Most TVs aren’t very portable, but curiously, neither are most projectors, even though they can turn any surface into a reasonably-sized movie screen. Some projectors are marketed as portable, which typically means they’re small and have a built-in battery, but they’re not very adaptable to anything beyond your typical “project image onto wall” scenario.
Enter Samsung Freestyle. Just announced at CES, the Freestyle is a small, portable projector that doubles as a smart speaker, and an ambient lighting device.
The Freestyle weighs only 830 grams and has a cradle that lets it rotate up to 180 degrees. It can display a 1080p image of up to 100 inches in size, and has autofocus, auto-keystone and auto-leveling features. This means you can carry it around and use it to easily project an image onto a variety of surfaces, including ceilings and slanted surfaces.
At maximum brightness of 550 lumens, it’s not going to replace your home projector, but that’s not the intention; the idea is for the Freestyle to be used for improptu parties, street shows, guerrilla marketing campaigns and the like.
Being a Samsung product, the Freestyle runs Tizen and is compatible with Smart TV features you’ll see on Samsung Smart TVs, meaning you should be able to use it for a Netflix streaming session or to cast content to it from your phone.
The Freestyle is also a 5W speaker that blasts sound at 360 degrees. When it’s not used as a projector, the Freestyle has an ambient mode that can provide mood lighting effects. It can even use the speaker to analyze the music playing and project visual effects that are in tune with the music. Samsung says the Freestyle supports voice control, but it’s unclear which voice assistants are supported.
You can point it (almost) anywhere.
Credit: Samsung
There’s one thing the Freestyle is missing to be truly portable: a battery. It has the next best thing, though; it supports external batteries that support USB-PD and 50W/20V output (or above), which liberates the Freestyle from having to be plugged into a wall. Samsung says a battery base will come as an optional accessory soon.
Samsung’s Freestyle is available for pre-order in the U.S. now at the price of $899.99. Samsung says it will become available in global markets “in the following months.”
