Wemax Go Advanced vs Philips Picopix Max vs Samsung the Freestyle: Who is the Portable Sized Champion?

This is contributed by Lionel Low

Disclaimer: The author purchased Wemax Go Advanced Ultra-portable Laser Projector for Business at his own cost and previously owned Philips Picopix Max. His opinions solely belongs to him and does not represent the opinion of Wemax. Shoutout to neighbour Nicholas for loaning both Samsung the Freestyle and his Philips Picopix Max for this shootout.

Introduction

In this article, we will pit 3 chosen portable sized projectors Wemax Go Advance (WGA), Philips Picopix Max (PPM) and Samsung the Freestyle (SF) against each other in 3 major aspects. Performance, Quality of life and Accessories will be assessed to find out who is the champion of portable sized projectors!

As SF does not have internal battery and relies on an adaptor, all other projectors are tested with a powerbank attached to it.

Section 1: Performance

Contrast

While brightness is crucial to elevate your theatre enjoyment, cheap projectors have high brightness but very poor contrast. For marketing purposes, many companies rated dynamic contrast highly which does not reflect the true performance.

In terms of specifications, they are as follows:

WGA is rated at 500:1, measured here 826:1 at standard mode, 729:1 after calibration

PPM is rated at 10,000:1, measured here 225:1 at Normal mode, 180:1 after calibration

SF is rated at 100,000:1, measured here 362:1 at Normal mode, let’s not go further.

Despite a conservative declaration by manufacturer Wemax at the lowest contrast among all 3, the actual performance soundly trumps the rest of the competition! Based on measurements, it is expected that SF come in 2nd place but I will have to strongly disagree based on real world performance, pictures as below for proof.

Scene from movie Solo left to right tested on Wemax 50” ALR pull-up screen:

Wemax Go Advanced, Philips Picopix Max, Samsung the Freestyle P.S. SF is at maximum brightness and contrast

Winner: Wemax Go Advanced

Brightness

Brightness is important to ensure that image does not appear too dim and looks decently rich enough.

In terms of specifications, they are as follows:

PPM at 850 ANSI lumens, measured here achievable but only in presentation mode, 618 without calibration, 450 after calibration

WGA at 600 ANSI lumens, measured here achievable but at cold color temperature, normal at 591 without calibration, 434 after calibration

SF last at 550 lumens, measured to be about 200 ANSI lumens here and here. Let’s not even talk about calibration.

It’s a narrow fight between WGA and PPM leaving SF in the dust.

Winner: Philips Picopix Max

Audio

Portable sized projectors have the tendency to produce teeny audio which sound like they came out of tin cans. Let’s see if it’s true for all 3 of them.

With an online youtube audio test, the audible frequency produced by each of the projectors are as below:

SF has a range of 18KHz down to 90Hz, test video here.

PPM has a range of 16KHz down to 200Hz, test video here.

WGA has a range of 15KHz down to 200Hz.

Despite PPM having slightly higher producible audio frequency, WGA has two distinct advantages over PPM of having a greater maximum volume and stereo effect due to two tweeters within the projector unlike mono effect for both SF and PPM.

SF is able to reproduce a remarkably low audio frequency of 90Hz due to 2 passive woofers which are very sufficient for movies without the need for external speakers.

Winner: Samsung the Freestyle

Keystone capability

Both WGA and SF have auto horizontal and vertical keystone capability. PPM is limited to only auto vertical keystone. For horizontal keystone, manual adjustment needs to be made.

Winner: Tie between Wemax Go Advanced and Samsung the Freestyle

Start-up time

TV turns on fast, so is the expectation for projectors.

SF turns on in about 5 to 6s, test video here.

PPM turns on in about 33 to 34s after focus complete, test video here.

WGA turns on in about 32s after focus complete, test video here.

side note that PPM always does the focus upon turning on regardless of whether it is the same position as it was previously. WGA does not refocus if the position has not changed which reduces the start-up time by 6s.

Winner: Samsung the Freestyle

Responsiveness

Both WGA and PPM are responsive in menus. PPM shows significant lag navigating through menus.

Winner: Tie between Wemax Go Advanced and Samsung the Freestyle

Section 2: Quality of life

Netflix, Disney+

It is the hope that every TV and projector supports both Android TV and widevine L1 that allows for high resolution playback of Netflix.

SF supports widevine L1 and is able to play high resolution Netflix with using latest Netflix app.

PPM uses a workaround around an older version of Netflix to support high resolution Netflix.

WGA requires external TV stick/box to watch high resolution Netflix.

