Design: small and flexible MAX
It can be seen that as a new product with unique positioning, Betan U 1 has demonstrated its unique design from the beginning of the packaging box. The overall packaging is in the form of "file box", with the product name label attached to the lower left corner of the front, and the IAI design award and French NDA design award logo won by U 1.
When you open the box and take out the contents, you can see that the packaging contents of Betan U 1 include the projector body, integrated power cord and adapter, remote control, battery and instructions.
The overall appearance of this Betan U 1 ultra-short-focus laser projection is dark, and the surface is made of IML matte texture technology and aluminum alloy, and the surface texture is warm. The corner transition is rounded, and the overall outline design continues the family style of Betan household projection products, which can be integrated into a variety of home environments. It is this design that won the IAI Design Award and the French NDA Design Award.
Another major feature of Betan U 1 is its small size. The size of the whole machine is about 210 * 2/kloc-0 * 72.8 mm, and its own weight is about 1.56kg, which is almost half or one-third of the conventional household projection size we evaluated. There are many factors to realize small volume, including the ultra-short focal projection structure of overhead lens, the use of high-efficiency ALPD laser source in projection, the overall reduction of the volume of optical machine and heat dissipation module, etc. Small size and ultra-short focus, suitable for various use scenarios and carrying methods, bringing more practical experiences.
For an ultra-short focus laser projection, it is difficult to define its "front", so we start with the most important top projection lens area. After taking out the fuselage of Bei Tang U 1 from the package, we need to tear off the protective sticker covering the lens area before we can start using it. We can see that the middle position is the projection lens, and the ingenious optical path makes Bei Tang U 1 increase the projection ratio from 0.25: 1 to 0.23: 1, and an 80-inch screen can be projected only 25cm away from the projection plane. On both sides of the lens are dual ToF sensors for automatic image correction. Correction functions include autofocus, automatic keystone correction, eye protection, etc.
Large-area mesh grids are designed on the projection sides and back of Betan U 1 for cooling air ducts and speakers. The cooling duct uses the right side (facing the projection screen) to exhaust air, so it needs to reserve a certain space for it in actual use. Dts-HD and dolby pro logic logos are printed on the corners of the grille on both sides, indicating that its dual 6W built-in speakers can also bring a good sound experience.
The surface of the fuselage on one side of the projection screen is the interface area of this Betancon U 1, which is equipped with DC power interface, dual USB interface, HDMI interface supporting eARC function, S/PDIF digital audio interface and a network cable interface. Wireless connection supports dual-band WiFi and Bluetooth 5.0.
The bottom of Betan U 1 is equipped with four-corner anti-skid foot pads, a central universal threaded interface, and product-related model and certification information.
The remote controller equipped with Betan U 1 is similar to the flagship Betan X3Pro of 4K laser projection that we evaluated before, and it is a new remote controller with metal back shell to enhance the texture. The bottom of the battery box is designed to be retractable. The on-off key is moved to the center line, and a separate red focus key is added next to the side shortcut function key. Long press the red side key to achieve automatic focusing, short press it to focus manually, and short press the side key to enter various shortcut functions.
Hardware Configuration: Top Hard Core 0.23 Ultra Small Projection Ratio
As a lightweight ultra-short focus laser projection, Betan U 1 is not as exaggerated as other laser tv products, and its price generally exceeds 10,000 yuan. Instead, it is a reasonable combination of software and hardware in a small figure and a price range of 4,000 yuan, and it has achieved an excellent use experience in a price range that is close to the people.
The biggest difference between it and conventional household projection is the design of ultra-short focal light path, and the projection ratio can reach 0.23: 1, and the 80-inch screen can be projected only 25 cm away from the wall, which provides many conveniences in layout and use.
The most brilliant part of the hardware of Betan U 1 is the use of high-end cinema-grade ALPD laser light source. As the mainstream light source technology, it can achieve higher brightness, contrast, wider color gamut, lower energy consumption and longer life in a small optical machine. When the projection brightness of shell U 1 can reach 1250ANSI lumens, the projection distance is shorter, the color is better, the perceived brightness reflected to human eyes is better, and the picture contrast reaches 2000: 1, which is four times that of conventional LED light source projection.
Betaine U 1 can provide the native resolution of 1080P and the refresh rate of 60Hz, which is superior to similar products. In terms of SoC, Betancon U 1 is equipped with a high-performance MediaTek MT9669 processor, which is the same as the aforementioned 4K laser projection Betancon X3Pro, and can also achieve a stable and smooth system experience with 3+32G memory combination. It supports decoding in HDR 10, HLG and other formats, has MEMC motion compensation function, and is equipped with Pro algorithm of AI color engine to realize various AI image quality enhancement functions such as noise reduction, sharpening and super resolution.
In terms of sound effects, as mentioned above, Betan U 1 has dual 6W speakers, dts-HD and Dolby pro logic. At the same time, the unique layout structure of ultra-short-focus projection enables sound to radiate audio by using the wall of the projected picture, resulting in the experience of integrating audio and picture. In addition, the installation of ALPD laser source also frees up more space inside the fuselage of Betan U 1, which increases the volume of the speaker cavity and brings stronger sound field performance.
Image quality: Laser light source has obvious advantages.
Next, we will experience the image quality and color performance of this Betan U 1 through some test contents and shooting proofs, and choose the white wall projection picture in the common incomplete darkroom. Shooting proofs are different due to multiple digital conversion, web page compression, display equipment performance and other reasons, and are for reference only.
Firstly, the color pyramid is used to test the perception of color transition. It can be seen that ALPD laser source provides better brightness, contrast and color performance for Betancon U 1, and the chromaticity of red, blue and green areas is clearly distinguished, and the overall performance is good.
