While TVs seem to evolve with each passing year, can projectors keep up? The newly arrived Dangbei D6X Pro projector surprises by coming with what appears to be a “smartphone”. Despite the quotes around “smartphone”, its integration with the projector introduces numerous creative possibilities in human-machine interaction. Let’s delve into a new era of projection 3.0 with a fresh perspective.
Design
The latest Dangbei D6X Pro boasts significant design adjustments. Transitioning from deep gray to creamy white, its color scheme exudes a refreshing and minimalist style. This new color scheme blends seamlessly into home environments, whether placed on a living room side table or a bedroom dresser, enhancing the artistic ambiance of any space.
On the front panel, both the main lens and TOF camera module are surrounded by a golden ring for protection. The Dangbei D6X Pro packs impressive machine vision capabilities, featuring a million-pixel CMOS camera and a TOF laser ranging radar. This setup enables precise and rapid autofocus and keystone correction. Additionally, the newly added integrated dynamic stand allows the D6X Pro to project freely, with a 225-degree tilt range, enabling immersive viewing experiences even while you lying down, perfect for unwinding after a long day.
The remote control now adopts a creamy white color, and maintains its simple and intuitive button layout. The inclusion of side quick access buttons allows for convenient functions like autofocus, reducing operational costs compared to other projector brands and remaining a hallmark of Dangbei projectors over the years.
AI Dynamic Screen
Flipping the device reveals the Dangbei D6X Pro’s “smartphone” — the AI dynamic screen. This 7-inch touchscreen introduces a novel “dual-screen” concept to the projection industry, revolutionizing the interaction paradigm of ordinary home projectors. Combined with the addition of the dynamic stand, it officially heralds the era of home projection 3.0.
Let’s explore the groundbreaking innovation of the AI dynamic screen. Accompanying modes include Creative Clock, Floating Lyrics, Time Album, and Art Gallery. Among these, the Creative Clock features various animated displays, such as the ring-pull clock that switches between light and dark modes accompanied by a nostalgic “click” sound reminiscent of childhood memories.
In addition to these entertaining functions, the AI dynamic screen serves practical purposes. Without the remote control, users can interact with the projector via touch gestures on the screen, facilitating actions like media playback and music selection. The intuitive touchpad operation resembles that of Apple’s MacBook trackpad, albeit with slightly different gestures. Once users experience the magic touchpad, they may find it hard to revert to using a remote control.
Moreover, accessing applications via the AI dynamic screen is streamlined. With just two steps — “tap and flip” — users can quickly open applications, eliminating the cumbersome navigation through UI interfaces with remote control.
Utilizing the AI dynamic screen startup method, users can directly enter viewing mode upon receiving notifications for hot series updates or new movie releases, simply by tapping and flipping the screen.
Pulling down the AI dynamic screen reveals a control center akin to a smartphone, allowing users to adjust sound settings, activate hotspots, enable Bluetooth, switch Wi-Fi networks, and even locate the remote control. With the addition of the AI dynamic screen, the new Dangbei D6X series not only reduces user operation costs but also introduces a novel projection interaction method, marking another milestone in Dangbei’s journey.
System
Internally, the Dangbei D6X Pro projector is equipped with the latest Dangbei OS 4.1. The customizable modular design of the homepage grants users significant customization freedom. A notable addition is the “Quick Life” app found in “My Applications”. According to official descriptions, this app allows customizable usage scenarios similar to Apple’s Shortcuts.
Quick Life
Within Quick Life, users can set up automated scenarios or task commands. The process involves creating an automation scenario and assigning specific conditions. Once these conditions are met, the designated actions are automatically executed. During my review, I created a scenario to automatically open Mango TV upon startup, successfully landing on the Mango TV homepage after a reboot.
This feature deserves praise for addressing the challenge of auto-starting applications, providing users with deep customization options to enrich the projector’s functionality. With the Quick Life feature, users can customize settings for any app or mode upon startup, including defaulting to HDMI signal input. For households equipped with digital cable TV, connecting the HDMI signal source to a TV set-top box and creating a scenario to switch to HDMI upon startup simplifies TV viewing, significantly lowering the barrier to using the projector for television content consumption.
Lowering the cost of use for smart TVs and smart projectors has been an ongoing initiative in the broadcasting industry. Through the Quick Life feature, Dangbei projectors not only uphold user-defined characteristics but also fulfill the demand for one-touch viewing. This review experience has left me thoroughly impressed, showcasing numerous remarkable features.
