IThere’s a freer feeling among the R projectors: instead of an angular housing, it’s in a handy cylinder that looks like a tiny spotlight, and supported on a round base, it can be tilted 180 degrees – up, down, forward and backward. can be rotated. As a result, the small projector shines even at the ceiling, making it ideal as a media bedflow. The manufacturer thinks its name Freestyle is well chosen samsung,
The delicate video cannon costs about 1000 euros. What do you get for this other than the original design? The data sheet promises Full HD resolution and a maximum brightness of 550 lumens, i.e. brightness that’s enough for small cinema in the middle, but suggests a dark environment. Depending on the projection distance, Freestyle produces murals with a diagonal of 250 cm, made with long-lasting LED cells and a DLP chip as the mirror element. The projector draws power from a plug-in power supply via a USB-C cable. Unfortunately, this movement puts the artist on a short strap, but a solution is in sight: Samsung will soon introduce a suitable battery that can be clamped under the stand. The projector emits sound either from the built-in, all-round loudspeaker or via the corridor radio from the Bluetooth box.
Useful User Interface, Helpful App
The projector opens to all imaginable streaming sources via WLAN, ARD and ZDF media libraries can also be tapped, and audio streaming services can play programs as well. The projector sorts all the offers on a user interface that is well known to owners of televisions of the same brand. Samsung operating system Tizen has also been used in Freestyle. External image and sound sources may contact the projector via radio or cable. For example, Apple devices send their videos via AirPlay 2, Blu-ray players docked via an HDMI cable with a mic connector.
Switching from a streaming program to an HDMI input isn’t that easy. Unfortunately, Samsung hasn’t provided a menu item for this in the user interface, and the projector’s tiny remote control doesn’t even offer a button for it. This can be resolved by controlling the device through the Samsung SmartThings app. However, in our test run, the HDMI switch worked more smoothly. The projector was automatically recognized when a video cable was plugged in and switched on accordingly. Freestyle is also suitable for decorative wall painting: saved as colored prisms or beautiful landscape images, and includes written material for appropriate occasions – for example, Happy Birthday, or Cheers.
Autofocus shows vulnerabilities
The projector has two automatic functions that can be turned off for image adjustment. One, called keystone correction, straightens all edges, the other adjusts the focus. We were able to make friends with Keystone Reform. It works well and reliably. We weren’t so happy with the autofocus, with manual adjustment achieving more image sharpness from the device. It’s also a pity that you have to work your way through the menus for this function to work.
Well-adjusted, the projector delivers clear, beautiful HD images, even in front of colorful wallpaper if needed: with the SmartThings app on an Android phone, you can automatically correct color tones. Projector brightness isn’t high enough for daylight environments, but you shouldn’t expect that from a projector in this class. We were also pleasantly surprised by the sound of the picture. The Freestyle has a fairly powerful sound and is better than many kitchen radios.
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