Review: Dangbei Freedo, a smart Google TV projector that can be taken anywhere

Figured I'd do things a little differently with this new little projector from Dangbei. This little portable model, the Freedo, has reasonable brightness and can be used indoors or out with varying degrees of success.

The bit that's different? Well, by accident, I discovered I could project onto blackout blinds, and it actually looks rather great, which has changed my workflow a bit.

Even testing out latency-intensive things like Steam Remote Play was quite interesting, and I'll talk a bit more about this later.

The Freedo also comes in at a fairly reasonable price and well-specced. It runs Google TV OS, has 360-degree Dolby Digital Plus audio, Google Cast, and 2.5 hours of video playback (Eco mode).

It certainly won't replace a living room TV with its brightness figure, but in an office or casual setting, it provides ample performance for the price, especially considering it is so portable.

A 65W GaN charger is included in the box for fast charging, but the Freedo can also be charged using a power bank, and I made use of this one night to project onto the wall of a supermarket; more on this later, too.

First impressions

The Freedo comes in a waterproof and extremely lightweight shell case made of some type of poly-foam, it stores everything needed to take the Freedo anywhere and be up and running, and yes there is still room inside to slip in a 65W power bank.

The projector and remote are both plastic, the articulating stand is metal, and there is an orientation sensor, which quickly adapts the projection to whatever angle or direction you move the Freedo to.

The articulation of the integrated stand is smooth but stiff enough to keep the projector in place. Overall the build quality and physical features integration has been done with some attention to detail focusing on ease of use.

Spot the USB charging cable in the first photo above? Look to the right of the stand's arm, the Type-C port is integrated into the arm and cable routing is done via the hole at the base connection. This keeps everything neat and tidy.

Whilst the charging port is implemented well, the flap to access the HDMI and USB ports seems to have missed the memo. The flap is fine, but there's nowhere to easily grab it as it sits flush with the housing. Normally, I would expect a lip or recess to get a fingernail into so I could pull the flip out. It's just all smooth here, making getting to the ports underneath quite tedious—you win some, you lose some.

On the opposite side of the stand is the power button with an integrated LED indicator. The colours determine the remaining battery level. When in standby mode, the LED pulses softly.

Other than the remote control and 65W charging adapter (which can be used on any other device to fast charge them), not much else comes in the package. The remote is the same as what we have seen on other Dangbei projectors in the past. It does everything fairly effortlessly and is BTLE, so no line of sight of the projector is needed.

Indoor projection

Having recently shifted things around and light grey vertical blinds incoming, my projection is now used primarily as a secondary screen while I am working away.

I was not expecting much on the current blackout blinds setup from a claimed 450 lumens, but in practice it ended up being surprisingly excellent:

Even with daylight coming in through the gaps, and with some ambient room lighting turned on, it's still fairly usable projecting a 90" image onto the canvas slats for this sort of use-case, once the grey slats arrive, the picture should be even better:

So far, so good. The Freedo has proven itself to be capable in reasonably complex lighting for its size and specs.

What about the audio? Dangbei claims that the Freedo has 360-degree audio, and whilst that is hard to capture in a video, I found the built-in Dolby Digital Plus capable speaker to be loud enough for casual use. For anything more serious, you can connect via Bluetooth to wireless speakers or a dedicated receiver.

I paired it to the desktop power amplifier and saw it receiving a 58 kHz signal. However, I was unable to determine what CODEC was being used, as Dangbei has not disclosed this.

During playback using Bluetooth, I found there was no major issue with audio sync, although if you looked closely, it was clear that there was a minor delay. This confirmed that aptX-LL was not being used since my power amp supports it. From my research online, it seems that Freedo supports SBC, AAC, aptX, and LDAC, although this information was determined from third-party sources.

The underside grille exhausts a reasonable amount of heat after an hour of use, though I would have preferred the vents to aim away from the unit and not directly down. When placed on a surface, that exhaust bounces heat off the surface back onto the unit, which could potentially result in heat soak over an extended viewing session.

How this might impact LED lamp life over a long period of time remains to be seen.

Outdoor projection

Here is where things got fun: Some comments on Reddit highlighted that even with a full moon, the Freedo's rated brightness would be so low that the projection would be worthless.

Challenge accepted. I waited for a full moon, and took a short trip to the local grocery store at night, the only place nearby with white walls:

Whilst the image here isn't perfect, it's still projecting an ~80" image onto the wall, and that's with carpark lighting behind the camera, and a full moon up in the sky.

In an area without overhead lighting, the projection would be more visible at a larger size.

Battery

The 2.5-hour battery life will depend on a number of factors. WiFi connection? Brightness? Volume level? All of these come into the picture. I found that within an hour of playback, that the battery was down to 50% give or take.

That was with low volume and not playing HDR content. Under average use, I estimate the battery to give up to two hours of juice before needing a power bank or mains power.

Connecting a 65W or greater power bank gave a good few hours of portable power, though this will depend on the power bank you have. The battery alone should be enough to provide enough time to watch an average movie—that's probably the best way to describe it—but keep a power bank in case.

Conclusion

Thanks to its versatility, I am still using and testing the Freedo weekly. I think that alone says enough about its capabilities as an all-around fun projector. It doesn't do any one thing particularly amazingly, but it does a whole bunch of things to a satisfactory level.

The 450 lumens on paper may be a little lower in reality, and I found that the high performance mode in display settings didn't actually increase the brightness at all but instead just shifted the colour balance to something that looks unnatural whilst ramping the fan inside to maximum speed and loudness.

Otherwise, the Freedo is a fairly capable projector that runs Google TV. You can even search the Play Store and install other apps that you use often, such as a file manager or media player.

I was also able to pair multiple Bluetooth devices to it and get it all working seamlessly. Bluetooth reconnection is also very quick, with no obvious delay.

Playing games wirelessly on the Freedo is possible, but here is where I noticed obvious latency issues. Using Steam Remote Play, I was able to play games from my PC, which is wired into the LAN. With the Freedo's 5GHz wireless connection active, there was still input latency to work with, and that was with the game controller paired to my PC over its dedicated wireless dongle.

The wireless display signal wasn't being processed by the Freedo fast enough to offer an acceptable gaming experience playing this way. The HDMI connection from a PC or games console doesn't have this issue of course, but that defeats the objective of wireless freedom.

For media, though, the experience is excellent. Whether SDR or HDR, the 1080P image is clear enough to enjoy in a dimly lit room, but darkness is the optimum choice. I also found that apps like YouTube will remember what you were watching last and resume from there if you place the unit into standby, then power it back on.

Speaking of power, the wake-up time from standby is almost instant. It takes a few seconds to let the fan and lamp warm up, and then Google TV resumes. A cold boot takes around 20 seconds maximum.

£399 / $399 is a very reasonable price for this level of convenience in a nice little package. There are cheaper projectors but they lack some of the refinement that I have seen on multiple Dangbei projectors now. The performance consistency they seem to offer in their respective price group has to be factored in against the cheaper competition.

If I was doing more serious projector viewing, then I would skip the Freedo and opt for something with a brighter lamp such as the Dangbei Atom with its laser lamp and 1200 lumens to play with in something that sits sleek on any surface.

You can purchase the Dangei Freed on Amazon for $399 in the US or £399 in the UK.

As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.