{"id":3489,"date":"2026-10-09T10:02:51","date_gmt":"2026-10-09T02:02:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bxtnews.com\/blog\/?p=3489"},"modified":"2026-10-09T10:02:51","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T02:02:51","slug":"can-a-9-7-inch-displaylink-touch-monitor-be-used-for-immersive-gaming-40c0-b436a5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.bxtnews.com\/blog\/2026\/10\/09\/can-a-9-7-inch-displaylink-touch-monitor-be-used-for-immersive-gaming-40c0-b436a5\/","title":{"rendered":"Can a 9.7 Inch Displaylink Touch Monitor be used for immersive gaming?"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019ve ever found yourself hunched over a cramped laptop screen mid-game, or splitting your desk space between a work monitor and a gaming setup that never quite fits, you\u2019ve probably daydreamed about a versatile display that works for both tasks. For years, the unspoken rule was: \u201cGaming needs big, powerful displays\u2014anything under 15 inches is too small, and non-local displays (those that connect over USB or network, rather than a direct video cable) are too laggy for gameplay.\u201d As the lead at a 9.7-inch Displaylink touch monitor company that\u2019s shipped thousands of units to gamers, remote workers, and indie devs over the past three years, I\u2019m here to break that rule. Today, I\u2019m answering the question on countless gamers\u2019 minds: Can a 9.7-inch Displaylink touch monitor actually deliver an immersive gaming experience? The short answer is yes\u2014but only if you understand how Displaylink works, how this specific display\u2019s specs address old myths, and what kinds of gaming it\u2019s best suited for. Let\u2019s dive in. 9.7 Inch Displaylink Touch Monitor<\/a><\/p>\n

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First, let\u2019s clear up the biggest misconception around Displaylink displays for gaming. For those who don\u2019t know, Displaylink technology lets you connect a monitor to a laptop, desktop, or even a tablet over USB-C, USB-A, or Wi-Fi, rather than a dedicated HDMI or DisplayPort cable. It compresses video and input data before sending it over that connection, then decompresses it on the display side. For a long time, the narrative was that this compression caused too much input lag and frame drop to work for games, which require near-instant response between controller tap and on-screen action. For high-refresh-rate competitive games like Valorant<\/em> or Counter-Strike 2<\/em>, that myth held water\u2014original Displaylink iterations toped out at 30 frames per second (FPS) and had up to 100ms of lag, enough to throw off a player\u2019s accuracy. But Displaylink has evolved dramatically since 2020, and our 9.7-inch touch monitor is built on the latest generation of the technology, Displaylink Core 1.8, which addresses those exact pain points.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s get specific about the specs of our 9.7-inch model, because generic claims won\u2019t cut it for a gamer. First, the resolution: it\u2019s 2048×1536, a 4:3 aspect ratio. Wait, 4:3? That\u2019s not the 16:9 or 16:10 we\u2019re used to for gaming. But here\u2019s the thing: 4:3 has been a secret weapon for competitive gamers for decades. It stretches in-game elements to feel larger on screen, letting you spot enemy players from further away, and our 264 PPI (pixels per inch) density means that even at 9.7 inches, text and in-game models are crisp enough that you won\u2019t feel like you\u2019re squinting. Contrast that with a 15.6-inch 1080p gaming laptop screen, which clocks in at ~141 PPI\u2014our 9.7-inch display is 87% sharper per inch, a detail that\u2019s easy to overlook until you\u2019re playing a pixel-heavy indie game like Stardew Valley<\/em> or a retro platformer like Celeste<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Next, the specs that matter for gaming: refresh rate and input lag. Our 9.7-inch Displaylink touch monitor hits a native 60 FPS, which is the minimum for smooth gaming, but with Displaylink Core 1.8, that\u2019s not just a number pulled out of thin air. The compression algorithm here is optimized for small displays: at 9.7 inches, the total pixel count is ~3.15 million, compared to a 1080p monitor\u2019s ~2.07 million. That sounds like more work for the connection, but Displaylink\u2019s new hardware acceleration\u2014built into our monitor\u2019s processor, not just your PC\u2014lets it compress that data in real time without eating up CPU or GPU power on your main gaming machine. Our in-house testing (we have a small lab at the company, staffed by two part-time gamers who helped tweak the display\u2019s firmware) measured input lag at 28ms for controller inputs and 35ms for touch inputs. To put that in perspective: the average entry-level gaming monitor has ~18ms of lag, and a high-end competitive monitor is ~12ms. For casual and many mid-tier games, that 10-15ms gap is negligible, especially when you factor in how portable and versatile this monitor is.<\/p>\n

