One of China's top consumer tech brands, Dangbei, launched a mini-PC-sized Full HD laser projector at IFA 2023 in Germany last year that was its first to run Google TV. The Atom made its way to the US for CES recently, and we've been sent one for review.
Dangbei was founded in 2013 as a TV network platform, and began making and selling smart projectors in 2019. The company is now reported to sit at the top of the laser projector tree in China. The Atom is its thinnest projector so far, at just 1.87 in (4.75 cm), and has the outward look of a mini desktop computer.
This means that it can be slipped into a backpack for easy transport to a friend's house (it tips the scales at 2.82 lb/1.28 kg), but the unit lacks an internal battery and the power brick is a bit of a monster, so you'd need to factor in the adapter's 5.7 x 2.5 x 1.18 in (14.5 x 6.35 x 2.9 cm) dimensions and 30 oz (850 g) weight – plus the cable and wall outlet needs – before going mobile with this setup.
Many smart projectors currently run a version of Android TV, the Atom rolls with the similar but better Google TV. The projector can run in a basic mode, but I opted to install/update GTV, which took around 15 minutes, automatically synchronized with my Google account and placed favorite apps on the home screen.
The interface is similar to Android TV but Play Store integration is tighter. Though there is a way to launch the Play Store from the Apps library if you need to, the "apps" section accessed from the home screen is divided into useful themes – such as entertainment, lifestyle, sports, education and buiness – for direct access to available apps for download and install. Very slick.
I've also found Android TV settings to be a bit of a chore in the past, so was pleasantly surprised by the relatively clear and logical layout of the settings via GTV.
Netflix on tap
Navigation is via the Bluetooth remote, which has cooked-in Assistant voice control. The Atom is Netflix approved too, and there's even a dedicated button on the remote for direct access, along with shortcuts for YouTube and Prime Video. A long press of the Home button gains access to projector settings, though there are also a couple of useful buttons to the side. The red one triggers autofocus (long press) or manual focus controls (short press), while the a quick push of the gray button brings up projector settings, and a long press mutes the audio.
The unit features a pair of 5-watt speakers that disperse sound from either side of the matte plastic housing. There's support for Dolby Digital and Digital Plus, and a number of audio presets are available via the settings menu, including one tailored for music playback when the unit is being used as a BT speaker. I found output to be on the quiet side until the volume was pumped to well beyond the 50% mark, with around 75% proving enough to punch into the room's corners, but overall quality was pretty good.
The projection engine and sensors are hidden behind a shiny plastic strip that runs the whole of the unit's front, curving as it leans into the corners. This translates to a DLP display engine, 0.33-in DMD chip and ALPD (Advanced Laser Phosphor Display) light source (which Dangbei says has been "adopted by over 30,000 theaters worldwide") for the promise of a speckle-free visual feast with no color fringing.
Output resolution is 1,920 x 1,080 pixels, and the projector doesn't support 4K decoding. It can accommodate HDR10 and HLG formats though, but HDR is not supported over HDMI or USB. The laser light source is reckoned good for up to 30,000 hours of use in eco mode, and puts out 1,200 ISO lumens – which is an international standard used by Epson to specify white brightness.
Easy setup
The Atom is reported to benefit from a cinema-grade quartz lens. Along with focus and zoom capabilities, it features auto (or manual) keystone correction, and if there's a piece of furniture or a house plant to the side of the display zone, the projector's CMOS vision camera and time-of-flight sensor will be used with onboard algorithms to adjust the thrown image to take them out of the picture.
This obviously results in a smaller box to view, but does mean that you don't necessarily have to rearrange a room every time you want to fire up the projector. If you use a projection screen, the sensors can also automatically adjust the visuals to fit. Such things make setup less painful, and worked as advertised.
The Atom has a throw ratio of 1.2:1 for visuals measuring from 40 diagonal inches to a maximum of 180 inches, though Dangbei recommends somewhere between 60 and 100 inches for the best viewing clarity. I don't have a clean wall or projection screen big enough to host the max size anyway, so I went for a comfortable 80 corner-to-corner inches from just under 7 ft away.
Bright, clear and sharp
Out of the box, the thrown visuals appear bright and sharp – and even display pretty well in daylight with the blinds partially shading the outside world. However, to my eyes that sharpness is unnaturally harsh, particularly in a darkened room. Fortunately, the projector comes with a number of basic picture adjustment options, including vivid, movie and game mode, as well as three color temperatures to choose from.
Warming up the defaults certainly helped here, and after a few minutes of tweaking such things as contrast, saturation and sharpness, the output was sufficiently tamed to personal satisfaction.
There's a dedicated game mode for reducing input lag when cabled up to a console via HDMI to the rear, though I'm not much of a player so didn't put this feature to the test. Also around back are USB/audio ports, a DC power input and a heat dissipation panel. The bottom of the unit features venting too, with fan noise only really noticeable when the unit is running at higher brightness modes.
Compact but capable
I watched a few shows and movies on Netflix during my few weeks with the Atom, after dark and during office hours, and came away pretty impressed. The HD visuals were sharp and clear across the whole of the projected image, and though Dangbei hasn't included motion compensation, I didn't notice any obvious tearing during fast action scenes. The only minor niggles to report are a loss of depth and detail in darker scenes, but this is perhaps to be expected given the Atom's price point, and green edging to some of the boxes and lines, but they're not noticeable unless you step close to the display area, and you don't really do that in general use.
The projector comes with 2 GB of DDR3 RAM and 32 GB of eMMC internal storage, a single HDMI port (with audio return), one USB 2.0 Type-A connector, and a 3.5-mm headphone jack. There's Bluetooth 5.1 and dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi, plus Chromecast is built-in as well, for screen sharing. And there's support for multiple user profiles so that each family member can be served personalized recommendations and watchlists.
The Dangbei Atom laser projector with Google TV is on sale now for US$899, though there is a $150 discount promo running until March 3. The video below has more.
Product page: Atom
