ASUS ZenBeam Latte L1 Portable LED Projector – Exclusive Review

ASUS latest innovative portable projector is the ZenBeam Latte L1 Portable LED Projector which recently preview on CES 2021. It has a cute name and features 300 lumens 720p native resolution with 10W Harmon Kardon speakers. It’s a coffee mug shaped projector unlike any other projector seen on the market.

Unboxing

 

Nice matte box with latte stencils

Some features listed on the back and I found 1 capsule inside that housed the projector

Let’s take it out and explore what’s inside

Nice and firmly packed inside this cardboard circular box

The projector is already packed inside the pouch inside the box

Unwrapping the carrying pouch which has a unique zip line which cuts across the circular pouch.

Very nice and sleek fabric material which has tailored-like feel. Feels like those premium speakers

At the left side we have the focus wheel which has a nice tactile feel and responsive to adjust

On the back we find the IR sensor for the remote control to function and at the rear bottom we find the I/O ports such as the 3.5mm audio port, Full size HDMI, 1 USB A (5V/1A) and power port

Grill design on the right for the fan to disperse heat

Top buttons consist of Power, Menu, Bluetooth, Home, Back, Up/Down, Left(Volume Down), Right(Volume Up)

On the bottom there’s the tripod hole and some rubber non-slip material to keep the projector steady on the table

A tiny kick stand to tilt the projector upwards

Here’s the rest of the accessories, A 12V 3A 36W charger, HDMI cable, 2 AAA batteries, remote control and a cool Clip for the pouch

ASUS ZenBeam Latte strap

Rear photo of the strap

Here’s the IR remote control which is easy to use and button layout is intuitive similar to most android based clicker

Changing battery is quite easy, just slide down to remove the rear cover and insert 2 AAA batteries.

 

Full Dimension (WxHxD): 131 x 90 x 90 mm
Box Dimension (WxHxD): 296 x 109 x 147 mm
Net Weight: 585g

Technology

The Zenbeam Latte L1 is using LED bulb which has a brightness of 300 lumen and has a lifespan of 30000 hours. The Native resolution is 1280 x 720 HD but can support up to FullHD 1920 x 1080 . The contrast is only 400:1 .

The audio is powered by 2 x 5W speakers which are by Harmon Kardon. ASUS has partnered which Harmon Kardon since 2016 for their range of devices and which allows this projector to utilise the technology.

Powering the portable projector is 6000 mAh battery and charging time is about 3 hours.

At about 25% battery life there will be a warning and it will set to eco mode to conserve the battery life.

It would be better if this projector uses a USB C charging input then it will be truly portable as we can utilize another portable charger to keep it going for more than 3 hours

The remote control is using IR and since the IR sensor is only located at the back of the projector you have to seat behind it to control which is kind of limiting.

Hardware

The projector is running on Snapdragon 439 with 1860 MB of RAM

 

Some benchmark scores

Software

The Zenbeam Latte L1 runs on android 9 and I have recently updated the firmware to V2.02

 

Menu

Pressing on the menu brings up settings for Picture which you can choose one of the Splendid modes, Brightness, Colour Temp & Wall Colour

On Display menu you can select the Projection Position, Vertical Keystone, Auto Keystone and Auto Input Source

On General settings there’s AudioWizard, Mute, Volume

OSD Timeout, Auto Power On, Power Timeout, Language, About

Reset All and System Update

Clicking on About you will go into the android system settings and here you can see it’s based on Android 9 version and the Andriod security patch level is October 5 2019.

I was able to click on the System Update and downloaded Version 2.2

Usage

To get a 40inch screen size we need to set the projector at about 1 meter away and so far this is the sweet spot for this latte projector. ASUS gave the range from 0.8 meters to 3.2 meters to get 30inch to 120inch. Let’s give it a test.

There’s a focus wheel on the side to adjust the focus and it’s quite responsive and I’m able to focus with ease.
To make sure the projection is aligned we can use the  auto keystone and auto aspect ratio.

One feature is the ability to choose the wall colour, there’s 4 colours to choose. So far I have only tested on my white walls and it’ works great.

If you’re thinking of mounting the projector upside down there’s an option to select the projector placement, but it’s a portable projector and I guess you can temporary mount it.

Like a TV there’s a few mode to change for the colour quality. Presentation mode, Standard mode, Theatre mode and ECO mode.

 

Image Quality

Image is vibrant and 300 lumens is good enough for dark rooms

Sound Quality

Audio Technology: Harman Kardon
Audio Technology: SonicMaster

Pairing mode with ZenBeam Latte

The project can run up to 12 hours as bluetooth speaker as it will turn the bulb off and works like a portable speaker

ASUS comes with 3 modes with their AudioWizard software. Which offers Movie, Music and Game pre-set modes to ensure optimized audio for different scenarios.

Movie mode enhances vocals and overall audio for an authentic theatre-like experience.

Music mode enhances bass and provides a wider audio range for different music genres.

Game mode delivers more immersive in-game sound and vocals to improve gaming experiences.

The speakers are powerful for the tiny size and is comparable to those portable Bluetooth speakers with strong bass.
Take note about vibrations if you’re mounting it on a tripod as it’s pretty strong.

Wireless

Wireless Specs based on Snapdragon 439

Wi-Fi Standards: 802.11ac Wave 2, 802.11a/b/g, 802.11n

Wi-Fi Spectral Bands: 2.4GHz, 5GHz

Peak Speed: 433 Mbps

Channel Utilization: 20/40/80 MHz

MIMO Configuration: 1×1 (1-stream)

Peak QAM: 256 QAM

Wi-Fi Features: MU-MIMO, Integrated baseband

Wireless Cast

ZenBeam Latte kinda supports cast as the only app I found that works with cast is YouTube.

I’ve tried casting from Disney+ and Netflix but it doesn’t load at all.

 

Wireless Mirroring

ZenBeam Latte supports wireless mirroring, letting you effortlessly stream content from your smartphone, tablet or other mobile devices for high-definition entertainment.

Testing Disney+ App with wireless mirroring

Video does not display but only audio and menu items

Testing on Netflix App

Same results as Disney+, Video does not display but only audio and menu items

Testing Youtube

Youtube works fine and able to do full mirroring

Testing local video file

 

Works great and colours are vivid and matching

No problems playing games but it’s only 720P

Another way to play YouTube without mirroring is using the Share button while pairing with the ZenBeam Latte

I would consider buying a Xiaomi TV Stick instead of using the “cast” provided to get the full experience of Android TV.

Wired

HDMI connected to my Macbook Pro let’s compare the colour and quality in a dark room

Test Gaming on HDMI

 

 

Aptoide TV app

There’s Aptoide TV app pre-loaded into this projector and it is able to install some apps like Android TV but the collection of apps are limited and it’s not the same as Google Play Store. If this could be Android TV Certified it would be a better experience.

Disney+ app doesn’t work but Netflix and YouTube works fine.

Final Thoughts

ASUS ZenBeam Latte is a unique award winning projector that comes with 720p resolution with 300 lumens, it can project up to 120″ and with a 3 hour video playback hours on battery. This could be very useful during a small social event outdoors or even camping at home projecting onto your ceiling.