Ultra short throw projectors they're gaining in popularity versus short throw projectors because
they don't need as much room space to set one up for example this polaris 4k that i've been set to
review from a company called Bomaker you only need about 10 inches away from a wall to then project
a 100 inch image so it has a maximum output of 4k 60 it supports hdr the maximum brightness of this
model that i'm reviewing here today is 2500 ansi lumens it does have its own built-in file manager
with it we've got two inputs on the back so 4k 60 x 2 with hdmi it's fan cooled of course that these
projectors always are but this model here has two built-in speakers that are 10 watts they support
dts and dolby audio and they are probably some of the best built-in speakers i have heard
considering well they're only 10 watts but they certainly pack a lot of punch for that
so in this review i'll cover the build design of this image quality and exactly
what you can expect including fan noise sample and what kind of heat this is going to generate
after displaying 4k hdr images for quite a few hours then inside the box you will find
a user manual so that is in various different languages we have a warranty card hdmi cable
power cable depending on your region and then an audio video cable adapter here too the remote that
we get included with this is not an android tv remote but it's similar it's got its own
file manager in it that i'll go through and video player so basic controls here power buttons up the
top and then if you remove the back cover here it does take two aaa batteries which aren't included
along the top here it is all plastic this is where the laser is of course being an ultra short throw
projector this is the way they are set up because it's actually going to be beaming up here and not
like the typical short throw projector that's the difference with these and the style of them so
right here is just a laser class 2 warning sticker you can of course pull that off it does look a
bit ugly but it's there just to warn us i think they have to do that as a precautionary measure
marked along the front here you can see some of the tech that it does support so it's a dlp
projector this one hdr support memc and dolby audio what is missing off there is dts audio the
throw ratio with this ultra short throw projector is 0.25 to 1 the ratio and it does project
up to 2 500 and c lumens the resolution is 3840 by 2160 that's our native 4k resolution and the lamp
hours that it can do lamp life is about 30 000 hours which is typical for these projectors
along the back of it there are another two warning stickers here and it's pretty straightforward
i don't put anything on top of it don't let it overheat so there is a kensington lock slot right
here on the right hand side power in and i'll go over the inputs now it has two hdmi twos here so
they aged my 2.0 4k 60 of course supporting the maximum refresh rate of this particular projector
there is a service micro usb port here and then another little plug so these aren't valid to us
that's just for the service centers for them to do firmware updates whatever they do with it and then
there's digital audio out right here our audio video input in with that adapter that i showed you
before and a usb port here this is usb 3 and it's dc five volts one amp right side of the projector
here we do have a big intake vent more intake vents there at the bottom and there is this right
here which is another usb port now this one's usb 2 spec and it only outputs 0.5 amps 5 volts
then the opposite side here is where you'll find the two fans inside that's keeping this all
cool so those are located right here now of course with such a powerful projector
with that brightness it's got of 2500 antsy lumens it will generate a bit of heat so later on i
will give you a sample of what these fans sound like after using the projector for a few hours
then the underside we have four adjustable feet to get it nice and level
and there are some holes here four of them for a mount to use this on and then up the front we've
got those two 10 watt speakers they sound really good and there's also a status led here now it
looks like it's a power button but the power button's the capacitive one that's on the top
and this is our menu right here now i do straight away i have to apologize for my wall it's not 100
flat and what i would normally use is a projector screen but the screen looked even worse and that's
because this is an ultra short throw projector so the angle it comes up you really do notice about
two or three times more so than a normal projector with these ultra short ones is any imperfections
in your wall or your screen so ideally you want to have a 100 flat wall to protect this on
and even use a screen that's flat for that so this menu here you can see we've got that information
on the projector file browser is firefox file manager we have our sources screen mirroring and
download so it's not running android tv which is a shame but it does run android so if you go here
into our general settings we're just pressing the settings button you can go down and have a look
at general and you'll see here version info and updates they do have over-the-air updates i am on
