There are a ton of top tier 1080P projectors on the market, including some heavy-hitters like Epson, Sony, and Panasonic that can cost up to $1,000 or more. But do you need to spend that much money to get a top tier 1080P experience with all the bells and whistles? We took the Vankyo V610 1080P Projector with 6800Lux for a spin and found that it offered a very comparable experience to the higher priced name brands, at an accessible $220 cost.
Vankyo V630 Pros:
- Great, bright, crispy 1080P display at 25′
- Relatively low cost ($220)
- Lots of ports: 2xHDMI, SD, VGA, 2xUSB, AV in, aux/headphones out
- Good speakers, remote
- Helpful buttons
Cons:
- Fan noise (abate)/ heat
- Build quality is on par for sub-$300
- OS/Menus design dated
Vankyo certainly isn’t a household name so you’d be forgiven for not knowing of it. They’ve been focused on mid-tier projectors mostly and have a variety of options from portables to the high-end V630 that we’re looking at today.
The V630 is a little powerhouse that you can either take around in its portable bag or mount using its mounting kit to a ceiling. It is about the size of an unabridged dictionary (4.3 x 12.4 x 9.3 inches) and weighs about 8lbs. so portable but not something you’d throw in a pocket or purse. Even a backpack is a tight squeeze.
Vankyo V630 setup:
It takes about 5 minutes from unboxing to watching videos so nothing complicated. It comes in a marked Vankyo box packed well. Inside you have most of the cables you will need including Power cable, and HDMI as well as an old school AUX-RCA jacks cable. If you want to hook up your iPhone or Android phone or tablet directly you’ll need Lightning or USB-C to HDMI adapters which are fairly inexpensive. While it has a VGA adapter, it doesn’t come with that cable and for most people, it will never get used.
To set it up, simply plug in the power cable and plug in the HDMI to whatever you want to use. I think most people will plug in a Chromecast/Fire/AppleTV and there are 2 USB power ports to make that a little easier.
There is only a 1-foot adjustment screw at the bottom and 4 rubber feet so getting the height perfect is hit or miss. From there, you just hit the power button and it finds HDMI and throws your picture on the wall. From there you’ll want to adjust the focus and the keystone and you are watching anything you can put through an HDMI cable.
Vankyo V630 picture quality
Picture quality is a subjective matter and it is important to remember this is a sub $300 projector here. While it is amazing for the price and is super bright, it isn’t going to be fantastic latency-wise for gamers or color adjustment-wise for AV geeks. Again, this blows away anything I’ve ever used including our older $1000 InFocus projector by a long shot. But I know picture quality and latency can get better.
That said, we had a quick family movie night within 5 minutes of the box arriving and the kids hooked up the Nintendo Switch themselves later on for some very satisfying huge screen gaming.
Sound quality is solid and probably equivalent to a good $50 Bluetooth speaker. It is quite easy to hook up a much better sound system through the headphone jacks.
Slide shows and presentations
Our friends had a Sweet 16 party and we lent them the Vankyo. They simply uploaded their slideshow to a USB stick and navigated right to the show which played well right off the USB stick even at 1080P. SD cards and microSD cards with an adapter work just as well.
I didn’t try out VGA because I don’t have any of those cables still laying around but I’m sure it works fine and would be great for business presentations where this is still used frequently. For those who present with HDMI, you will do fine.
Downsides:
Overall I’m super satisfied but I’d like to highlight some things that might be disappointing. The biggest issue for me was the fan which is noticeable at first but fades away as you get into your movie or games. The menus and buttons are a little old school but are fairly easy to navigate and have al the options you’ll expect. The refresh rate isn’t up for hardcore gaming but is fine for casual gaming and of course movie watching.
Vankyo V630 Conclusion
I can fully recommend this projector at its very inexpensive price point. It has a ton of inputs, better than average sound quality, and a picture quality that you’d normally expect to find on projectors double and triple the cost. For this price, you can throw one in the kid’s bedroom, out on the porch, in the basement, or just have ready for summer movie nights. A huge 25-foot screen projector turns a normal evening into a special event.
You can find this at Vankyo for $220 after on-screen coupon or at Amazon for $250
VANKYO Performance V630 specs:
- VANKYO Performance V630 is equipped with native 1920×1080 resolution, 5000:1 contrast ratio and 50,000 Hours lamp life. Revolutionary 6800 LUX video projector meets all audio-visual satisfactions for office PowerPoint Presentation or home entertainment.
- Features a huge projection screen, Performance V630 movie projector provides a screen size of 46”-300” with projection distance varies from 5.15ft-30.18ft. Exceptional home cinema projector conveys the truest color and impart the deepest feelings upon the viewer.
- Performance V630 LED projector utilizes advanced electronic keystone correction technology, which creates a possibility for you to automatically adjust the keystone correction of 45°. Innovative cooling system with heat dispersion and a powerful noise-reducing technology cut 80％fan noise.
- Equipped with 2*HDMI, AV, VGA, USB, SD Card and Audio Out Ports, Performance V630 video projector enables to flexibly connect to various devices like TV Stick, X-BOX, PS4, PC, Laptop, USB sticks, SD cards, Android or IOS devices, etc.
- VANKYO provides 3-month free return for full refund and 3-year free repair, long life professional customer service and technical support. Please feel free to contact with VANKYO Support Team if you have any question.
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