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The $399.99 Yaber Pico T1 has designs on being a brighter, higher-resolution (and more-expensive) alternative to the Kodak Luma 75, our current top pick for a pocket projector that you can carry as effortlessly as a cell phone. However, in order to pack a rated 110 ANSI lumens and 960-by-540-pixel resolution (one quarter of 1080p) into a projector about the size of a phone, the Pico T1 has no internal battery, instead relying on its included external power bank. Whether you’ll think having the two pieces separated is a good idea or not will likely depend on how you plan to use the projector most often: with the battery, or plugged in.
Picking Up the Pico’s Pieces
For a 5-ounce portable projector, the Pico T1 comes with a lot of individual bits. All are neatly packed in variety of small pockets and restraining straps inside a soft carrying case that measures roughly 2.25 by 7.8 by 6 inches (HWD) and weighs about 2.8 pounds, with everything included. In addition to the 0.5-by-3.0-by-5.9-inch projector and slightly narrower but thicker 9.5-ounce battery, the pieces include a small remote control, and a lightweight desktop tripod with a magnetic mount (in the form of a roughly 1.25-inch-diameter flat surface) to hold the T1 in place. Also in the package are a small AC charger with a USB-C connector (suitable for powering the projector or charging the battery), and three cables (USB-C-to-C, USB-A-to-C, and HDMI-to-mini-HDMI).
Setup is hindered by a lack of instructions. The quick-start guide—the closest thing to a manual that’s included with the projector—shows how to connect the AC charger or battery to power the T1, and it has a diagram that points out the controls on both the projector and remote. However, I had to puzzle out how to charge the battery on my own. I felt comfortable experimenting with how to connect it to AC power from the three choices available—the two supplied USB cables or its own captive USB-C cable. But when I’ve paid for a product, I like to know in advance that when I’m connecting to a power outlet, I won’t be frying something. (So you know: Using the included charger and the USB-C-to-C cable worked nicely.)
(Credit: Yaber)
A more frustrating lack of information showed up when trying to connect to Bluetooth headphones. The setup screen didn’t show that it was accepting the code needed for connection, which made me think the screen keyboard wasn’t working. After several attempts, I assumed that it was actually accepting the code, and just not giving any feedback on the screen, which turned out to be true. Typing the code blindly into what amounted to an information black hole and choosing Enter gave me a working connection. Yaber says it has not encountered this problem, but the video it offers to show the connection being set up is for the T1 connecting to a cell phone, which never showed the screen I saw when connecting to my headphones.
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Once you know how to set up the T1, the process is easy in principle but potentially difficult in practice. Connect power, connect the projector to a video source, turn it on, point it at whatever you’re using for a screen—with or without mounting it on the tripod first—and focus. What makes setup difficult is that the projector itself is so light, and the cables are so stiff. That makes it hard to position either the projector-and-charger or projector-and-battery combination so the cable won’t pull the projector away from pointing in the right direction.
(Credit: Yaber)
Possible solutions would be taping the power cable in place on a flat surface, or positioning a heavy object to the side of the T1 to keep it from swiveling. However, the better solution would be for Yaber to bundle some suppler, more flexible cables that don’t act like springs. Note also that this would be far less of an issue if Yaber had combined the battery and projector in one unit, and added rubber feet to help keep it in position.
One other minor problem: The T1 tended to lose focus as it warmed up. I had to re-focus several times over the first 15 or 20 minutes of every session. Yaber said it has not seen this issue and that it may be a problem with the review unit only. It’s far less obvious with photorealistic images than with business graphics containing lines and text, so depending on what you’re viewing, you may not notice any de-focusing even if your unit has the same problem. Beyond that, the good news is that it’s much easier to get a sharp focus with the T1 than with many small projectors, so if re-focusing is needed, it’s quick and easy.
(Credit: Yaber)
As with most of its competition, the T1 is built around a DLP chip paired with an RGB LED light source. By default, it negotiates a 1080p connection to computers and video sources, downconverting the image to its native 960 by 540 pixels, which means it behaves like a 1080p projector with soft focus. The low resolution was most noticeable with small text, as with the labels for icons on the Windows desktop, which may be an issue for road warriors who want to use the T1 with a PC. For movies and video, however, if you stay with a small-enough image size for the low lumen level to give you a bright image and nicely saturated color, it’s hard to see any loss of detail compared with 1080p resolution.
The T1’s connection choices include Wi-Fi Direct for connection to mobile devices, as well as the mini HDMI port, which will let it connect to standard video sources ranging from set-top boxes to Blu-ray players. However, the roughly three-foot HDMI cable is more appropriate for connecting to a laptop. Note that you might want to use a wired connection to your mobile devices as well. When I tried mirroring Netflix using Miracast, for example, I saw only a black screen (as expected, since Netflix doesn’t support this option). But when I connected with the USB-C-to-HDMI cable (which Netflix also doesn’t officially support), the image came through without a problem.
(Credit: Yaber)
You’re also advised to have a Bluetooth speaker or headphones handy for the T1. The built-in 1.5-watt mono speaker is underpowered at best. In my tests with Netflix, its top volume was noticeably lower than my Samsung Galaxy S20 FE phone could manage.
Testing the Yaber Pico T1: Solid Image Quality and Brightness for the Size
Image-quality issues such as color accuracy tend to be prevalent in this category of small projectors, but the T1 does as good a job as any of the competition, and is better than most. For business graphics, it delivered reasonably saturated color. And although some small fonts on the Windows desktop were hard to read, as already mentioned, the resolution was easily good enough to read everything mirrored from my Galaxy S20 FE’s screen.
The T1 also did a good job with photorealistic images, including photos and movies. Colors were within a realistic range in all cases in my tests, and shadow detail held up well enough to make out what was happening in dark scenes.
(Credit: Yaber)
The brightness was close to what I expect from the rated 110 lumens, but the image size you’ll find acceptable really depends on how dim an image you’re willing to tolerate. Using Society for Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) standards, 110 lumens would be suitable for a 41-to-55-inch-diagonal 16:9 image in a dark room, using a 1.0-gain screen. I found it bright enough for short sessions for a 90-inch-diagonal image, but I would drop the size to 40 inches or less for longer sessions, or if I wanted color that looked more vibrant and saturated. In a room at night with lights on, I’d choose an even smaller image for watching a movie.
An important plus for anyone who finds rainbow artifacts (red/green/blue flashes) annoying is that the T1 doesn’t tend to show them. I see them easily, and spotted only a few in my tests. As always, however, our advice is that if you have any concerns about the issue, you should buy the projector from a dealer that allows easy returns so you can test it yourself.
Verdict: Foiled by Its Own Battery
The Yaber Pico T1’s design, with its separate battery, makes the projector hard to recommend unless you want the option of either bringing a battery with you or leaving it at home and using AC power instead. If you don’t need a battery at all, consider the AAXA P8, which has the same resolution and offers higher brightness and a lower price. Or, if you want an onboard battery, consider the somewhat-more-expensive Kodak Luma 400, which offers both higher brightness and higher resolution, the latter at 720p (1,280 by 720 pixels).
Finally, if portability is your main concern, don’t overlook the Luma 75, our top pick in the category. It doesn’t deliver as high a brightness level or native resolution as the T1, but it weighs a touch less than the T1 projector itself, and it includes a built-in battery.
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The Yaber Pico T1 projector offers a sleek design and a highly watchable picture, but its cumbersome external battery and AC adapter make it less portable than it appears at first glance.
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Source link : https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/yaber-pico-t1