Cinemood is the little projector that couldn’t quite
Enlarge (credit: Jim Salter)
Cinemood is a $300 ultra-portable, lithium-ion-powered projector in a lightweight (8oz) form factor roughly the size of a Rubik's Cube. It's an Android device with no video input that projects from factory pre-loaded videos or onboard streaming apps like Netflix or YouTube at 640x360-and it's not a short-throw projector, either. In our testing, Cinemood needed a 12-foot throw distance to display a rather washed-out image about the size of a 65-inch TV set.
In order to avoid burying the lede, you might as well know up front, we do not recommend this device at this price-but we do have some good alternatives for you at the end of the review if you're in the market for a relatively cheap and portable projector.
This is not a large device. My 14-inch laptop, pictured, absolutely dwarfs the Cinemood box, let alone Cinemood itself. [credit: Jim Salter ]
Before we get into the real review, let's talk a little inside baseball. A couple of months ago, a vendor I'd never heard of pitched me on reviewing Vava-a high-end, 4K resolution, ultra-short-throw home theater projector with a $2,500 price tag. This projector claimed to provide a 150-inch display from only a few inches' distance, a Harmon-Kardon sound system, and more. I said sure, sounds fun.
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