Tech business 'espresso Displays' talk a big game - and for good reason.
The three friends from Sydney quickly raised $1 million on Kickstarter in 2019 to bring their vision for a portable laptop display to life.
Fast forward to 2023, and after glowing reviews from the likes of Forbes and Wall Street Journal, the Australian start-up has unveiled what's next.
"The world's most powerful portable display."
Co-founder Will Scuderi quickly rattled off its features in an interview with 9news.com.au.
4K. One billion colours. 17.3 inches. 450 nit brightness. A new magnetic stand.
All for a whopping $1499 AUD.
It's called the espresso 17 Pro. And - like its price suggests - the display isn't for everybody.
It's designed for those on the bleeding edge.
"They're either designers, they're engineers, they're architects, they're on the go, they're salespeople," explained Scuderi.
"They're often asking for bigger. They're asking for better."
"They might not be photographers but they want to have the best tech that's on the market."
"And they want to make sure that the tech they buy matches the Macbook they have or their Windows device."
Compatibility was just as critical when Will Scuderi and his co-founders designed the original espresso display, hunched over 13-inch laptops while studying at university.
"That's just not enough screen real estate to be able to get a lot of stuff done," lamented Scuderi.
"So we looked at different solutions.
"How do you take a monitor and how do you take that with you wherever you go?
"The quick answer (was) you can't.
"And we weren't happy with that."
Starting with a portable screen, then adding touch, after three iterations the company is leaning into the idea of a "portable canvas."
With the tap of a button on its pen, the espresso Pro 17 allows you to mark up documents, add signatures, notes or feedback on iOS or Windows, which can be quickly shared.
The software was developed in-house by espresso's Australian team - which has grown from three to 30 members.
"We're really proud to be able to have designed that software here in Sydney and launch that as part of our 17 Pro offering," said Scuderi.
The feature will also arrive on espresso's previous model, the V2, this November.
That 15-inch model is still being sold, starting at $499, with the standard 13-inch espresso Display retailing for $299.
Like its predecessors, the company expects the majority of 17 pro sales to come from the US.
It's a market (and culture) Scuderi says Australians understand better than anyone else in the world; an advantage he hopes will lead to the creation of more Australian-based tech designers and manufacturers.
"We have great access to the US as a market."
"We understand that market better than anyone else and we also have a close time overlap with Asian supply chains."
"We have a lot of power being here in Australia and we bring a unique flavour to it."
"It's about more than just competing on price."
"It's really understanding what your customer is doing, what they're wanting to do and building products that they love rather than just trying to build a product that ticks and boxes."
For the first time, that includes a battery bank.
The espresso Charge is a $199, airline-approved 27,000mAh battery.
It can power both the display and laptops via two USB-C ports.
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According to espresso, on a full charge it has enough juice to use the screen and most laptops for "up to eight hours" - ie. a full working day. However, CPU intensive work like video editing will drain the battery faster.
9news.com.au has not had the opportunity to test espresso Charge yet. We will update this article if and when we get the chance to do so.
Having watched his creations be adopted and adapted by surgeons and racing teams, Will Scuderi is excited to see how the battery bank changes where and how people work.
"We can't even begin to predict all the different ways (customers) are using it at the moment.
"We've even got a Moto 2 team using it so that's been a lot of fun.
"We spent a lot of months prototyping learning about what people wanted before we released something.
"But most importantly, we built a product that we were very proud of - that we loved - because that tool didn't exist."
