preface

From the appearance of early projectors to the current various intelligent projectors, they have gradually spread from commercial applications to civilian use. With more and more brands, smaller and smaller sizes, more and more functions, and more and more acceptable prices, products below 1000 yuan should not be purchased, and there is no guarantee of display effect or service life.

So another form of projection products began to appear, that is, projection TV or screen less TV. In fact, it is a combination product of projection+set-top box. This is like using the set-top box+projection game at ordinary times. The screen is larger, and you will choose to add a speaker, so the listening effect will be better.

In the current market of projection television, PIQS Shenhua Xiaomei is somewhat different. It is an intelligent micro investment product launched by Shenhua Technology (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd. in June 2016. First, it is too small. It is indeed a micro investment. It is slightly larger than the iPhone 6s, and is close to the size and thickness of my daughter-in-law's bar wallet. Although the product is targeted at college students, this portable feature undoubtedly brings convenience to travel and business trip.

In addition to the small size, there is also a main function of "God Painted Little Beauty", namely AR function, which supports AR experience, that is, human-computer virtual interaction experience.

hardware configuration

At present, the combination of 1G memory and 8G storage is very common in the configuration of set-top boxes, and even 8G storage is much more practical than some domestic smart TVs using 4G storage products. The Cortex A5 quad core CPU with the Mali450 MP6 design has little problem with multitask processing. It has little problem with 4K and 2K videos, but the decoding support needs to be verified.

Shenhua Xiaomei uses RGB LED light source and DLP display technology. The brightness is 300 lumens, which is not very high. It is necessary to close the curtains in the daytime. The dynamic contrast reaches 1000:1. This parameter can only be experienced in the actual view. It is not that the larger the value is, the better. It can be used as a reference but not be manipulated by the number. After all, the situation of false marks is still common in the projection market.

Products

advantage

1. Exquisite workmanship, excellent material design, small size and portability

2. Mainstream common hardware configuration, Cortex A5 quad core CPU+Mali 450 MP6 design, with 1G RAM+8G storage, to meet daily use needs

3. Adopt German OSRAM light source, with uniform brightness and long service life

4. Rich interfaces, supporting HDMI2.0 and TF card, which can be used as a display for trial

5. It supports Airplay and Miracast wireless projection, AC dual band, and built-in Bluetooth 4.1

6. Built in 5700mAh rechargeable lithium battery, which can last for one hour (can be played through mobile power supply)

7. Support AR function experience and 3D video playback

8. Wonderpen has a new operation experience and supports virtual touch function

9. A set of simple support is included for use

Focus

1. The lumen is 300 and the brightness is average, but it has become the mainstream in intelligent projection products with the same price and volume

2. TF card supports up to 32G

3. HDMI is used as the output of the display. Some computers or set-top boxes can recognize but cannot display content normally. According to the feedback of the manufacturer, an agreement has been reached with the licensor, and the above problems do not exist in the future

4. Mobile hard disks above 500G cannot be recognized normally due to insufficient power supply, and need to be matched with USB HUB with independent power supply

Product Introduction

PIQS Shenhua Xiaomei is relatively complete in terms of accessories. In addition to the necessary power adapter, Micro USB power cable, Shenbi (Bluetooth gravity sensor remote control) and a host computer, it also provides an HDMI video cable, a host storage bag and a special bracket for matching Shenhua Xiaomei.

The storage bag is made of smooth silk, but the material is thick, so it will not scratch the body of Xiaomei. The inside and outside work is very fine, and there is no problem of thread ends or loose stitches. HDMI and USB wires are thicker, which is much better than the wires provided with some set-top boxes, ensuring the stability of data and charging transmission.

The bracket is divided into two parts. It is not made of plastic material, but of alloy material with a slight weight. It is easy to assemble. Insert and adjust the angle of the movable part. The base is designed in the style of integrated aluminum alloy architecture, and the surface of the bracket is anodized and sandblasted, making it more beautiful

Come to have a comprehensive understanding of God Painted Xiaomei. The body of Xiaomei adopts champagne gold color, and the upper shell adopts nano UV panel and optical coating process, which makes it easy to associate with the 2.5D glass design used by some mobile phones at present, which is used to prevent scratches, fingerprints, stains, etc., but the heat dissipation performance will be affected. Only the middle frame is made of aluminum magnesium alloy, which keeps the weight of the body at about 235g. In addition, Xiaomei also has a 5700mAh rechargeable lithium battery.

