Small, portable projectors seem to be all the rage these days, with pico projection offerings like the Optoma Pico PK-101, BeamBox Evolution R1 and Samsung MBP200 out in force or hitting the streets soon. Filling in the middle gap between "fits in your pocket" and "full on projector" is the BenQ Joybee GP1, a portable LED-based projector about the size of a stack of 5 CD cases and weighing in at a light 1.4 pounds. We had the chance to test out BenQ's mini-projector over the the past few weeks and came away largely impressed with its quality and convenience; read on for our full GP1 review.

Build quality

Main unit

The GP1 is an attractively designed and well-thought out device, featuring a slightly tapered white enclosure with curved corners and a glossy black top. The control buttons are arrayed in a slightly inset circle on the top, with a focusing element at the front left and the actual lens recessed into the body of the projector at its front.

The power adapter plug sits on the right with all connections housed on the back of the unit. Horizontal fan latticing tucks into the empty spaces on the read and front of the units, creating an appreciably uncluttered interface while providing adequate cooling. On the bottom of the GP1 is a small adjustable circular foot for positioning its angle once on a surface, and a tripod mounting hole in case you decide to go that route for positioning the projector. 

The GP1 is nice and light and easily grasped in the hand. It won't fit in your pocket, but it's easily stowable in a small bag or backpack. The only real drawback to its slick and glossy aesthetic is that like certain other shiny iconic devices, it tends to be a fingerprint magnet. This is hardly a major issue though, unless you're picking up a projector to watch it instead of the image it projects. The inclusion of a USB port for reading files from pretty much any external device that supports the USB Mass Storage protocol is a great feature that sets the GP1 apart from its competitors.

Power brick

The GP1 relies on the included power adapter to run the projector, which doesn't offer battery operation whatsoever unlike most of its pico projecting cousins. The flip side is there therefore isn't really an upper limit to operation time, and you don't have to worry about the device running out of charge in the middle of whatever you're watching. We spent an entire evening's worth of testing watching video almost continuously for several hours without any issues with overheating.

The power adapter itself is the typical brick-style unit you find with a lot of consumer electronic devices, with a bulky rectangular main body and detachable cord with 3-prong power plug. It does add some weight to the overall portability factor of the GP1. The adapter cord comes with a cable tie attached which is a small but nice touch for added convenience.

Extras

Also included in the box contents, pictured below, are a small rectangular remote control, 2 GB USB thumb drive, carrying case, Quick Start Guide, full manual on CD, and an A/V cable with a proprietary connector into the GP1, a VGA female connector (also known as a D-sub or HD-15 connector), and 3 RCA connectors for composite video and audio. Note that the projector will accept component sources via the D-sub connector, and you'll need a component to VGA/HD-15 cable to handle that.

 

The included carrying case is very much no frills black fabric and unfortunately doesn't include a compartment for the power adapter or the remote control. Still, it should get the job done to protect the GP1 in transit. The remote is nice and compact, fitting easily into the hand, with separate control regions for the projector and another specifically for commanding the USB Reader.

Setup

The only real issue with setup is finding an ideal location to position the unit, which needs to be near a power outlet opposite a suitable blank wall space and, ideally, close enough to an external audio source to amplify the sound. The provided A/V cable is also on the short side, which isn't an issue for USB Reader playback but when connecting external sources should be taken into account in terms of setting up a proper location for your source device. Once you have the logistics worked out, getting the GP1 up and running is a breeze.

The included Quick Start Guide will get you up to speed in just a few pages. The GP1 is nice and easy to set up and get working with various sources in just a few minutes. Once you connect something external to the projector it will run a source detect sequence and typically find the source automatically, or you can hit the Mode button and choose an input source manually. The maximum display resolution is 858 x 600 for external sources, which the projector will downscale appropriately as needed, or 720 x 480 for files played back via the USB Reader. The focus control at the front of the unit is dead simple to use and we had no problem getting a clear picture out of various sources at various projected sizes. 

