Was this the projector we were waiting for? – Wanbo Mozart1 is my favorite
We finally get great brightness at an affordable price, it's what I've been waiting for!
See the projector in action and listen to its sound. If you liked the video, don't forget to subscribe to my channel!
You know, Wanbo is the end of my heart. Not because they produce flawless, perfect projectors, but because they offer good quality at a good price. It's true, I can always get involved in something, but still there are always more of the good things, and these always bring the conclusion of the tests in a positive direction.
Wanbo has made a big step forward in terms of brightness this year. From the old 200-400 ANSI, the limit of 650 ANSI was first managed to be jumped, and then came the LED projectors with a brightness of 900-1000 ANSI. I would like to note that the level between 650-800 is also very livable, not so much detail is lost in dark scenes, and it does not have to be completely dark in the room when you are projecting.
Wanbo Mozart1, the subject of today's article, got a strange story from me. I was the first in the country to receive it so that I could be the first to see the test in Hungarian when it was announced. Then they forgot to say that the writing should be sharpened. After that, they asked me not to activate it yet, because the Czech warehouse will run out, to wait until it is filled. Then they told me not to activate it in October, because now we have to wait until November with it, and then November passed.
So, four months have passed, the article was already written a long time ago, I sometimes took out the camera during the past months, showed a movie with it, and then put it away again.
However, now December is here, and the test is here, now I don't care, whatever happens here, read on!
If you don't mind, I'll skip the unpacking now, there's no point in it, since there's nothing else in the box apart from the projector, the remote control, and the HDMI cable. The machine is much more interesting than that, because it turned out beautiful!
Anyone who has seen Wanbo projectors will not be surprised by the shape. The older machines also looked similar, the design really suits me (it has so far), although the shape is pleasing to the eye and the materials are a bit fiddly in real life. Especially the glossy surface on the front is a real fingerprint magnet, so don't take it for granted!
I really like that the previous perforated speaker grille has been replaced by this banded solution, which can also be seen in the pictures, the effect is truly unique, almost artistic. The designer deserves a buck for it! The bottom, top, and back of the machine are not particularly interesting, at the back we find the usual connectors in the usual places, that is, there are two USB A, an HDMI and a headphone socket.
More interesting than this is the right (also better) side of the machine (viewed from the front), where we find a rather unusual thing, a large speaker. Well, it's not actually a speaker, that is, it's not an active speaker, it's "just" a membrane that is moved by the air vibrated inside the closed interior by the two 8-watt speakers built into the machine.
In other words, on the left we find a passive subwoofer, which is a very unusual solution for a projector.
What is also worth mentioning about the exterior is that there is no standard thread at the bottom that could be used to screw onto a tripod (I suspect due to the increased, net weight of almost 4 kilos), but there is a fold-out support that can be used to raise the front of the machine.
On the one hand, I'm happy about this, because so far it wouldn't have hurt anything similar to the Wanbo projectors, but on the other hand, I'm sad because I can no longer project from a simple tripod, I need a table or shelf to put the machine on.
I haven't talked about the remote control yet, but it's not really interesting either, we get the usual solution, the same as for the other Wanbos (except the TT), at most the size of the remote control will sometimes be a little smaller or bigger. It's just a little bigger now.
Ok, I already mentioned one important thing from the specification, this special sound system, I suspect that's why the machine was named Mozart1!
However, I didn't mention a lot of other interesting data, so let's go through them now!
Mozart1 is Wanbo's largest projector to date, its external dimensions are 176 x 209 x 223 mm, and its exact weight is 3,5 kilos. In theory, in addition to white, it is also available in dark blue, which I have not seen in any store so far.
The machine, like all Wanbos, has a completely closed projection system. This means that no dust can enter the system, and the lenses do not need to be cleaned from the inside. If it's a lens. All Wanbo projectors are also characterized by using only glass lenses. This is good, because they are not eaten by UV and are not deformed by heat. The Mozart1 uses a 5-element lens system.
Anyway, the projection takes place via an LCD panel, the real, i.e. native, resolution of which is FHD, i.e. 1920 x 1080 pixels, but it also consumes 2K and 4K content. The lighting is LED, according to the manufacturer, it has a lifespan of 20 hours. the luminous flux is 000 ANSI, the contrast ratio is 900:3000. The aspect ratio of the projected image can be 1:4 or 3:16. The projection distance can vary between 9 and 1,5 meters, and the diagonal of the image is between 4 and 55 inches, depending on the distance.
The projection system is called Wanbo PixelPro, which in the case of Mozart1 is PixelPro 5.0. I should note that I probably got involved in the story at 4.0, which was already about 2 years ago, because LCD projection appeared at all at 3.0. The difference between 4.0 and 5.0 is that the former is called Full closed optical machine, while the latter is called Innovative full closed optical machine. In other words, there is almost no change, which no problem, 4.0 was also perfect.
The Android 9 operating system, 2 GB of system memory and 32 GB of storage, Wi-Fi6, Bluetooth 5.0, and the above-mentioned 2 x 8 watt speakers are also worth mentioning among the capabilities.
We quickly covered this, but let's try to understand it, because there is something!
The Wanbo Mozart1 is the manufacturer's current top projector, which is shown by the fact that it already has the latest Wi-Fi, which means that the wireless connection will be even better, even faster, and we should expect less film interruptions.
The closed projection system was a given until now, but the 900 ANSI luminous flux was considered the peak when the machine was released. As I wrote above, the manufacturer gave the package a sonorous name, which became PixelPro 5.0, but the point is not the name, but the quality of the projection, which is flawless.