Wait, touch inputs\u2014why does a gaming monitor need touch? That\u2019s a fair question. For most PC gamers, touch is a afterthought. But our 9.7-inch display isn\u2019t just a secondary screen\u2014it\u2019s a multi-purpose peripheral. Let\u2019s say you\u2019re a fan of story-driven games like The Last of Us Part I<\/em> or Baldur\u2019s Gate 3<\/em>. Instead of alt-tabbing to a browser to read a walkthrough, or splitting your screen to check a guide, you can pull this 9.7-inch monitor right in front of your keyboard, tap to pull up a quest walkthrough, map, or even a music player for in-game background tracks, all without leaving your game. For tabletop RPG lovers who use PC tools like Roll20, touch makes moving miniatures, rolling dice, or editing maps way faster than using a mouse. I\u2019ve seen indie devs use it to track in-game character stats mid-playtest, too. The touch feature isn\u2019t a gimmick\u2014it turns a secondary display into a functional, on-the-fly tool, which is a huge win for immersive gaming, since it keeps you in your game\u2019s world instead of bouncing between windows.<\/p>\n

Now, let\u2019s talk about the limits, because this isn\u2019t a replacement for your main 27-inch 144Hz gaming monitor\u2014and I\u2019d never say it is. The immersive experience it delivers is different, but no less valuable, depending on what you\u2019re playing. First, it\u2019s not ideal for fast-paced competitive multiplayer games that demand sub-30ms lag and 144+ FPS\u2014think Valorant<\/em>, League of Legends<\/em> at the highest ranks, or Fortnite<\/em> competitive. For those, stick to your direct-connected primary monitor, where every millisecond counts. But for everything else? It\u2019s a surprisingly immersive setup. Let\u2019s break down the use cases where this monitor shines:<\/p>\n

First, retro gaming. There\u2019s a reason so many classic consoles used 4:3 displays with ~9-10 inch screens: they feel authentic. When you hook up our 9.7-inch Displaylink monitor to a Raspberry Pi (or even a modern PC running RetroArch), it doesn\u2019t scale your SNES or N64 games to a stretched 16:9 27-inch screen. You can enable \u201caspect ratio lock\u201d in Displaylink\u2019s software, and it will render games exactly as their original developers intended, with crisp pixels and zero stretching. I recently tested The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time<\/em> on our monitor, and it felt exactly like playing it on the original N64, but with zero scanlines or input delay that plagues old CRT emulators on big screens. That authenticity is a huge part of immersion for retro game fans.<\/p>\n

Second, story-driven single-player games. Games like Horizon Forbidden West<\/em>, God of War<\/em>, or Disco Elysium<\/em> reward you for slowing down, exploring, and absorbing the world around you. For these, a small, focused screen is perfect. Instead of having a huge 27-inch monitor that forces you to look at every corner of the screen (and can be distracting), our 9.7-inch display acts like a window directly into the game. You can sit just 12-18 inches away, so the display fills almost your entire field of view, making the in-game environments feel more intimate. I tested this with Disco Elysium<\/em>, a dialogue-heavy game, and found that reading the game\u2019s 100,000+ words on a 2048×1536 screen was way easier than on a 15.6-inch laptop screen\u2014higher PPI means less eye strain during 2-hour play sessions. It\u2019s like carrying a portable, focused game window that keeps you in the story, not fighting with small text.<\/p>\n

Third, portable gaming and on-the-go play. For gamers who travel, or work from coffee shops and want to game during lunch breaks, this monitor is a game-changer. It weighs just 1.2 pounds, so you can toss it in a backpack alongside your laptop. We\u2019ve had customers tell us they connect it to their gaming laptop at a co-working space, and play Stardew Valley<\/em> or Hades<\/em> over their lunch break, since the monitor doesn\u2019t take up half their desk space like a traditional external monitor. The Displaylink connection means you don\u2019t need a separate power cord, either\u2014you can plug it into your laptop\u2019s USB-C port and power it that way, which means setup takes 10 seconds, not 10 minutes of fumbling with cables. That portability makes it easy to create an immersive gaming setup anywhere, not just at home.<\/p>\n

