A question I’ve often been asked – how do I run two monitors using the single video port on my laptop? In 2005, Matrox answered that question with their DualHead2Go Analog solution. The small box allows a computer with a single VGA port (and enough graphics horsepower) to drive two external VGA monitors up to 1280×1024 pixels, the common resolution for 17 and 19 inch LCD monitors. In early 2007, Matrox released the second iteration of its product, the DualHead2Go Digital Edition. This new model allows for two monitors to be connected via DVI and provides support for higher resolutions as well.

Matrox, a Canadian graphics company known better in the professional imaging and architecture fields for their graphics products, created the DualHead2Go Digital Edition with the goal of high quality dual head capabilities for computers with only one (or two, in the case of a 4 or 6 monitor setup) video output.

See more. Do more. Be more productive.

This external multi-display upgrade is a compact box which sits outside your system and connects to the VGA output of compatible notebook or desktop computers. The multi-display configuration delivered by DualHead2Go Digital Edition permits working with multiple full-screen documents or applications simultaneously—eliminating the need to constantly open, close, or minimize applications. It is the ideal solution for professional and business users looking for a simple and cost-effective solution to quickly increase their productivity.
Through patent-pending technology, the operating system detects the DualHead2Go Digital Edition as an ultra-widescreen monitor which is then split into two or more standard resolutions compatible with the attached displays. DualHead2Go Digital Edition also enables support for high resolution panels, offering a stretched desktop of up to 3840×1200 (or dual 1920×1200)1 across two displays.

A big thanks to Matrox for providing us with a sample for this review!

We looked at the dual port solution, but there is a tri-port product called the TripleHead2Go available as well.

Initial Reactions:

It works! Anything else here should be preceded with the fact that the DualHead2Go very much works as advertised, and with little hassle. I will say that the software aspect of things does work more naturally in Windows, with the maximize function understanding the separation of monitors where the Operating System couldn’t. Mac worked well for the most part, but it lacked the sophistication of the Windows software.

Installation:
Installation is not hard, but it has occasional moments of frustration. In Windows, it was very easy. Using the supplied driver disk, the installation went smoothly and we were up running dual (and triple) monitors in no time. When testing with a Mac, it often required a restart before anything would take hold (even though the software had given confirmation that the resolution was applied) and the software often was just unresponsive, which was frustrating. We later used version 1.1 of the Mac software, which was recently released and comes as a great improvement to the original shipping drivers and control panel. It also adds official support for 20” widescreen panels.

We tested using a pair of 15″, 20″ and 24″ monitors powered by an Apple Macbook Pro. Initial testing was carried out on a Sony Vaio laptop but the video card was found to be inadequate for full range comparison testing. The Macbook Pro was using OSX 10.5 Leopard, Windows Vista Ultimate and Windows XP through Bootcamp. It has the nVidia 8600m-gt video card and a native resolution of 1440×900. The 15″ monitors required VGA adapters to connect, but the others had DVI native connections that matched the DualHead2Go.

Image Quality:
With a product like this, aimed at professionals, image quality is often going to be an important point. With that said, image quality is good. Using properly calibrated monitors and the “adjust image quality” button in the Matrox panels, the image quality is good. Its not great – I could notice a difference between a direct DVI connection from my laptop to a single monitor, versus the VGA to Matrox to DVI configuration that the DualHead2Go employs. I’m a little curious as to why there isn’t an all-digital, non-converted product of this nature available but for what it is, the image quality is between good and great. (Editor’s note: this is actually due to the fact that non-dual link DVI connections do not support the required resolutions to power two monitors combined; as well as the widespread presence of VGA connections on laptops). Definitely usable for almost any application, and I found photo editing to be up to par as well. The sharpness and clarity were also good, but not spectacular. I would say that this is a very reasonable compromise for the actual functioning operation of the product, but it should be noted.

Usability:

We tested the DualHead2Go Digital Edition with a number of applications and tested a variety of scenarios. Included were web browsing, photo editing, word processing, file management and gaming.

Across the board, things went well. It was excellent having so much real estate when it came to web browsing, and the ability to open 5 or more pages in a Word document is very useful.

Software:
The software is very capable, but it’s not perfect. In Windows XP and Vista, things feel very polished and features like snap to each monitor work wonderfully well. In Mac OSX, this is obviously a newer development and it caters to a smaller market, so the product is less polished but it is still very functional. Since OSX’s window maximize feature is barely functional to begin with, it’s not surprising that the snap to feature is not entirely functional.

Quirks:
For whatever reason, if you’re running a Mac, don’t expect to run two 15”, 20” or 24” monitors alongside your open screen. In our testing, we discovered that the only way we could get the build in display of our 15” Macbook Pro to work alongside the dual monitors properly was when running two 19” widescreen LCD monitors that had the same vertical resolution as our 1440×900 resolution laptop screen. Otherwise, the image would be skewed and distorted. This contributes to the lack of sophistication on the Mac side, as we were required to run our computer in closed-lid mode for it to operate normally. However, under Windows we did not have this problem and were able to successfully run a triple-monitor setup with the laptop display and our other pairs of LCD monitors.

Closing Observations:
If you need more screen resolution then your laptop and just an external monitor can offer, you really don’t have much of a choice in the way of solutions. Docking stations provide a much less elegant option and USB video cards are often crippled and slow, and this is where the DualHead2Go shines. If you’re buying it for a Mac, make sure to install the latest drivers from Matrox’s website before anything else.

Through the testing, I found that a 20″ widescreen LCD monitor is the sweet spot, where performance is still good but image quality is also up to snuff. I would recommend a Dell 2007WFP LCD monitor for use with the DH2G.

For these reasons alone, the Matrox Dualhead2go is definitely worth a look. However, its also worthwhile on its own merit. The product works very well and even if you did have an alternate capacity, I would still recommend it providing that you are willing to deal with a few small quirks in an otherwise excellent product.