BenQ GS50 500-Lumen Full HD DLP LED Smart Portable Outdoor Projector

I’m a huge fan of this projector. First off the design, at first it might seem unconventional but it’s actually very practical. It’s a simply box but it has everything you need + it’s durable and can take a beating. It comes with a soft carrying case too. I also love how it hides the Android TV stick in a compartment in the back so there’s nothing silly dangling off the unit for no reason. It’s very clever and keeps it extra portable.

Picture quality is also great – it’s not something I would use in daylight though. Outside at night even with a fire it’s great. HDR content looks nice, black levels are solid for a projector and it’s more than bright enough in dark settings.

The built in speakers really surprised me. They sound AMAZING. Great bass and also room – they really fill a space, even outdoors.

Battery life is enough to watch a movie or a few shows which I think is fine. It’s rated about 2.5 hours but I’ve been able to get over 3 hours at lower brightness settings. It has a tripod mount on the bottom so you can set it up pretty much anywhere as well as a little kickstand for table top setups.

Overall this projector has been fantastic – it’s staple product in our family now and we love it for movie night and even just as another “tv” at home.

Ok, so to start. Off this projector is everything you would like if you want something with 1080p quality that also supports 4K. Even in day time with my blinds open nothing much changes. It has some weight to it but to me it keeps it more planted. If you are worried about the fan noise don’t be it’s extremely quite and will be drowned out even more be whatever you are watching.

The audio for this projector is nothing to scoff at. With the option of different audio modes and the built in subwoofer, this projector booms. You have the option to have a audio only mode too to help extend the battery time if you are just playing music.

You can also connect your phone or laptop wirelessly if you so if you don’t have Wi-Fi you can watch videos from your phone.

The only downside is you will need Wi-Fi at first to setup the projector. Other then that I would suggest this projector.

Bought a 120″ screen to use by our firepit since we just redid that area – works great! We are in Ohio so starting to get a little chilly at night but using any warmer nights – watched one of the World Series games out there. I know it says 100″ screen – but 120″ looks pretty awesome so thought wonder how big it can go – decided to use our large barn as a test… other than the metal siding not being smooth (and flash in photo made it not look as colorful as it was – we could definitely have a movie night on the barn – just not as fun as firepit. Great investment for outdoor entertainment. Like others have mentioned would be nice if the remote was backlit. thats about my only gripe!

This is far better than the Nebula Mars II portable projector I had (which failed after less than a year’s worth of operation). The build quality is solid, the sound is loud and full, and the brightness and picture quality are excellent. It’s exactly what I was looking for . . .

Except for ONE glaring error.

I watch a lot of videos via USB stick. When one is using it in a hotel or on travel or at someone else’s house, I’m not looking to hook up to the wifi (with no idea what speed it will be) and watch via a streaming service. I bring videos on USB stick to watch. This plays those videos well, but YOU CAN ONLY FAST FORWARD 10 SECONDS AT A TIME. And you can’t even hold the fast forward button down. You hit the forward button and it skips 10 seconds. So, if you need to stop partway through a movie, you have to be ready to spend a good 10 minutes hitting the fast forward button to get back to where you left off.

It’s a completely unnecessary design choice. I have no idea what they were thinking. I asked customer service if this was something that could be fixed through a firmware patch, but they said, “No, it’s an integral part of the player.”

If it wasn’t for that one really obnoxious flaw, this would be solid gold.

Bought this for camping, and it works really well. Put the projector on a tripod. It comes with a nice carrying case. Set power usage to Normal and brightness to 50%. The video quality isn’t as good as a TV, but I’m not taking an 85 inch TV camping. Pleased with the quality.

This projector is probably the best all around outdoor/portable projector available.

First, it is cute and aesthetically pleasing. While the resolution is 1080p, there are many positive features to take into account.

The projector is made for carrying (and some dropping). It features an adjustable front leg in order to vary the angle. The eye protection feature works as expected.

It also has a battery. I can confirm it will last you at least 2+ hours. We were able to watch the entire Karate Kid movie from 1984 outdoors, in a beautiful wooded setting in the PNW.

And the kids loved it!

One piece of advice is that you purchase a Roku stick. Google/Android TV is … leaves much to be desired. The roku sticks from around 2019 (without the additional wireless dongle) are still available on eBay and fit nicely within the enclosed compartment on the projector.

What else? Oh, the sound is great. Even outside. Even in a very large open area surrounded by thick woods. Even sitting 20+ feet away.

You won’t regret it. I would not waste my time (re-)trying the alternatives.

PS – I am told BenQ also makes excellent indoor projectors. It is my plan to get one sometime in the future.

Received today and first thing to notice was a small white thing on the lens. “Inside” of the glass…. This will affect the image quality. So disappointed by their QC. Definitely unacceptable for a $800 projector.

This projector was great overall: simple to set up, portable, quickly connected to wifi and streaming, the picture quality was nice, the sound quality was decent out of the box, and all while being relatively affordable. However, this projector was not bright enough for use as an outdoor projector in shaded/low light as implied in the description and is really usable only after sunset. Luckily the seller, Premium AV, was responsive and helpful throughout the return process and also got me the product I needed!

Overall a great product, picture quality was great, sound was good for the price point and running time was great. The main issue was that it repeatedly blacked out as if someone was walking in front of it (when no one was anywhere in sight). It was almost as if the projection was too big and it thought that the people on the screen were actual humans. I think you can turn that setting off, it’s almost like a child lock thing where you can either have it black out when someone walks in front of it or not, but nonetheless it wasn’t worth keeping, knowing every few minutes the screen would black out. We ended up returning it. Super bummed.

I bought one of these for my wife this Christmas. She was able to get it pretty much all setup to work with our wifi and her iPhone but really struggled to get Netflix going. I spent about 30min fiddling with it, installing apps, going through menus before finally being able to watch Netflix and mirror her iPhone to the device. If these 2 things are most important to you then you might look elsewhere. We love it though, and it works great mirroring with an Android device.