Geekwire LP-4: Low-Cost, Mini-Projector

Testing its video abilities, I downloaded a Xonotic play-through video from YouTube. The format used was 18, which is Youtubean for 640x360 H.264 + AAC packed into MP4. It played without issue from an USB stick.

Then to stress the speakers, the latest Nightwish video from YouTube was put on.

I'm both surprised and delighted with the speakers. Being rated for only one Watt each, yet they could fill the small room at only half volume, with no audible distortion. The bass was missing as expected, and higher sounds were a touch tinny, but generally the quality was better than in most laptops and tablets.

While the article started on a HDMI note, I couldn't test HDMI at the time, so VGA had to suffice. Connecting a Linux laptop over VGA, everything from GRUB prompt to X displayed fine automatically. The projector's delay in adjusting to new resolutions was around one second.

The modes offered over VGA EDID were the standard 1024x768, 800x600 and 640x480, plus a widescreen 854x480 mode. Xorg chose 1024x768 automatically, but manually changing that to 640x480 offered less distortion.

During all testing a standard Wattmeter was connected. The power use hovered between 25 and 26 W regardless of the mode, which is right where it should be for a device rated 24 W + the conversion overhead of the brick.

To close it up, the Geekwire LP-4 is a capable device well worth the price tag. The only complaint I have is the small resolution, which could impede watching movies with subtitles, depending on which component does the scaling of course. A well-done media player doing the subtitle placing and scaling could result in a nicely watchable movie.

The general responsiveness of the projector was way above that of usual office projectors. Everything from startup to shutdown, changing resolutions or responding to remote presses was faster than with projectors costing 10-30 times as much. There's something amiss when a cheap and cheerful Chinese device provides a better user experience than a standard-to-pro grade device from Western suppliers.

The USB input was working quite well, which should apply to SD cards too. One feature I believe is missing is support for Powerpoint/LibreOffice Impress slides - carrying just a projector with a SD card already in it could be nice for traveling merchants. As it is only traditional media is supported.

For general hacking, with text and images instead of (or only occasional) movies, this projector receives a passing grade. The contrast in a lit room is not enough, so clearly a backlit keyboard should be the next purchase.

For 50$, a projector that gives you no additional cost in the form of expensive burning lamps, this is a great buy.

Editor's Note: I wasn't able to find the LP-4 available in the US at major Internet retailers, but Amazon.com has the LP-6 model available at a price of $65 USD.