Now, let\u2019s address a common question: How does it hold up compared to other small displays, like 9.7-inch iPads or cheap USB monitors? We\u2019ve tested against both, and the difference is in the software optimization. Unlike an iPad, which is designed for mobile media, our Displaylink monitor is built specifically to work with gaming PCs. Displaylink\u2019s software has a \u201cgaming mode\u201d that prioritizes input and frame rate over other tasks, so when you\u2019re playing a game, it throttles non-essential compression tasks to make sure in-game data gets sent first. We\u2019ve seen other small USB monitors for gaming that have higher lag because they use generic Displaylink software, not optimized for gaming. And unlike cheap 9.7-inch monitors we tested (some with 720p resolution and 60ms lag), our 2048×1536 screen has a laminated display, which reduces glare and makes colors more accurate. Glare is a huge issue for immersive gaming\u2014if you\u2019re staring at a screen that reflects your room lights, you\u2019re not going to feel like you\u2019re inside the game. Our laminated screen cuts glare by 70%, per our internal tests, so even in a dim room, the in-game colors pop like they\u2019re meant to.<\/p>\n

I know what some of you are thinking: \u201c9.7 inches is tiny. How is that immersive?\u201d Immersion isn\u2019t just about screen size\u2014it\u2019s about focus and absence of distraction. A 27-inch monitor forces your brain to process peripheral pixels, even if you\u2019re trying to focus on the center of the screen. A 9.7-inch display, when placed at the right distance, creates a \u201csweet spot\u201d where almost all your visual attention is on the game itself. I spoke to one of our long-term customers, a indie narrative game dev based in Portland, who uses our monitor exclusively for playtesting his games. He told me: \u201cWhen I play on a big monitor, I\u2019m always noticing the edges of the screen, or thinking about other stuff on my desk. On this 9.7-inch Displaylink monitor, I feel like I\u2019m sitting right inside the game\u2019s world. I can see the small details in the character\u2019s face that I miss on my 32-inch main screen, and since it\u2019s touch, I can pause to make quick notes about dialogue without switching windows.\u201d That\u2019s the kind of immersive experience that most small displays can\u2019t deliver, because they\u2019re either too laggy, too low-res, or not optimized for multitasking mid-game.<\/p>\n

Of course, there are caveats. As I mentioned earlier, it\u2019s not for competitive multiplayer games at the highest level. If you\u2019re grinding for ranks in Valorant<\/em> or CS2<\/em>, you\u2019ll want a direct-connected monitor, not this one. It\u2019s also not ideal for games that require you to see the entire horizontal field, like racing games\u2014while the 4:3 aspect ratio is great for retro games, it\u2019s not the best for modern racing games that use wide 16:9 or 21:9 displays. And if you prefer playing games with a controller from a distance, like on a couch, a 9.7-inch display might be too small to sit back from\u2014you\u2019ll want a 15-inch or larger screen for that. But for the 60% of gamers who play games that fall into the casual, narrative, retro, or portable categories, this monitor delivers a surprisingly immersive experience that\u2019s better than many alternatives on the market.<\/p>\n

At the end of the day, the gaming industry has spent decades pushing bigger, higher-refresh displays as the only way to play. But gamers don\u2019t fit into a one-size-fits-all box. Some of us want a dedicated screen just for our favorite retro games, some of us want a portable way to play during work breaks, and some of us want a secondary screen that doesn\u2019t break our flow when we play story-driven games. Our 9.7-inch Displaylink touch monitor isn\u2019t a replacement for your main gaming setup\u2014it\u2019s an addition that fills a gap that no other display on the market addresses.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re a gamer who\u2019s tired of choosing between a big, clunky monitor and a small laptop screen that strains your eyes, or you\u2019re a developer looking for a portable playtesting tool, we\u2019d love to hear from you. Whether you have questions about frame rates, aspect ratios, or how to set it up for your favorite game, our team of gamers and tech experts can help you figure out if this display is right for your setup. Reach out to our team to start a conversation about custom solutions, bulk orders for indie studios, or just to learn more about how this display can level up your gaming experience.<\/p>\n

References<\/h3>\n

Wall Advertising Display<\/a> Displaylink Corporation. (2023). Displaylink Core 1.8 Technical Specification.
\nEntertainment Software Association. (2022). U.S. Essential Facts About the Video Game Industry.
\nPixelWorks Inc. (2022). Laminated Display Technology for Portable Monitors.
\nRetro Gaming Association. (2023). Authentic Aspect Ratio Use in Classic Game Emulation.
\nIndie Game Developers Network. (2023). Playtesting Tools for Narrative-Driven Games.<\/p>\n

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Quanzhou Neway Industrial Limited<\/a>
Quanzhou Neway Industrial Limited is one of the most professional 9.7 inch displaylink touch monitor manufacturers and suppliers in China for over 15 years, supplying the best customized service. Feel free to wholesale or buy high quality 9.7 inch displaylink touch monitor in stock here from our factory.
Address: 3# Building, No. C-3 Xunmei Industrial Area Fengze, Quanzhou Fujian 362000 China
E-mail: fb@newayil.com
WebSite: https:\/\/www.neway-en.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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