For the past five years, the folks at Gaming And Entertainment Mobile Systems (GAEMS) have been making it easy for gamers to take their playing on the road with custom-built travel cases that include an embedded monitor and room for their favorite gaming console. Its M-240 Professional Gaming Monitor ($399.99) is a standalone desktop monitor that continues the portable trend. Based on Twisted Nematic (TN) panel technology, this 24-inch display offers a unique road-ready design, best-in-class audio output, and a remote control for changing settings. It delivers sharp 1080p imagery, but it can't match the performance and feature set of our Editors' Choice for midsize gaming monitors, the BenQ XL2420G£399.99 at Amazon UK. Still, if you're in the market for a mobile monitor for gaming, it's worth a look.

Design and Features
The M-240 doesn't look like a typical desktop monitor. Its 24-inch, 1,920-by-1,080-resolution TN panel resides in a matte-black cabinet with a curved back and an easel-type stand that rotates 180 degrees to double as a carry handle. The stand doesn't offer any ergonomic adjustments, however. At 18 pounds, this monitor isn't exactly light, but you should have no trouble lugging it from room to room or in and out of your car when traveling to LAN parties. It comes with a black, plastic cover that snaps onto the front of the cabinet to protect the screen while traveling.

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The screen has a matte, anti-glare coating and is flanked by speaker enclosures that curve inward toward the user. Each enclosure contains two high-range/midrange speakers (one speaker handles high tones, and the other handles midrange tones) and a subwoofer, and has rubberized padding around back to protect them while in transit. The speakers are very loud and provide better-than-average bass response, with no distortion. If you want wall-shaking bass, you can hook up an external subwoofer using the subwoofer output around back.

You don't get much in the way of connectivity with the M-240. It has two HDMI inputs and one HDMI output for capturing video around back, but it lacks DisplayPort and legacy (DVI, VGA) inputs. It also lacks USB ports, but it does have a headphone jack alongside the above-mentioned subwoofer output. A rubberized cover keeps all of the ports safe while traveling.

There are six small, backlit buttons situated along the face of the M-240's bottom bezel. One is a Power switch, and the others are used to navigate the setting menus and adjust volume and brightness levels. The buttons would be easier to use if they were on the side of the cabinet, rather than at the bottom. Moreover, the buttons do not always respond when pressed. Fortunately, GAEMS throws in a small remote that lets you make adjustments without having to use those buttons. The remote is 3.5 inches long and has 12 buttons for adjusting volume and brightness and changing picture settings.

Picture settings are limited to the basics. There are five picture presets (Standard, Dim, Personal, Mild, and Vivid), as well as Brightness, Contrast, Sharpness, Color Temperature, and Color Saturation. Missing are gamma settings and the advanced six-color settings that you get with the Acer Predator XB271HK£499 at Amazon UK; nor do you get crosshair-aiming tools like you do with the Acer XB271HK and the Asus MG279Q£474.97 at Amazon UK.

Performance
The M-240 turned in middling results on my color and gray-scale tests. As shown on the chromaticity chart below, red and blue colors (represented by the dots) are slightly misaligned with their ideal CIE coordinates (represented by the boxes), while green is completely outside of its box. The skewed colors don't result in overly saturated hues while gaming, but I did notice a touch of green tinting in the middle of the gray scale.