The front adopts a dual lens design, which can realize fast auto focus. On the left side is a projection lens with German OSRAM light source. The surface has been coated with ten high-precision optical glass lenses to ensure the uniformity of brightness and the authenticity of color. However, no lens cover is designed to make people feel less protected when using it, so we hope that the lens cover can be added to subsequent products. The lens on the right is an interactive lens. From the actual experience, the interaction includes AR and remote control control. In short, the main lens is responsible for projecting the picture, and the sub lens is responsible for monitoring the picture, with the function of auto focusing.

As for the design of the filter screen in the middle, although it does not look beautiful, it is very important and is one of the cooling outlets of the fuselage.

Shenhua Xiaomei has two air outlets in total. In addition to the air inlet in the middle of the front face, there is also an air outlet on the right side, which can form a set of dual channels for heat dissipation to ensure the continuous operation of the equipment without burning.

The main interfaces of Shenhua Xiaomei are concentrated on the left, including an HDMI interface, a TF card interface, a USB2.0 interface, and a 5V DC interface. The small round hole on the side is not a reset hole, but a power indicator. TF card only supports 32G at most, not 128G; The USB interface supports up to 1TB external storage devices. Unfortunately, it is not USB 3.0, which will have some impact when playing large movies. The design of the power supply and charging switch is somewhat strange. It adopts a push-pull design. Push left for three seconds to start the machine. When the machine is started, push left or right for three seconds to shut it down; As for this charging state, when you turn it on, you can play while charging. When you turn it off, you can quickly charge. This is necessary for 5700mAh batteries.

The rear of the fuselage is designed as a loudspeaker, a signal source receiver and a 3.5mm headphone jack. This kind of design is mainly aimed at situations such as bed and sofa when the support is used daily, and the equipment will be placed in front of the user. So if you often lie in bed and look at the ceiling like me, it may be inconvenient to plug in headphones. The speaker is a high fidelity independent speaker from the BMW audio brand, so the sound quality is worth looking forward to.

The bottom is also made of alloy material, which is beautiful but easy to be scratched. Why not use nano UV panel as the front. There are only five silicone anti-skid pads with small area at the bottom, but there is no problem with anti-skid. The round hole at the bottom near the center is used for fixing with the support, and some self timer bars can also be used together.

The remote control is of good workmanship, all of which are made of nano UV panel material. It also has a built-in rechargeable lithium battery, and the bottom of the charging port is designed. The transmitter on the top has a large area, simple key design, and the number is close to the common set-top box keys. Why are the power keys and volume keys on the left and right? This is not a mobile phone. It is not convenient to operate with one hand. It is recommended to design it directly on the front.

Product experience

Auto focus effect and picture size, magic pen experience, audio and video experience, VR experience, and performance experience are divided into several aspects.

Auto focus effect

The auto focus function is available, but not the trapezoidal correction function. Focusing can really be completed in 2 seconds, but it is related to the projection picture, that is, the focal length. It can be normally completed in 2 seconds within 0.8M-1.8M through actual measurement, which is also a common projection distance. The focusing effect is clear, and manual adjustment is not required. If it exceeds 1.8M, there is auto focusing due to the increase of the picture, but the definition is not good. The device will focus automatically whenever the projection distance and angle are changed. As shown in the figure below, the time of screenshot display will be longer than 2 seconds due to the delay between seeing the font disappear and manual screenshot and success.

The relationship between the screen size and the projection distance is as follows, which can be adjusted according to your own use environment. It is estimated that the ceiling is about 70-75 inches when you lie in bed.

System and Introduction

Shenhua Xiaomei adopts the PIQS UI2.0 system based on Android 4.4.2. The UI and interface adopt the common flat design instead of the common waterfall style. The classification is clear and clear, bringing users a more convenient interface manipulation experience.

In terms of content resources, Youku and CIBN dual platforms are used to ensure video resources, and multiple TV broadcast channels (currently 33) are built in, so you don't need to pay too much attention to video resources. Hot TV dramas and entertainment programs are being updated simultaneously, such as "Green Cloud Annals", "Fantastic City", and "China's New Song". Most of the films can be watched for free, but there will be ads at the beginning of the film with different times. Because it is in cooperation with Youku and CIBN, the paid movie purchase is also conducted through Youku. If you are a member of Youku, you can log in directly.

