Dangbei Atom Laser Projector evaluate
SPECS
Worth: $899
Display screen dimension: 40-180 inches
Mannequin: Atom
Decision: 1080p
HDR: HDR10, HLG
Refresh Price: 60Hz
Ports: 1x HDMI (ARC), 1x USB 2.0
Audio: 2x5W
Sensible TV Software program: Google TV
Measurement: 7.68 x 7.68 x 1.87 inches
Weight: 2.82 lbs
For those who would’ve looked for the finest projectors 5 years in the past, the one names you’d’ve seen bandied about can be JVC, Epson and Optoma. However lately, new opponents out of China like Dangbei and Xgimi are giving the standard projector makers a run for his or her cash.
Living proof? The brand-new Dangbei Atom. Packing in a laser mild supply that gives a really brilliant picture for such a small projector, the Atom proves a worthy choice in case you’re purchasing for a small-but-mighty projector. It might not match up with the large canines, however its portability is on one other stage.
This isn’t the primary Dangbei projector price speaking about, both — Dangbei set a strong tempo for itself with the Mars Professional 4K projector final yr, offering a terrific picture at a decent value and wrapping all of it into a sublime design. The Atom borrows a slim Mac Mini-like kind issue we’ve seen on its greatest rival, the Xgimi Eflin, and it makes use of it effectively.
It might not fairly be the homerun that the Mars Professional 4K was final yr, however the Atom gives a satisfying picture and sound for informal viewing on the go.
Dangbei Atom evaluate: Pricing and availability
The Dangbei Atom is a decrease value choice within the projector market, coming in a hair beneath the $1000 mark at $899 — and like Dangbei’s different projectors, the MSRP is hardly the bottom obtainable value. It’s commonly obtainable at a reduction, with a road value as little as $750 throughout gross sales occasions like Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Dangbei Atom evaluate: Design
When the Xgimi Elfin hit the market, it was an fascinating projector, notably due to the way it squished every part right into a footprint the dimensions of a Mac Mini. The Dangbei Atom is available in at practically the very same dimension with variations measured by hundredths of an inch. The Atom has gone for a darker design than the Elfin’s white palette, providing a metallic look with a wrap-around grille that feels extra industrial.
The entire unit sits slightly below two inches tall, which makes it extremely transportable, which explains Dangbei promoting a carrying case to go together with the projector. The flat design doesn’t hassle to incorporate any ft that is likely to be used to prop it up, however the Atom has a threaded mount on the underside for setting it on a tripod.
The edges let air in to be pumped by means of cooling fins and radiate out the again of the projector. That’s the place you’ll discover all the ports for the Atom. The collection of ports are fairly customary and easily embrace an HDMI port, a USB-A port, a 3.5mm audio jack, and an influence barrel port.
On one aspect, you may simply be capable to make out the 2 audio system that the Dangbei Atom contains. And if that offers you pause, it ought to. Having two audio system may imply extra quantity, however placing each audio system on one aspect ensures you don’t get an actual stereo listening expertise. Typically, you ought to contemplate a separate audio system for a projector if you would like the sound to stay up the image, however Dangbei nonetheless may have performed higher right here.
Whereas the general design will not be thrilling aesthetically, it’s thrilling to see how the engineering continues to enhance as each Xgimi and Dangbei race to place smaller and brighter lights into smaller and smaller kind components.
Dangbei Atom evaluate: Efficiency
The Dangbei Atom gives a set of instruments for fast picture changes: It will possibly mechanically modify focus, vertical and horizontal keystone, and match the picture to obtainable display area. It will possibly additionally keep away from obstacles in the best way of the projection. These instruments are useful in case you transfer the projector typically, although in the end most will end in much less usable picture space to make up for an unideal projection setup, with autofocus being the one exception.
By way of efficiency, it pumps out a surprisingly brilliant picture that works successfully in a darkish room. It’s not so brilliant that you simply’ll be capable to depart the lights on — or take pleasure in a lot content material through the day — however turning on an overhead mild or close by lamp doesn’t wash out the picture.
