If you’ve been curious about trying an affordable home projector, the new Yaber Projector T2 Plus offers a compact and portable way to transform any room into a 120″ smart TV experience. While it comes with its quirks, its typical price tag of $299 or less, makes it a compelling home addition.
The projector delivers 1080p resolution, is battery-powered, and includes a Google TV dongle, offering versatility and ease of use. Features like keystone correction allow you to project at various angles while maintaining perfect proportions.
Design
The Yaber Projector T2 Plus has a refined and clean aesthetic. Its rectangle shape makes it easy to set anywhere and still look good. It’s only about the size of two stacked-up square tissue boxes. There’s a large swiveling handle that can also prop the projector up at an angle.
Ports and Connectivity
There are no surprises when it comes to inputs and outputs. There’s a single HDMI port, which you’ll likely use for the Google TV dongle that’s included with the Plus model. There’s an audio out port, but it also features Bluetooth 5 for audio out. The unit has WiFi and Ethernet which seems mostly useful for over-the-air updates since the Google TV dongle also comes with its own WiFi and Bluetooth.
On the bottom of the unit is a hole for a tripod mount, which comes in handy if you don’t have an ideal place to set the Yaber down.
Speaker
The speaker quality is very reasonable for the size and price. It’s light on bass but sounds clear enough and gets very loud. We’d equate the speaker to one you’d find on a good $50 portable Bluetooth speaker. The speaker is powered by JBL, which makes sense given the quality. The speaker pairs well with the screen quality in that it’s perfectly suitable for the size, portability, and price.
One strange quirk that can be solved with a firmware upgrade is that the unit and Google TV have separate volume controls, and they’re both adjusted at the same time by the remote.
Screen Quality
The most notable and obvious shortcoming is the T2’s brightness or lack thereof. In a room with natural light, the screen is viewable but washed out. It’s dimmer than any real TV. The closer the projector is to the wall, the better it will look.
If you have the projector aimed at the wall at a large angle, like 45 degrees, then you’ll notice the brightness is softer on the far side. The brightness is fine for casual viewing, but if you’re serious about quality or watch dark shows (like Game of Thrones) then you won’t be so happy. The brightness is a little buggy, it often defaults back to 60% despite my constantly setting it to 100%. You’ll always want 100% brightness, even in a dark room.
The 1080p quality didn’t bother us one bit. The detail is actually crisp, and the quality is good even when viewing on any imperfect white wall.
Battery
The built-in battery lasts for about 2.5 hours of video playback and can do 18 hours of audio only. We couldn’t find a battery meter or indicator when using Google TV, so it’s hard to tell when the juice will run out. It’s powered by, and charges, with a standard 2-prong power cord. It would be even better if it could charge with USB-C, but at least it’s a universal cable you may have lying around.
Usability
The most frustrating quirk with the T2 Plus is the auto-keystone. This feature automatically aligns the screen on the wall to be in perfect proportions when the projector isn’t exactly straight and level.
If the projector hits the wall at anything more than a slight angle, you’ll get an error that the “keystone angle is too large”. I initially thought that meant the projector couldn’t handle angles, until I realized you can configure the keystone perspective manually.
With a manual keystone, the projector does well with all kinds of angles. That said, it takes a couple of minutes to get right, and you can’t adjust the keystone while the HDMI (or Google TV) is in use. Thankfully, the autofocus always worked well.
Around my house, I’m usually using the projector at an angle that’s not supported by the auto-keystone. For this reason, I tend not to move it much. It’s been great on my gym wall where it would be hard and expensive to hang a TV, especially one that’s 86″. Since it hits the wall at an angle, I can stand in front of the screen without blocking the projector.
The projector software is pretty basic, similar to TVs before Smart TVs existed. The included Google TV dongle gives it full smart TV functionality with all the apps and features you could want. The Google TV dongle is a bit slow with responsiveness, but it otherwise works well and opens the device up to a nearly unlimited amount of content.
Fortunately, you can easily replace the Google TV dongle with an alternative solution from Roku or a Fire TV stick. Ultimately, we’d like to see Yaber include Google TV or a similar smart TV alternative as a built-in option for future models.
The projector takes about 40 seconds to boot up and load Google TV. It takes about 1 minute and 20 seconds from the time I turn on the projector until a YouTube video starts playing. Unlike some projectors, it’s very quiet. You can hear a fan running, but it’s not much louder than a computer fan.
Final Thoughts
The Yaber Projector T2 Plus is a pretty little projector that easily blesses a room with a huge new smart TV. It’s the perfect size to deliver reasonable video and audio quality and even bring it on the go. Aside from some bugs and quirks, the main kicker is the brightness. It’s dimmer than you’re used to from a TV, but it’s not such an issue for casual viewing. Ultimately, this isn’t a projector that is meant to replace a traditional TV, but it’s an excellent addition to rooms where a large TV isn’t so feasible.
The Yaber Projector T2 Plus has been fantastic to use in my gym and for the kids in the playroom, where I wouldn’t want to risk damaging a big-screen TV. It’s great to have when you don’t want a TV to be a permanent fixture, and it performs well on any white wall.
There are already discounts available on the Yaber Projector T2 Plus. The Yaber T2 Plus projector is currently on discount for just $269 on Amazon. Even with some of its shortcomings, this is a very reasonable price for what it offers.