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The square cousin of Samsung’s stylish The Freestyle is LG’s smart projector

Small, portable projectors were formerly only found in corporate boardrooms, but now they’re a popular choice for anybody who wants to set up a big-screen display for a one-time event like a movie night or a gaming session at home, no matter the weather. In addition, many modern models include built-in streaming, making it simpler than ever to get things going once you locate a blank wall to project images onto.

Xgimi, Formovie, and Samsung all showcased cutting-edge new projectors at CES2023, with Samsung’s The Freestyle ranking as our pick for finest portable projector. The Las Vegas technology show was followed by an announcement of a new portable from LG, the PF510Q. While not as flashy as Samsung’s offering, the new LG nevertheless seems like a significant addition to the market for small, portable projectors.

The PF510Q appears as though it were dragged naked from the computer lab. This 1080p HD-resolution projector may not look like much at first glance, but beyond its basic square white housing, there are a lot of enticing features that should make using it a pleasant experience.

In the first place, there’s LG’s webOS 22, which is a smart TV interface that has built-in streaming from services like Disney Plus, PrimeVideo, YouTube, and AppleTV Plus. With the built-in AirPlay functionality, users may wirelessly transmit content from their iOS device to the projector. Screenshare allows you to wirelessly cast material from an Android handset, making it accessible to those who choose not to utilise Apple products.

The twin Bluetooth audio outputs are a more exciting feature of LG’s projector than its two 5-watt speakers. With this setup, you may wirelessly transmit music to two Bluetooth devices, such as speakers or headphones, for stereo sound or discrete listening.

On the hardware side of things, the PF510Q’s LED light source is rated for 450 ANSI Lumens output and will last for 30,000 hours. You may manually change the focus and automated keystone correction will make your image precisely rectangular from 30 inches to 120 inches in size. There are two HDMI ports for plugging in devices like gaming consoles and Blu-ray players.

In place of traditional televisions, bedrooms are now equipt with portable projectors

We were pleasantly surprised to see so many innovative tiny projectors on display at CES this year, but in retrospect, it makes sense that this market segment is growing in popularity and that companies are eager to show off their own take on the technology.

I bought my daughter a portable projector for college, and she uses it to watch Netflix, Hulu, and other streaming services, as well as play Xbox Game Pass games on her Xbox Series S. (I also hope you’re putting in effort in the classroom and seeing positive results.)

As a self-proclaimed video and film nerd, I made sure she got a 4K projector, even though it would be overkill for her dorm room. However, the gaming perspective is the one that has to be discussed here, as this seems to be the most apparent and beneficial usage for small portable projectors.

Samsung revealed at CES 2023 that the next version of The Freestyle will have the same Gaming Hub available on the finest Samsung TVs, allowing users to access cloud-based gaming via applications like Microsoft Xbox, Utomik, and Amazon Luna. It is also possible to combine two Freestyles to make an ultrawide 21.9 display, which has the ideal image aspect ratio for absorbing video games.

However, LG’s 2023 TV range that was introduced at CES has a Game Optimizer menu that allows users to simply pick and switch between gaming-related functions. The new PF510Q does not appear to be similarly equipped with gaming capabilities. The PF510Q, which retails for $599 and is already on sale, appears to be a solid, inexpensive choice for console-based gaming, and perhaps we’ll see the same thing implemented on the company’s portable projectors in the future.