In the aspect of color reduction, the fruit and vegetable map is selected for observation. It can be seen that the color reproduction and vividness are better than those of LED light source products. The native resolution of 1080P makes the whole image sharp and rich in details such as water droplets and colors on the surface.
Thanks to the improvement of contrast and color resolution brought by ALPD laser source, the contrast between light and dark areas in the test chart is obvious, and the details are fully preserved.
It can be seen from the HDR proofs that the better contrast and brightness performance of Betan U 1 can make the whole picture look and feel harmonious and rich in details.
We also learn from the videos of football and other sports events the expressive power of the dynamic content of Betan U 1, and select some dynamic picture content for sample shooting. It can be seen that the moving parts in the picture are smooth, the details are clear, and there are few phenomena such as edge distortion and virtual shadow, which can bring users a high-quality and smooth viewing experience.
More image quality test samples are as follows:
On the whole, this Betan U 1 ultra-short-focus laser projection can really combine the advantages of small size and portability, the worry-free characteristics of wall-mounted layout, and the excellent image quality performance in the same level. However, it is precisely because of its ultra-short focal length that very high requirements are put forward for the flatness of projection surfaces such as curtains and walls in practical use, which is different from the conventional projection products with long projection distance.
In actual use, users who match curtains need to reduce the ripples on the curtain surface as much as possible, otherwise it will bring serious picture deformation. After preliminary adjustment, the remaining slight deformation can be compensated by the built-in intelligent flattening function of picture in Betancon U 1. Users can enable it in the settings and follow the following steps.
First, open this function in the settings and follow the prompts. You can choose two ways.
You need to shoot the projected black-and-white grid horizontally with your mobile phone.
Automatically correct the picture after uploading the shot image successfully, which can basically improve the distortion of the picture.
If the user takes the wall surface as the projection surface, material factors such as fine lines on the wall surface may cause more screen interference. This is because the ultra-short focus projection mode is similar to the small included angle projection screen, so the particles and lines on the projection surface are easy to produce shadows.
System features: Too many games can help you get started quickly.
The ultra-short focus laser projection of this Betan U 1 still uses the familiar Betan OS. In the long-term use, it can bring users excellent experiences such as advertising-free startup, multi-platform content adaptation, smooth and easy-to-use control logic, and the energy cost required to get started is almost zero.
When BEOS continues the layout of vertical partition navigation on the left and horizontal content expansion on the right, users can reach the latest online content in the first time by loading and displaying content cards in real time. In addition, there are global search, settings, external storage, messages and other functional columns in the upper left corner, and information columns such as network status, weather and time in the upper right corner.
The horizontally displayed content in TV series, movies and other mainstream content partitions is not only a simple card window, but also detailed content information, such as rating, popularity, classification labels, evaluation and so on. After being expanded, it is convenient for users to quickly understand and choose.
For the recommended content generated by the system in real time, it can also be previewed dynamically in a more immersive way.
Recently, the new functions provided by Betancon OS include the quick switch mode button at the top, supporting three modes: standard mode, children mode and elderly mode, and providing different home page forms and contents respectively. In addition, the mode can also be switched through the shortcut bar of the remote control side key.
In the children's mode, the overall UI style turns to cartoon, which covers a wealth of children's animation and early education knowledge, and can be connected to the Patten Education Zone.
In the elder mode, the overall interface changes closer to the traditional TV system, adopting horizontal partition bar and vertical content flow design, and simultaneously designing multiple content areas. Visually, the size of content cards and characters is increased, which is more convenient for elders to watch and choose.
In terms of new functions, the focus is on the application of "atmosphere", that is, the screen saver wallpaper function. At present, this application has added more diversified contents. On the basis of the original aerial photography, city and natural scenery, it provides more cultural atmosphere for oil painting appreciation, turning the user's home environment into a pavilion for experiencing classical art, as well as creative clocks, fake window atmosphere, custom silhouette wallpaper and other materials, and the gameplay is diverse.
It is worth mentioning that Betan U 1 is not only a weapon for young people to watch movies at home and enhance their sense of atmosphere, but also a good game equipment. It has passed the official certification of Tencent Starting Cloud Game and Tencent Pioneer Cloud Game, and it can be played freely with the help of the cloud game platform without downloading the game itself. In addition, it also adapts to the connection between various hosts and PC through HDMI interface, and the input delay is as low as 16ms, which is a large-screen immersive entertainment scheme with good cost performance for young people.
This Betan U 1 ultra-short-focus laser projection and its Betan OS also have far-field voice and other functions.
Generally speaking, the combination of Danube U 1 and Danube OS can provide an excellent experience that has always maintained a consistent level, and the fluency and ease of use we felt in many Danube projections in the past have not been compromised at all.
Evaluation summary
Betain U 1 ultra-short-focus laser projection is a unique product in the home intelligent projection market at present. Within the 4000 yuan positioning, through the exquisite structural design and the combination of software and hardware, the short-focus and near-focus characteristics are realized, which are light and easy to use and directly hit the pain points of users. At the same time, the core attributes such as image quality, brightness and contrast can all reach the excellent level of the same level through the efficient ALPD laser source.
On the whole, Betan U 1 ultra-short-focus laser projection can indeed become the first "mini laser tv" for young people. With the excellent combination of "ultra-short focus+laser", it is suitable for dormitory, bedroom, single room and other environments with stronger adaptability. Its extremely close projection distance greatly reduces the space occupation, so users don't have to bother to find more complicated installation forms such as hoisting and side projection, and they don't have to worry about screen occlusion, messy wires and dazzling light sources.