Review: Duet Display makes Apple's iPad even more useful for Mac users
Mac users looking to add a little extra screen real estate without sacrificing portability or display quality can now do so with Duet Display, a new app from a group of former Apple engineers that turns an iPad or iPhone into an external monitor.
Duet Display's team is certainly not the first to dream up the idea of using Apple's tablet as a secondary display for a Mac laptop or desktop; that honor belongs to Shape's iDisplay, which hit the App Store even before the original iPad hit store shelves. Today, users can choose from dozens of apps that do more or less the same thing.
Despite developers' best efforts, most of those apps are plagued by issues like lag, poor image quality, and connection difficulties thanks to their reliance on oft-unstable Wi-Fi networking. Duet's team hopes to avoid those pitfalls by eschewing wireless convenience in favor of a wired connection via the iPad's Lightning or 30-pin dock connector cable.
For this review, we used an iPad Air 2 and a 15-inch Mid-2014 MacBook Pro with Retina display, outfitted with 16 gigabytes of RAM and a 2.5-gigahertz quad-core Intel Core i7.
Sorry, you don't have HTML5 video and we didn't catch this properly in javascript.
You can try to view the gif directly: http://zippy.gfycat.com/CreepyFirmFritillarybutterfly.gif.
Installing Duet was a fairly painless process: we downloaded the iOS app from the App Store, then grabbed the companion Mac app from Duet's website. Launching the Mac app automatically installed a custom display driver --?Duet reassures users that it is certified by Apple to produce such drivers --?and prompted us to reboot our Mac, admittedly a slight annoyance.
Following the reboot, we plugged our iPad into our Mac and opened the Duet iOS app. The iPad was immediately detected and connected as a secondary display without issue, though we did experience something unexpected: the resolution on our Mac's built-in display was automatically reset to "Best (Retina)."
We usually take advantage of Apple's built-in scaling options for its high-resolution displays, working in the 1920-pixel-by-1200-pixel equivalent setting. Attempting to switch back to either of the "larger" sizes left us with a blank screen; using the "smaller" sizes, such as the 1024-pixel-by-640-pixel equivalent setting, worked as expected.
This won't be a problem for those who don't stray from Apple's recommended 2x 1440-pixel-by-900-pixel setting, but users who prefer one of the larger scaled resolutions will need to wait for a...resolution...to the matter before trying Duet.
Duet provides four possible combinations for refresh rate and iOS device display resolution: users can choose between 60 FPS "high performance" mode and 30 FPS "energy efficient" mode alongside "Retina" and "regular" resolutions.
Duet's resolution and refresh rate options are controlled via a Mac menu bar app.
In "regular" resolution, Duet held true to its promise of lag-free operation, even when using the iPad display to watch videos on YouTube or Netflix. Windows are easily manipulated with touch input as well, a nice feature when using apps like Beats Music in full-screen mode on the secondary display.
The wheels came off when we switched to "Retina" resolution, however. Finder windows began to stutter, and simply watching a YouTube video brought our fairly powerful Mac to its knees, with Duet's CPU usage spiking to approximately 150 percent and the framerate dropping precipitously.
The problems continued even after we disabled automatic graphics switching and forced the use of our discrete Nvidia GeForce GT 750M GPU. We also tried switching between 60 FPS and 30 FPS modes, to no avail.
In "Retina" mode, Duet is a CPU hog.
Pros
Duet Display's team is certainly not the first to dream up the idea of using Apple's tablet as a secondary display for a Mac laptop or desktop; that honor belongs to Shape's iDisplay, which hit the App Store even before the original iPad hit store shelves. Today, users can choose from dozens of apps that do more or less the same thing.
Despite developers' best efforts, most of those apps are plagued by issues like lag, poor image quality, and connection difficulties thanks to their reliance on oft-unstable Wi-Fi networking. Duet's team hopes to avoid those pitfalls by eschewing wireless convenience in favor of a wired connection via the iPad's Lightning or 30-pin dock connector cable.
For this review, we used an iPad Air 2 and a 15-inch Mid-2014 MacBook Pro with Retina display, outfitted with 16 gigabytes of RAM and a 2.5-gigahertz quad-core Intel Core i7.
Using Duet
Sorry, you don't have HTML5 video and we didn't catch this properly in javascript.
You can try to view the gif directly: http://zippy.gfycat.com/CreepyFirmFritillarybutterfly.gif.
