display Manager is only available on Windows 10 and 11, so Mac users will have to make do with the on-screen menus.
In a break from competitors, the HP 514pn doesn’t have built-in speakers. The speakers built in to portable monitors are often bad, so this isn’t a huge downside. Still, it’s something to keep in mind.
The HP Series 5 Pro 514pn has an IPS Black Neo:LED panel produced by LG.
If you’ve not heard of it before, IPS Black is a newer type of IPS panel that provides deeper, more lifelike black levels, which can improve the panel’s contrast. Neo:LED, meanwhile, appears to be a name used by LG to describe an LCD panel with quantum dots (though LG has not directly confirmed this; this is speculation based on the panel’s characteristics).
The 514pn is the first portable monitor with an IPS Black Neo:LED panel, and that gives it a unique image quality edge.
HP gets off to a good start in brightness with a maximum measured SDR brightness of 394 nits.
As the graph shows, that’s a high level of brightness for a portable monitor, defeated only by the Dell Pro 14 Plus and Viewsonic VX-1655-4K-OLED. High brightness is important if you travel, because you’ll often lack control over the lighting in your environment. The HP 514pn can still look dim in a very bright, sunlit room with many windows, but it’s otherwise easy to view.
The HP 514pn also has an anti-glare finish with a semi-gloss look. It doesn’t entirely mitigate glare, and is actually a bit more reflective than the very matte finish found on many budget portable monitors.
However, the HP 514pn’s display is a lot less reflective than the glossy finish that OLED portable monitors typically use.
Next up is contrast, a traditional weakness of IPS-LCD displays. The IPS Black panel helps to mitigate that with a maximum measured contrast ratio of 1710:1.
Your view on that result depends on the comparisons you draw. A contrast ratio of 1710:1 is great for an IPS-LCD portable monitor, and the image looks more immersive than on many such alternatives.
When placed next to OLED, though, the HP 514pn’s contrast ratio isn’t going to stand out. The image will look flat in a direct comparison to OLED.
IPS-LCD displays also typically lag OLED in color gamut, but here the HP 514pn is an exception to the rule. The Neo:LED panel serves up an incredible color gamut that spans 100 percent of sRGB, 100 percent of AdobeRGB, and 99 percent of DCI-P3.
As the graph shows, this is an exceptional result that really stands out in the portable monitor category. It even stands up to or defeats OLED alternatives, which typically display a similar breadth of the DCI-P3 color gamut but a bit less of AdobeRGB.
The wide color gamut gives the HP 514pn a vibrant and inviting look that pops when viewing bright and colorful content. It also makes the HP 514pn a decent choice for video and photo editors, as well as digital artists (though the lack of built-in image quality adjustments could prove frustrating).
Color accuracy is also a win for the HP 514pn, as it posts one of the best color accuracy scores I’ve seen from a portable monitor. In truth, a lot of mid-range portable monitors are good enough—but the HP 514pn’s accuracy is of the caliber I’d recommend for people who are serious about image accuracy including (once again) artists, photographers, and videographers.
Better still, the great color accuracy result is reached with good color accuracy scores across all colors. No single color posted an error value above 2.0, which is fantastic performance for a portable monitor.
The color temperature and gamma results are great too. I measured a color temperature of 6500K, which is spot on the target. Gamma came in at 2.3, a bit above the target value of 2.2. The image can appear a bit darker than it should and may lack details in very dark portions of an image, but the difference is subtle.
Sharpness is a perk thanks to the HP 514pn’s 2560×1600 resolution. Though it’s not the headliner 4K resolution would be, it still packs roughly 211 pixels per inch. That’s actually a much higher pixel density than a 27-inch 4K monitor, which has 163 pixels per inch.
Note, too, that the monitor has a display aspect ratio of 16:10 rather than 16:9. While 16:10 is fairly common in 2025, many portable monitors still have a 16:9 display. The added vertical display space that a 16:10 display provides makes the HP 514pn feel larger than the 14.3-inch panel size would suggest.
HDR is not supported by the HP Series 5 Pro 514pn. While that might seem like a downside, it’s to be expected from a portable monitor with an IPS-LCD display. Portable monitors currently struggle with HDR, with only high-end OLED models like the Viewsonic VX1655-4K-OLED providing a passable experience.
Motion clarity is modest, too. The monitor has a 75Hz refresh rate, which is a minor bump over the more typical 60Hz, but an increase that small is difficult to notice. The monitor doesn’t have Adaptive Sync support, either, so PC games won’t feel as smooth as they could.
The HP Series 5 Pro 514pn is a fantastic pick if you want an attractive, lightweight portable monitor with solid sharpness and decent color performance. Though the HP 514pn’s IPS Black display can’t match the quality of OLED in contrast, the 514pn is able to meet or beat OLED alternatives in color performance. It’s also bright, which is useful when traveling. These perks more than justify the monitor’s $299.99 MSRP.
Author: Matthew S. Smith
Source: PCWorld
Reviewed By: Editorial Team
