Vivitek Qumi Q6 portable projector review: when size doesn’t matter..

We’ve got a special guest here: the Qumi Q6 ultra-portable DLP projector from the company

Vivitek

. Can you believe that the full functionality can fit into such a compact body. The mini-Device’s main profession is to assist in business and study. But in other life situations, when you always, everywhere and at once need a projector it will come in handy, like a piano in the bushes..

Let’s get to know it a little better.

The Vivitek Qumi Q6 ultra-portable DLP projector

Main Features

The projector uses LED technology,

The light source is LED,

Brightness 800 ANSI Lm,

Nearly 30,000 hours of continuous operation,

30,000:1 contrast,

Resolution – 720p,

Working from external flash drives and via built-in flash memory,

Wi-Fi connectivity for Android and iOS devices,

MHL port for mobile devices, control the projector from a smartphone or tablet,

HDMI port,

Built-in media player with support for various video, audio, image and electronic document formats,

Work with MS Office and Adobe PDF documents,

Split-screen display with up to 4 external sources simultaneously requires EzCast Pro app ,

Full 3D support,

Built-in 2W speaker,

Audio outputs for external audio systems,

Touch sensitive control buttons on the body with backlight,

Dimensions: 165x102x34mm,

Weight 475 grams.

Package Contents

When I saw the sealed box I was surprised by its small size. The box shows all the color variety offered by the manufacturer. Gray, red, blue – take your pick. A total of eight colors. Icons of the main functions contained in the projector are shown on the box itself. Clear and informative.

For scale they put a ballpoint pen on the box. At first glance, the projector looks more like a tablet.

In the box itself, the equipment, as it turned out, occupies only half of the volume. The size of the device is only 165x102x34 mm, but the weight is less than 500 grams. This device can be easily hidden in a jacket pocket.

We got the projector in orange version for the test. Positive, considering the February gray of everyday life.

The manufacturer is quite generous with all kinds of accessories. In addition to the projector and remote control in the package there is an external power supply, HDMI cable, MHL cable for connecting smartphones and carrying case.

By the way, the case is made cleverly: it is twice as big as the device itself, has soft walls with velcro, so the device does not Dollars its sides against other objects. In addition to the projector you can put a power supply and, for example, a mouse, hard drive, cables or anything else you need for your presentation.

I personally lacked such a small thing as a lens cap – even though it’s recessed into the frame, but, you know, dust tends to settle on decent optics too.

Ergonomics and connectors

The projector body is brick-like, sturdy and light orange in our case , so it’s easy to carry with you everywhere you go and every day.

In the end, bottom and side nearest to the lens parts there are ventilation holes covered by a rather fine mesh: on the one hand, good cooling from all sides, and on the other hand, the excessive dirt will not get inside.

The silver color of the bezel is rough so the projector will not slip inadvertently out of your hands and the matte finish will not smudge with fingerprints. The top and bottom of the case are orange or something else in color, smooth to the touch, like enamel, but quite scratch-resistant.

There’s a focus ring next to the lens. It rotates enough rigidly so that it cannot be accidentally knocked over when moving the projector. At the same time it complicates the focus positioning a little bit, as the lens will “slow down”..

The touch controls are on the top of the case, and there are two LEDs glowing blue. Sensors work well, so the remote with you always need not carry.

All the connectors for connections are centered on the rear end.

They are represented by the audio output type mini jack, USB connector for flash drives, optical audio jack, two HDMI connectors, one of which supports MHL, and connector for power supply unit. That’s all you need.

On the bottom there is a 1/4″ jack for attaching the projector to the tripod.

The feet are made of soft material that firmly glues the projector to the table. Considering the light weight of the projector, this is an important factor because even the weight of the power supply unit can “knock” the projector off the table…

The remote control is tiny, but very functional. There aren’t any superfluous buttons on it, but the remote allows you to control almost all of the projector’s functions. In addition, there are controls for audio, input, as well as a button to temporarily turn off the image. Backlight buttons does not provide the remote.

control menu

Basically the projector has two menus. The first is the built-in operating system menu, which turns on when the projector doesn’t detect a connected notebook, tablet, or smartphone. The firmware menu offers only three items:

1. Wi Fi connection to external device.
2. Connecting to a computer.
3. Work with internal and external memory.

The projector can be connected via cable or Wi Fi – directly or via router to almost any device: from PC to smartphone, but with preinstalled EZCast.

