Dangbei, an emerging brand in the projector space, released its flagship projector in March this year: the Dangbei Mars Pro. We’ve been using it for a while, and I can tell you our verdict in advance: skip this if you have high requirements for image size and quality, and you want to use it during the day. But if you don’t want to spend too much money, the Mars Pro is definitely your cup of tea.

I’ll explain what makes Mars Pro so great.

Let’s start with the unboxing. All the accessories are under the projector. Take the projector out, there is a Power Adapter and a power cable, a remote control, an instruction manual, a PTZ washer, and a lint cloth for cleaning.

The Dangbei Mars Pro is designed with a taller body than most projectors. The larger size means you can put better hardware inside and better cooling performance. Because the body material is made of all metal, it looks and feels great. On the front, in addition to the large lens, there is a camera and a laser focus element. There is only one non-pushable button on the top. To prevent scratching of the glass panel during long time use, Dangbei has also thoughtfully applied a film to the front and top. The buttons, laser hole, and lens position of the film are all open, so don’t worry about affecting the image quality and operation. It has speakers on both sides and an active cooling fan. The wind blows in from the right and out from the left. Thanks to the larger body, the fan does not need to be very fast, so it is not very noisy.

The back has a full complement of I/O ports. One headphone jack, two USB ports, two HDMI ports, one of which supports ARC, one LAN port, one S/PDIF and a power port. It also supports Bluetooth, 2.4G and 5G Wi-Fi, so whether you want to connect a PC, PS4 or Bluetooth headphones, or whatever, the Mars Pro supports them all very well.

Before we talk about its image quality, let’s take a look at Mars Pro’s Emotn OS, which has a simple UI design for its appearance. The main functions and applications are at the bottom, pulling down the drawer like an Android phone, which contains all the applications. The Mars Pro’s remote control has an interesting button, a long press to call out the mouse, so you can operate it like a PC.

The Mars Pro uses an MT9669 processor. The operation is smooth without lag. Maybe you think 4+128GB storage is not good enough, but I want to tell you the truth: most projectors actually have less than 64GB of storage space, and 128GB is a huge amount of storage space in a smart projector. The Emotn store has major streaming platform apps such as YouTube, Netflix, and twitch, so you don’t need to download the APK on your PC and then copy it to the projector. Even if the app is not available in the store, it can jump to the web with one click, which is very convenient.

Many of the auxiliary features exclusive to projectors, such as Auto Focus and Auto Keystone Correction, are also available on the Mars Pro. And there are many features that other projectors don’t have, such as Intelligent Obstacle detection, where the screen can intelligently avoid objects on the wall. There is also this Intelligent Screen Alignment, which can automatically cast the image on the screens. To protect your eyes, if the camera detects an object close to the front of the lens, it will also quickly reduce the brightness to avoid hurting your eyes. I have to say, Dangbei is very focused on the user experience.

The Mars Pro is not only a 4K projector but also has a maximum brightness of 3200 ANSI Lumens. The most important specification of a projector is its maximum brightness. To achieve such brightness, Mars Pro uses ALPD Laser Technology. With such high brightness, even if you turn on the lights like we do and project directly on a white wall, you can still see the content of the picture clearly. Of course, no matter which projector you use, we recommend you use it with the lights off to get the best effect. The color uniformity is good and there are no noticeable color blocks in any area. Laser projectors are brighter than regular LED projectors for higher contrast. It also has a longer lifespan and is cheaper than Lamp projectors. I think Laser projectors should be the mainstream type in the projector market in the future.

Mars Pro also supports a 120Hz refresh rate and MEMC, so it should be good for gaming. So, let’s take a look at the latency first. Increasing the shutter speed to take a picture of the timer will give you a rough idea of its HDMI input latency level. The Mars Pro has Game mode, which can significantly improve the responsiveness of the image. While it may not compare to a monitor in terms of latency, it will give you a more impactful image that will immerse you in the world of gaming. After all, it can project more than 100 inches. It also performs well with its 10w stereo speakers, supporting Dolby Audio and DTS HD certification. Now, you guys can listen to its viewing and gaming performance for yourself from the video review below.

Dangbei is bringing pretty interesting products to the projector industry. Their Mars Pro comes in at around $1600 with a full metal body and 4k 120hz. Most importantly, they have brought down the price of the Laser light source projector.

If you are looking for a cheap Laser projector, then the Dangbei Mars Pro is definitely one projector you can’t go wrong with.