This is contributed by Jayce Ooi
Introduction
Hello guys, meet the best projector that I have tested yet – WEMAX Nova. It is an ultra-short throw 4K UHD laser projector with Texas Instruments DLP chipsets. Loaded with 2100 ANSI lumens, ALPD 3.0 technology and 25,000 hours of lamp life. 8-Point keystone correction lets you make micro-adjustments to the picture size and image quality. Certified Android TV with Google Assistant built-in. Fast and smooth wireless screen mirroring through Chromecast. 30W Speakers with Dolby Audio support. A lot more goodies like HDR10 and so on. And suitable for casual gaming with game console like Nintendo Switch too. Interested? Let’s have a closer look now…
Package Content
Everything comes well-protected in a nice large package just like other WEMAX products. It came in another box during shipping by the way.
Once opened, you can see everything is nicely packed with plastic cover. You can’t miss the thick foam board that protect all the items. Rest assured that your WEMAX Laser TV 4K Cinema will arrive at your doorstep in perfect condition.
Alright, let’s a look at the included accessories first. There are user manual, thank you card with support information and cloth to clean the lens. As usual, take your time to go through them. FYI, there is a simple soft copy of user manual in the projector itself too.
A handy Bluetooth remote control with microphone built-in. Yes, you can control the projector in any direction. Google Assistant voice command is supported as expected.
Power cord with US plug. No worries, you can change it to match your country plug easily. Nova has worldwide power supply input support from 100 to 240V.
Design & Build Quality
WEMAX Nova has outstanding build quality with sturdy plastic housing. A large, wide and heavy one. Yes, it is larger than the usual projector. Heavier as well. You will notice it if this is your very first UST projector. But those are not matter because the placement is not the same too. In addition, Nova is stylish in design with space grey colour. There is 4K ULTRAHD wording in front of the projector. Followed by Laser Home Cinema Projector below it. No WEMAX nor Nova wording…
On the top, there is a power button with LED light indicator. Followed by two human body detection sensors with projection lens in the middle. Lastly, beam into the future wording at the center.
There are 30W speakers with Dolby Surround support located in front of the projector. 10W full range and another 5W tweeter on both left and right. A height adjustable wheel is located at the left. Air outlet with heatsink and fans are there too. Make sure that you don’t block it to avoid overheat issue.
On the right, another height adjustable wheel, USB 2.0 port and air intake vents with fans can be found there. As usual, make sure that you leave some space there as well. The cooler the projector, the quieter fan noise you will get. Yes, the fans spin faster or slower based on the projector temperature.
The rest of the inputs and outputs are located at the back. There are power port, 3 HDMI 2.0 ports, the 3rd supports ARC, USB 2.0 port, audio output, AV input, optical S/PDIF and 100M Ethernet port. The HDMI ARC and optical S/PDIF are your home HiFi system best pal. Enjoy even fully and better surround sound through them.
3 large anti-skid pads and 4 ceiling mount holes can be found at the bottom. FYI, the 2 round anti-skid pads is height adjustable. Very useful to get the best image viewing angle. And the round hole is the bass reflex port. Yes, enjoy fuller bass from the internal speakers.
Projection Sizes
Nova supports screen sizes from 80” to 150”. It has ultra-short throw ratio of 0.233:1. You can enjoy large display even with the projector close to the wall. For example, you can enjoy 80” screen size with the projector 5.5” away from the screen. 120” with 13” away. Easy for installation indeed. You won’t get this kind of installation distance with normal long throw projector. That’s for sure.
In addition, 2100 ANSI lumens is more than enough for daylight usage even with a normal white screen. FYI, I am located in my bedroom with all 4 downlights turned on and windows opened. As you can see, the image is vivid and bright.
By the way, here is how infrared motion detection work. It will reduce the brightness automatically to avoid damage to our eyes. That’s great!
Up to 150” screen size in a totally dark room. As you can see, Nova is still performing well on plain white wall with 4 downlights turned on.
Of course, it is the best with all lights are turned off. Everything pops up into your eyes then. It is truly an outstanding 4K home cinema. You won’t get this kind of experience with the smaller TV. That’s for sure!
Image Quality
Outstanding optical image quality with 0.47” 4K UHD DMD chips by Texas Instruments. 4K display output through XPR Technology. Nova is loaded with 5000 ANSI Lumens light source with ALPD 3.0 laser technology. 100% Rec.709 colour coverage and 3000:1 native contrast. Super vivid and accurate colours.
Yes, you can get more depth and detail from Nova. Deeper blacks and whiter whites. In addition, no calibration is needed out of the box. Just plug and play will do. Of course, you can further adjust the image and colours too if you want. FYI, this review is done by using generic white screen and plain wall. Image quality is even better with ALR screen for UST.
By the way, it is using view brightness mode by default. You can increase overall brightness by switching to highlight mode. Brighter while still retaining colours accuracy but slightly noisy fan noise in return though.
Text Quality
Text performance is outstanding. You can use it to surf the Internet or present PowerPoint to your group member at the office. Great for daylight usage at all screen sizes.
Flawless victory in the extreme test too. Corners are perfectly sharp and in focus. Pixel performance is outstanding as well. All of these are possible thanks to 4K UHD DLP chipsets. By the way, you need a flat smooth projection screen for the best image quality.
Media Player
Does WEMAX Nova works well as a media player? Yes, of course. It’s an Android TV projector after all. Just plug in USB hard drive or flash drive will do. Or stream from your local NAS through wireless. You can play almost every type of video format through software like Kodi. A lot of audio codecs are supported. Subtitle too.
Photo viewing is as simple as ABC. Working smoothly like butter. Crips and detailed. You can share those important business images or casual family photos easily. You can use HDMI, wireless, internal storage or USB port. Totally up to you.
