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Watching videos on your iPhone is fun, but can be hard on your eyes after a hard days work. Similarly, watching films when youre tucked up in bed can be tiring on your arms, and painful if you fall asleep with your iPhone. Thankfully, the Go Baby Mobile iPhone Projector aims to solve these problems and make viewing the videos on your iPhone easy (it’s compatible with iPhone 4 or iPhone 4S, but not iPhone 5.
Possibly inspired by the Samsung Galaxy Beam, its a digital light processing (DLP) projector, which means its the same type of projection technology used in regular projectors. It has an LED lamp, which means itll last a long time and you dont have to worry about installing replacement lamps. This is a good thing, because the projector is a sealed unit.
Your iPhone slides on to a 30-pin connector at the base of the projector, and its a snug fit. Even though the sides of the projector have only the slightest of lips it manages to keep hold of the iPhone, and no matter how much you shake the projector the iPhone, it wont slip out.
Indeed, the projector is very well designed for use and portability. The two units become a cohesive whole when locked together, looking as if its one object instead of two. The few controls are within easy reach when the projectors in your hand, and the rubbery texture of the projector means it doesnt want to slip through your fingers at the slightest opportunity.
The portable design extends to the power switch, too. Its hidden within a recess at the base of the projector and must be moved to the right and held in position for around four seconds to switch it on. This means its extremely difficult for the projector to switch on accidentally in your overnight or work bag.
As its a portable unit, the projectors charged via micro USB, and a cable is included. This means you can easily charge it from a laptop or PC, but a mains adaptor would be a lot more convenient. Once charged, a neat feature of the projector is the ability to charge your iPhone as well as power itself, making it a handy tool even when you dont want to view movies.
As for image quality, the projector has a maximum resolution of 640×380, so you wont be able to watch any high-definition content. Youre limited in viewing material, too. Of the major catch-up TV apps, only ITV Player projected images; BBC iPlayer, Sky Go and 4oD didnt. Strangely, we couldnt view videos with the official YouTube app but we could project them when we used the YouTube website.
We had no problem viewing videos wed purchased through the iTunes or shot with the iPhones camera. We watched Paul Calfs Video Diaries and an episode of Flight of the Conchords, and after adjusting the focus the image looked suitably sharp. The colours were very well reproduced, too. The projector only has 12 Lumens of brightness, but we could make out details and colours, even in a lit room. This is impressive from a petite and mobile device. In a dark room the image quality looked better than that of our ageing LCD TV. Purchased video played smoothly, but video in the Camera Roll moved jerkily, so much so that it wasnt pleasant to watch.
Although you get a focus wheel and volume controls, you dont get a keystone control to create a square image when the units projecting at an angle. You dont get a means of angling it, either. This is irritating if youre in a hotel room or bedroom where youre short on mounting points. This means you may have to prop it up using books, toiletries and whatever else you have available and suffer the keystoning effect.
Go Baby Mobile says you can project up to 60ins, and you can certainly get away with sizes approaching that in a dark room and still get decent, watchable image quality.
Sound is played through the projectors built-in 2W speaker. This isnt too bad because it does have a little more bass than the iPhones speaker, but when the projectors connected you cant use the iPhones 3.5mm headphone jack. This means you cant route audio to a set of active speakers, for instance.
At £130, the Go Baby Mobile iPhone 4 DLP Projector seems expensive, but its a high-quality and well-designed device thats a great accompaniment on business trips and holidays. Wed like to see a keystone control and some kind and an adjustable stand, but we like the projector even without them. Closer integration with catch-up TV services would be good, too, as would a higher resolution.
If you have a large collection of standard definition videos on your iPhone and travel a lot or want to view it at 60ins, this is the projector for you.