Installing Duet was a fairly painless process: we downloaded the iOS app from the App Store, then grabbed the companion Mac app from Duet's website. Launching the Mac app automatically installed a custom display driver --?Duet reassures users that it is certified by Apple to produce such drivers --?and prompted us to reboot our Mac, admittedly a slight annoyance.
Following the reboot, we plugged our iPad into our Mac and opened the Duet iOS app. The iPad was immediately detected and connected as a secondary display without issue, though we did experience something unexpected: the resolution on our Mac's built-in display was automatically reset to "Best (Retina)."
We usually take advantage of Apple's built-in scaling options for its high-resolution displays, working in the 1920-pixel-by-1200-pixel equivalent setting. Attempting to switch back to either of the "larger" sizes left us with a blank screen; using the "smaller" sizes, such as the 1024-pixel-by-640-pixel equivalent setting, worked as expected.
This won't be a problem for those who don't stray from Apple's recommended 2x 1440-pixel-by-900-pixel setting, but users who prefer one of the larger scaled resolutions will need to wait for a...resolution...to the matter before trying Duet.
Duet provides four possible combinations for refresh rate and iOS device display resolution: users can choose between 60 FPS "high performance" mode and 30 FPS "energy efficient" mode alongside "Retina" and "regular" resolutions.
Duet's resolution and refresh rate options are controlled via a Mac menu bar app.
In "regular" resolution, Duet held true to its promise of lag-free operation, even when using the iPad display to watch videos on YouTube or Netflix. Windows are easily manipulated with touch input as well, a nice feature when using apps like Beats Music in full-screen mode on the secondary display.
The wheels came off when we switched to "Retina" resolution, however. Finder windows began to stutter, and simply watching a YouTube video brought our fairly powerful Mac to its knees, with Duet's CPU usage spiking to approximately 150 percent and the framerate dropping precipitously.
The problems continued even after we disabled automatic graphics switching and forced the use of our discrete Nvidia GeForce GT 750M GPU. We also tried switching between 60 FPS and 30 FPS modes, to no avail.
In "Retina" mode, Duet is a CPU hog.
Conclusion
Duet is a major improvement over its competition, and we will continue to use it whenever we travel without hesitation. It still needs some time in the oven, however --?Duet's "regular" resolution is painfully bad when compared to the Retina display of a MacBook Pro (though not appreciably worse than a non-Retina display), and the "Retina" resolution is simply too much of a resource hog to be useful.Score: 3 out of 5
Pros
- Lag-free operation in "regular" resolution
- Doesn't depend on a Wi-Fi network to connect
- Getting up and running is dead simple
- "Retina" resolution isn't ready for prime time
- Occasionally high CPU usage makes use on battery power impractical
- Some might find the $14.99 price tag too steep
Comments
It would help if there were some screenshots of actual usage.
Can I also drag and drop from one screen to the other?
Can I use the Touchpad on the Mac to control the stuff on the iPad?
Will the stuff displayed on the iPad respond to touch or will it remain a passive screen as long as I am in the app?
I downloaded and tried duet for a couple of days now. (I have some issues with the current 10.10.2 beta... but that is a different story, as on 10.10.1 it works just fine.)
But to answer your questions: technically from what it displays... it is JUST like any other external display. It shows up in system preferences and you can move it around freely to match the actual position of your iPad/iPhone... aka whether it is left of right of your main display. Just like any ordinary external display you can just drag things/windows over and manipulate them with your mouse.
The only difference in operation to a 'normal' display is, that it also supports touch. You touch the iPad... you move the cursor to where to you tapped and you click. Moving the cursor by touch w/o clicking is not possible atm afaik.
Performance-wise... on a 2011 17" MBP it runs perfectly smooth w/o any issues if you use the regular resolution setting aka 1024x768.
If you go close to your iPad you'll see that the image is not 100% crisp... but that is okay at normal viewing distances.
Switching to Retina keeps the resolution at 1024x768 POINTS (so you won't gain any usable space) but uses 2x assets instead making everything super sharp... it... as AI said, stutters though, and makes this option mostly a no-go as of right now.
Imagine that with an iPad pro
/shame about retina mode so far though.
I'm surprised Apple hasn't a patent on this already.
It would be nice if this also worked with Windows PCs. I have two displays connected to my Windows laptop at work but when I travel I feel very constrained with only a single display. I've used AirDisplay with my iPads to buy back a bit more display real estate by moving apps like email to the iPad. This is workable - except when I cannot get both the PC and iPad on the same WiFi network. Having a direct USB connection would be the solution to the WiFi limitation but would require a Windows device driver.
