A new player has entered the projected home entertainment space with a compact 1080p projector. The We.Beam from audiovisual veteran Loewe aims to occupy premium ground in the battlefield, but does it have the specs to match?
Rather than step on the Full HD toes of budget kings like XGIMI and Yaber, Loewe is pitching its first projector at users with more cash to spare, and is priced at a similar level to Dangbei's excellent Atom model – well, it's actually higher.
The mini projector is described as "perfect for living room movie nights, garden cinemas, lounges, or van camping trips." It's said to be the first in its class to be built around ALDP (Advanced Laser Phosphor Display) technology, and is able to throw Full HD visuals up to 120 diagonal inches from just over 16 ft (5 m) away. If you don't have that much wall space, placing it 5 ft (1.5 m) away from the vertical surface will yield 40-inch visuals.
It supports coverage of the Rec.709 color gamut (though percentage figures haven't been shared) and plays nice with HDR10 content too. Native contrast is 500:1 and the laser light source puts out 500 ANSI lumens –that's going to pretty much restrict the unit to a darkened room unless you want to risk image washout in ambient lighting. Autofocus is cooked in, along with keystone correction, fit-to-screen and obstacle avoidance, for setup ease and flexibility.
The proprietary user interface can be loaded with popular entertainment apps from the NetRange App Store, with Netflix pre-installed together with Prime Video and YouTube. There's even an internet browser included. Wireless connectivity shapes up as 802.11ac Wi-Fi.
The compact unit includes a 10-W sound system with support for Dolby Audio, but Bluetooth 5.1 is also on board, so the setup can serve up tunes wirelessly fed in from a smartphone when not watching shows. A HDMI port with audio return, plus USB Type-A, makes for cabled connectivity to media sources.
The projector is described as portable at 6.8 x 6.8 x 1.8 in (17.5 x 17.5 x 4.8 cm) and 1.8 lb (0.83 kg), but it lacks a built-in battery. The supplied USB-C adapter needs mains power, but users could also cable the We.Beam to a PD-compatible powerbank for mobile convenience.
Loewe's undeniably stylish mini projector is available now for US$960. As mentioned earlier, that's pricier than the Atom we reviewed in February – which benefits from Google TV (which includes Netflix) and puts out 1,200 ISO lumens.
Product page: We.Beam