Your monitor comes with a variety of ports, but what you’ll see depends on when it was manufactured. If you’re rocking a monitor from the last few years, then you may notice that it’s equipped with an unusual port for a computer display: an Ethernet port. Some retailers refer to these kinds of displays as Ethernet monitors.
Ethernet monitors offer a unique feature that many other computer displays don’t: the ability to act as an internet-providing dock for your laptop or other devices that can accept an Ethernet connection. Even if said devices don’t have Ethernet ports themselves, you can still connect them to wired internet connections using an Ethernet monitor, similar to how you might get internet on your phone through USB tethering.
Being able to get a wired internet connection to your laptop from your monitor can be unexpectedly useful, especially now that newer laptops, like Apple’s increasingly popular MacBook Neo, tend to skip built‑in Ethernet ports entirely. When you plug an Ethernet cable from your router into your monitor’s docking station, the monitor can pass the signal along to other devices connected to its onboard USB ports. Keep in mind, though, that not all monitors with USB-C or USB-A docking support offer Ethernet connectivity. Whether you’d benefit from using your monitor’s Ethernet port depends on your intended use cases and your connectivity preferences.
The perks of using a monitor with an Ethernet port
The biggest perk of using an Ethernet monitor as your external display is getting access to its dock-like functionality while being able to use it for wired internet connectivity to your laptop. Many people consider Ethernet connections to be more reliable than Wi‑Fi; they offer less latency and faster connection speeds, especially in homes that are crowded with other electronics. If your monitor already has an Ethernet port, it can conveniently expand your wired network capability without you needing to buy additional accessories, such as docking stations or USB-to-Ethernet adapters, the latter of which lets you connect an Ethernet cable directly to your computer’s USB ports.
If you’re partial to using Ethernet over Wi-Fi, using the LAN port on an external monitor or a laptop docking station is also a great way to declutter the cables and accessories you need to connect to your laptop directly. It’s an especially useful port at permanent workstations from which you often remove your laptop; you’d only have to cable manage your Ethernet connection once instead of running it separately to your laptop each time you connect it. Laptop gamers in particular would benefit from Ethernet monitors, since they provide greater screen real estate while offering convenient Ethernet access without necessitating a separate hub or docking station.
