When it comes to the ideal cinematic experience, bigger is generally better. Sure, you can watch Dune on your phone with headphones, but it’ll never serve up the same impact as sitting in an IMAX for 2 hours and 35 minutes. It’s this immersive experience we want from a home projector too, which Samsung has just made a whole lot easier with its new Freestyle projector.
Announced at CES 2022, the Samsung Freestyle is the latest generation of ultraportable smart TV projectors, which seeks to improve on the annoying elements of a standard projector, with an exciting few additional features thrown in. In fact, if you were looking for a really big TV but didn’t want to spend big bucks, this could be a compelling alternative.
It’s about the size of your average pint glass, and is only marginally heavier at about 800g and arrives on a swivelling stand with 180 degrees of rotation. Depending on how large your living room is, you’ll be able to project a screen anywhere between 30″ (if you have 2.6ft of space) and 100″ (requiring 8.8ft), which is a pretty impressive size range.
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You won’t need the room to be photo-studio-blacked-out either, with the Freestyle throwing out 550 lumens of brightness, all while projecting at a reliable 1080p with auto-focus and auto-levelling capacity. The projector uses Samsung’s smart TV platform, meaning you’ll be able to project Netflix wherever you like, as well as anything else your smart TV enjoys.
Possibly the coolest unique feature of the Samsung Freestyle is its lightbulb hanging adaptor, which allows you to hang it from any empty light fixture and keeps your coffee table projector free. It is also available with portable waterproof cases, a portable battery pack and even has its own 360-degree speakers if you require them. Finally, it even has a special lens cap that turns the Freestyle into a smart lamp, able to light your living room even when you aren’t watching anything.
There’s a lot to like about the Freestyle, especially if you’ve avoided most projectors in the past due to their clunkiness, space inefficiency and effort to set up. Pre-orders for Australia are opening on January 17th of 2022 with an RRP of US$900 (AU$1,250).
