As CES 2022 draws to a close, it’s worth taking a look back at everything we saw this week and considering the products you might actually buy. While there were certainly plenty of futuristic concepts for humanoid robots and autonomous cars, the Freestyle from Samsung is likely a product you will actually buy when it’s available in early February.
While mini projectors have tech category for some time now, many of them lack the brightness to be practical in a lot of environments. With the Samsung Freestyle portable projector, you can really take it with you and project a range of inputs to up to create a massive screen up to 100″ at a distance of 2.7m from the wall.
“The Freestyle is a one-of-a-kind projector geared towards ultimate versatility and flexibility to meet the consumers’ changing lifestyles. Without the limitation in space and form factor, The Freestyle is a fun and versatile device that can be used in any way consumers prefer.”
Simon Sung, Executive Vice President and Head of the Sales & Marketing Team of the Visual Display Business at Samsung Electronics.
The Freestyle weighs only 830 grams allowing to change any space into a screen with ease. Unlike conventional, boxy projectors, The Freestyle’s versatile cradle allows rotation of up to 180 degrees, enabling users to show high-quality video anywhere – tables, floors, walls or even ceilings – no separate screen required.
Typically projector setups are complex, with a fair bit of time and effort required to configure the projector based on the wall you point it at. The Freestyle comes with full auto keystone and auto levelling features which basically means you can place it down, turn it on and it does all the hard work for you.
To power the Freestyle, For powering it, you can use external batteries that support USB-PD and 50W/20V output or above, making it really portable great for those who go camping, just find yourself a flat surface like the side of a tent and you’re good to go.
I love products that have multiple uses and the Freestyle is a great example of that. When it’s not used as a projector to stream content, The Freestyle also provides mood lighting effect thanks to its ambient mode and translucent lens cap. The Freestyle is also a smart speaker, analysing the music to pair visual effects that can be projected on the wall, floors and anywhere else.
If you are keen to get one, then The Freestyle –LSP3, will cost you A$1,499. While that’s certainly not cheap, if you consider a SONOS move is $699 for just audio, to have a portable project with this set of features, I think it can be justified by many.
I will say it is 1080p projector, which in 2022 is borderline acceptable, given how prevalent 4K content is these days. This does leave Samsung plenty of room for a future model that does include 4K quality.