The Dangbei Atom’s 1080p image leaves loads of room for enchancment, however is much from being a letdown so long as you retain the display dimension inside an affordable restrict. When stretched to its higher limits, imagery can look a little bit smooth and grainy and the DMD contained in the Atom additionally suffers from a dithering problem I’ve seen on fairly a couple of projectors with small DMDs. This rears its head when displaying a big space in a single, darkish colour. It appears like a bunch of pixels squirming round in that area. It doesn’t trigger points for all content material, however may be problematic for cartoons or video games.
Distinction can be a difficulty for the Atom, as can its colour efficiency. Its gamut is a little bit missing, and whereas quite a lot of pure colours come by means of effectively sufficient, among the extra vibrant and poppy colours from one thing like Cyberpunk Edgerunners or Avatar seem considerably drab, particularly in comparison with among the projectors concentrating on the BT.2020 colour area, just like the Hisense C1.
Whereas the projector helps HDR10, the projector’s show capabilities aren’t going to actually make a lot use of it. The distinction and colour merely aren’t there. The Atom additionally solely helps HDR by means of its built-in streaming software program and received’t assist it coming from HDMI or USB sources. Fortuitously, the working system runs easily and isn’t as gradual as others I’ve used, such because the one working on the JMGO N1 Extremely.
The Dangbei Atom will not be a prime performer, nevertheless it has an altogether respectable image for a projector of its dimension and value.
Dangbei Atom evaluate: Check Outcomes
| Row 0 – Cell 0 | Dangbei Atom | Dangbei Mars Professional 4K | BenQ HT2060 | XGIMI Horizon Professional | Hisense C1 |
| Brightness (ANSI lumens): | 1084 | 1812 | 1645 | 1270 | 1946 |
| Distinction: | 676:1 | 1105:1 | 3253:1 | 757:1 | 1757:1 |
| sRGB protection: | 93% | 92% | 99% | 100% | 100% |
| DCI-P3 protection: | 71% | 75% | 87% | 83% | 97% |
| Enter lag (default): | 81ms | 152ms | 25ms | 144ms | 150ms |
| Enter lag (gaming mode): | 25ms | 27ms | 25ms | 24ms | 51ms |
| Lifespan: | 30,000 hours | 30,000 hours | 30,000 hours | 30,000 hours | 25,000 hours |
| MSRP: | $899 | $1,799 | $999 | $1,899 | $1,999 |
| Avenue value: | $749 | $1,299 | $999 | $1,199 | $1,899 |
The Dangbei Atom leverages its ALDP laser mild supply to succeed in spectacular brightness ranges for such a small projector. Taking lux readings at 9 factors throughout an all white picture with a lightweight meter within the Atom’s brightest mode and multiplying the common by the realm of the projection, I measured 1,084 lumens, which is inside hanging distance of Dangbei’s personal 1,200 ISO lumen ranking. By default, the projector is a little bit dimmer, however growing the brightness doesn’t include notable degradation to picture high quality.
The distinction of the projector shouldn’t be fairly as spectacular. Taking a median lux measure of an all-black picture at 1.5 lux and evaluating it to the measures taken of an all-white picture, which hit 1014 lux, I get a tough measure of distinction for the projector. On the Dangbei Atom, this check noticed the projector obtain a 676:1 distinction ratio. It’s not a horrible end result, nevertheless it’s lackluster to make certain, falling effectively wanting the distinction nearly any LCD show would obtain. That is additionally a perfect circumstance, and distinction is worse when displaying brilliant and darkish content material on the similar time.
Colour can also be a weak level for the Atom, ALPD laser projectors aren’t recognized for his or her extensive colour gamut like their triple-laser counterparts. I took a colour gamut measurement utilizing a SpyderX Elite colorimeter and DataColor’s show evaluation software program with the projector shining in opposition to a 1.1-gain projector display, and the Dangbei Atom managed simply 93% protection of the sRGB colour area and 71% of the DCI-P3 colour area.
Dangbei Atom evaluate: Audio
The Dangbei Atom has a reasonably quiet fan inside that’s virtually inaudible when the projector isn’t in its most brightness setting and is in any other case not a difficulty in any respect, because the audio system on the Atom simply drown out the cooling fan.
In a quiet room, setting the quantity to simply 25% is sufficient to get an audible however impactful presentation from the twin 5-watt audio system. Only a small enhance to 35% brings some punch. The audio system don’t ramp up exponentially although. At 100% quantity, they’re lots for a small room, however they’ll depart you wanting in case you’ve received a medium-sized area (200 sq. ft or extra).