the latest version at the time of this video here so a lot of the things we can tweak in here sleep
menu timeout power on sound and our languages and time zones and everything else bluetooth so
we do have bluetooth support with this network connections that you have to go through when
you first set it up well you don't actually need to set this up you can just go straight into it
if you want audio settings light source so you can see and go through and adjust this so auto
brightness eye care mode and other options there projection and you can even put up the
test pattern which is very handy to have there of course with this image so these are where
the main settings you'll be after so that's where you can tweak everything here you go down a little
further on you've got aspect ratio you can adjust that dlc noise rejection levels
mpg pure motion and hdr right there at the bottom so there's a lot of different adjustments in here
and it does have focus which is auto focus on this particular projector so you don't need to
worry too about too much about that and keystone correction is vertical 40 degrees plus and minus
now we do have a built-in file manager if you just simply go to the sources you can bring
that up media browser and we'll see how it handles this drive now we do have onboard storage it's 32
gigabytes and it's got three gigabytes of ram it's a quad core chip maximum turbo is 1.7 gigahertz
so you could use that storage too as well for downloading things let's go into my pin drive and
i'll play back a few files so this menu is quite quick i'm getting around in it very easily it
doesn't show any lag so i have a 2k demo there but i won't play that let's go straight into something
super demanding so my jellyfish file here which is 4k 140 megabits per second hevc is it going
to play it hopefully it can this quad-core chip that it's got and the three gigabytes of ram okay
audio codecs not supported in this one but look at that it is playing it back flawlessly really good
in fact that's doing better than intel's jasper lake i think that's just hand in that with ease
not a problem there so it can handle hevc and pretty much every single codec out there i've seen
so let's try another one let's take a look at the 2k gravity trailer this should not be a
problem for it and it looks like we are going to have audio with this one too so just skip
ahead right that looks good and another demanding file so 4k
hdr but this is 4k 63 frames per second hevc
sony swordsmith
skip ahead a bit
okay now that looks really good for an hdr file here with that projection
i'm not seeing noise in the blacks at all which is excellent some of the projectors i have reviewed
you see a lot of this noise in the blacks but even on the medium setting that's looking excellent
hdr content now so what i'll do is just take a look at what we can go through with the settings
now you see that automatically when it's playing hdr it will detect that and come through so we've
got these settings right here so hdr user i found is best so far now the default is hdr
natural which i found was uh at times just a little bit too bright hdr cinema
and in hdr bright their own bright one hdr game two for when you're gaming it should
lower down that input lag using the game modes with it so so far i do think once
you tweak it and get your own preference there with the hdr quality and general image quality
it does come out very good really bright now just turn the lights on again to see with hdr
content we can still make it out okay will it be watchable with some ambient light on
well that's quite a bit of light that i put on now and yes it's still watchable but of
course you don't get the full benefit of it it's really best to be viewing this
content with the lights out completely but it is possible with the lights on
and now a preview here of the netflix's the witcher tv series i can't show you much of this
at all of course because i'll get slammed with copyright
so this is looking very good i could happily watch this tv series through a projector like this now
it hasn't clipped over into 4k i can tell that at the moment because it's not quite as sharp
once you're playing those proper 4k clips increases that resolution
you can really tell the difference in how stunning and sharp the image looks
now gaming at 100 inches here 4k in hdr this is set to the 4k not the performance mode but
quality with dirt 5. an input lag here so the input latency i'm not noticing any noticeable
problems or issues i can quite happily game like this and it is stunning to gain here at 100 inches
4k detailed looks good you can see all those details just fine and i've got to mention again
i'm really happy with those blacks the fact that that's very low noise i'm not seeing all
that terrible grain like i've seen with other projectors a lot of noise and so far the fan
has been excellent you can well when you get up close to it you can hear it but
really like now gaming i don't hear that fan at all especially with those built-in speakers
now this projector's got some really good speakers they're only 10 watts but they certainly sound so
much louder than that so two of them at the front and they are dts and also dolby audio
speakers here's a sample at them at just 50 volume because at 100 it's actually a little
