A projector or a TV? My choice was a video projector, specifically, the EZCast Beam V3 currently.
The EZCast Beam V3 is a classic LED projector, but can be transformed into a ceiling projector and portrait projector.
Features
- Technology: LCD – 200 lumens
- Contrast: 1000:1
- Definition: 1280-720 pixels
- Ratio: 1.5/1
- Focus: Manual
- Projection size: 32-176 inches in 16:9
- Entry: USB 2.0, HDMI, MicroSD
- Wifi: 2.4/5G USB Wifi adapter included
- Audio: 5w speakers, 3.5mm audio jack, Blutooth 4.1
- Dimensions: 230 x 169 x 90mm
- Weight:1200g
The test of the EzCast Beam V3
The Ezcast Beam V3 is a projector with a design quite common for a projector, with a large lens. Lens protected from scratches and dust with a plastic cap.
About the lens, it has a manual focus, which allows you to focus as you wish.
On the top side, you have:
- The ignition button
- navigation arrows
- a base for your smartphone or tablet
- focus roulette
On the left side:
- 1 USB port for the wifi adapter
- a microSD card slot
- 1 USB port
- a 3.5 jack output for audio
With the projector, you have:
- a remote control
- a wifi dongle
- 2 supports
- Sector adapter
- the manual
The 2 foam supports, when you see them the first time, you wonder what it is. And once you look at the instructions, you understand pretty quickly. They are used to keep the projector in ceiling projector mode, stable and with enough space so that the ventilation areas are not clogged.
The installation is simple: you plug the power sector, the wifi dongle if you want to communicate with the projector remotely, otherwise use other ports like HDMI. Turn on, manually adjust focus, distance and height.
It's simple and pretty fast.
Connectivity
You have a wide choice to connect a media to your Beam V3 projector: classic USB, but you also have microSD, HDMI and finally, wifi. Wifi that is made with a dongle that disappears almost once it is inserted. (Once inserted, it will be difficult to remove it) And if you don't want to use wifi, you can turn it off in the settings. This is personally very appreciated, because if I do not want to use wifi, I will have no broadcast of waves.
HDMI is also very important these days. Of course, you can use your PC to stream media, but with HDMI, you can just as well connected a pc like Intel Compute Stick or a ChromeCast! Not to mention your game consoles.
Projection
As for the projected images, they are perfectly visible during the day. At night, the colors are quite faithful.
Here, in the photo, the projection seems to be overexposed, but it is the camera of my smartphone that mishandled this, because in reality, it is much more beautiful than what can be seen in the photo!
It's frankly a quality projector.
In addition, the refreshment is 120 Hz, which gives a much more fluid visual experience.
On the audio side, you only have one speaker. It's powerful, but you only have mono. So if you want stereo, you need to connect a stereo speaker in 3.5mm.
You can also connect bluetooth to your projector, but bluetooth is only used for audio, not videos. Once the bluetooth is connected, your projector will not project anything.
You might think it was ill-conceived to reserve bluetooth only for audio without video, but to have tested many times on other devices, the bluetooth is so slow that it creates a gap between sound and video. So rather than pretending that we can connect speakers in bluetooth and watch a movie at the same time, they decided to separate the two. Which is a good point!
Heat
Any projector heats up, that's normal. But for this one, I had the very pleasant surprise to see that it was barely hot when I unplugged it despite using it for 1 hour! On the other hand, this was not the case with the sector adapter…
If you want to compare the features of the EZCast Beam V3 with others of the same brand: https://www.ezcast.com/res/beam_datasheet_EN_v200416.pdf
And if you want to download the user manual for the EZCast Beam V3: https://www.ezcast.com/res/Beam_V3_manual_EN_v1.0.pdf
Conclusion
You're spoilt for choice at connectivity level, and that's what I like about this EZCast Beam V3. You get beautiful images in 1280x720p, with a refresh rate of 120 Hz. The speaker is not stereo, but it is powerful.
Link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B088H2HNCR
Note: You can get a 10% discount on the EZCast Beam V3 by inserting the code PANDOONV3 (works on amazon.co.uk -you will have a sector adapter adapted to Europe as well – and amazon.com)
