Samsing SP-P410M Portable LED Projector Review
In an attempt to make the most difficult to remember product codes in existence, Samsung have produced the SP-P410M, the successor to the P400 which ups the ante by including photo, music and video playback capabilities in the projector itself. Simply plug in a USB memory stick, external hard disk, phone in mass storage mode, or whatever you happen to have handy and all the media on it will be available for playback on the P410M projector.
At about £430 the SP-P410M is a very good value portable projector that has extended its reach beyond the boardroom to true home entertainment, photo slide shows and casual video watching. And this is all before you even connect it to a games console or external video source. The built-in media player in the Samsung SP-P410M Projector is more than just a value-added after thought, it’s an excellent addition to such a portable piece of kit and is fully capable of playing back your DVD rips. You can, in fact, rip a sizable chunk of DVDs to a large USB memory stick and carry it, and the projector, easily to a friends house for a bit of movie watching fun. Suffice to say, it’s a huge step over the slightly corporate feeling P400.
The only downside to the SP-P410M is that it takes its self-contained design to an extreme, it utterly lacks audio output meaning that, should you want to watch movies on it without any external source, you will have to put up with the not-particularly-brilliant stereo speakers built into the projector. They’re capable of producing a decent amount of sound as long as the volume in the source material is sufficiently high. Make sure you crank up the audio as part of the ripping process, and all should be fine- unless you’re a hardcore audiophile, in which case the music/video playback capabilities of this projector will never satisfy you.
Anyway, as it’s small enough to handle in frame, I’ve had a crack at running two 720p cameras simultaneously to bring you a half-decent video review. Yes, it’s not brilliant, it’s not perfection, and the sound is a little noisy (thanks in part to the fan in the projector) but it’ll do!