Xiaomi’s 150-inch laser projector has amazing sound, but it will burn a hole in your pocket

Gadget maker known for budget devices delivers US$2,000 laser projector -- is it worth the money?

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Xiaomi’s 150-inch laser projector has amazing sound, but it will burn a hole in your pocket

Chris Chang

Published: 7:56pm, 6 Mar 2019Updated: 8:58am, 20 Sep 2019

This article originally appeared on ABACUS

You can buy a lot of things with US$1,999 -- a fancy camera drone, flights for two from Boston to Bangkok, a Samsung foldable phone, or Xiaomi’s short-throw laser projector.

The device, sold in the US, can project a 150-inch image when placed just 20 inches away from the wall. It’s one of Xiaomi’s most expensive products (though not the most expensive -- that honor goes to a 25-piece furniture set). So here’s our biggest question: Is it actually worth that price?

I’m not an expert on projectors, but luckily my colleague Nick is way more knowledgeable than I am. He already has an Epson TW5350 projector at home, so he jumped on the chance to test Xiaomi’s device.

Setting up the projector isn’t too hard, but it does require some patience. It took Nick several tries to fix the keystone in all four corners to get a perfect image. Part of the challenge comes from navigating the menu system: It took some time for us to find the option for English, as it comes in Chinese language by default. The good thing is that once that’s sorted out, the projector’s autofocus feature takes care of the rest.

Check out Xiaomi Laser projector on Amazon

Fixing the keystone took some time, but it wasn't too bad. (Picture: Abacus)

The projector only displays 1080p, even though it supports 4K videos. It’s a bummer for such a pricey product, but it’s not a terribly huge concern for us: The resulting image still looks bright and sharp. At 5,000 lumens, we were able to see the display clearly in a well-lit room. But of course, it gets even better in the dark, when the highlights and shadows become even more vivid. If you’ve only used an LED projector, you’ll notice how much better a laser projector is able to preserve the details.