Hi guys, I got a review sample of the BenQ GP1 mini projector with the build-in player via USB from BenQ of America and wanted to share my thoughts with you guys. So here it is!
BenQ Joybee GP1 Mini Projector
Official Specs
BenQ Joybee GP1 Mini Projector
Official Specs
Native Resolution SVGA (858 x 600)
Projection System DLP® technology by Texas Instruments®
Brightness 100 ANSI lumens
Light Source 3LED (RGB) technology
Contrast Ratio 2000:1 (Full on/Full off)
Weight 1.4 lbs (0.64 kg)
Aspect Ratio 4:3 Native, 16:9 Selectable
Display Color Full 16.7 million color palette
Lens F=2, f=17.7 mm
Zoom Ratio Fixed
Image Size 15 to 80
Throw Ratio 1.92
Computer Compatibility VGA(640 x 480) to SXGA(1280 x 1024)
HDTV Compatibility 480i, 480p, 576i, 576p, 720p, 1080i
Video Compatibility NTSC, PAL, SECAM
Horizontal Frequency 31-79 kHz
Vertical Scan Rate 50-85 Hz
Input Terminals PC:Computer: D-sub 15 pin x 1(through CEA 30pin) AV:Component Video: D-sub 15 pin (through CEA 30pin) Composite Video: RCA x 1 (through CEA 30pin) USB reader: USB Type A Audio:Audio L/R: RCA x 2 (through CEA 30pin)
Output Terminal Audio:Stereo mini jack x 1 (for USB reader) 2 Watt Speaker x 1
Dimensions(W x H x D) 136 x 54 x 120 mm (5.35 x 2.12 x 4.72 inches)
Power Consumption 60W
Noise level 28 dB
On-Screen Display Language English/ French/ German/ Italian/ Spanish/ Russian/ Traditional Chinese/ Simplified Chinese/ Japanese/ Korean/ Swedish/ Dutch/ Turkish/ Czech/ Portuguese / Thai/ Polish * The language options vary depending on regions.
Preset Modes/ Application Modes English/ German/ Swedish/ Polish/ Czech/ Spanish/ Hungarian/ Romanian/ Traditional Chinese/ Simplified Chinese/ Japanese * The language options vary depending on regions.
Picture Modes Brightest Mode PC Mode Movie Mode Photo Mode User Mode
Functions Auto Keystone PC-less Auto Search Resolution Reminder High Altitude Mode Standby power consumption <1W USB Reader Wall Color Correction Instant On/Off Blank Security Password
Accessories (Standard) Quick Start Guide Soft Carry Case CEA 30 pin Cable Remote Control Power Adaptor Manual CD Power Cord
Accessories (Optional) iPod/iPhone Universal Dock Presentation Plus
USB Reader (Support Format) Photo: JPEG, GIF, BMP, TIFF Video: MPEG-1, MJPEG Audio: MPEG-1 layer 2, PCM It is recommended to use ArcSoft MediaConverter Software (inside Manual CD) to convert video files.
Unboxing and build impressionProjection System DLP® technology by Texas Instruments®
Brightness 100 ANSI lumens
Light Source 3LED (RGB) technology
Contrast Ratio 2000:1 (Full on/Full off)
Weight 1.4 lbs (0.64 kg)
Aspect Ratio 4:3 Native, 16:9 Selectable
Display Color Full 16.7 million color palette
Lens F=2, f=17.7 mm
Zoom Ratio Fixed
Image Size 15 to 80
Throw Ratio 1.92
Computer Compatibility VGA(640 x 480) to SXGA(1280 x 1024)
HDTV Compatibility 480i, 480p, 576i, 576p, 720p, 1080i
Video Compatibility NTSC, PAL, SECAM
Horizontal Frequency 31-79 kHz
Vertical Scan Rate 50-85 Hz
Input Terminals PC:Computer: D-sub 15 pin x 1(through CEA 30pin) AV:Component Video: D-sub 15 pin (through CEA 30pin) Composite Video: RCA x 1 (through CEA 30pin) USB reader: USB Type A Audio:Audio L/R: RCA x 2 (through CEA 30pin)
Output Terminal Audio:Stereo mini jack x 1 (for USB reader) 2 Watt Speaker x 1
Dimensions(W x H x D) 136 x 54 x 120 mm (5.35 x 2.12 x 4.72 inches)
Power Consumption 60W
Noise level 28 dB
On-Screen Display Language English/ French/ German/ Italian/ Spanish/ Russian/ Traditional Chinese/ Simplified Chinese/ Japanese/ Korean/ Swedish/ Dutch/ Turkish/ Czech/ Portuguese / Thai/ Polish * The language options vary depending on regions.
