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Showing posts with the label james.davidson@futurenet.com (James Davidson)

I tested the Dangbei Atom, and it's a bright, smart portable projector that's overshadowed by LG and Samsung

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The Dangbei Atom is a 1080p-resolution portable projector. Priced at $899 / £899 (with prices often falling to $699 / £699), it’s pricier than the Samsung Freestyle Gen 2 and similarly priced to the LG CineBeam Q, two of the best portable projectors available. The Dangbei Atom uses a laser DLP light engine and supports the HDR10 and HLG HDR formats, but only via streaming and not through an HDMI or USB connection, which is a shame for those looking to connect one of the best 4K Blu-ray players . It has auto keystone and auto focus, although its manual keystone adjustment is more effective. It also comes with Google TV built in, providing access to some of the best streaming services such as Netflix and Disney Plus. Connections on the Atom consist of one HDMI 2.0 and one USB port. Picture quality is a mixed bag with the Atom. Its bright image gives more colorful scenes a vivid enough look, contrast is decent and it handles sports motion well. However, given its struggles with black...

Amazon Fire TV Omni Mini-LED TV review: the best Fire TV yet, and a solid option for sports and gaming

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Amazon Fire TV Omni Mini-LED TV review: Two minute review The new Amazon Fire TV Omni Mini-LED enters a seriously competitive mini-LED TV market, taking on Samsung, Hisense, TCL and Roku. It doesn’t stand out in this crowded arena, but it is a solid all-around TV for the price. The Amazon Fire TV Omni Mini-LED’s picture quality is pretty good overall compared to the best TVs . Colors are vibrant, textures and details are lifelike and contrast is well-balanced. Motion handling is good for both sports and movies. Unfortunately, it suffers from crushed black levels in some picture modes, resulting in a loss of shadow detail. Audio quality is a mixed bag on the Omni Mini-LED. Sound is accurately placed with a good sense of direction, speech is clear and there’s generally good bass. While the sound can go beyond the borders of the screen, it feels narrow and contained, especially with Dolby Atmos effects. For those wanting a full home theater experience, I’d recommend one of the best so...

Panasonic Z85A review: a superb OLED TV that delivers on nearly every front

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Panasonic Z85A OLED TV review: Two minute review The Panasonic Z85A OLED TV is one of the entry-level models in Panasonic’s 2024 TV lineup, sitting below the Panasonic Z95A and Z90A. Along with the flagship OLED Panasonic Z95A OLED and W95A mini-LED, it is one of the first Panasonic TVs available in the US in over a decade. The Panasonic Z85A sells for $1,599 / £1,599 and $1,799 / £1,999 for its 55 and 65-inch models, respectively, putting it in the same price range as some of the best OLED TVs such as the LG C4 , Sony Bravia 8 and Philips OLED809 . Panasonic uses a standard W-OLED panel in the Z85A, which features the same HCX AI Pro II Processor found in step-up Panasonic models including the Panasonic Z95A . While its brightness levels are only average and there is some black crush in darker scenes, the picture quality on the Z85A is up there with the best TVs , with rich contrast, vibrant yet natural colors, deep blacks and realistic textures and details. Sound quality on th...

Sony UBP-X700 review: a brilliant budget player that's great for Dolby Vision

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Sony UPB-X700 review: One minute review The Sony UBP-X700 is an affordable 4K Blu-ray player ($199 /£199 / AU$369 at the time of writing six years on from its release) that supports Dolby Vision HDR and Dolby Atmos and DTS:X soundtracks. It also supports a wide range of media, including 3D Blu-ray discs, SACDs, DVDs and CDs and has Wi-Fi for streaming from apps such as Netflix and Prime Video. Performance-wise, the Sony UBP-X700 is an all-around brilliant player. It doesn’t quite manage the jack-of-all-trades excellence of the Panasonic DP-UB820 , but it delivers superb 4K images with punchy color, accurate and refined textures and contrast up there with the best 4K Blu-ray players , especially when fed Dolby Vision discs. Upscaling is generally effective – more on Blu-ray rather than on the lower-resolution DVD format - and while it does enhance certain colors and applies some artificial cleaning to film grain, the UBP-X700 still offers excellent image reproduction, especially comp...