Winner: Samsung the Freestyle

Powerbank compatibility

Considering that all 3 projectors uses usb-c charging port, it is expected that a typical PD powerbank would be able to power them. The powerbank used to test on all 3 projectors was the Zendure Supertank.

Zendure Supertank was able to power both WGA and PPMX

Zendure Supertank could not power SF and turn it on at all despite support for PD 5-20V 5A.

Be aware that SF can only be powered by compatible PDO chargers (provided) or powerbanks.

Winner: Tie between Wemax Go Advanced and Philips Picopix Max

Brightness, contrast controls

Such controls are typically buried deep in the settings and difficult to gauge.

Left to right: Philips Picopix Max, Samsung the Freestyle

Iron man from Disney+ on external Amazon Firestick 4K MAX TV stick: Wemax Go Advanced

For PPM and SF, both have brightness and contrast settings buried deep. PPM is better in a sense that you can view the changes on the provided image while adjusting. SF blocks the viewing while you are adjusting so that’s a minus.

WGA similarly has settings buried deep for brightness and contrast just like PPM. The huge plus point for using an external TV stick/box is that you can adjust the image parameters on the fly as seen above.

Winner: Wemax Go Advanced

Connectivity

It should be noted that the USB-C display input of PPM has built in hardware using the provided USB-C Cable allowing for direct mirroring of Nintendo Switch without the need for any dock, picture as below. This is a huge plus for PPM.

SF strangely is the only projector without any usb port so there’s no way to play any videos off your thumb drive or hard disk. There is no 3.5mm output not that it needs it. It also includes a micro-HDMI port without providing a micro-HDMI to HDMI cable.

Winner: Philips Picopix Max

Portability

SF is the heaviest and bulkiest of the lot due to the need to bring along the charger always. PPM is heavier than WGA and about the same size in volume, but WGA is more portable when you want to take it away in your pocket or briefcase directly because of the slim design.

Winner: Wemax Go Advanced

Section 3: Accessories

Remote

WGA uses the standard remote across all Wemax projectors and has limited extra features. SF provides the most user friendly additional buttons.

Winner: Samsung the Freestyle

Cable

WGA provides a non-removable 1.5m usb-c cable attached to the charger.

PPM provides the shortest usb-c to usb-c cable but thickest at 1m.

SF provides a thin and longest usb-c to usb-c cable at 1.9m.

Length determines the winner here.

Winner: Samsung the Freestyle

Charger

All chargers are rated 65W but with different specifications.

SF supports PDO and PPS specification. WGA supports PD3.0 specification while PPM supports PD output with difference of 15V4A against WGA’s 15V3A. In terms of size, SF’s charger is the most compact while WGA and PPM are roughly the same with difference of non-removable vs removable cable. PPM charger also comes with a set of universal changeable adaptors though it’s just either 2 pin europlug or 3 pin UK.

Winner: Samsung the Freestyle

Stand

Left to right: WGA kickstand (Built-in), PPM Tripod (included), SF Tripod (Built in)

WGA includes a kickstand and early adopters also get an adjustable stand which is now sold separately.

PPM includes a tripod that allows for minor adjustment in terms of vertical angles. The good thing is the bottom includes a standard 3/8-16 screw hole for other tripods on the market.

SF stand weakens over time and it will no longer be able to be parallel with the table hence only able to point up or down. The worst thing it is non-replaceable unlike the other 2 where after market options are readily available.

Winner: Wemax Go Advanced

Lens cover

WGA includes a built-in lens cover that slides open to turn on WGA and slides close to put it into standby mode before shutting it down after a few minutes.

SF includes a removable and thus easily misplaced translucent cover for the lens.

PPM does not have any covers.

Winner: Wemax Go Advanced

Summary of comparison

In conclusion, it has been a very close shoot-out between all 3. Each of the 3 projectors have their strengths and weakness in each section. If overall performance is critical for your viewing pleasure, Wemax Go Advanced triumphs in this area. 

SAMSUNG the Freestyle is jammed packed with features with the most greens at 8 but also with the most reds in all areas, total of 7!

Wemax Go Adacnedhas found a good balance with the least number of reds at 3 and 5 greens.

SAMSUNG the Freestyle seems to have missed out the key importance of a projector which is the actual performance of the projector. SAMSUNG the Freestyle engineers have much to reflect on for their next generation model.

Wemax is well focused to ensure that the performance of Wemax Go Advanced is not compromised with no reds in the Performance section and no reds in any sub sections.

Philips Picopix Max could be forgiven for its areas of lacking as it was released late 2019, early 2020s while SAMSUNG the Freestyle being released in 2021 could have done better.

In the end, Wemax Go Advanced is the champion in this very close shoot out.