Samsung’s Freestyle projector started a bit of a trend among portable models that made it easy to adjust the vertical placement of your projected images, even allowing people to easily beam whatever they’re watching onto the ceiling. It’s a neat feature that’s proven to be a big hit among consumers. The Aurzen Zip just might be the most portable implementation of this projector design.
Designed for highly portable function, the device folds up to a compact 3.3 x 3.1 x 1 inches (width x depth x thickness), making it small enough to comfortably fit in most pockets for conveniently taking anywhere you want. Even better is the portable projector’s folding form factor, which makes it easy to aim the lens across a variety of angles on the vertical plane without the need for a large and bulky stand.
The Aurzen Zip takes on a tri-fold design that, essentially, creates a Z-shape when deployed. This allows it to lock its position at a variety of angles, making it easy to aim the main projector lens at the topmost section anywhere you want. Want to beam your images to the lower part of the wall? This can do it. How about the upper part of the wall, above your TV? That will work, too. Want to beam it on the ceiling? It can do that, as well, all while taking on a very compact and very intuitive design.
It’s equipped with an 9mm HD optical engine and a tiny DLP microchip, which combine to produce 720p images with a brightness of 100 ANSI lumens and a contrast ratio of 300:1. Yes, those don’t sound like earth-shattering numbers, but they’re pretty standard for devices in the portable projector category. Sadly, there’s no word on what is the maximum screen size this can produce, but we’d probably stick to 50 inches or less, given that it’s only 720p.
The Aurzen Zip comes with a ToF sensor for automatically putting its projected images in focus, as well as vertical keystone correction to ensure seamless viewing. There’s no onboard TV software, by the way, with the projector relying solely on screen mirroring for all its content, with support for doing it on iOS, Android, Windows, and MacOS devices. You can even turn the device on its side for viewing videos in portrait orientation, so you can use it to watch your endless feed of Tiktok, Instagram, and YouTube Shorts content.
The projector comes with a 5,000 mAh battery rated for just 1.5 hours of viewing between charges, so you’re going to have to bring along a power bank to ensure you can even finish most movies on this thing. Other features include dual 1W speakers and a 1.09:1 throw ratio. If you want to extend the device’s functionality, they do offer a number of accessories, such as a CastPlay wireless dongle (which connects to the HDMI slot) on video sources, a MagPlay mount (for snapping it onto ferromagnetic surfaces), and PowerPlay charging stand, which combines a 10,000 mAh battery and a mounting stand.
A Kickstarter campaign is currently running for the Aurzen Zip. You can reserve a unit for pledges starting at $249.
