Samsung's Freestyle Projector Doesn't Live Up To Its $900 Price (theverge.com) 28
Samsung's new portable projector disappoints, multiple reviewers noted today. The Verge: The Freestyle could have been something really special. As Samsung's first portable projector, it immediately stood out from all of the company's other CES product announcements in January. What wasn't to like? At under two pounds, the Freestyle was hyped as tiny in form but big on features and convenience. The device is compact enough to be packed in a bag for travel or bringing on camping trips. It'd be a cinch to set up The Freestyle in the backyard for movie night, and the projector can run off some portable USB-C battery packs for added flexibility. Want an easy way to entertain your kids on vacation? Here you go. You can point the 180-degree tilting projector in a wide range of directions -- including at the ceiling. And since it has the same software as Samsung's smart TVs, it comes with a vast selection of entertainment apps in tow.
What Samsung has shipped is a dim, flawed, and often sluggish projector that fails to realize its potential. For a company that's been on a run of home theater hits with products like The Frame, this is an uncharacteristic misstep. It's not a cheap one, either: The Freestyle costs $899.99. That awkward price can be seen as another illustration of the projector's challenges. It's far more expensive than many portable pico projectors from smaller brands such as Anker and Xgimi but nowhere near as pricey as top-shelf home projectors. The Freestyle is caught in a no man's land: if the asking price had been higher, maybe Samsung could've gone more ambitious on specs -- especially brightness, which I'll get to later. And if it were cheaper, I might've been more forgiving of its underwhelming performance.
What Samsung has shipped is a dim, flawed, and often sluggish projector that fails to realize its potential. For a company that's been on a run of home theater hits with products like The Frame, this is an uncharacteristic misstep. It's not a cheap one, either: The Freestyle costs $899.99. That awkward price can be seen as another illustration of the projector's challenges. It's far more expensive than many portable pico projectors from smaller brands such as Anker and Xgimi but nowhere near as pricey as top-shelf home projectors. The Freestyle is caught in a no man's land: if the asking price had been higher, maybe Samsung could've gone more ambitious on specs -- especially brightness, which I'll get to later. And if it were cheaper, I might've been more forgiving of its underwhelming performance.
No headphone jack (Score:2)
Here in Sweden back in the '80s, "Freestyle" is what we used to call a portable music player (such as a Walkman (TM)).
Does this thing have a built-in fan for the bulb?
What happens if the non-captive cable gets yanked while it is hot? Will it still be able to cool down safely?
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Seriously now, this isn't a nuclear power-plant, you don't really need to give it power AFTER you shut it down in order to cool down properly for 30 years. There's no bulb, it's LED, it's like a (modern) flashlight and a small display bred together, sure things can get a little toasty if you would power it without cooling but if you don't give it any power it'll just slowly cool down (and never be warmer than in normal operation).
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I bet your projector isn't USB powered and with a LED/bulb rating of 20000 hours.
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Except LEDs age rapidly the hotter they are - so they need to be kept cool. An
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So they won't be very warm in normal operation to start with and without power of course they'll get cooler and cooler so what's the problem?! Yea, in the odd case when someone just trips on the cable and the darn thing takes 3 minutes to cool down completely as opposed to one minute with active cooling after "safely" shutdown what do you lose? A ve
Here's the problem (Score:2)
Like just about everything else electronic nowadays, the projector has been programmed to recognize its surroundings and tasking, and only delivers full performance during trade-show demos and benchmarking.
Portable Projector is a tough one.. (Score:2)
You have the toughest lighting conditions for a projector (expectation to casually set it up wherever), combined with the need to also have a portable-friendly thermal performance as well as wanting to work with relatively low-current usb batter packs.
Which means it's a waste to aim for a $900 device, given the impossibly contradictory requirements of the brightest projection with a tight energy/thermal budget.
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On Amazon, there are projectors priced from $49 to over $1000.
Regardless of the price, they appear to all have similar specs and similar reviews.
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those 50 dollar projectors are 320x240 with a 1080p downscaler being sold as full HD.
There are several projectors under $100 that clearly state that they are 1080P "full HD" and they have thousands of 5-star reviews.
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Well, that was my thought, that 'portable' imposes limitations on a projector that will be disappointing beyond the bargain range in price. Better projectors are of course available, but they don't tick that 'portable' marketing point in the way they seemed to be angling for here (they can be pretty small, but generally not *this* small, and they can't be powered by a phone-style battery pack).
They just priced it wrong. (Score:2)
So they should have heavily discounted it at first, then raised the price only after they got a momentum going of good reviews. That's what a lot of sellers on Amazon do.
Camping trips?!? (Score:2)
Do these people not know what a camping trip is? Or has western civilization fallen that far?
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Western civilization has fallen that far. My in-laws are fairly outdoorsy types but "camping" to them involves pickups and campers that sleep 8+ people in fold out beds and have internal room for a buggy to be hauled (and they do). My wife is less camper oriented, but her "small" tent would comfortably sleep six people on air mattresses and could hold ten people if you didn't mind being on the ground with sleeping bags touching and getting stepped on if someone had to piss in the middle of the night. Her
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Band camp.
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Is it illegal to watch movies when camping? Didn't know there were such strict rules. Does that apply if I want to have movie night outside in a tent?
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Well the projector in question is battery powered so you should be ok
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Ground cork or well-crushed pumice works very well for that sort of thing, but I understand not everyone carries those items when camping. Maybe next time...
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What is a camping trip? It's going out in nature and getting some sand in your arse crack while sitting at a fire and drinking beer with friends. That doesn't mean we don't take an inverter, fridge, full espresso machine, and yes a projector as well. If the joy of camping for you is rubbing sticks together then more power to you.
That's not everyone's idea of an ideal camping trip.
Also last time we went camping we brought along 5 gas webers and chef. We ate better that camping trip than we do in a typical up
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"Do these people not know what a camping trip is?"
They are glampers.
They take generators, TVs, portable jacuzzi, a starlink antenna, the bare minimum.
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Do these people not know what a camping trip is? Or has western civilization fallen that far?
My thought exactly. I mean, seriously?
But, to each their own. Seems weird to me, but why not? If that's what they want to do, that's fine by me.
Of course this Samsung product is disappointing... (Score:2)