3 more points of interest at the end. One is that the focus is automatic. The second is that the adjustment of the keystone correction is also automatic, and the third is that there is built-in obstacle avoidance.
The latter should be mentioned, because the first two abilities were already available, e.g. also in the Wanbo TT, but this obstacle is completely new. So, what we are talking about here is that if there is an obstacle in the way of the projection that casts a shadow on the image, or there is an object hanging on the wall, then the projector will try to change the size of the image in such a way that the interfering object is out of the image. Sounds good!
Well, let's see what it's like to use the Wanbo Mozart1!
In short, it's very good, but it's not perfect, and there's only one reason for this imperfection, and that's the software.
For some strange reason, Wanbo puts a modified Android 9 on its machines. This means that these machines do not have a Widevine L1 certificate, that is
certified, so materials sent in FHD resolution on streaming platforms can only be viewed in SD resolution. And this, in my opinion, is a big mistake.
I didn't hesitate, I talked to the manufacturer about the reason for this. They also said that it was because they had to decide which hand to bite. Either Android TV and Widevine L1 support or Android 9 and full Android store support. The latter can be a value, because we can install relatively few applications on Android TV from Android Play, while in the case of Android 9, basically everything.
I tried to explain to them, supported by arguments, that I don't think this is a good direction, since it's a projector, where it would be much more important to show movies in good quality than to be able to install anything from the store. I don't know if the message got through, and who am I anyway, just a penultimate tester, a tiny cog from a tiny country. But just in case, hope dies last, as they say.
I feel this is a problem, but you may not, because Wanbo may be right, not me, and there are more people who value full Play Store compatibility more than Widevine L1 compatibility. In other words, this is not really a mistake, or at most it is, according to my own subjective judgment.
Well, apart from that, almost everything is perfect. Almost.
The automatic focus is good, but somehow it's only about 98 percent, if I wanted to set it very precisely, I had to adjust it manually afterwards. This was better in the case of the TT, I don't understand why, maybe a software update will solve it.
The automatic trapezoid is good if you don't want to project the image from a very sharp angle, because if you do, the system will go haywire. I'm not saying that this is a huge mistake, for my part I always felt this service was completely unnecessary, I always manually adjust the corners of the picture to the canvas. So, within certain limits it works fine.
The third is obstacle avoidance, which doesn't really do anything for me. I note that this is again a skill that I, personally, have no need for. Anyway, I project it to a place where there is nothing on the wall (already when I project it on the wall).
The mistakes are over here, now the good things can come, because the Wanbo Mozart1 turned out to be a pretty good projector! The first Wanbo that, in my opinion, can replace a TV. At least if the room is dark enough. Of course, it's best if you darken it completely, but with this projector, you can watch movies with a cheap screen and only half-darkened, if we can't solve it any other way. In 2024, I would definitely like to buy a more expensive screen myself, because the newer projectors, like the Mozart1, deserve to spend a little more on that as well.
With this projector, it's no longer a problem if the movie takes place in space or on the lower deck of a ship. Understand that the dark details will no longer disappear! Due to the technology, the sharpness of the image is not pin-sharp across the entire surface, but this is really not Mozart1's or Wanbo's fault. With LCD projectors, if you do not project from the center, one part of the image will always be a little more blurry, while other parts will be sharper.
However, in the case of the Wanbo Mozart1, even this technical error is not noticeable, maybe because of the higher brightness or the better LCD, I don't know.
So, the projected image is colorful and smells close to perfect. However, what doesn't just touch perfection is the sound! Mozart1 lived up to its name. During the movies, we get the performance of a smaller soundbar thanks to the 2 8-watt radiators and the subwoofer. In other words, even if you don't have an external sound system, you will enjoy enjoyable, cinema-like sound. But I'll go on, the device even works for listening to music, I watched a concert film on it, it was really good too!
Regarding the sound, it is also important to mention that in the case of many projectors, we can refer to the fact that the cooling is not that loud, the sound of the movies can drown it out. Well, the Wanbo Mozart1 doesn't need such an excuse, the sound of the cooling is really quiet. It's also rustling, it doesn't change its tone, it doesn't bark, the volume goes up and down, so you can barely hear it even when the movie hasn't even started. When the action starts, the subwoofer absolutely takes over the room!
In other words, in summary, in terms of projection quality and sound, the Mozart1 has truly become a perfect projector. I would risk that the quality of the image, even though LCD only rivals the quality of some DLP projectors, only the stuff costs less than those. Just that crappy software…
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Well, what should be the conclusion then?
Maybe it's that Wanbo is still close to my heart. And the Wanbo Mozart1, although again not perfect, is a huge step towards perfection. I think the hardware is already powerful enough to run an Android TV on it, so I feel like we really just need to get the Widevine L1, and if that's the case, I'll buy that machine and it'll be mine my home projector. Until I win the lottery and buy a laser projector.
Do I need to write anything else? Maybe not, I feel like I've covered the point. And this is the point: if you want a truly frank projector, on which you might also want to download Android games, if it is important to get the right brightness and a very good sound, then you will love the Mozart1, go ahead and buy it!
As usual, the price remained at the end. I received a very (VERY) good coupon for this item. This belongs to the newly published EU version, which is delivered from a Czech warehouse and if ordered today, they promise to arrive on December 19th, so it can still arrive under the Christmas tree! To purchase a BGDB095 use a coupon code, the price will be HUF 138 instead of HUF 530 by clicking on the link below:
