In early February, The Freestyle was officially introduced in Vietnam in a grand launch event with the presence of a whole range of flagship products from Samsung such as Galaxy S22 Series, Galaxy Tab S8 Series… As you know, this is Samsung’s first generation of portable portable projector, possessing a flexible design, different from other competitors in the market.
So, I brought The Freestyle with me to experience on my recent trip, and actually thinking about it now is still a pretty good decision.
Possessing a circular cylindrical design, unlike most portable projectors on the market with a moderate size, The Freestyle is equivalent to a medium-sized water bottle, so it can be easily put in a backpack. or handbag comfortably.
The weight of only 830g makes it quite light to carry a device like this, making me not too hesitant to prepare things before going on the road.
Internal accessories include remote, cord and power supply and a translucent plastic cap that protects the lens when moving. And yet, this plastic cap also has a light dissipation effect, which can turn The Freestyle into a night light when needed.
The Freestyle uses hard plastic materials and is finished with a smooth texture. Samsung chooses the most minimalist way to make the product look sophisticated and suitable for many usage contexts. The manufacturer does not disclose information about this product being resistant to dust and water, so during use, it is also necessary to pay attention to the environment to ensure the best operation of the device.
The bottom of The Freestyle are the sound holes of the 360-degree speaker system. Although it has a capacity of only 5W, through practical experience, the sound system of this The Freestyle gives quite a large volume, enough sound quality for many different purposes from watching movies to listening to music. With a room of 45m2, the writer just needs to set the volume at 50% to enjoy.
The swivel hinge cum metal base is the highlight that makes the difference as well as contributes to the name The Freestyle. The round base and reasonable rotation also contribute to increased durability and rigidity when placing the product in different positions.
The heavy bottom area and short distance-to-axis ratio make the center of gravity of the machine placed low, helping it to be firmly balanced even when placed in different positions without shifting or tilting.
In addition, The Freestyle can also be equipped with a removable accessory, allowing the hanger to be mounted upside down to the tail of the standard E26 lamp. However, at the moment I do not have this type of accessory to experience.
Hanging upside down on the lampstand to project content onto the table is another good use of The Freestyle.
The ability to adjust the angle up to 180 degrees makes it easy to set up the projection area from the wall, on the ceiling or diagonally. Traveling or anywhere where you can lie down or sit and enjoy movies at any angle like this is too good, when you need to relax, switching to playing music MV is “out of step”.
The Freestyle uses a USB-C power port and an L-shaped cable, this small detail also makes for a neat installation. It would be perfect if this projector was equipped with an internal battery, but that makes it bulky and heavier.
That is not to say that this Freestyle just “stays still” in your house, instead it still plugs directly into the backup battery (should have a 50W/20V output to be able to provide enough power) and therefore has a You can take it anywhere, like camping.
According to Samsung’s website, it also has a genuine backup battery cum stand as an accessory for users to buy and use.
As a projector, the image part is definitely what users care about the most. The Freestyle for FullHD 1080p resolution and quite a lot of technology that supports projection capabilities such as HDR, optimizing colors on many different types of backgrounds.
Through practical experience, this machine gives a decent presentation quality with sharpness, vivid colors, and high contrast. However, with a brightness of only 550 LED Lumen, to be able to experience the best image, you still need a really dark space such as inside a closed room or at night.
The machine can enlarge the projection area from 30 to 100 inches depending on the distance placed from the projection screen.
The unique point of The Freestyle when presenting is that, because of its flexible design, it does not require too much placement, so the device is equipped with the ability to customize the frame quite intelligently. Just set the direction towards the background, The Freestyle will automatically align the frame, focus even if the projection direction is skewed or tilted.
Although the projection direction is not parallel to the wall, the frame is also adjusted to be neat. In fact, it only takes about 1 second for the machine to finish weighing. Even with slight changes, the machine will recognize and automatically re-calibrate accordingly.
It is quite unfortunate that The Freestyle is connected to the source via the Micro HDMI port but does not come with a cable, which leads to a bit of inconvenience when this connection port is not really popular and common.
However, in return, this device supports Wifi along with Airplay 2 with iPhone or wirelessly connects with Android phone via SmartThings application, so you can still stream content easily.
Not only that, The Freestyle also uses Tizen operating system, so it still owns the same features as a regular Samsung smart TV such as supporting movie and TV viewing applications.
The device has many uses, not just watching movies or listening to music. You can use Ambient Mode, which is available on Samsung TVs, to display both dynamic and still frames to create a more creative space. As in this photo, no matter how busy or stressed at work, a little window bringing in the sunset light makes me somewhat comfortable.
The Freestyle can also create a backdrop for parties…
…or project mapping to take super-artistic portrait photos.
More pictures of The Freestyle
Plus mark:
– Solid, minimalist design, suitable for many room spaces.
– Compact size, moderate weight, convenient to carry everywhere.
– Can be placed, projected in many positions from the wall to the ceiling or table top.
– Short projection distance, less than 3m, immediately has a display size of 100 inches.
– The ability to present at a decent level, support intelligent flexible automatic image balance.
– Many connectivity features, easy to use like smart TV.
Minus point:
– Not equipped with built-in battery, requires external power supply or backup battery with large output.
– No Micro HDMI cable included.
– Lack of water and dust resistance, so it will be limited in moving in inclement weather.
summary
Get the price up to 24,990,000 VND, it can be seen that The Freestyle will not be an option for those who just want to buy a machine with a mere projection function. On the contrary, with good presentation quality, flexible responsiveness, not too demanding on setup and many intelligent automatic feature technologies, The Freestyle will be an interesting experience for anyone Looking for a projector that guarantees easy portability, suitable for a variety of situations.