Dangbei N2 Smart Projector review

They say that good things come in small packages, but the Dangbei N2 Smart Projector has blown me away by how much it fits into such a small package. This is both a small unit, but also something that won’t break the bank, and for a person of a certain vintage that remembers projectors being something only loaded people could afford, it’s just a surprise across the board.

For starters, you won’t need a screen to project the Dangbei N2 onto. I tried it in numerous locations, including a dark-ish coloured wall and it looked the business. Like many TV devices these days, the N2 has built-in apps for Netflix, Prime Video, YouTube, and lots of others, though in truth most will be ignored and you’ll set things up your way, with your current devices.

The killer feature, however, is the autofocus combined with the keystone correction. Again, not to harp on about being old, but once upon a time you almost needed a professional to come and fit a projector, because they needed the correct angle, focus, or you’d be left having a bad time. The N2 does away with all of this but using these two key features.

Autofocus does exactly what you’d expect with a phrase like that, and will instantly sort itself out when you turn it on. That might sound like damning with faint praise, but this means if you knock or move the machine, it won’t need setting up every time that happens. I tested this by moving it around a room and it’s like watching magic happen.

The keystone correction is another marvel. I decided to be incredibly lazy and lay on the bed with the projector balanced on a headboard behind me. Using what the manufacturer refers to as “obstacle avoidance”, it only keyed the screen to the right size in front of me, but when I put my feed in the way of the projected image, it readjusted to make things right. On top of that, should you be pushed for space and need to have the Dangbei N2 at a strange angle, you can use the keystone correction to manually adjust the screen size, location, and anything else you need to do. It all adds up to a setup that feels easy to do, but is malleable should you need to change things, which is a lovely change for a technology that used to be so unwieldy.

As you can probably imagine from the price, this isn’t a 4K projector. Now you either subscribe to the idea that resolution is the most important thing on your TV, or you don’t. I think for the price, it’s acceptable that this is a 1080p box, and the fact it supports HDR10 means you can game on it with excellent lighting (400 lumens), and HLG is also available should you need it.

The picture quality itself is clear, even at large scale, though it will depend on what you’re projecting onto. If you have a screen ready, great. If you’re using a painted wall that’s a colour not ideal, then less great, but still pretty good. While I couldn’t test the lifespan promised in a short time, Dangbei says it offers 30,000 hours, which is a good amount of time. The projection itself can push out 120 inches at the top end, but I don’t have walls big enough for that, and it looked nice at any image size I tested. Using the automatic features it’ll scale to the right size for you, but you’ll get a 60 inch screen from under two meters distance, which is pretty decent, full stop.

There’s two USB ports on the back, as well as an audio output 3.5mm jack. One HDMI input isn’t ideal, and in truth I’m not sure it wouldn’t be a better idea to have just the one USB port for a fire stick, say, and two HDMI ports for other devices. The remote is small and inoffensive without a whole lot of buttons, and there is a stand available which wasn’t included that I feel might make for a necessary additional purchase for most people. For example, you could stick the N2 on a bedside table and project the image onto the ceiling, using all the auto-correction options, but you’d need the stand for that. There’s a tilt option underneath, but it’s awkward to get to and doesn’t quite do the job.

There are two 6W speakers inside the N2, and they are pretty good. I’m a bit of an audio snob, so I would always recommend you add your own audio device to things, whether it’s a full surround setup, or a decent sound bar. But the on board audio does do the job really well, and if you’re using the device in a garden, it’s absolutely fine. The portability due to the size of the unit means you might want to use it at events, or presentations, or anything else, and it’s absolutely perfect for that, thanks to the setup ease, size, and weight.

For the price, there’s very little to be disappointed by with this projector. The Dangbei N2 offers an incredibly easy setup process, a good picture, and an affordable price. There’s no doubt some might miss the higher resolution of a more “premium” unit, and sure, not including the stand is a bit of a downer, but really, this is a fantastically priced projector