[mdp]

VNC is not the only alternative for duplicating a desktop. Apart from RDP (which I am not testing since is not used on my systems), there is actually NX - which is known to do miracles.
So, the promising part: one can download NoMachine for his personal computer and the client, com.nomachine.nxplayer, for Android. Tested first on a high-end tablet, the results are very impressive. Bandwidth wise,
-- a most "frantic" 1920x1200 movie (Matt Forrest and Bruno Tilley, "Grace Jones - Love is the Drug") is transmitted with an average below 2Mbit, and peaks below 3Mbit (corresponding to the i86 capability);
-- a very slow 1920x1200 movie (Nicolas Lelièvre, "Kangding Ray - OR") is transmitted with an average around half a Mbit, and peaks around 1.5Mbit (well within the i86 capability).
Those values are very encouraging.

UNFORTUNATELY,
I tested on an i86 the three client versions I could find - com.nomachine.nxplayer 5.0.63, 4.4.12, 4.2.25 - and they would not work, just crash (just as a note, the latest version with a Could not find class 'android.hardware.input.InputManager', referenced from method org.qtproject.qt5.android.bindings.QtActivity.onCr eate error).

So, maybe better luck with Android 4.4, which should be just around the corner?

EDIT: if somebody could test it with a Max, that would be great...