Samsung The Freestyle 2nd Gen

One of last year's exciting AV surprises was the Samsung Freestyle, a well-equipped portable projector with attractive features and excellent image quality. During our testing, we were impressed with the bright, clear, and colorful images, earning us a solid four-star rating.

Now, unsurprisingly, there is a sequel: The Freestyle 2nd Gen. And if we continue with Theme 2, it also has some new surprises up its sleeve. The projector was on display at the Samsung booth at this year's IFA consumer electronics show, so we headed there to check out the new device's arrival.

Price

The Samsung Freestyle 2nd Gen is available to pre-order now in the UK and US, priced at £899/$800. These are cheaper than the original, which will cost £999/$900 initially, so given the number of slightly improved functionality feels like you're getting better value for money, at least on paper. Deliveries will start on 22nd September in the UK and 11th September in the US.

project

If you're familiar with the original Freestyle, you know a lot about what the second generation has to offer. It looks very similar due to its compact build, cylindrical body, and platform-like base that help it stand out from the competition. Again, the main body can be rotated 180 degrees for easy flexibility and positioning.

Samsung offers an optional carrying case (£59 / AU$60) that you can take with you for protection, and you can choose from three different weather resistant skins (Forest Green, Coyote Beige and Floral Rose £29 / AU$50). Continuous. water and dust.

Main features

The specifications are almost identical to those of the second generation Freestyle. The resolution is 1920 x 1080 and it supports HDR10+ and HLG. It uses an LED light source with a lifespan of 30,000 hours and a maximum brightness of 230 ANSI lumens. The original's built-in speaker with 360-degree audio is back, as is Samsung's impressive Auto Keystone feature.

Again, physical connectivity is limited by micro-HDMI, but this projector's simplicity and portability are its unique selling points. With modern built-in features, new gaming capabilities, and a focus on portability, there's no need to search or connect to multiple sources.

This port also supports HDMI ARC if you want to hook up an external soundbar and connect your speakers wirelessly via Bluetooth.

To keep things simple and familiar, the second-generation Freestyle comes with Samsung's Tizen operating system, which is available on TVs. As such, there are plenty of streaming services to choose from, including Netflix, Prime Video, and Design+, all accessible via dedicated hotkeys on the remote.

By the way, it comes bundled with the company's SolarCell Smart Remote, which has a solar panel on the back that, as you guessed it, allows the remote to be fully charged and eliminates the need for rechargeable batteries.

The first big thing about the Freestyle 2nd Gen is in the game itself, and since it doesn't have access to Samsung's Gaming Hub, you can play Xbox games with an Xbox Games Pass subscription. All you need is an Xbox controller.

During our time with Freestyle at the IFA booth, we caught a glimpse of Team Sonic Racing and were impressed with how stable the connection was and how there was no significant lag between the Xbox controller and the in-game action. canvas

The second innovation is of course the second generation of Freestyle headlights. While a single device can create an image up to 100 inches in size, by combining both devices with Samsung's intelligent Edge Blending technology, you can create an image up to 160 inches in size. We're not sure why you'd want to use two projectors in the same house, but we've seen it in action and the results are pretty good.

Cowardly

We've seen the projector design in a variety of use cases, from inside an RV to an outdoor movie night under the stars.

However, a bright exhibition hall in all its glory will never be the best environment for criticism, especially for contrast and brightness. But we've seen a few different clips and first impressions have been very promising.

As well as using the Sonic games, we saw a slow-motion music video that features serpentine, frenetic sequences and a more natural on-screen color palette.

The image appears to have good detail, with sufficiently rich colors, good resolution, and good detail on faces and clothing. One of the points we criticized about the original was the 'sub-black levels', but it's impossible to convey that feeling in the show's setting.

anticipated verdict

Of course we'll need to get hold of a suitable test rig to see if the black levels are enhanced or close to the original image quality, albeit at slightly less cost.

However, that might not be such a bad thing considering how much fun we had with the debut. While this isn't the cheapest portable projector on the market, it looks like an attractive solution for movie buffs and casual gamers alike.

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