Projectors! Pocket sized to home theater compared
I started out looking for easily movable Android based projector, that I could just point at any wall and have instant big screen TV. I pretty much got that with the Aodin Pico Projector.
However, after testing the Aodin on a 100 inch screen in my lounge, I really loved the big picture but it wasn't bright enough, or sharp enough for home theater use.
To make it clear, most projectors that say "Android" in the title and/description don't actual run Android. The "Android" label just means if you already own an Android device with HDMI out you can plug it in, like you'd already expect to do with any HDMI device. However a few (if you read the details carefully) actually do run the Android OS in the projector itself, which means you don't need any external device to provide content. I was thinking to go with one of $99 Android units, but from the reviews I could they they were really just toys lacking features and preformance and I'd be wanting to upgrade the week after I got it, so I tested 3 better units in the $200-$300 range.
Four units tested:
Pros:
Native 1080p
3000 lumins, 21,000 contrast ratio
Big, bright, sharp picture, blows the others away
Quite fan
3D
Cons:
Need a laptop or Android device for content
Pros:
Android 5 , Kodi 17
Hulu, Netflix, Amazon, Youtube preinstalled
Large pocket sized, battery power
175 lumens
WIFI / Bluetooth
Cons:
Terrible picture, burly in some areas, sharp in other
Twice the size/weight of the Aodin
Fan was a bit loud,but not too bad
No USB ethernet
WIFI was ok, but not good for HD
Some choppy playback on HD
Pros:
Clear, uniform picture tested to 100 inches
Pocket sized, battery power
100 lumens bright enough in a dark room
Very quite fan
Android 4.4, full Playstore
Supports USB ethernet
WIFI and Bluetooth
Kodi 15 (from playstore)
Hulu, Netflix, Amazon, Youtube preinstalled
2 full sized USB ports
Cons:
100 lumens, must have dark room with no light at all
Contrast ratio is poor
Only SD
A little choppy on very high bitrate Blu-Ray playback
Wifi isn't great, needs the the ethernet for HD playback
Pros:
Sharp, clear and bright picture across the whole screen in HD, no blurry or distorted areas
Kodi 14 preinstalled and tweaked
Strongest WIFI signal I've seen, better than on laptops
Smooth playback on WIFI, no buffering
Smooth playback on high bitrate Blu-Ray files
Hulu, Netflix, Amazon, Youtube preinstalled
Lots of types of inputs
Cons:
LOUD fan, so loud you can't hear dialog.
Runs hot, heats up the room
Buzz in external audio
No USB ethernet support
SD movies look terrible
Large, bulky, need a heavy duty stand
Android and Kodi versions are old
Only 720p
No Bluetooth! (which could have solved the wired audio problem!!)
Summery:
So what it all comes down to, the RULU and the AAXA didn't work out at all. The RULU's sound problems make it unusable, and the picture isn't good enough for home theater. I don't know why but SD movies look awful on it, blurry and unwatchable. The AAXA had picture problems too, and no ethernet with poor WIFI made it pretty useless, what's the point of buying an Android projector when you need to buy another device to drive it. The Aodin worked well as a wireless player, has everything built in, picture's good and you can plug into power/ethernet when you need to.
But in the end, we so much liked the idea of big screen 110 inch display that we discarded the wireless Android features and went with the Optima full HD home theater projector. Since it's using an external HDMI source, I can loop in through my home theater system and get 5.1 audio, which I could not do with the Android based devices. At $550 dollars it's twice the price of the the RULU, but easily 3 times better picture and sound.
UPDATE: we kept the Aodin too and use it as a portable projector in the bedroom and patio.
Watching a movie on a super sharp small screen is nowhere near as good as watching a movie on a big screen.
I didn't start out to upgrade my home theater with a projector, from what I'd heard projectors were obsolete since 60 inch 4K UHD OLED screens are available, which is what I planned to upgrade my old 1080i 53 inch analog HDTV to, but now that I see the picture of the Optima DLP projector on the new 110 inch screen I bought, there's no way I'd trade this for a 4K 60 inch OLED, the big screen at 110 inches in 1080p looks much better than any 4K TV I've seen.
I'll be labeling all the pics soon!
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| Back of the RULU |
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| For comparison, pic on 40 inch 1080p Samsung TV |
Pics of the Aodin on 100 inch screen:
Pics of the RULU on 100 inch screen:
Pics of the AAXA P4-X on the 100 inch screen:
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