Cheap LED projectors from Kogan

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#2590115 22-Oct-2020 07:58

coolfu:

coolfu:

Looks like someone has already reviewed the F800 model, though this one is under a different brand name:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGZ5cLSfrFA

Ok, here's another review of the actual Kogan F800 model by some Australian guy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mNI2CP2kTc

He doesn't actually start using it until about the 20 min mark..... so skip forward ;)

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CokemonZ

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#2590532 23-Oct-2020 08:50

Dynamic:

...which is exactly why I was asking if anyone had experience with these!

I've ordered the F800 model, and will report in when I've had a play with it. :)

I'll set it up beside our old 2400 lumen 720p Acer (only the VGA input works now) and take some photos.

Looking forward to the review!

I have an old 4:3 projector, which is pretty sad now. For the money this looks amazing!

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#2590624 23-Oct-2020 10:16

Also found an Android one from Aliexpress: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000001968921.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.0.0.4e8b2236xpxUeF&ad_pvid=202010221413004064007522222050003707582_2&s=p

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#2590629 23-Oct-2020 10:25

Good find! I see the non-Android version is only US$150 with free shipping. Wish I'd seen that earlier!

I note in the specs two different mentions of Lumens, which after some Googling lead me to this statement on a review web site....

How to compare like-with-like

The ANSI Lumen rating should be your core comparison figure, we include both ANSI and 'marketing lumens' on our site to help consumers understand how the true brightness levels are manipulated on other sites like Amazon.

What are marketing lumens

"Marketing lumens" is the generic term used for non ansi lumens. Ansi lumens is the true/real measure of the brightness of a projector. When lumens are used for marekting purposes they tend to be overstated and are also referred to by a number of other different terms including:

- lumens listed on Amazon, Ebay and other sites that do not state Ansi lumens

- peak lumens

- ISO lumens

- chinese lumens

lumens (with no reference in the description to ansi)

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#2590632 23-Oct-2020 10:29

I had opened another tab about Lumens and not spotted it until after my last post.....

If you want to go down a bit of a Lumens rabbit hole.... https://www.viewsonic.com/eu/products/projectors/lumens/

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#2590649 23-Oct-2020 10:47

Down this lumenious path lies madness :)

Still going to wait for your review. But I really like the idea of android onboard for Netflix/Plex

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#2590731 23-Oct-2020 12:50

eagerly awaiting review as well......

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everettpsycho

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#2591062 24-Oct-2020 00:22

CokemonZ:
Also found an Android one from Aliexpress: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000001968921.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.0.0.4e8b2236xpxUeF&ad_pvid=202010221413004064007522222050003707582_2&s=p

For the sake of $45 extra for Android I'd save your money and use a chromecast or buy a local Android TV device. I can't see native android on this running too well and there's no guarantee it will have the play store or be any good to use. Ay least buying something like the warehouse or a Xiaomi stick it's a bit more tried and tested in new Zealand, failing that wait for Xbox one's and ps4s to get discounted next month and plug those in to it.

everettpsycho

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#2592172 26-Oct-2020 18:58

Just had this pop up on YouTube which looks to be the same projector again.

It's really hard to gauge projectors or any video devices from these reviews, they just can't demonstrate how they perform. I also have little faith that these reviewers singing the praises have ever actually experienced anything better to compare to. Obviously these projectors won't perform as good as something worth four times as much as you tend to get what you pay for but for comparison it's interesting to know how much you are giving up for the significantly cheaper price.

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#2592388 27-Oct-2020 12:01

Hi Team

I got to have a play over the weekend, and ran it up beside our old 2500 ANSI Lumens Acer P1266, which you can see has sustained some damage. It looks like there is spiderwebbing on a glass element. (I'm open to offers if someone wants to adopt it - VGA port works fine, HDMI is dead, 40 hours total on it!)

View of my test setup, with the Acer connected to VGA on a 6 year old laptop (and mirroring the laptop LCD, restricting the resolution), and the Kogan P800 on the laptop's DisplayPort connection using a DisplayPort to HDMI cable. The projectors were placed side by side, 2m away from the white painted wall. Both projectors were sitting on the table with their front foot extended to full height, so I had expected the images to be projected on the wall at about the same height, but this was not the case. ECO mode was ON for the Acer, which I didn't notice until later.

Closer pic

Wider pic showing the ambient light at about 4pm on a spring Sunday.

Colour test pattern - wide view. You can see I had moved the projectors so the images were more closely lined up, so the colours could be better compared.

Colour test pattern - closer image.

Later in the day, I set it up in a bedroom for the kids to watch a movie, with the movie audio running through the projector's speakers, which were suite suitable for that task, with nowhere near maximum volume engaged in the quiet environment.

My initial thoughts:

This projector is fine for showing family movies in a dim room, but not ideal for business use where the room typically will not be 'significantly dimmed'.
The speakers were pretty good for that 'family movie' use. A little bit better than a skinny Veon TV, for example.
The Kogan unit has a notably louder fan than the Acer, which surprised me given the Acer lamp runs hotter. The fan noise was not a problem when watching a movie.
The unit feels reasonably solid, but the manual keystone correction lever and mechanism feels cheap.
The 5000 Lumens claim, on the face of it (when compared with the 2500 Lumen Acer) is vastly overstated.
Whites are not particularly white, and colours are muted, perhaps largely because of the lack of horsepower of the LED light source. If I had seen earlier on AliExpress that the ANSI Lumen rating was 550, I'd never have pushed the Buy button.
It's not bad for the price, but not suitable for the purpose I had in mind. This was running occasional training sessions for clients.
I still like the idea of the LED light source, thinking it would be more robust and longer lasting than a traditional projector bulb. It's nice to be able to turn the projector off without needing to leave it plugged in for 2 minutes so the fan can continue to gently cool the bulb before the projector is moved.

I'll consider its fate for another day or two. If anyone has any questions or would like some additional testing done, let me know and I'll see if I can make time.

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tchart

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#2592409 27-Oct-2020 13:24

Awesome, thanks for keeping us updated. I'd like to know if the pixels are noticeable? And whether it's actually 1080p.

Dynamic

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#2592414 27-Oct-2020 13:41

tchart: Awesome, thanks for keeping us updated. I'd like to know if the pixels are noticeable? And whether it's actually 1080p.

No, I didn't notice the 'flyscreen' (aka screen door) effect when doing my 2m testing. The Acer does not suffer from it (as much), being a DLP projector. I'll power them both back up and check, probably projecting from a greater distance to try and magnify the effect.

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#2592489 27-Oct-2020 17:23

So it'd be fine throw music videos onto then, will add to my Xmas list ;)

Gavin / xpd / FastRaccoon / Geek of Coastguard New Zealand

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#2592491 27-Oct-2020 17:26

Can you check screen size at 4.5m or so please?

From your feedback, while I have curtains it's not a blackout room - I am not sure this will do it for me :(

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#2596979 3-Nov-2020 12:05

Hi Team

Close up of the Kogan 'no signal' text

Close up of the Acer 'no signal' text

Both projectors at 4.5m, taken Saturday at 6:15pm. The width of the Kogan image is almost exactly 3m. You'll have to crunch some numbers to get the diagonal and height dimensions. The aspect ration is known as the image is 1920x1080. Neither suffer from 'the flyscreen effect', in my opinion.

I'm going to return the Kogan, on the basis of misleading specifications. Again, it's a great 'family movies up to maybe 75" in a semi-dark room' with not-too-crappy-speakers built in, but not suitable for my commercial purposes.

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