Preset Modes/ Application Modes English/ German/ Swedish/ Polish/ Czech/ Spanish/ Hungarian/ Romanian/ Traditional Chinese/ Simplified Chinese/ Japanese * The language options vary depending on regions.
Picture Modes Brightest Mode PC Mode Movie Mode Photo Mode User Mode
Functions Auto Keystone PC-less Auto Search Resolution Reminder High Altitude Mode Standby power consumption <1W USB Reader Wall Color Correction Instant On/Off Blank Security Password
Accessories (Standard) Quick Start Guide Soft Carry Case CEA 30 pin Cable Remote Control Power Adaptor Manual CD Power Cord
Accessories (Optional) iPod/iPhone Universal Dock Presentation Plus
USB Reader (Support Format) Photo: JPEG, GIF, BMP, TIFF Video: MPEG-1, MJPEG Audio: MPEG-1 layer 2, PCM It is recommended to use ArcSoft MediaConverter Software (inside Manual CD) to convert video files.
What would a new product review be without some sweet unboxing pictures to go with it, right? The GP1 is extremely small and light.
As expected, the mini projector came in a relatively small box
Made in China, Mfg. Date April 2009
Top of the box
Side of the box
Contents in the box including BenQ GP1 Projector, carrying case, AC adapter, VGA/Composite input cable, infrared remote, quick start guide, manual CD w/adobe reader
Top of the projector with the protective plastic film still intact
Front of the projector. Too bad there isn't any build-in protective cover to protect the lens when it's not in use. The little white circle in the center seems to be the remote receiver. The left side is the fan intake.
Back of the projector. Yup, you see that right, an USB port. you can hook up a flash drive to play movies and photos straight off a flash drive, or even a USB HDD! It has a build-in player and browser. But wait you said, if you can only see the pictures then whats the point. Nope, it also has a build-in speaker! If you choose to, you can also hook up the sound to an external speaker via the Line-Out port under the USB port there. The bottom left skinny port seems to be an proprietary input port for the included composite/VGA cable. But it seems awfully similar to the Ipod interface port... hmmm.
Side view of the projector. The AC adapter goes into the port there, there are also DLP by Texas Instrument branding and the PhlatLight branding.
The bottom view. If you notice, in the center there is a tripod screw port so you can put the projector on you tripod, which would probably be the most stable and easiest way to set the unit up at a location without having to find a stack of books or dictionaries to try to get that extra height for good eye level projection.
Build-in player interface and settingsAs expected, the mini projector came in a relatively small box
Made in China, Mfg. Date April 2009
Top of the box
Side of the box
Contents in the box including BenQ GP1 Projector, carrying case, AC adapter, VGA/Composite input cable, infrared remote, quick start guide, manual CD w/adobe reader
Top of the projector with the protective plastic film still intact
Front of the projector. Too bad there isn't any build-in protective cover to protect the lens when it's not in use. The little white circle in the center seems to be the remote receiver. The left side is the fan intake.
Back of the projector. Yup, you see that right, an USB port. you can hook up a flash drive to play movies and photos straight off a flash drive, or even a USB HDD! It has a build-in player and browser. But wait you said, if you can only see the pictures then whats the point. Nope, it also has a build-in speaker! If you choose to, you can also hook up the sound to an external speaker via the Line-Out port under the USB port there. The bottom left skinny port seems to be an proprietary input port for the included composite/VGA cable. But it seems awfully similar to the Ipod interface port... hmmm.
Side view of the projector. The AC adapter goes into the port there, there are also DLP by Texas Instrument branding and the PhlatLight branding.
The bottom view. If you notice, in the center there is a tripod screw port so you can put the projector on you tripod, which would probably be the most stable and easiest way to set the unit up at a location without having to find a stack of books or dictionaries to try to get that extra height for good eye level projection.
