AKIYO O7 WiFi Bluetooth 1080p Projector Review

AKIYO O7 WiFi Bluetooth 1080p Projector Review

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Currently priced at £159.99 with an Amazon discount offered taking the price down to just £90 at the time of writing, this has to be judged as a budget projector, but with similarly specced rivals costing much more.
The image quality and specifications are pretty much par for the course at this price range but this new projector from AKIYO does offer some features not usually found at this price point.

Inside the box aside from the projector itself was a full sized remote control, a decent quality metal mini tripod, a power cable with a UK plug, an AV Cable, an HDMI cable, an A/V cable adapter, a lens cleaning kit and a well printed and easy to read English language User Guide.

Build quality is first rate, the plastic casing of the compact-sized projector feels well made and robust. Nothing feels flimsy or about to fall off or break. The power cable is heavy duty with a standard UK plug. The User Guide is large, simple and well written and tells you all you need to know. The infrared remote control is full-sized with proper physical clicky buttons rather than the credit card sized soft-touch remotes too often supplied. The main control buttons can also be found on the top of the projector itself. It has all the usual ports and connections: HDMI, 2 USB, audio out, and AV, allowing pretty much any sort of device to be connected to it including external speakers, Amazon Firesticks, Roku Boxes, hard drives and data sticks.

As regards specifications, this projector offers native 1080p resolution with 4K downscaling, a contrast ratio of an impressive 12000:1, brightness of 200 ANSI Lumens, with a best image size of 120 inches over a projection distance of just under 3m with manual keystone and focusing correction. The image can be zoomed from 75 - 100% directly from the remote control, a high end feature often missing at this price point. It offers Screen Mirroring to wirelessly stream from Apple and Android phones and directly from an iOS device using a lightning Cable. I was pleased to see that Bluetooth 5.2 has been used to give a faster and more stable connection and the unit features high speed 5G dual-band Wi-Fi.

To operate you can use the supplied remote control, or the button set found on top of the projector itself. I use it with an Amazon Firestick connected to the HDMI port but external drives and memory sticks can be connected via USB. The USB port can also be used to power HDMI connected source devices such as the Firestick, so it is good that two USB ports are included. When a Firestick or similar device is connected the remote control for that can be used for navigation, audio and general controls. The Projector can also connect to your home Wi-Fi network to allow wireless streaming from iOS, Android and other devices on the network. Take note that streaming is done over Wifi only, not Bluetooth.

I found it gave a good, bright, well-saturated image at the optimum recommended throw distance of 2.8m with effective and easy keystone correction when used in a darkened room. The image quality is clear and sharp without fringing and it holds focus well. There are multiple options available in the settings panel to change image quality, colour saturation and contrast. Audio quality was good from the rear facing stereo speakers and reasonably loud for the size but for use outside or in large rooms an external speaker may be needed which can be connected to the AV port or streamed over Bluetooth. The internal fan is far from silent but much less annoying than most others I have tried.

The budget range price gets you some high-end features but if you are after a projector for professional use then keep on looking. The light output is fine for home use but works best in a darkened or semi-darkened room. The colours are good but less saturated and with slightly less shadow and highlight detail than you would find on a pro-level projector. The native 1080p resolution will be enough for all HD and below image sources and although 4K sources will play they will be downscaled in resolution.

Those in search of a good quality entry-level short throw projector with decent image quality and with support for all the basic functions may find what they need here. For new home theatre owners with a small to medium sized projection room, this would be very well suited. If you want an autofocus unit with perfect colour fidelity for professional use in an undarkened room and with a huge image then this one is not for you and expect to pay very much more to find it.

This is a good quality device with excellent image quality and above average resolution for the price. It is priced far below high end professional projectors but it is by no means a budget device as regards its capabilities. It punches a good deal above its weight with build quality and design that makes it a great buy at a very affordable price.

The Good
Compact Size
Good Image Quality
Good Build Quality
5G Dual Band Wifi
Bluetooth 5.2
Remote Zoom
Full Size Remote Control
1080p Native Resolution
4K Downscaling
Tripod Included
Lightning Cable Support
Low Noise
Wifi Screen Mirroring

The Bad
No Batteries Included
Manual Keystone Correction
No Autofocus

Music: YouTube Audio Library: John Deley and t