Shenhua Xiaomei supports the wireless projection function, Miracast and Airplay. The connection mode is relatively convenient. Samsung, ASUS, iPhone and other mobile phones can be conveniently connected directly. Airplay does not need to open an application like Miracast. You can directly select "Le Tou" connection from the mobile phone. Because if you enter "Apple on the same screen", you need to install Lebo projection APP and push through mobile APP.

In addition, Xiaomei can also be used as a monitor to connect laptops, desktops, TV boxes and other devices through the HDMI interface, eliminating the need for televisions and monitors, and also obtaining larger images. The HDMI interface is currently a bit of a problem because of licensing. Some desktops and laptops can be connected successfully, but the projected image will be displayed in black, and no output image can be seen.

For example, your ZOTAC OI320 can be connected to Xiaomei through HDMI, but it can't display the picture through HDMI. It is black. The old notebook ASUS F8va can be projected normally. However, the manufacturer feedback that an agreement has been reached with the licensor, and the above problems do not exist in the future.

The real question is whether you can install APK directly? No, after all, the APK file in the external storage device will not be displayed because some bureau has requirements and is also under supervision, but this has nothing to do with the manufacturer and the product. You only need to manually download third-party file management files from your own application market to install them.

However, this is a common practice of lazy people. If you don't want to install third-party software, you can directly enter the system settings to open the test mode in the way that the mobile phone opens the development mode, and then you can see the APK normally. That is, enter the settings and select about the projection TV, then select the version number and click on the version number for more than 5 consecutive times to start the developer mode. In "Developer Mode", check "USB Debugging" and "Test Mode", and you can see the installation files in the USB flash drive.

Video playback and document display effect

Because Xiaomei's lumens are only 300, it is necessary to have a dark environment if you want to get a more realistic picture. The indoor effect is best when it is completely dark. The direct way to test the display effect of the screen is to scan the two-dimensional code in the projection picture with a mobile phone. With good clarity adjustment, the iPhone 6s, Samsung S5 and mobile phone QQ can identify the two-dimensional code in three seconds and correctly analyze it.

Let's see the picture taking effect when the video is playing. But if you turn on a small desk lamp, the display effect will be disturbed and the color will fade. So if you want to get a better visual effect, watch it in the small dark room. The following figure shows the actual samples and video screenshots taken under the default settings. The camera is in D3300 manual mode, and the picture has not been revised. However, it is difficult to restore the effect shown without revising the picture. Xiaomei's actual display effect is not as bright as the original video, but its color saturation is higher, whether it is grass, blue sky, flowers or clothes.

Pictures are more direct in comparison, but we see more videos, and the display effect of video images is more important. Xiaomei is smooth and natural in switching the brightness and darkness of the film and changing the scene, and there is no problem of dragging. Although the brightness is not as good as that of the original video, there is not too much loss in detail display to affect the appearance. But the premise is your movie source. After all, it is impossible for you to see the effect of HD and HD with 480P movies.

The sound quality is not too disappointing, although the 1W speaker is used, the volume is not low, and the sound around a radius of 60cm will feel brighter. There is no sharp or unclear sound in the sound quality, which will not affect the feeling of watching the film.

For teaching or office, the projection display effect of documents is acceptable. Whether it is Pdf or Word, Excel, PPT and other documents, the display effect is relatively clear. So it can be used for teaching or meeting. (The picture is Gif)

Magic Brush Experience

In fact, Magic Brush is a supporting remote control, which supports the gravity sensing function and virtual touch control. This is why we haven't seen which direction keys of the traditional remote control. It can be said that it is a great innovation. After all, the experience it brings is quite different.

Since it is a pen, it should be able to move around at will. In fact, it is true. First of all, the cursor, namely the small hand in the figure below, can be moved by shaking the magic pen, which eliminates the trouble of the traditional remote controller pressing the direction key frequently to move the cursor. The sensitivity is relatively high, and the cursor movement is slightly delayed but not obvious, In addition, press and hold the OK key together with the left and right gestures to switch pages, similar to the left mouse button function.

An important application scenario of this kind of simulation of touch and click is games, especially those with touch screens, such as Ski Adventures, which can directly simulate the operation of clicking on the screen to play games.

What can the gravity sensing function of magic pen be used for? It is easy to use when playing fruit cutting, racing and shooting games.