Ok, some things I want let you guys know after going through some trouble to set up the movies to play from USB. The USB reader only supports FAT32 file format and there are a good deal of file format restrictions. Here are the exhaustive list for all the media format supported with the pre-release firmware.
Photo: .jpeg (Baseline JPEG) .jpeg (Progressive JPEG) .bmp .gif .tiff
Movie: .avi (V: Xvid/3vix/MS ISO MPEG4/Motion JPEG. A: uLaw/aLaw/pcm/aac-lc) .mp4/.mov/.3gp/.3g2 (V: MPEG-4/Motion JPEG A: uLaw/aLaw/pcm/aac-lc)
Subtitle: .SMI .SRT .SUB .ASS .SSA .PSB
As you konw, FAT32 is fine for the most part other than the 4GB file size restrictions, that might be a problem for some of the higher quality full length feature films. Also the lack of MP3 support for audio is problematic also, since most videos (AVIs, etc) has a MP3 audio track. If you playback an AVI with a MP3 audio track the pictures will play, but it'll pop up a message saying audio format not supported. What this means for consumers is that there will be some work required to get some of the movie files you already have in your video library. Good news is, after talking to the BenQ rep, there will be file format conversion utilities included when the unit is launched June 6th.
Also know that windows XP and Vista will NOT fomat FAT32 partitions bigger than 32GB. So I had to download some other utitlies online to format a 2.5" portable HDD I had that's 60GB in capacity.
USB reader interface. Photos, Movies, and Settings.
The file browser interface, it's very easy to use, all the recognizable file formats will show up and the other misc files will not.
Settings for photo viewing
Autoplay options for when you plug in your USB drive
Custom options, you can select the repeat mode after the movies is done playing, stop? or go to the next alphabetical folder etc. Adjust volume (can also be done via remote of course), OSD language, subtitle language.
Here is the projector detailed settings change. One of the feature worth mentioning is the auto-keystone, if you tilt your projector up or down, the image will be auto corrected vertically.
A handful of picture setting presets, including custom settings.
Test patterns for projection calibration, ie see if the image is rectangular and not skewed into a trapezoidal shape.
A low blank timer can extend the life of the projector lamp, although the LED lamp on the GP1 has a really long life of 20,000+ hours, where as usually normal projector lamps has a life of 3000-5000 hours at best.
You can change the menu type to "simple" to hide some of the more advanced settings for faster navigation through the menu.
Current display mode information and a handy onscreen FAQ for quick reference.
Usage impressionsPhoto: .jpeg (Baseline JPEG) .jpeg (Progressive JPEG) .bmp .gif .tiff
Movie: .avi (V: Xvid/3vix/MS ISO MPEG4/Motion JPEG. A: uLaw/aLaw/pcm/aac-lc) .mp4/.mov/.3gp/.3g2 (V: MPEG-4/Motion JPEG A: uLaw/aLaw/pcm/aac-lc)
Subtitle: .SMI .SRT .SUB .ASS .SSA .PSB
As you konw, FAT32 is fine for the most part other than the 4GB file size restrictions, that might be a problem for some of the higher quality full length feature films. Also the lack of MP3 support for audio is problematic also, since most videos (AVIs, etc) has a MP3 audio track. If you playback an AVI with a MP3 audio track the pictures will play, but it'll pop up a message saying audio format not supported. What this means for consumers is that there will be some work required to get some of the movie files you already have in your video library. Good news is, after talking to the BenQ rep, there will be file format conversion utilities included when the unit is launched June 6th.
Also know that windows XP and Vista will NOT fomat FAT32 partitions bigger than 32GB. So I had to download some other utitlies online to format a 2.5" portable HDD I had that's 60GB in capacity.
USB reader interface. Photos, Movies, and Settings.
The file browser interface, it's very easy to use, all the recognizable file formats will show up and the other misc files will not.
Settings for photo viewing
Autoplay options for when you plug in your USB drive
Custom options, you can select the repeat mode after the movies is done playing, stop? or go to the next alphabetical folder etc. Adjust volume (can also be done via remote of course), OSD language, subtitle language.
Here is the projector detailed settings change. One of the feature worth mentioning is the auto-keystone, if you tilt your projector up or down, the image will be auto corrected vertically.
