Despite its utility, a projector can be an ugly appendage in an otherwise stylish living room. With all the advancements, most of them are still odd-looking, large, and have to hang from the ceiling. But what if you got a projector that fits on the sideboard like a new minimalist gadget, is portable, and can be carried around while creating cinematic projections wherever it is? Well, that is exactly what the LG CineBeam Q 4K UHD Smart Portable Laser Projector wants to do for you.
The LG CineBeam Q 4K UHD projector has an award-winning design that is simple at its core. It is like a cube with a 360-degree rotating handle. The handle doubles up as the stand too and adjusts to the angle you want to beam on. At the front of the cube is the large cyclops-like lens. At the rear, you have the power port, HDMI and USB-C ports as well as a power button. That’s it. All the controls are on the remote.
The projector is very portable and the handle means you can think of situations where you are moving the projector even outdoors for a fun evening with friends. However, this comes with a power brick which you need to factor in. Or you can power it from a power bank too, but then it won’t last all that long.
The LG Cinebeam Q is portable and has a minimalistic look and feel. (Image Credit: Nandagopal Rajan/Indian Express)
The LG CineBeam Q runs the company’s webOS inside and comes with a range of apps and widgets. However, this also means that you don’t get full access to the Play Store like with AndroidTV projectors. For instance, I did not find the Jio Cinema app, though Netflix, Prime Video and YouTube are preloaded on the projector. However, since you can add an external streaming device like a FireStick or Apple TV, don’t worry about this too much. I have had an LG TV with webOS for years, and most of my needs are taken care of on the device itself. So as soon as the projector is powered on you can start watching by logging into Netflix or Prime Video, or by downloading a host of other apps available in the webOS store. There are games too.
But before that, I had another problem to solve, one that has prevented me from revising more projectors recently. Where do you project an image that is at least 60 inches wide after the last empty wall in the house was conquered by a new painting? With the LG CineBeam Q this is not such a big problem, as you can plonk this projector anywhere. I found a patch of wall ideal for this, but not at a height. With regular projectors, you would not even think of using this space, but I could just keep the LG CineBeam Q on the floor and start beaming right away. To increase the size of the image you need to move the projector away from the wall and at about 7 feet you can get about 120 inches screen size.
The picture quality is quite good, and this when I was beaming it on a biscuit-coloured wall. For 4K videos on Netflix and some test 8K videos from YouTube the colour clarity was stunningly good, especially the blacks. And even with some light in the room, I was able to enjoy the videos. And the projector is completely silent, though it does warn up towards the upper part of the device where there are vents.
LG Cinebeam Q runs on webOS. (Image Credit: Nandagopal Rajan/Indian Express)
The best part of the LG CineBeam Q is how you have a straight picture wherever you are beaming even if the projector itself is not sitting properly. In a second or so, the device figures out the perfect angle to stream in. This place and play capability is the best I have seen in any projector. You don’t need to fiddle with keystone or screen angles at any point while using the LG CineBeam Q.
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On the flip side, at a time when most projectors offer great audio quality, this is not one of the strong points of the LG CineBeam Q. Because of its size and design, the audio quality is a bit weak and I had to connect the Sony ULT Field 1 Bluetooth speakers to get audio that matched with the picture quality.
At Rs 1,65,000, the LG CineBeam Q is among the best projectors to set up a cinema experience wherever you are. I suggest this for those who don’t need a projector for daily use, but would like to see a cinema on a big screen during weekends or with friends. The ease of using the LG CineBeam Q gets the better of the small niggles it comes with.
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