Dangbei Neo

The Dangbei Neo 1080p portable projector ($599.99) manages to be an impressive little beast in some ways, while missing its mark in others. In addition to built-in Ethernet and Netflix support, the Neo offers more-than-acceptable image quality for casual viewing, with enough brightness to give you a watchable picture at a reasonably large size. It's also relatively affordable compared with our two top picks, the Xgimi Halo+ and the Anker Nebula Capsule 3 Laser. The Neo is potentially a good choice as a room-to-room mini projector if you don't mind some small oversights, including a lack of controls on the projector itself, which prevents you from using it without the remote control.

Most projectors with smart TV features use either Android TV, with its solid apps, or Android OS, which suffers from often flakey app performance. The Dangbei Neo, available in blue or white (though the blue version I tested is more of a bluish gray), is an exception. It uses a Linux-based OS, and its own set of apps, including some you won't find in models with Android TV.

The ones I tried worked reliably, including one that Dangbei says is a licensed Netflix app, which is particularly notable. Although a fair number of projectors today—including the Android TV-based Epson CO-FH02 and Kodak Flik HD10 —have Netflix apps we can recommend using, a larger number of models either lack a Netflix app entirely or provide a workaround that doesn't work well and is often hard to install. The Neo's Netflix app comes already installed and worked in our tests without problems, which is a big plus if Netflix is your go-to streaming service for watching movies.

Aside from its Linux OS, the Neo offers a fairly typical set of features for a 1080p mini projector. It's built around a single DLP chip paired with an RGB LED light source that gives the projector a maximum rated brightness of 540 ISO lumens (equivalent to ANSI lumens). The LED lifetime is rated at 30,000 hours.

The specs don't mention the maximum input resolution, and a Dangbei representative told me the projector officially supports up to 1080p at 60Hz. However, when I set my Blu-ray player to connect at 4K, the Neo connected without a problem and reported the connection as 3,840 by 2,160 pixels. On the other hand, unlike most 1080p projectors that support 4K, when the player was set to Auto for resolution, it connected at 1080p instead.

Either setting will give you a 1080p image on screen. However, when connected at 1080p and playing a 4K disc, the player (rather than the projector) has to down-convert the image, which means the image quality may vary depending on the player. Note, too, that in my tests playing a 4K HDR movie on disc, the Neo connected using SDR with both 1080p and 4K connections, even though Dangbei says it supports HDR10 and HLG HDR. (More on this later.)

The Neo looks like a small lunch box without a handle, measuring 3.9 by 7.9 by 6.2 inches (HWD) and weighing 3.1 pounds, not including its external AC adapter. One potential issue is that, aside from a power button, no controls exist on the projector itself. Lose the remote, and you'll have no way to adjust menu settings, choose a source, or navigate through the smart TV options. Dangbei says it will replace faulty remotes for free. You can also buy one on Amazon for $29.99.

Physical setup is mostly standard, except that unlike most mini projectors, the Neo offers an Ethernet port as an alternative to Wi-Fi for connecting to your network. If you have a nearby LAN port to connect to, the wired connection will be easier to set up than Wi-Fi: Just plug in a cable. Beyond that, you only need to optionally connect a video source to the one HDMI port, then point the Neo at whatever you're using for a screen, turn it on, and focus. You'll also find options in the OS for mirroring Android and Windows devices over Wi-Fi Direct, as well as for streaming via DLNA from Android, Windows, and iOS devices.

Focus was just a touch soft in my tests, but the autofocus worked well enough that I wasn't able to improve it manually. The menus also offer other automatic setup features that are turned off by default, but that you may want to turn on. In my tests, the auto vertical and horizontal keystone correction and the intelligent screen fit both worked as promised, to square off the image and shrink it to keep it from going past the top, bottom, or sides of my screen. You'll also find an Intelligent Obstacle Avoidance option, which is designed to avoid projecting part of the image on a light switch or framed picture when using a wall as a screen. However, I didn't have a suitable expanse of wall to test it on.