A handful of picture setting presets, including custom settings.
Test patterns for projection calibration, ie see if the image is rectangular and not skewed into a trapezoidal shape.
A low blank timer can extend the life of the projector lamp, although the LED lamp on the GP1 has a really long life of 20,000+ hours, where as usually normal projector lamps has a life of 3000-5000 hours at best.
You can change the menu type to "simple" to hide some of the more advanced settings for faster navigation through the menu.
Current display mode information and a handy onscreen FAQ for quick reference.
The GP1 is really a joy to use due to its form factor, portability, and the build-in player. In my opinion these are the three biggest advantages of the BenQ GP1. Over the couple days of testing I've projected movies on a projector screen, played some Smash Brothers: Brawl on the wall, and even watched The Office on my bedroom ceiling!
The 100 ANSI lumen brightness might be a tad low to give the user an enjoyable movie viewing / game playing experience during day time, however, that's one of the main drawbacks on most projectors anyways. During night time with the lights turn off, the brightness is easily seen and produces bright colorful pictures. Did I mention the redering engine produces 120% NTSC color gamut?
The build-in speaker produces enough volume for the users to hear dialogues clearly without trouble. But if you seek a higher quality audio out definitely hook the unit up to some higher output external speakers via the Line-out port.
Time to fire up the Wii for some testing.
OOO YAH, SSBB on 80inch screen!
Moving pictures seems a little blurry here because it's hard to get a good picture under low light conditions.
The colors are very vibrant.
Pineapple Express, if you haven't seen it yet, go watch it, James Franco definitely delivers in this Comedy.
I had a lot of trouble taking pictures in a dark room.. sorry. These pictures look a little washed out because the ceiling yellow light is shining on the projector screen.
Yah, NO, DWIGHT!
Can't wait for season 6.
ConclusionThe 100 ANSI lumen brightness might be a tad low to give the user an enjoyable movie viewing / game playing experience during day time, however, that's one of the main drawbacks on most projectors anyways. During night time with the lights turn off, the brightness is easily seen and produces bright colorful pictures. Did I mention the redering engine produces 120% NTSC color gamut?
The build-in speaker produces enough volume for the users to hear dialogues clearly without trouble. But if you seek a higher quality audio out definitely hook the unit up to some higher output external speakers via the Line-out port.
Time to fire up the Wii for some testing.
OOO YAH, SSBB on 80inch screen!
Moving pictures seems a little blurry here because it's hard to get a good picture under low light conditions.
The colors are very vibrant.
Pineapple Express, if you haven't seen it yet, go watch it, James Franco definitely delivers in this Comedy.
I had a lot of trouble taking pictures in a dark room.. sorry. These pictures look a little washed out because the ceiling yellow light is shining on the projector screen.
Yah, NO, DWIGHT!
Can't wait for season 6.
Overall, what the GP1 brings to the table is it's ability to transform virtually anywhere with a AC outlet and a surface into a movie theatre, it's really something unique that no other projector on the market right now offers.
Rating 1 (Least satisfactory) to 5 (Most satisfactory)
Ease of use - 4/5
Thanks for reading this review, all comments are greatly appreciated! I can answer questions about the GP1 also if you guys have any.Ease of use - 4/5
The unit is easy to setup, and easy to use, the only gripe I have is I have to go through the trouble of converting all my movie files into something the GP1 can read.
Overview picture quality - 4/5
The picture quality is excellent, due to the size of the unit 100 ANSI lumen is superb, but a little bit more brightness on a projector never hurts. 120% NTSC color gamut brings alot of pop to the overall image quality, however the low resolution might also be another turn off for some.
Portability - 5/5
You won't find another projector on the market right now thats nearly as portable as the GP1. period.
Features - 4.5/5
The build-in player and speaker adds a tremendous amount of usability to the GP1 and is one of the main reasons to own this mini projector. And the final release/future firmware updates might bring even more playable file formats in the future. h264 .MKV anyone?
Value - 4/5
MSRP is $499 on BenQ USA website as I write this, it's fairly steep for the resolution and brightness that you're paying for. However, I think the portability, build-in player, speaker, and ease of use that you get in return is definitely worth the entry price.