Each experience with Dangbei OS brings forth innovative features. From the magic keys of Dangbei OS 2.0, the global shortcut center and magic mirroring of Dangbei OS 3.0, to the highly customizable UI desktop and Quick Life of Dangbei OS 4.0, each step aims to lower the user’s learning curve while gradually empowering users with greater control over projectors. This is what smart TV and smart projector manufacturers should focus on—empowering users with control rather than exploiting the “smart” aspect for profit.
Hardware
Let’s delve into the hardware aspect next.
The Dangbei D6X Pro features the MediaTek MT9669 high-end intelligent display chip, integrating CPU, GPU, and APU, with a maximum frequency of 1.3GHz. Comparatively, it’s akin to smartphone processors like the MediaTek Dimensity 1200 series or Qualcomm Snapdragon 870, delivering performance equivalent to mid-to-upper-tier smartphones.
In our benchmark tests, it scored 160 points in single-core performance and 447 points in multi-core performance. These scores place it squarely in the mid-to-upper range of home smart projectors, equivalent to some flagship projectors.
Additionally, with 3GB of RAM, the system ensures smooth operation, while 32GB of storage space fully satisfies the requirements of home smart projection. The 3+32GB memory combination far exceeds the memory space of smart TVs in this price range.
In terms of interfaces, it features USB 2.0 and HDMI 2.1 ports, with the HDMI port supporting eARC for high-quality audio signal transmission to connect to speakers, amplifiers, and other devices. Speaking of sound, the audio performance of the Dangbei D6X Pro has also been enhanced.
The Dangbei D6X Pro’s speakers are built into the dynamic stand, designed to reduce sound wave reflection on surfaces for purer audio quality. With dual 6W front speakers and a 260ml acoustic cavity, the frequency bandwidth reaches 20kHz. In speaker mode, users can experience clear and accurate high tones, full and powerful bass, and crisp vocals.
Furthermore, as a portable model, the Dangbei D6X Pro is ideal for camping. With a power bank rated at 45W or higher supporting PD protocol and a dedicated power cable, it can be used outdoors directly. Unfortunately, we don’t have this cable on hand yet, but once we do, it will be a great addition for outdoor adventures.
Picture Quality
Last but not least, let’s talk about picture quality.
According to official specifications, the Dangbei D6X Pro continues to utilize ALPD laser light source technology, opting for a high-brightness solution to eliminate speckle and color fringe issues, resulting in a brightness of up to 1200 CVIA lumens. It employs a 0.33-inch DMD display chip with a high-definition 1080p resolution, ensuring comfortable viewing and immersive experiences.
Our display of ultra-high-definition 4K images demonstrates the pure visual quality of the Dangbei D6X Pro. Projected images of giant pandas and parrots appear lifelike, with fine details in fur clearly displayed.
When the AI Vivid Color mode is activated, leveraging the AI image quality capabilities of the CPU hardware, the Dangbei D6X Pro accurately reproduces the original colors of the film. The images also exhibit transparency, showcasing excellent color fidelity and depth.
Conclusion
After completing the entire review experience, the Dangbei D6X Pro has left a profound impression on me, summed up in two words: “truly exceptional”.
Firstly, it pioneers the concept of a “dual-screen” projector, transforming the interaction mode of ordinary home projectors. It’s hard to imagine a projector capable of being controlled like a computer or smartphone. From the era of fully manual projector interaction to the 2.0 era of intelligence, and now to the 3.0 era of projection, projectors can now be interacted with via touch controls.
Another remarkable aspect is the addition of the Quick Life feature in Dangbei OS 4.0, which solves many users’ difficulties with auto-starting applications. Furthermore, deep user customization of scenarios enriches the projector’s capabilities.
If we were to evaluate a projector’s quality based solely on picture performance, the Dangbei D6X Pro would undoubtedly excel. However, the experiences provided by the dynamic screen, dynamic stand, and Quick Life make the Dangbei D6X Pro home projector even closer to perfection. Priced at RMB 3999(around $552), it fully meets the demands of young people for large-screen home entertainment. This is currently the home projector I’m most inclined to recommend, especially for those with mobile viewing and bedroom entertainment needs. It’s definitely worth a try.
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