The audio system have respectable vary and don’t noticeably distort at max quantity (although a pair pops inspired me to decrease the quantity again down barely). Surprisingly, they supply a very good little bit of bass that you simply may not anticipate from a small system like this. They do appear to have some dynamic vary compression on, although, as throughout a film, many occasions that I’d anticipate to be fairly loud (gunshots and explosions) tended to not growth out above the remainder of the content material in any method.
That respectable efficiency does make it a bit extra of a disgrace that the audio system are on one aspect. You merely received’t be getting as engrossing audio as potential from the audio system due to the mono efficiency. Whilst you may take pleasure in plunking the projector down and watching one thing, a real cinema night time will name for an exterior sound system of some form, even when it’s only a respectable Bluetooth speaker.
Dangbei Atom evaluate: Gaming
The Dangbei Atom exhibits modest chops for gaming. It doesn’t have something too particular to reinforce the expertise — just like the 120Hz and 240Hz modes of some projectors — neither is it particularly sharp like 4K fashions or brimming with HDR dazzle.
Fortunately, it could actually sustain with informal gaming and story-based titles simply advantageous. Even enjoying by means of the pretty quick-paced Expandabros, I used to be capable of sustain with the motion. That’s because of its responsiveness with Sport Mode enabled.
By working a timecode on each a 90Hz OLED laptop computer and mirroring the display over to the Dangbei Atom, I used to be capable of measure a latency of 81 milliseconds by taking a high-speed picture of each and calculating the distinction between the up-to-date time on the laptop computer and the time on the projector. Enabling Sport Mode dropped that latency to 25 milliseconds. The projector additionally displays solely a brief ghosting path, albeit a pronounced one. That stated, I don’t really feel this projector is as much as the duty for fast-paced video games due to the restricted refresh charge and that distinct afterimage.
Dangbei Atom evaluate: Sensible TV Interface
The Dangbei Atom comes working the Google TV platform. It is a terrific system, has a great deal of apps, and is simple to navigate. Google could also be a bit aggressive with its adverts, although.
The Atom will allow you to set the projector up with both your Google account or skip the account and simply stick to the inventory apps, which embrace Netflix, Prime Video, YouTube, and a built-in media participant. This methodology makes for a faster setup, particularly in case you plan to simply use this with an exterior system, although it’s price remembering that there’s no HDR assist for HDMI sources on the Atom.
General, the Atom’s sensible platforms runs effectively. It may be a little bit gradual as well, however as soon as it’s working, it has been moderately easy. The one time I famous it getting slowed down was when it was busy downloading and putting in an replace.
Dangbei Atom evaluate: Distant
The distant for the Dangbei Atom may be very easy however equally helpful: It has the easy navigation buttons you’d anticipate on a Google TV product. A navigation ring sits on the heart with a Google Assistant button above that and an influence button on the prime. Beneath the ring are your Residence, Apps, and Again buttons. Quantity is on a vertical pill-button that’s simple to really feel out, and three app shortcuts sit subsequent to that.
Serving to with setup, the distant has two buttons on its aspect as effectively. One toggles a guide focus mode and the opposite brings up a projection menu with entry to focus, picture correction, and extra settings. Alas, for a projector you’ll largely need to use in a darkish room, it will have been higher to have lighting on the distant, however there’s none.
Dangbei Atom evaluate: Verdict
The Dangbei Atom is a modest little projector. You received’t see it topping any charts, although. Its 1080p picture isn’t insanely sharp, and its laser mild supply doesn’t present a really extensive colour gamut. However it’s only a small projector you will get for $750 (at the least often).
It offers critical portability whereas with the ability to forged a pretty big picture in dim and darkish rooms because of its 1,000+ lumens of brightness. It’s effectively rounded for such a small, modest system and places most of the dimmer little projectors, just like the Xgimi Halo on discover.
That stated, if portability isn’t key, you possibly can take pleasure in a significantly better image from one thing just like the BenQ HT2060 or, most probably, Dangbei’s personal Mars Professional (a 1080p model of the Mars Professional 4K I examined). Each provide higher efficiency throughout the board, although they’re a couple of hundred {dollars} dearer. If efficiency issues greater than worth, these can be those to go for, however in case you simply desire a transportable projector for a film night time, the Atom delivers on the basics.