As a general rule, it's best to move the projector as needed to adjust image size and position rather than use these digital adjustments, which lower brightness and can introduce artifacts in some images. However, they work well enough that they can speed up setup when you move to a new spot. If the image is bright enough at the lower brightness for the image size and ambient light level, you may well decide the quick setup is worth the cost in brightness.

One advantage for the Neo compared with Android TV-based projectors is that the Linux OS doesn't need extensive setup. You only have to add user names and passwords to the already-installed Netflix, Prime, and other apps that require them.

The audio system, which offers dual 6-watt speakers plus Dolby Audio, Dolby Digital, and Dolby Digital Plus, delivers high enough volume to fill a large family room at good enough quality so you can easily do without an external sound system. If you want to use one, however, you can connect it to the S/PDIF digital audio output, or use Bluetooth. You can also use the projector as a Bluetooth speaker for other audio sources.

The Neo offers four predefined picture modes that you can't adjust, plus one Custom mode that lets you adjust about a half-dozen basics. Most people will judge any of the modes as usable for video and movies, but after some preliminary tests, I picked Custom mode. Straight out of the box, it tied the best of the other modes for color accuracy, and it let me adjust the over-sharpening that all the modes showed, as well as adjust brightness to the proper setting.

In my 1080p tests, the Neo delivered an eminently watchable picture. Color accuracy was good enough that I didn't see any colors that were obviously off what I know they should be, and shadow detail held well enough in our darkest test scenes that it was easy to make out what was happening, though the black level was high enough to rob the scenes of some of the dramatic visual impact they should ideally show. Brighter scenes offered better contrast.

Because the player could not establish an HDR connection with the Neo, I couldn't run our usual HDR tests. It also didn't connect using HDR with any of the online systems I tested it with. However, Dangbei sent me a picture showing a Neo menu on screen confirming the 1080p HDR connection while connected to a Apple TV 4K (3rd Generation), so this may be a compatibility issue with specific sources. The company says that it has replicated the problem using a Blu-ray player, and is looking into it further. Note also that the Neo lacks 3D support.

I saw rainbow artifacts (red/green/blue flashes) in scenes where they're most likely to show, but they were less frequent than with some mini projectors. As always, if you're bothered by these flashes, or don't know if you are, it's best to buy from a dealer that allows easy returns without a restocking fee, so you can test it out for yourself.

Dangbei claims a 30-millisecond (ms) lag time for the Neo, but I measured it with a Bodnar meter at 82ms for 1080p/60Hz input. Both numbers are in the range that casual users should find acceptable, but the lag as tested is enough to make a difference in how long you'll survive in a game that depends on fast reaction time.

Using my preferred settings for image quality, the brightness for the Neo was close to what I expect for its rating. In a dark room, it was easily bright enough to fill my 90-inch, 1.0-gain screen, which is at the high-image-brightness end of the 90-to-123-inch range that the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) recommends for 540 lumens. In a family room at night, with lights on, it was bright enough to light up my 80-inch screen, and was watchable but washed out in daytime.

If you're in the market for a mini projector, and if you prefer a wired connection to your network, the Neo's Ethernet connector alone can make it a compelling choice. Most mini projectors—and even most room-to-room projectors—depend solely on Wi-Fi. If you don't need Ethernet, however, be sure to take a look at the competition that connects via Wi-Fi only.

Our two Editors' Choice picks for mini projectors are the Xgimi Halo+, our favorite for high brightness, and the Anker Nebula Capsule 3 Laser, our favorite for image quality. Each costs more than the Neo, but also includes a built-in battery, making it more portable. And neither had problems with HDR input in our tests. Also consider the Xgimi MoGo 2 Pro, which costs about the same as the Neo. It doesn't include a battery, but it is the only one of these three Android TV-based models with a downloadable Netflix app that was both easy to set up and use, and it worked well in our tests.