Hey folks, Valkor here. Big ups to the folks at Mojoplay, who
have graced us with a product from their repertoire, the MP-700
7” LCD gaming monitor, to share with you our fellow readers.
This monitor is nothing new, I remember seeing them on display
at CES 2001, however the picture quality has changed remarkably
since then, making it better to take your favorite system on the
go and not have to worry if there is a television where you are
going or not. This happened to me when I attended CES 2006. I
brought along my PS2 to catch up on some gaming. And when I arrived
at the Days Inn, the television had no a/v ports at all. (Plus
no cable and it was advertised that they did). So I can see where
there’s a need for the Mojo Monitor. The MP-700 is also
universal so you can use it with any of today’s gaming systems.
So how did it fair against the Val-cave Stress test? Read on and
find out.
At first glance the MP-700 just looks like a thin sheet of plastic, upon closer inspection we see that it’s separated in sections where the top portion has the TV and the bottom part bends, which in turn becomes the stand. It’s a bit flimsy so if you are one of those hardcore gamers who does a lot of moving when playing, don’t prop this monitor on top of your system but place it on a sturdy flat surface, away from your system and use precaution. This bottom piece also serves as the access port for the DC plug, a/v port, on/off, volume, and brightness switch. Inside the box you get an a/v cable, dc outlet plug, a car charger, and a pouch for attaching the monitor to the back of a car seat or a wall. Once the monitor is hooked up to your respective system, then it’s away we go.
The first game I tried the Mp-700 on was Square/Enix “Dragon Warrior VIII”. I did this mostly because the game touts a 16:9 aspect ratio, so it was made for widescreen play. There is definitely a noticeable difference between that and the 4:3 ratio tv, as the characters and backdrops looked better and the view is broader, which makes me really want to get an LCD TV like yesterday! The first and only issue I ran into with the MP-700 was the brightness. Even when set at its lowest, the factory set brightness is up to high and it’s very noticeable. This is good and bad. It’s good because this added brightness improves in how on-screen characters look. DQ 8 touts a cell-drawn look and on my Wega TV you can see the black outlines very visibly. However on the MP-700, it’s not so noticeable and the characters look more fleshed out. Also flare and lightning effects look more robust on the Mojo monitor than on my TV and that is what drew me into the game most of all. I would play just for the random battles so I could perform all sorts of magic and watched how good they looked. However it’s bad because if on-screen action is took bright, then it will look totally washed out on the MP700. I found this most true when I was playing “Silent Hill 4”; a lot of the on-screen text was barely legible and a lot of the on-screen action just didn’t look right. But the game itself looked more fleshed out than watching it on my standard TV.
When it comes to movies, the brightness issue
also comes into play. Again it can be good or bad depending on
what you watch. The first film I tried was War Of The Worlds and
it became somewhat annoying when scenes were bright. But the same
“good” holds up as special effects are very prominent
and just look damn good. Another prime example of the good/bad
brightness is when I watched “Fantastic Four”. Good:
Watching Johnny using his flame power, simply looks wonderful.
Bad: in daytime, some scenes are a bit too bright. “Batman
Begins” is a great film to watch on the MP-700 because it’s
mostly a dark film anyway, so the brightness issue isn’t
too much a bother. However when it comes to animation, it’s
on a case by case basis. “Princess Mononoke” Is great
to watch, however the subtitles sometimes become unreadable. “Disney’s
Aladdin” is awesome to watch and CGI movie “
The Mojoplay monitor was meant for small screen play when you don’t have access to a television or you don’t want the youngins fighting over the TV when one wants to game and the other wants to watch “The O.C.” It’s visually stunning to watch at any angle without degradation of image and it makes certain games look better than they do on a standard television with its only drawback, to me, is the brightness level. But hopefully that can be leveled out in the next version of the monitor. Honestly I would have thought playing PS2 games on a 7” monitor would suck, but on the contrary, it’s just as good as playing on the big screen. I’d totally suggest picking up one of these bad boys just for the sake that if you like taking your gaming with you, so long as you’re near power outlets, then its game time anytime, anywhere. Think about it: you’re in an airport and you’re delayed a few hours with nothing to do. Break out the *your system here*, the Mojoplay monitor and kill some minutes while you kill some monsters or chill with your favorite movie (if your system has the capability). The Mojoplay MP-700 7” monitor retails for 99.95 and its Valkor tested, TOV approved.