Quick review
The good
The not-so-good
Projectors haven’t traditionally been a portable gadget, but the tech is heading that way. And in The Freestyle, Samsung is making the portable projector a bit like a TV, too.
What is The Freestyle?
A lifestyle TV of sorts, Samsung’s The Freestyle is one of its few entertainment devices with the word “the” preceding the name, telling you that this isn’t just another TV.
Samsung TVs have model numbers and this has a name, which is a clear indication of it being lifestyle-focused, which it most definitely is.
It’s like The Sero or The Serif, or even The Premiere, because it definitely has more in common with that last one than another actual lifestyle TV. The Premiere is an actual laser light projector, while The Freestyle does away with the bulky parts that a projector always comes with.
The Freestyle is compact and very much an all-in-one projector with a pivoting mount on a stand that kind of works as a built-in tripod. You could pack it into luggage and take it with you, or just bring it around the house. It even comes with a USB-C rechargeable remote much like a Samsung TV, with channel changing, volume control, and even shortcut buttons for Netflix, Prime Video, and Disney+.
It’s about as TV-like as projectors get.
What does The Freestyle projector do?
It’s also a little bit different from any other projector we’ve seen.
While it uses the same technology, that special stand sets it apart because it stands up nicely and can be aimed. You’ll see this when you look at the compact gadget for the first time, which basically pivots in place and can be aimed anywhere.
That alone makes The Freestyle very different from every other projector out there. We’ve seen compact pico-projectors before, but we’ve never seen one that includes a stand to allow it to be aimed anywhere and at anything.
That stand gives The Freestyle some rather unusual abilities.
For one, you can aim it at nearly anything, and turn almost any surface into a screen of sorts.
The obvious use case is firing it straight up and turning the ceiling into a screen, able to watch movies while you’re lying back, but it goes deeper than that.
You can aim it at the cupboards in your kitchen and turn those into an impromptu screen, or aim it at the wardrobe and turn that into a screen. You could even aim it at a mirror and reflect the projection from The Freestyle onto another wall, allowing you to get to a white space on the other side of the room, provided you don’t mind a backwards image (not so useful for captions).
A small speaker system in The Freestyle helps round out this package, and it is surprisingly punchy, though lacks a full experience. It’s totally fine for watching anything anywhere, though you will need to keep the projector plugged in.
Reliant on a Type C USB connection and a plug pack, the portable Freestyle projector is only portable in that you can move it from room to room. There’s no built-in battery here, so we need to define “portable” loosely, rather than totally portable.
Does it do the job?
But it does do a pretty solid job, and that special built-in stand is only one of the reasons why.
The other reason has to do with how Samsung has treated its projector, which is actually kind of surprising: it’s more like a TV.
Yes, The Freestyle projector is more like a Samsung TV, including Samsung’s own Tizen-based smart TV operating system, which means you get lots of apps for smarts, plus a remote that links you to those apps.
It even includes Samsung’s free TV channels coming in over WiFi, which again reinforces that The Freestyle is less like a conventional projector and more like a compact TV you can set up in any room of the house, provided there’s a plug nearby.
And that’s exactly what it does.
We found it’s a handy way to keep the kids entertained, either in their room or any other place, simply because of the instant big screen experience you can get on practically any surface.
What does it need?
Compact and surprisingly versatile, there are plenty of great reasons to consider the Samsung Freestyle, but the lack of a built-in battery is not one of them. That’s an optional extra, when really it would just be built into the design.
It feels like the Freestyle should be like the Xgimi Halo Plus with a battery inside just simply based off that tiny design, and the neat hinged stand that turns the whole thing into a tripod of sorts for the projector would make it more of a force to be reckoned with. But there’s that whole lack of a battery, which itself is an optional roughly $300 extra that should be included.
We also think the light output could be stronger, too, or at least dependent on a better technology, such as laser light.
In short distances, the Freestyle is fine. You can project onto the ceiling or on a small white wall nearby, but move beyond a metre and make the image larger, and the whole thing just loses the gravitas that a projector should deliver on.
It’s a similar issue with sound, which just feels like it needs more oomph overall, and could benefit from a little more guts.
You can amp it up with a wireless Bluetooth speaker, something we tested with the Sonos Era 300’s Bluetooth connection, but there’s no wired sound out, so if you want to go to a wired connection, tough. Otherwise you’re stuck with a slightly shallow sound.
And that’s not the only thing that could do with a little more power.
So, too, does the system, which looks like a Samsung Smart TV Tizen installation, and yet feels slow. At times, it’s painfully slow, and as you press a direction or make a selection on the remote, the whole thing struggles to catch up. It’s hard to imagine Samsung shipping a TV with this sort of delayed speed.
You just know an updated version will have accounted for this with a new chip, but the system performance on the Freestyle is such that it makes you wonder how it managed to get past Samsung’s Quality Assurance team in the way it shipped: slow, clunky, and forcing you to have more patience for a smart TV interface than you otherwise should.
Samsung also forces you to dig through menus to switch off motion technology, digging into a custom picture mode to switch off the judder control. If you don’t normally switch this off, our complaint here will be a minor quibble, and sports watchers won’t care one bit as this technology was made for you.
Is it worth your money?
The more important question may come down to the price, and at $1299 in Australia, Samsung’s Freestyle projector seems a little over-valued for what it is.
If that optional $300 battery was included with The Freestyle, the price would make a lot more sense. Without it and you’re really just paying for the convenience of a compact form.
Yay or nay?
Despite this, there are some solid reasons to consider The Freestyle, and most come down to just how darn easy it makes things.
This is an easy projector to get your head around for small spaces.
When we want to run any other projector outside, it’s an effort. We grab that projector and a long extension cord, the Chromecast with Google TV, a Sonos speaker and line-in cable, and plug it all in, an effort that we have down to a good five to ten minutes, depending on how much trouble we want to go to when it comes to setting up the outside chairs and tables.
We’re used to it now, but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s still an effort. It’s not an instant “let’s go” experience, but more of a “Dad needs to go set things up”.
The Freestyle is different. It’s instant. It’s a screen on anything with a plug nearby. It’s easy. It’s so damned easy.
That convenience could well make up for the price, which isn’t exorbitant, but rather just feels like it’s more expensive than it needs to be. It’s a Samsung, so we kind of get why, big brand and all.
If that doesn’t bother you and there’s a plug in reach, The Freestyle could well be a worthwhile gadget in your life, particularly if you have kids and the screen or living room is otherwise occupied.
