To boost the sound or picture quality inside your house, you can connect the P1 to an AV receiver or a soundbar using the one HDMI port over eARC. But even so, the P1 can only do so much because it doesn’t support 4K Ultra resolution, HDR10+ color quality, or even Dolby Atmos Audio using the included speakers. Its key feature is portability. (Dolby Atmos did work with an AV receiver connected using the one HDMI eARC port.)

Inside and Out

Photograph: John Brandon

Aware of the P1’s specifications and its main purpose of portability, I kept my expectations in check as I started testing. I wasn’t looking for exceptional performance with the P1, but when I popped up a Houston Rockets game on YouTube TV in both my windowless testing room and in my family room (on a bright day, no less), I was impressed. The sheer size of the projected image (110 inches) made for an immersive experience.

That said, the game didn’t exactly look bright and had average contrast for a low-cost projector. Experimenting with the automated picture quality settings didn’t help too much, but a sports mode setting added some brightness and clarity.

Shifting over to a local news broadcast, the resolution had a slightly grainy look, even when I manually adjusted some of the brightness and contrast controls. While streaming Avatar: Fire and Ash over the Fandango at Home app, I noticed some good clarity and focus during battle scenes, but it didn’t look quite cinematic. When I compared it to an Epson LS9000 projector, the same scenes looked realistically vivid, with a full color gamut.

The P1 projector performed OK on my other typical projector-testing benchmarks for visuals. I ran through dozens of sequences, including one with a fence in winter, but the background colors looked too brown when they should have been green. A sunset scene lacked contrast and color vibrancy, which is unsurprising for the price.