Speakers
The built-in 30W speakers are outstanding. Crisp treble with powerful deep bass. No external speakers are needed. All thanks to two 10W full range and another two 5W tweeters. Of course, you can further improve the sound experience through HDMI ARC and optical S/PDIF connections. Again, enjoy even fully and better surround sound through your home HiFi system.
Fan Noise
Lastly, fan noise level is excellent. You won’t notice it at all unless very close to it. Workable during meeting in the office as well. Much better than those budget LCD projectors. That’s for sure.
HDMI Input
Nova supports 4K input @ 60 and HDR decoding through all 3 HDMI ports once you enable HDMI 2.0 mode. 50Hz and 60Hz are supported. However, 24Hz is nowhere to be found. Not a big deal as future firmware can fix it easily. Video playback performance is the same between HDMI and Android OS. 24Hz and 50Hz are great and smooth. 60Hz is the best with perfectly smooth playback. Great for fast-paced action video indeed.
Video Playback Performance
WEMAX Nova can play 4K contents easily. All thanks to performing Amlogic T962X-H processor. This 24p video is being playback by using Kodi media player on Android. Outstanding highlights and shadows. The same applies to contrast too. Everything is so crisp and very detailed. Hey, we are talking about 4K resolution here. Again, super-vivid and accurate colours. Enjoy theatre experience at home…
Outstanding performance on 4K 60p video. Perfectly smooth video playback is what you get. 50Hz is performing excellently as well. Perfect for PAL regions’ contents like Chinese TV drama. In short, it will play almost everything smoothly that you throw at it.
Android TV
WEMAX Nova is loaded with official Google certified Android TV 9.0. Everything works as it should be. And the Bluetooth remote control is very handy to navigate. Amlogic T962X-H CPU, 2GB RAM and 32GB storage are more than enough for your daily entertainment needs. As usual, just go through Google Play Store and download the applications and games that you want will do. Or install them through APK method. And rest assured that all the applications that require Google services will work as expected.
Bluetooth Speaker
By the way, you can turn Nova into a Bluetooth speaker. Enjoy 30W powerful output. And the Bluetooth connection is fast and stable.
Google Assistant & Chromecast
Google Assistant is performing great as expected. Just press the assistant button and talk will do.
Google Chromecast is working perfectly smooth as well. Response is fast for wireless connection. Yes, you can share photos and even cast videos from your smartphone to the large screen easily.
LAN & WiFi Performance
Here are the connectivity tests. 100M Ethernet is fast and stable. 2.4 GHz band wireless is slightly better than LAN. And 5 GHz band wireless double the performance at around 200 Mbps. Both of them are stable as well. By the way, Nova is loaded with 2×2 MIMO WiFi 5 connection.
Streaming Apps
Let’s have a look at the most common video app – YouTube. WEMAX Nova can play 4K@60 video flawlessly. No external TV box is needed. For Netflix users, you are out of luck. Android TV app version is not working on Nova. TV box or streaming stick is needed here. It is common for all the non-Netflix certified devices.
On the other hand, streaming apps like Disney Plus is working properly. The same applies to Amazon Prime Video.
HDR10 Decoding
Nova supports HDR10 decoding. Enjoy even more vivid colours with high dynamic range on HDR contents. However, it is still limited to 100% Rec.709 colour coverage. Not the Rec. 2020 (BT. 2020) colour space that actual HDR contents require. For example, if you have the same movie in SDR and HDR, playing SDR contents will give you the best experience. No point to ask Nova to do the HDR to SDR mapping. And it might map wrongly sometime. Yes, this applies to most projector with HDR decoding ability. You will need a projector with actual Rec. 2020 coverage in order to enjoy the true HDR experience. Do take note…
Settings
Alright, let’s have a look at the settings. Everything is pretty much straightforward. Take your time to play around with them. And configure the best settings for your taste and needs. In projector section, you can adjust the focus point manually. Followed by 8-point keystone correction adjustment. You can also switch to 4-point. And fine tune it afterwards. Totally up to you. The standard 4 projection modes for different types of mounting. Turn off infrared body sensor if not needed.
Image Calibration
Multiple image modes are there for you and me. Just pick the one that suit you will do. FYI, I am using standard mode for this review. A lot of things can be customized in user mode – brightness, contrast, saturation, sharpness and hue values. The same applies to colour temperature – standard, warm or cold. Lastly, digital noise reduction can be enabled too. This is the brightness mode that I mentioned previously. Highlight mode does increase brightness. Here are the inputs and HDMI CEC support.
Dolby Audio
Here are the settings for sound. Nova supports S/PDIF and HDMI ARC. Yes, 5.1 Dolby Audio is supported. Multiple EQs are there for you. Just pick the one that you prefer. Or customize it to suit your taste.
HDMI Settings
HDMI has the same settings for image and sound like Android TV. Except it does not have child mode. Having monitor and game modes in return. Gamers, be sure to enable game mode for the lowest input lag. And enable HDMI 2.0 for 4K resolution and HDR support.
HDMI Input Lag
For gaming through HDMI port, it is great. Wemax Nova passed the input lag test with ease. 55ms response time on game mode. Not the fastest out there but you won’t notice it on casual games.
Gaming Experience
How about gaming on Android projector itself? It is decent for casual games. Yes, you can use the Bluetooth remote control to play these games. Of course, game controller is supported as well.
For HDMI port, pinball is used to test the projector’s gaming ability. Perfectly smooth on the Nintendo Switch game console. And fast response too. Can’t wait to get a PS5 and enjoy this wonderful 4K display…
Conclusion
Well, that’s all for WEMAX Nova review. Rock solid and performing Laser TV 4K Cinema with Android TV built-in. Perfect for both movie and games. Excellent bargain with discount coupon. Interested? You can get more information on its product page.
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