The CPU stats on my Mac mini rarely rise above 5% even with two large displays attached. However, when I was using it and Duet with a Retina iPad 3, it was consistently running about 13%. On a desktop, that doesn't matter. On a laptop running on batteries, it's likely to mean a much shorter battery life.
That and on my system, the touch features were so buggy as to be completely useless. Until that improves, we need a way to touch completely off.
This is still a work in progress, but it does fill a need. Hopefully, over time the developers will get that CPU demand down and the touch features working properly.
OMG you are right! I have two older iPads in a cupboard collecting dust and I bet they run a lot cooler than a regular monitor. My normal three monitor set up on my new Mac Pro is such a heat generator I have started switching two off recently as it's like sitting in a bloody sauna.
A couple of iPads would be great for 90% of my usage which is having Mail on one and Safari on the other while working on the main 27" Apple screen. Now I just need a neat desk clamp set up to hold the two iPads to the side of the main screen.
Also using USB will free up two Thunderbolt connections as I currently use TB-VGA adapters for my two extra non TB monitors.
The fact they have touch does add a new twist too ... OS X with touch ability ...
Anybody know what are the minimum system requirements on the Mac side? And how does it work with an iPad as a sole display?
Kinda bummed that the developer has already raised the price 50% and it's still in beta.
I remember paying almost $30 for iTeleport when it first came out; then it went down to $10 IIRC and is now about $25. Gets like one star reviews for the current version. Funny but until my PPC eMac blew this past week iTeleport still worked okay for me on both my Original and New iPads.
Hope Duet becomes successful, I'd swipe an old Mac Mini off eBay for this.
I would guess compressing the video signal to fit over a USB bus would be the main technical challenge. That's probably where the CPU load is coming from.
I'll have to borrow my wife's new iPad Air 2...
Hey AI - we do the funny shit round here !
Anyone there knows if I can use this app (or any other alternative) to make an iPad the primary (and only) display of a Mac Mini ?
Would performance be improved if the iOS devices had implemented USB 3.0 in their Lightning connections?
Has anyone tried comparing the performance of Duet over USB 2.0 with Air Display over 802.11ac on devices that support the faster wireless, such as iPad Air 2?
Although Apple's iTunes App store says Display Duet supports 5.1.1 on any iPad, the developer's website says iOS 6. I tried to repurpose an old iPad 1,1 running 5.1.1 but the App crashed every time. I got a note after 3 days from the developer that they are working on support for 5.1.1 in January but I went for an iTunes refund instead (nightmare of being on hold and cutoff). Now the price has risen to $14.99 I think I'll forget it altogether.
I've now tried it with every iPad made just about and from a Mac mini 2013 and a new Mac Pro. It us useable but just as laggy on any set up I tried regardless of iPad or Mac. It also totally screwed up using Airplay, I had to uninstall on my new Mac Pro before I could get either Air Parrot or Airplay to work correctly, obviously driver conflicts. That said it is very easy to uninstall from its own menu with no reboot required. I can't use it as extra screen real estate on my Mac Pro, it's too laggy to tolerate but as a cheap screen on my headless Mac mini which is used as a Crush FTP server it is useful although no faster than using Apple Desktop Remote.
Does the iPad Air 2 connect to the computer as a USB 2.0 or 3.0 device?
Thanks @TheralSadurns. Looks like it is a nice way to use older iPads. I hope they fix the retina display issue soon.
Sorry for the delay in replying ... been too busy eating and drinking
My iPad Air is the first one that came out in time for last Christmas, I think the version 2 is more recent (I can't keep up lol), that shows up as being connected via the 'High Speed USB', not the USB 2, but not USB 3 as such either, so I am not sure.
I have now found that my very early iPad seems to work just as well and is now the resident screen on my previously headless Mac mini 2013 which I use as a Crush FTP sever. It has some idiosyncrasies though. For example it loses connection when the Mac is being rebooted and the 'do you really want to do this' type dialog is sitting there waiting for an answer. I have to still depend on Apple Desktop Remote for anything vaguely complicated, especially installations and reboots.
My iPad Air is the first one that came out in time for last Christmas, I think the version 2 is more recent (I can't keep up lol), that shows up as being connected via the 'High Speed USB', not the USB 2, but not USB 3 as such either, so I am not sure.
High speed USB = USB 2
Super speed USB = USB 3
(those are the official marketing names anyway)
Thanks for that ... I wondered what on earth those terms meant but never enough to research. I better go back and check if the iPad air was super high or just high, I really didn't look that hard.