This program allows you to access the Internet via the browser built into the mobile device, view multimedia and office files, as well as display the image on the screen from a connected gadget. Thanks to the EZCast app, you no longer need to lug around a massive laptop bag full of wires, mouse, charger… It is enough to have a smartphone, and not very cool and a cable MHL.

Speed of the operating system is enough to work with office files and pictures. There are no problems with the playback of video clips as well. It is easy to send the necessary commands from the remote control.

The main menu opens when the projector is connected to the source. All menu items are divided into three blocks.

First tab. In the Picture item you can select any of the display modes: Movie, Presentation, Bright, RGB, Game, TV and two for the individual setting – Personal and Personal1. And we can also adjust the brightness and contrast on the screen and “fail” in the dop. Settings, which prompts you to adjust the sharpness, gamma, and color temperature.

Gamma settings are quite varied, from 1.8 to 2.4 in increments of 0.2, gamut is available for black and white images, as well as a linear gamut.

The choice of color temperature is presented by three variants, concrete values are not specified, but it is not necessary to think much, choosing between “warm”, “cold” and “neutral”..

Another item – Color Manager, available only in one of the modes – Personal 1, which, unlike the modes with the factory default setting can be adjusted specifically for your favorite. Using the Color Manager you can equalize RGB channels, which is a handy maneuver in case of color rendition errors in the signal source.

Second tab. Here you can control the signal source, projection, aspect ratio, keystone and digital zoom.

There are also sound control submenu and two more items of additional settings with standard options: language selection, color of blank screen, welcome screen, projector access lock, disable control buttons on the body and keystone correction.

Advanced submenu. Settings 2 opens a test table and controls image shift on all four sides.

Third tab. Here too opens the standard set of features: auto shutdown, auto start, LED modes, factory reset and other two optional. settings that control menu position and transparency, power saving and cooling, and also the sleep timer, source filter and white balance calibration.

I was interested to find the 3D function in the menu. For surround movies, of course

I’ll have to buy some active DLP-Link compatible glasses. The 3D viewing experience is smooth. You can watch, but you should take into account that 3D takes away about half of 2D resolution and noticeably dims brightness. Although the Cheshire cat, butterflies and monster invade directly into the room quite naturally and to the right extent.

In general, the menu does not cause a hitch, there are not many items, you get to the autopilot with the remote control on the second or third time. But I would – let them teach me! – I would interchange some points: white balance calibration should be closer to gamma and color temperature settings, sleep timer – to sleep timer, and source filter should be closer to input signal settings.

Obviously, a pocket projector is designed to travel continuously. For his quick adjustment and adaptation to the new place of work it would be convenient to have a “hot menu”: test grid, correction of keystone, image shift and, perhaps, gamma. Now these items are scattered in different tabs, and sometimes tucked into cryptic “extra. settings.”.

Test drive

There is a proposal to test-drive the projector to entrust the real lecturer, who periodically performs in various auditoriums. Some of them have everything for ten thousand bucks! : and a projector under the ceiling, and springs on a lacquered table… But more often than not, the classroom is only equipped with a huge whiteboard, chalk, and a set of rags. I could bring my laptop, but a suitcase full of desktop projectors, no way!

So the Qumi Q6 is a real relief. I downloaded charts and theses to internal memory, what did not fit in – poured on a flash drive, and courageously go to sow the reasonable, good, eternal – in the most modern level!

By the way, you don’t have to carry the screen with you either, because the small Qumi Q6 lets you adjust your lecture to almost any wall – white, of course, but also blue, yellow, pink – as long as it’s solid-colored. White Balance Calibration” function is responsible for “friendship with the wall. And the high brightness of the projector even in natural light clearly displays charts and graphs on the wall surface, so that the students easily write everything down in their notebooks…

Especially with this apparatus from my pocket, I liked this trick: I elegantly displayed with the projector three comparison charts in different windows. It’s better to show once than to gesticulate for hours..

Cool option: as a Wi Fi multistalker, this device can simultaneously connect to multiple sources. In my case, there were three: a file from my hard drive, a file from my flash drive, and a page from the Internet that connected via my smartphone. You can also hook a tablet as a fourth source..

I got it. Very comfortable projector for a lecturer.