Video playback and external memory card support

From the perspective of video format detection, the situation is not optimistic. Although there is no unsupported format, there are seven incompletely supported formats, including the MP4 and MKV formats that they often download, which means that the movie can not be played.

This problem does exist in local video playback. Many MKV and MP4 movies cannot be played normally, either with sound on the black screen or without sound on the screen. So you need a third-party player to install and use.

On the external memory card, there is no problem with the USB stick and TF card. They can plug and play, and there is no problem of picking the card and USB stick. However, due to the insufficient power supply of the USB interface, the large capacity mobile hard disk cannot be recognized by Xiaomei normally. For example, the 1TB WD hard disk can be used together with the USB HUB with independent power supply, so Xiaomei can recognize the device normally.

AR effect experience

In terms of AR experience, Shenhua Xiaomei uses image recognition, 3D reconstruction, automatic 3D mapping and other technologies to identify objects in front of the camera in real time through dual cameras, and then map preset content to objects through CPU processing to display AR effects. But at present, only the palm can be experienced, and other objects cannot be scanned and recognized. (Picture is GiF)

However, this AR experience is somewhat different from the AR you've played with, such as AR cards and small mirrors. Because you can't further interact, it's less fun. I hope that more interactive content can be built in later, and more objects can be identified to increase the fun of use.

Bluetooth connection is stable

The Bluetooth version is relatively high. BT4.1 is used. There is no problem with the connection of Bluetooth speakers, Bluetooth handles, Bluetooth headsets and other devices. However, in order to ensure the smoothness of the system, do not connect too many Bluetooth devices at the same time.

To explain why I am keen on Bluetooth compatibility testing, because I have encountered problems with some products where Bluetooth cannot be connected normally and can be connected successfully but cannot be used, which are more or less related to the software and hardware of the products. If your commonly used device cannot be used normally, it will be a little smoldering. Therefore, it is necessary to verify whether it is Bluetooth 4.1, 4.0 or 3.0.

performance testing

As for performance, I want to emphasize that the score is only a reference. It is more meaningful to compare with other similar products under the same hardware configuration. For example, the 18533 points obtained by Anthare below may be a fraction compared with high-end flagship mobile phones, but what is the ranking in TV boxes and smart TVs? You can refer to your box or TV score for comparison. But a real situation also exists, that is, high performance and low experience. The score is really high, but the user experience is poor.

The score of 3DMark has reached 2151, but I want to say that the CPU can keep running at full load in the test, without any fluctuation, which is somewhat surprising. (Gif here)

Power consumption and noise

Here, the power of Xiaomei in use is intercepted through the Maoha smart socket. Figure 1 shows the real-time power after power on, below 12W; When starting to play online video, it rises to 12W, and fluctuates up and down within 12W; When the 1TB hard disk is connected to play local video, it rises to 13W. Not very big in terms of power.

For noise, the noise during operation is not too loud. At a height of 25cm above the front air outlet, the sound is about 20dB in standby, about 50dB near the air outlet, and about 60dB when playing local video. The 60dB measurement is conducted after the headset is connected. (Gif here)

Experience summary

No matter you like to think of Shenhua Xiaomei as a projection TV or a combination device of set-top box and projector, Shenhua Xiaomei's innovation is not only compact in size, but also breaks the design of traditional remote control. The remote control, that is, the magic pen, does not have the design of direction keys. Instead, it shakes the magic pen to move the cursor, making it easier and faster to move, The design of virtual touch screen makes it possible to play touch screen games on projection. The functions of VR virtual reality are worth experiencing, but the functions and playing methods need to be further improved.

It is a fact that the Shenhua Xiaomei AR projection TV has no advantage in brightness and resolution compared with the projection equipment of several thousand yuan. However, similar products at similar prices are more comparable. Compared with other similar 1000 yuan intelligent projection televisions on the market, the performance price ratio of Shenhua Xiaomei AR projection televisions is outstanding in terms of appearance design, function and display effect.

As a portable intelligent micro projection TV or no screen TV, it is limited by its size. The hardware configuration of Shenhua Xiaomei is medium, and 300 lumens is not high, but its overall performance can meet the needs of drama chasing, office meetings, teaching and other aspects. At the same time, it is the beautiful, fashionable and compact volume design that makes Shenhua Xiaomei extremely portable and won't occupy too much space. With the built-in 5700mAh lithium battery and MicroUSB charging interface, it can be matched with mobile power to meet the entertainment use of short trips.

Original by lordwish

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