The GP1's main menu is pictured below; keep in mind these images aren't completely squared because we were offset from the projection when snapping them, not because the unit produces a non-squared image. Also note the projector comes with keystone correction controls to handle issues resulting from projection at slight angles from flush positioning with the wall or screen.

I threw a wide variety of different sources at the GP1 and all were generally easy to get working without a lot of fuss. What's nice is the level of advanced control available if you do need to tweak settings, even including wall color options which come in handy if you don't have a white wall available or otherwise want to use the projector in a space with different colored walls. There are options for positioning the projector as well, with settings for ceiling mounting as well as the typical front table location.

If you're using the GP1 with a laptop source, you'll want to make sure your screen sleep settings are set for a long interval or to never go to sleep, otherwise the projector will drop back into source searching mode when the laptop screen blanks. It's easy enough to wake the machine with a touch on the trackpad and it only takes a few seconds to fire the signal back up again, but since it's easy enough to do you'll want to head that off at the pass so you don't have to worry about it.

Image quality

Now to the heart of the matter: how well does the thing actually project? Surprisingly well for a 100 ANSI lumens projector, I found. The picture quality coming out of this little unit was impressive, particularly in a dark room, where the image tends to be sharp, richly colored and bright. It doesn't feel like nearly as much of a compromise as some of the smaller handheld pico projectors which do provide arguably better portability and battery operation, but at the expense of picture quality and consecutive operation time. The GP1 is no eyesore to look at even with composite sources, and continues to look sharp all the way through its range of 15 to 80 inches projected image size. Unfortunately there's no control to set that image size other than physically moving the location of the projector forward or backward, so keep that in mind when thinking about the logistics of setting it up.

The image is of course much less impressive if you need to use the GP1 during the daytime or in a lightened room, unless you can block out as much sunlight or ambient light as possible from the viewing area. On the flip side it performed actually somewhat better than we expected, with the projected image being for the most part adequately visible, if less sharp and bright and more washed out -- however the darker sections of video tend to drop out altogether. In a pinch, if you can live with the quality hit it's still far more usable in daylight than the hyper-portable 10W projectors out there.

Audio quality

The built-in 2W speakers on the GP1 are actually not that bad in terms of clarity, though even at maximum volume you shouldn't expect an insane amount of loudness. If you're in a small room and/or sitting relatively close to the projector, you can certainly deal with the onboard speakers in a pinch, but whenever possible you should opt for sending the audio out to a better source such as a stereo or PA system, especially if you're going for a relatively permanent setup in your home. In a hotel room at night for a quick fix of your favorite TV show, the speakers are certainly adequate, if lacking in bass tones as one might expect. Luckily regular dialogue doesn't sound too tinny or artificial when using the built-ins, so for personal use on the go you shouldn't have too much cause to complain.

It's worth mentioning there are no physical controls for setting the audio volume on the internal speakers, which is yet another reason why opting for external sound amplification is optimal. The volume settings live in the software controls and may as well be kept at maximum which is in no danger of being at damaging loudness. Also worth mentioning is the fan, which although not egregiously loud can start to compete with the audio from the built-in speakers if that's what you're using, although it was never truly loud enough to overpower the audio in any of our testing. If you pipe the audio to an external source however, the fan is hardly noticeable when playing a source at regular listening volume.

Controls

The GP1's button controls are arrayed in an attractively designed circular inset on the top of the unit. The only caveat with them is that they are touch-sensitive only, meaning there's no depression action to provide tactile feedback regarding given commands, and it can occasionally be tricky to ensure the GP1 has received your touch input. However, there is auditory feedback when each button is pressed, so you should be able to discern from the sound (or lack thereof) whether or not your input was registered properly (this isn't a problem for powering off the projector, as it prompts you to confirm shutdown by depressing the power button a second time). The control buttons are also backlit in an aesthetic shade of blue, which makes them much easier to operate in a darkened room. 

