This cheap, plucky projector is one of the biggest surprises of the year

If you have a casual glance through the mountain of projectors on the market right now, you might be put off by the number of models that break into the thousands when it comes to cost.

That explains why we have seen a rise in affordable projectors in the past few years to bring the big-screen experience to more people.

One of the most recent additions to this growing arena is the Wanbo Vali 1 – a 1080p coffee table projector that will cost you an eye-poppingly reasonable £270 / $279 / AU$499. Consider that its image size can go up to 180 inches, and that's a lot of screen for your money.

Few models in our test room have come close to this price. The Xgimi MoGo 4, which launched at £509 / $499 / AU$1399, is the next most affordable projector we have recently tested. It currently holds the title as the best model for portability in our best portable projectors guide.

It comes with Android TV built-in, so you can access a range of streaming services such as Disney+, Netflix and Amazon Prime Video.

We must admit that we didn’t have the highest hopes for the Wanbo's picture quality at this price. But this plucky upstart managed to deliver an impressive four-star performance.

Why did it perform so well? Let’s take a closer look.

Balanced, natural picture performance

To achieve the best image performance, we set the picture settings to the Warm pre-set and reduce sharpness from 50 to 30 to avoid the default over-sharpened look.

That done, the Wanbo Vali 1 gives us a balanced, pleasant overall image that is a delight, especially considering its low price.

We say in our review, when watching Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes on Disney+: “As our ape protagonists swing through the green undergrowth and out into the open trees, the projector portrays a surprisingly balanced image that neither jumps out as overly vibrant nor dull.”

On top of that, the Wanbo performs very well with motion handling. It portrays movement with a natural smoothness and very little judder, which is a rarity at this price point – even more expensive projectors frequently struggle in this area.

We also find that, after reducing the sharpness levels, the Vali 1 can deliver a “pleasingly clean and composed image that makes for easy viewing without overly sharp edges.” For less than £300 / $500 / AU$1400, that's more than we were hoping for.

Practical design

The Wanbo also has a practical design that makes it easier to take your movie experience on the go, although it's worth noting that there is no built-in battery so you will need to rely on an external power source.

Attached to the white plastic body is a handy stand that sits fairly nicely on our coffee table.

You can also tilt the body up to 200 degrees, so the image can be projected onto a screen, ceiling or the wall (we strongly recommend investing in a screen to get the best picture quality from the hardware).

While it's not as stylish as the more lifestyle-centred Epson EF-72, the Wanbo Vali 1 stands strong as a practical model that should blend in seamlessly to your viewing experience.

But far from perfection

Despite all of these positives, the Wanbo 1 is not the perfect projector. In terms of picture performance, the model plays it safe with the darkness of the image by not attempting to portray black extremes.

This becomes particularly obvious during scenes that should have more dark detail; you cannot make out much beyond a vague greyness, and finer aspects are overlooked.

The projector's sound performance doesn’t blow us away, either. The two 6W speakers struggle to push the sound very far and it sounds somewhat locked to the body of the projector as a result.

At this price, though, these kinds of compromises should be expected. This is a projector that nails what it wanted to achieve by offering a 180-inch screen experience with a surprisingly cinematic image.

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Here's our review of the Wanbo Vali 1

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