Thinlerain HD-173 17.3" Black 2025

The Thinlerain HD-173 is a $70 ultra-budget monitor that nails the basics of being cheap, compact, and VESA-mountable, but the display quality is genuinely bad. Owners consistently report blurry, dark, or washed-out images, and our data puts its display in the 6th percentile. It works as a second screen for text or dashboards, but it's not a primary display. If you need a mountable screen for almost nothing, it's an option. Otherwise, look at used name-brand monitors instead.

Let's talk about what 1600x900 at 60Hz actually means in practice. For a 17.3-inch panel, that pixel density is roughly 106 pixels per inch, which is actually not terrible on paper. Text should be readable, and Windows at 100% scaling will feel about right. The problem isn't the resolution math. It's the panel quality behind it. Owners report blown-out highlights, a blue or dark tint, and a general softness to the image that suggests this is a bottom-bin TN or low-grade IPS panel. Our color score lands in the 16th percentile, and the 250-nit brightness ceiling means it'll struggle in a bright room.

The 5ms response time is fine for a 60Hz office panel. You're not gaming competitively on this thing, and even casual console play via HDMI will feel acceptable as long as you're not picky about motion clarity. The built-in speakers are there, but they're the kind of speakers that make you appreciate headphones. Connectivity is limited to HDMI and VGA, which covers most use cases, but the USB port mentioned in the listing is for reading media files directly, not for acting as a USB hub. That's a distinction worth knowing before you buy.

Stacked against the competition in our database, the HD-173 is playing a completely different game. The ASUS TUF Gaming VG27AQL5A, Acer Nitro XV272U, and LG UltraGear 27G640A-B are all 27-inch gaming monitors with high refresh rates, better panels, and prices that start several times higher. They're not really competitors in the traditional sense. But they do highlight what you give up at this price point. The Samsung Odyssey LS27BG402ENXGO and Lenovo Legion R27qc-30 are similarly in a different league for color, brightness, and responsiveness.

The more honest comparison is against used or refurbished office monitors. A five-year-old Dell or HP 22-inch 1080p panel can often be found for $40 to $60 on the used market, and it'll have better color, better brightness, and a more usable menu system. The trade-off is that those usually lack VESA mounts and they're bigger, which might not fit your space. If compact and mountable are your hard requirements, the HD-173 has a niche. If not, the used market beats it on almost every other metric.

At $70 USD, the HD-173 is undeniably cheap. But cheap and good value aren't the same thing. The value proposition here hinges entirely on the VESA mount. If you need a mountable screen and you've got almost no budget, this is basically your only option, and a few owners are genuinely happy with it for that reason. The CAD 124 and INR 20,092 listings tell a different story though. At those prices, you're creeping into territory where a used name-brand 22-inch monitor from a few years ago starts to look like a much smarter buy.

The real question is whether you can live with the image quality. If this is a third screen for Discord or a system monitor, sure, it's fine. If it's going to be your primary display for any length of time, the savings won't feel worth it. You'll spend more time squinting at a muddy picture than you saved in dollars.

The Thinlerain HD-173 is one of those products that exists because a very specific person asked a very specific question: "Can I get a VESA-mountable screen for almost no money?" And the answer, apparently, is yes. At 70 bucks on the US listing, this 17.3-inch panel is cheaper than a decent dinner for two, and it's aimed squarely at people who need a compact second monitor for a laptop, a Raspberry Pi, or maybe a console in a pinch. It's not trying to impress anyone with specs. It's trying to be cheap, small, and mountable, and on those three points it mostly delivers.

But with ultra-budget monitors, the corners cut are usually the ones you stare at all day. The HD-173 runs a 1600x900 resolution, which is fine for a screen this size, but the panel itself gets consistently dinged by owners for looking washed out, dark, or just plain blurry. Our database puts its display quality in the 6th percentile, which is about as close to the bottom as it gets. That's not a typo. If you're coming from even a mediocre laptop screen, this will feel like a downgrade.

So who is this actually for? Someone who needs a second screen for text, chat, or a dashboard, and who plans to bolt it to a wall or an arm and forget about it. It's also a decent option for tinkerers and homelab folks who want a cheap display for a headless server or a status readout. If you need something that looks good while you watch a movie or edit photos, keep scrolling. This isn't that monitor, and it doesn't pretend to be.

If you care at all about how the picture looks, skip this. Photographers, designers, video editors, and anyone who watches movies or plays games on their monitor will be disappointed by the washed-out colors, low brightness, and soft image. The 250-nit panel and 600:1 contrast ratio are simply not up to the task, and our color score in the 16th percentile backs that up. You'd be better off with a used 1080p IPS monitor from Dell, HP, or LG, even if it costs a bit more.

Also skip it if you need a monitor that's easy to adjust on the fly. The toggle-button menu is a common source of frustration, and some owners report that certain settings don't work as expected. If you're the type who tweaks brightness and color profiles regularly, this will drive you nuts. And if you're outside the US where the price jumps to CAD 124 or INR 20,092, the value argument falls apart entirely. At those prices, this monitor is competing with much better options and losing.

If you need a tiny, mountable, cheap screen and you've already accepted that the picture won't be great, the Thinlerain HD-173 does the job. It's a second monitor for chat windows, a display for a Raspberry Pi dashboard, or a screen for a test bench. In those roles, the low price and VESA support genuinely matter, and the image quality is less of a dealbreaker. A few owners are perfectly happy with it for exactly these reasons.

For everyone else, this is a pass. The display quality is bad enough that using it as a primary monitor would be frustrating, and the clunky menu and weak speakers don't help. If you can stretch your budget to $100 or so, you'll find refurbished 1080p panels that are dramatically better. If you can't stretch the budget, consider whether you really need the VESA mount, because that's the one thing this monitor does that cheaper used options often can't.