What Cable Connector Did I Need to Add XPS as 2nd Monitor?

Question

I have a Dell Latitude 7389 2-in-1 work laptop and Dell XPS 9300 personal laptop. I want to use the XPS as a second monitor when working on my work laptop.

The Latitude has the following slots/ports:

SD slot
SIM tray
USB 3.0
Noble lock
Type C port x2
HDMI
USB 3.0

The XPS has the following ports/slots

2x Thunderbolt 3.0 with Power Delivery & DisplayPort
1x Type-C to USB-A
1x Micro SD Card Reader

What's the correct cable/adapter I need to get the XPS to be the second monitor for Latitude? (I can't do this wirelessly because my work laptop admin has that feature disabled and can't change it)

jphughan · Accepted Answer

@Stuart505  If you can't do this wirelessly using the feature built into Windows 10 for this purpose, then you're stuck.  The XPS 13's connectors are display outputs; they cannot be used as display inputs.  Laptops with display input connectors are extraordinarily rare, and even when they exist, they're typically on high-end gaming/desktop replacement systems.  Even a hypothetical solution that transmitted video output as USB data to your system would be problematic, for two reasons.  First, that would require installing software on the source system, in this case your work Latitude, and if your system doesn't even allow wireless projection, I'm guessing they don't allow you to install software.  Second, USB is not a peer-to-peer protocol.  It is a host/accessory protocol, and a laptop will always be a host.  You can't get two hosts talking to each other.  The only quasi-exception would be a scenario where where you had a cable containing some sort of circuitry built in that acted as the accessory for the laptop on each end in order to facilitate communication.  In that case, each system is technically operating as a host with those in-cable electronics.  But the only scenario I know of where that's used is for data transfer cables meant to allow you to copy files back and forth between two systems connected via this type of specialized USB cable.  I don't know of a solution along those lines that can be used to turn a PC into an external display.

jphughan · Answer

@Stuart505 This isn't exactly an equivalent alternative to a cable given the cost difference, but I figured I'd suggest it anyway since the end result is otherwise nearly identical.  I recently bought the Lenovo ThinkVision M14 portable display.  Dell doesn't have an equivalent product as of this writing.  It's a 14' 1080p USB-C display.  It's definitely not cheap, but it's an excellent product.  The display panel is excellent in terms of crispness, brightness, viewing angle, etc., and it even supports USB-C passthrough charging if you want to use a single wall charger to run the display and charge the laptop, although the display itself can run purely from system power if desired.  But for what the M14 costs, you might understandably decide you'd rather have a larger external, non-portable display.  I got it in order to have dual displays on the go.  Again, I realize this is a pretty expensive alternative compared to what you were hoping for, but it's also one that would actually work.

Stuart505 · Answer

Thank you - this makes a lot of sense and will save me a lot of time. I figured with all these various ports, at least one must work from each, but it makes sense a laptop wouldn't waste precious space to have video input, since that's not how many laptops get used.

I'll look into seeing if my admin can allow the wireless option. Thanks again!

XPS

What Cable Connector Did I Need to Add XPS as 2nd Monitor?

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