bit too loud for my microphone but they sound excellent the best i've heard in a projector
one very good thing about this projector too is the fan noise is excellent for these laser
projectors they are normally quite loud and put out quite a bit of heat but it does have the two
fans in here and they're constantly most of the time at a very low rpm and you barely ever hear
them so holding my hand up here it's hardly warm now i've been using this projector now
for four hours at least and that's gaming so it's been putting out hdr images at a maximum
brightness really and it's still very quiet here's a sample of it now what you can expect
now the polaris 4k here does have an eye protection mode and i'm not talking about
blue light filters no an actual protection mode that turns off the lasers in there so if you've
got young children that could get up too close to it it turns it right off here's a sample of
what it actually does to protect your eyes please keep an appropriate viewing distance now after a
week of testing this out and watching a lot of the expanse with amazon prime video through this
i must say that i am really impressed with the blacks on this particular model here especially
a lot of laser projectors or the dlp setups that i've been reviewing in the channel well a few of
them have had a lot of grain and noise to their blacks but you don't see any of that on the medium
setting now the image quality very sharp 4k 60 hertz max for gaming i think it's perfectly fine
i didn't have any issues gaming on this at all playing games like dirt 5 that i showed you that
quick demo of i think the input lag is definitely acceptable for that and it looks really stunning
and great to be gaming at 100 inches now with the hdr support i did find this is one of my very
few complaints with this particular projector is that they overdo it a little bit with the
default setting that comes through automatically so the playstation detected it set it up as an hdr
uh screen and it automatically swaps over to the hdr mode right but what i found that with the hdr
high setting which is by default it really seemed a little bit washed out to me just just pushing
the brightness way too much when you turn it down set it to say the normal level or low
or go in there and configure the picture image quality yourself instead of using their own
preferences there for your picture quality you can get a really good image out of this and i've
been enjoying all the content i've been viewing on this so a lot of amazon prime video netflix
and gaming has all been fantastic on this the one thing that has really surprised me well two things
actually is the fan noise on this very good only occasionally for a split few seconds i've heard
it go into a slightly higher fan rpm but then it just drops down two or three seconds later
it is the sample i gave you a very quiet projector now i have reviewed quite a few models now
one of the recent ones are 4k projector that's focused on gaming from benq
that model puts out quite a bit of heat a lot of heat in fact it would warm this room up where i am
and i do my reviews in my studio this doesn't and it makes barely any fan noise compared to
that and compared to other models i'd have to say that this is one of the quieter 4k ultra
short throw projectors or even just 4k projectors that i've reviewed in the channel so great when
it comes to both the thermals they're managing that heat on this so well probably because of
its super large size that's definitely helping and the other surprise is the speakers in this
you would think that okay well dts and the dolby that you've got with them that they'll be okay
they're only 10 watts they're built into it so at the front here but it really does
pump out that volume because they've got quite a bit of space in this they can actually add
an additional little bit of bass to it as well so they're quite well tuned i think they sound
excellent for what they are probably one of the best i've heard in a projector so really
there are very few cons with the machine like this with this particular ultra short throw projector
really do love it it's just that for me the hdr was a bit of an o of an overkill there and a
minor complaint that i know is not even going to be a problem for some people is it doesn't have
android tv built in i think that would have been nice it just would have been an additional easier
kind of setup for it means you don't need to get another box for your amazon prime tv your netflix
and all that sort of stuff youtube and all those apps you'd have it already built into it so it's
lacking that it does have a basic file manager you can swap sources you can go on the internet
you can download things but that is really it what i showed you but it was good to see
that from the usb ports it's still enough that it can be very smooth and rapid and
play back some very demanding files so hevc 140 megabit per second 4k and 4k60 and hdr files
really with no problems playing those through the inbuilt browser so that's not really a massive com
it just would have been a nice added little touch if it did actually support android tv
so thank you so much for watching my review here of Bomaker's polaris 4k laser projector