Preview: the extremely pocketable Yaber Pico T1 projector (tl;dr it rules)
My wife has called me Android guy, Robot Vacuum Guy, and currently I’m in the running for Projector Guy because evidently manufacturers have appreciated my coverage of their products. Right now I’m in possession of a truly remarkable pocketable projector – the Yaber Pico T1.
It surprised me. It impressed me. It still impresses me. Lemme tell you a little bit about it.
The Pico T1 Projector in use
First off you need to understand the Yaber Pico T1 is about the size of a cell phone. It’s also a lot lighter. I’ve attached a video above of it on a ScoutPro and attached to a Nintendo Switch, which is also attached to the ScoutPro as I was seeing if I could run the two off a battery for an outdoor movie and game night (the answer is yes.)
This is indoors, the picture is brighter than it appears in the video, but the room is darker. Let’s just say this isn’t going to defeat a well lit room coming in at only 110 ANSI lumens. Yeah, that’s right, 110. That’s an eighth of what my favorite projector puts out. My guess is this is projecting about a 70-90 inch screen on the wall. I’m afraid I didn’t measure it.
The audio you’re hearing is from the Yaber Pico T1. It’s not great, but for Mario Kart it was fine.
Software
The software is ok. It’s got its own ecosystem, but you can install Google Play and use any of the Android features out of the box. At least on the preview version I have (note said very clearly this was not final release.)
This isn’t Android TV, but it is an Android device and as long as you can download the APK from Google Play you can use it. I did not notice the ability to cast to the unit, but you can install Miracast or anything similar. Maybe they’ll have cast destination software by the time it ships.
Notably you’ve got what every projector seems to suffer from: Netflixitus. There’s no Netflix certification so you will have to either install a desktop manager, a Kodi client, or otherwise spend about 12 seconds installing not-Netflix software to work around this. Every other streaming service seems to install from Google Play and work with no issue.
It came with one of the Netflix options, but it was claiming at the time there was a connection issue and I moved on. There indeed was a connection issue, but by the time I realized that I’d entered a long password in a whole lot of times for a connection issue, I was like “do I really need to test this at the moment?”
The software, at least in its pre-release version that I have, does not make me want to throttle it like some others have. It has its faults, but I had to look for them, not get them slapped in my face.
So, custom and Android/Google combo. You’re not going to hate it I don’t think, and other than the Netflix issues that every projector I’ve run across has nothing horrible to report in the prerelease software. Keyboard will preview in Chinese in one app, press “English” and it switches. Do that before you enter your 30 character long password.
Yaber Pico T1 Hardware
While the Pico T1 can slip into a pocket with a cell phone, there are some other things that probably need to come along for the ride. The Pico T1 can be powered by anything capable of pushing about 10 Watts over USB C, which unfortunately is not my phone on power sharing. It’s also not a couple of my charging plugs I found out.
While you do not have to bring the remote control, because it’s got a remote/mouse track pad built right in, you probably are going to want to because even though the track pad is absolutely brilliant, every time you touch it you’re moving the projector.
The remote and tripod this comes with is also quite pocketable, however you’re probably on pocket number two now.
So, to pocket this, you’ve got a projector, a power cable, a mini tripod, wall plug power adapter or a portable power supply that comes with it (I have not tested their power option yet as I had my own and own testing cases,) so we’re probably at two back jean pockets to bring this. But yeah…
The Wi-Fi on this is a solid “OK.” Let me stress that it’s not bad, but it is the only Wi-Fi I have ever been able to spot as having an issue with my setup. I know exactly why it did mind you – the magnetic tripod base sits directly between the Wi-Fi chip and the line of site to my Wi-Fi router. Yes, I’m now the freak with the Wi-Fi in the basement. I was able to verify this by removing the base, tilting the unit sideways, etc. You only need to note this if you have your Wi-Fi access point directly below where you’re using this.
Coming in at 110 Lumens and being 540p, my 800+ Lumen/2160p snobbery was really kind of shocked at how well it performed. I’m not saying it is in the same ballpark as the unit I used at the Girl Scout’s movie night, but for playing Mario Kart, watching TV, streaming a couple of movies, and accessing my Plex server, it didn’t bother me.
Can you get 120 inches in daylight? No. 31? Yesh! See above 27″ wide, which appears to mean the photos on the door were the equiv of a 31″ TV.
Manual focus ring. You’ll love it, you’ll hate it. It won’t be a thing once you get it adjusted unless you need to use the back controls.
32 gig storage, 1 gig ram, 150 grams, 960x540p. 2 USB-C ports. Dual 2.4/5ghz (I still say it’s “ok”)
Who’s the Pico T1 for?
You know, I don’t quite know. I’m hoping to figure that out. It’s not for pixel snobs, it’s quite portable but not solid enough to want to pocket on an adventure. It’s a little underpowered for outdoor presentations. It shines as a camp projector but it’s not pocketable that way (you’ll want to pack it well,) and as a gaming system my wife brings up that it’s a fairly expensive item to haul around.
Let’s do an in-line edit on that expensive to haul around comment… I was gravely mistaken on the price while I was writing this article. It’s expected to debut at about $239.
I’m looking at an amazing piece of hardware and thinking the old paradigms don’t apply and trying to figure new ones out.
The Yaber Pico T1 isn’t expected to hit the shelves until the latter part of October, so maybe I’ll figure out a great use case before then.
You can see the Indiegogo campaign here. It’s truly a remarkable little piece of equipment.
Yaber Pico T1 projector
The Yaber Pico T1 projector is a whole lot of muscle in a tiny pocketable package. It's the first actually surprising thing I've encountered in the projector world in a long time.
Product Brand: Yaber
Product Currency: USD
Product Price: 239.99
Product In-Stock: PreOrder
4.7
Pros
- Pocketables
- Portable
- Light
- Bright
- Take anywhere
- Works with Google Play
Cons
- 110 ANSI Lumens
- Lack of Netflix certification
- Casting requires app