My only gripe with the included remote control unit is that it has the opposite problem — without backlighting it can be difficult to operate in a dark room. On the other hand there isn't a dizzying array of buttons to contend with so it's not actually that difficult to get used to and remember the layout by feel. One-handed operation of the remote is uncomplicated, and the signal range was also more than adequate; we found it easy to give commands to the projector from well across a mid-sized room, even at a rather oblique angle.

Here's the remote, next to the included 2 GB USB thumb drive for size comparison:

Input sources

The GP1 is very versatile in this regard. Projecting from a computer input is great and will obviously output any files and codecs your machine can play or applications it can run. The USB Reader is a handy addition as well, with the caveat that it doesn't support as many codecs as one might like; from time to time I'd experience an "audio format not supported" or "video format not supported" even if the file extension was "supported," because the file was still encoded in a way the reader couldn't play back. However, the Quick Start Guide is very clear on exactly which audio and video codecs are supported and at what frame rates (the table is pictured below), so as long as you take some care to make sure your files are compatible before opting to use the USB Reader for playback, you should be fine.

For images, the media reader shows a browseable list of compatible files automatically and will display JPG, GIF, TIFF and BMP files in a dead simple autoplay slideshow. There's a good range of settings and options you can tweak including transition type and speed as well as various picture calibration options.

Also note you can use external USB hard drives with the USB Reader, but make sure they're formatted as MS-DOS or FAT32 because it won't read from HFS+ or NTFS-formatted drives. Most thumb drives and external drives come formatted this way by default so unless you've reformatted your drive specifically, you should be okay here too. The GP1 comes with a 2 GB thumb drive included, but you can also use pretty much anything that has USB Mass Storage support, including digital cameras, portable media players, cell phones and the like — making the unit a rather versatile performer that can turn a visiting friend or family member's camera or external drive into slideshow entertainment on the fly without being obligated to use a computer intermediary.

The obvious cons here are the lack of DVI or HDMI input. Still, since the max resolution is only SVGA there's really no need to support high definition sources specifically, and you can potentially find suitable adapters to turn most potential input sources into a receptable the GP1 supports; plus, composite out is often a default standby in many devices. The other caveat is that the GP1 does do component in, but to do so requires a not very common component to D-sub (aka VGA or HD-15) cable. Unless you do a lot of projection you typically won't have such a cable just lying around; they can be ordered for as little as $10 but you will have to go to the trouble of ordering one if you don't already have one and want to hook up a component source specifically.

What we hope to see in future models

• More codec support for the USB Reader.
• A longer A/V cable for more convenient placement of source devices.
• A better solution for component video than requiring a component to VGA / D-sub cable.
• Carrying case compartments for the remote control and, ideally, the power adapter.
• Better built-in speakers with a physical volume control on the unit and/or remote.
• An on-board image size control for adjustments without having to move the projector.

Obsessable Recommendation

We were quite pleased overall with our experience of the GP1. It was well-designed for compactness and portability, easy to set up and use, and versatile in terms of input sources. We see a number of potential uses for this projector, from the home theater to the travelling entertainment buff and even to the business traveller who might need to give presentations on the fly without guaranteed A/V setups. Though the GP1 seems more oriented overall towards the home enthusiast than the enterprise, it could find a happy home at a scrappy cash-conscious startup or in more informal business settings. If you need maximum portability, you should probably consider one of the battery-operated pico projectors on the market; but if you're looking for a great balance of image quality and size, the GP1 should provide very good value for its $499 pricetag and, being LED-based, would not require periodic lamp replacement as would a traditional projector.

If you're an entertainment buff who travels with or without the need to give presentations, the GP1 could be a nice option to have in the hotel room for unwinding with your own video queue rather than watching on your laptop screen or hooking it up to an in-room TV. The GP1 would definitely be suitable for a permanent home theater setup (with the added benefit of portability as needed), and/or work as a great way to repurpose an older laptop into an entertainment system for less cost than picking up a large plasma or LCD screen.

Obsessable Rating: 8.5 out of 10.