However, what lectures can compare to a vacation slideshow – to the envy of your best friend? You can easily show your photos on the big screen with your phone or USB flash drive. You flip through the touch screen with your manicured fingers and tanned faces flash across the white background: me with my husband, me without my husband..

I think kids will find the Qumi Q6 to be much more useful than adults. Of course, after the presentation from the vacation, the new toy will be on the screen directly from my mom’s smartphone. This is also a fascinating spectacle: especially the Formula 1 races, which are easy to control – by tilting the phone screen… And where did the child manage to get hold of it??

Now it’s movie time. The built-in player is absolutely omnivorous, because it reads all the formats I know: AVI, MKV, TS, DAT, VOB, MPG, MPEG, MOV, MP4, WMV… Almost certainly any file will open.

True, I’m not sure if you should always run a full-length movie from the built-in player – in camping conditions there is no other choice, but at home it’s better to connect to a stationary source.

I give this recommendation, because this pocket projector can show you a good movie. Of course, to experience the fullness of built-in speakers for a couple of watts is better to replace the external speakers – they can be connected via mini Jack.

And the picture won’t be a nuisance. In any movie, the “Ch” scene is with dynamic episodes. They made a movie about Hobbits, technically very, very tricky. I meticulously scrutinized every frame – no plumes, no residual effects. The picture plays smoothly, without jerks.

The fantasy film is stuffed with computer graphics, replete with crowd scenes, tiny details, the image illumination can change diagonally from night to day, being covered by a shroud of blur or glow…

Now, that crazy sense of the unreal, as conceived by the director, sent goosebumps running down your spine… Thanks, I suppose, to the accurate gamma calibration, which allowed to see and feel everything. In this white haze, which is in the right corner of the photo with the lord, there is a lot of detail, although the contrast of this area of the image is clearly limp.

The details in the light and dark parts of the image are not compromised – nothing is whitened or blown out. So you can immerse yourself in any movie, with any dark and sinister scenes at your pleasure.

A visual test

To be honest, I don’t really trust LED sources, but Qumi Q6 does the job surprisingly well. The image about 1.5 meters across was quite bright, even with the lights on.

The lens does not have any problem with it, but I would still note some cushion-like distortion, manifested in the sag of the edges of the picture towards the center. However, for the majority of users it will be almost unnoticeable. But I was very pleased with the absence of chromatic aberrations in the lens – colored fringes on the border of contracted objects.

For the visual evaluation of color rendering I used the default “Film” mode.

The picture of the sea cove you see in the picture is designed to outline the color gamut. Surprisingly the coverage was better than I expected. The spots with the relic grave pines which, by the way, don’t grow anywhere else in America where the rays fall, were even richer than I had imagined when I processed this photograph on the calibrated monitor.

The projector has a good color gamut. Colors look quite bright, natural and, what is important for the projector, natural.

Since one half of the image is in the shade and the other half is in the sun, you can evaluate the smoothness of the transitions, as well as details in the light and dark areas of the image. Everything is quite even, no dips are observed. As for details, they are there, although not so pronounced, I think it all comes down to the relatively low contrast of the projector. Thanks to this, the halftones are closer together, and therefore the details are not as pronounced.

The details in the bright areas of the image are not burnt out, this is a definite plus and a clear win for the engineers, taking into account the class of the device.

To evaluate the color temperature we chose another image. Its peculiarity is that some of the rocks are neutral in color, most are a little warm, but there are also bluish areas. If the color temperature is shifted to any side, all this variety is ruined.

You could say that in general the color temperature is normal, with a slight skew toward the cooler tones. No extraneous colors were seen.

Since evaluating color temperature is the easiest operation, especially on an image where you know exactly what it should be, I flipped through the other modes of the projector.

Most of them gravitate toward cool tones. Warm tones are only in Vivid mode, but it has gamma problems, since the transitions of halftones are different from the ideal. And sRGB mode, which was pinned high hopes on, is bluish-lilac with extraneous colors.

On the whole, the projector makes a very good impression. Color rendering, naturalness of the image were surprisingly on a very, very decent level for a handheld device. So I have an interesting question: how good is this level?? It would be nice to measure it as well.

For those users who are ready to dive into the clear world of charts, graphs and tables we have a measurement test of the Qumi Q6 projector.