Formovie Theater Premium UST projector review

We’ve reviewed several ultra-short-throw (UST) projectors over the years, but the Formovie Theater Premium is the fanciest of them all. For those unfamiliar with the brand, Formovie is a joint venture between Xiaomi and Appotronics - a leader in the laser display business.

Theater Premium is the direct successor to 2022’s Formovie Theater and, as such, brings two key additions: higher brightness output at up to 2,200 lumens and improved audio powered by its second-generation Bowers & Wilkins speakers. Formovie also claims the new projector has 25% better clarity than its predecessor.

Formovie Theater Premium specs at a glance:

• Dimensions: 550 x 349.2 x 107.5mm, 9.8kg.
• Optical parameters: ALDP 4.0 RGB+ triple laser (Advanced Laser Phosphor Display) UST (ultra short throw) DLP projector; 4K (UHD) optical resolution (Pixel Shifting); 3000:1 contrast ratio.
• Projection parameters: 2,200 ISO lumens (advertised); 80~150-inch screen diagonal; 0.21:1 throw ratio; 0.47" DMD display chip; 107% BT.2020 color space; 60 Hz.
• Optical adjustment:Automatic software electric focus; Omnidirectional manual keystone correction (8-point correction) or 4-point keystone correction.
• Audio: Two full-range 15W Bowers & Wilkins Hi-Fi speakers; Audio output via 3.5mm jack (stereo) and multichannel ARC over HDMI and optical S/PDIF; Dolby Audio, DTS/X and DTS-HD audio decoding.
• Internals: MediaTek MT9629 (4xCortex-A55 @ 1.5 GHz); Mali-G52 2EE MC1 GPU ; 2GB of RAM; 32GB storage.
• Hardware video decoder: Up to 4K video with 10bit color depth support; AV1, AVS2, HEVC, VP9, H.264, SHVC 4K60@10bit; HDR (Dolby Vision, HDR10, HDR10+ and HLG decoding); Widevine L1 (HD and greater streaming);
• I/O: Internal power supply with AC 110-240V support; 2xUSB 2.0 Type-A; 3xHDMI 2.1 (full-sized with eARC support on 1 port); 1x3.5mm stereo audio output jack; S/PDIF optical multi-channel audio output; 1xRG45 Lan port; Far-field microphone setup for voice assistant.
• Wireless connectivity: Dual-band Wi-Fi 6; Bluetooth 5.0.
• Software: Google TV with Google services; Built-in Chromecast support and Google voice assistant.
• Other features: Far-field voice control; Remote control in box; Wireless projection support (Chromecast); MEMC; Speckle elimination; Automatic low latency mode for gaming.

Are the nicer speakers, bump up in brightness and clarity worthy of the higher asking price? We’ve summed up our findings in the following lines.

Hardware and unboxing

If you’re new to the UST projector scene, these types of devices can be positioned up close to a projection surface and generally beam content at an upward angle to a wall or pre-installed monitor. That’s different from traditional projectors, which usually have a 2:1 throw ratio and require at least 5 meters to project a 100-inch image.

In the case of the Formovie Theater Premium, we have an Advanced Laser Phosphor Display (ALPD) 4.0 with three RGB lasers, ultra-wide lenses and a throw ratio of 0.21:1.

This means you can achieve a 150-inch image (diagonal) by placing the Formovie Theater Premium just 40cm (15.75 inches) away from the projection surface. You can also get a 100-inch image from a 16.5cm (6.5 inches) distance or an 80-inch image with 7.4cm (2.83 inches) clearance from the wall.

This means you can get the same image size as the first-gen Formovie Theater from an 18% closer distance to the projection surface wall.

ALPD 4.0 offers all the benefits of LED projection, like a compact and energy-efficient light source that allows for easier non-standard optical angles and a longer lifespan, rated at 30,000 hours. In addition, the three-laser ALPD 4.0 projector inside the Theater Premium offers richer, deeper colors and wider color space coverage. The new model also brings fewer speckles and more natural color reproduction for a more immersive viewing experience.

Theater Premium supports 4K native resolution at up to 60Hz and offers up to 2,200 ISO lumens of brightness - up from 1,800 lumens on the Formovie Theater. The rest of the imaging specs are identical with a 3000:1 contrast ratio, top-notch color accuracy with 107% coverage of the BT.2020 color gamut, Dolby Vision/HDR 10+ (Decoding) and HDR 10/HLG support.

The unboxing experience is pretty uneventful. Theater Premium comes in a massive cardboard box with a top handle, making it useful for transporting purposes.

Opening the box reveals a black sleeve housing the manual, warranty and a microfiber cleaning cloth. Theater Premium sits below, neatly packed inside compression foam alongside its AC power supply and Bluetooth remote control.

This is a big piece of kit, measuring 550 x 349.2 x 107.5mm and weighing 9.8kg. Picking up the Theater Premium reveals the device is rear-heavy, and it certainly feels every bit as premium as its price tag would suggest. We appreciate the industrial design with its cool matte-finish metal body.

You’ll find height-adjustable feet on the bottom side and a fabric mesh cutout on the front housing the updated second-generation Bowers & Wilkins speaker setup. It consists of 2x woofers and 2x tweeters with a power of 2x15 watts. The speakers have a 990cc sound chamber for deep bass and support Dolby Atmos and DTS:X.

A quick word on the remote - it’s pretty basic and more akin to what you’d get with a $100 Google Chromecast than a premium UST projector. The bottom right corner is occupied with shortcut buttons for Netflix, which is now supported natively and YouTube.

Projection performance, speakers

Formovie’s UST projectors have built a name for themselves in the past couple of years with excellent image quality, and Theater Premium is no exception. The device's ultra-short-throw nature means virtually no interference with image projection, as the projector is planted mere centimeters away from the wall, away from any possible interference.

The other benefit is that sound output comes from the front of the projector, unlike traditional non-UST projectors, which often require additional speaker setups.

The setup process on the Theater Premium is pretty straightforward. We were up and using the device after plugging it into the power outlet and following a few short steps of setting up the Google TV interface. We appreciate the integrated power supply housed inside the unit, which means you only have the short AC power cord plugged into the back of the projector, saving you from dealing with huge power bricks hanging around.

On the subject of power, we have to mention the instantaneous power on and off, which is a welcome addition to anyone coming from a standard non-UST projector, some of which take ages to switch on and off.

As the specs suggest, we achieved the maximum 150-inch picture diagonal by placing the projector just 40cm (15.75 inches) away from a wall, but due to space constraints, we resorted to using it in 120-inch mode at 25.5cm (10 inches) away for most of our tests.

If you’ve never used a UST projector before, its automatic electric focus and eight-point keystone mapping are fairly simple to set up. Our only consideration was to level out the projector's surface via its height-adjustable feet to ensure optimal image quality.

Theater Premium excels in three key areas: brightness, contrast and color reproduction.

Starting with brightness, we were able to use the Theater Premium in all sorts of lighting, even with direct sunlight creeping in. This is where the updated peak brightness of 2,200 ISO lumens comes in handy. The Standard mode delivers the highest output from the pre-configured options. A projection screen would significantly boost legibility in brighter environments and would also help fight off any irregularities of projecting directly onto a wall.

While we tested the device without a dedicated projection screen, clarity and contrast were great in a light-controlled environment. The colors appeared vivid, with deep blacks and great out-of-the-box tuning.

We were impressed with the level of detail in the picture, which allowed you to make up individual pixels and easily read even smaller bits of text from a distance. We should mention that Theater Premium needs some time to warm up to its proper operating temperature, resulting in uneven focus around the top corners of the screen. That issue was only present in the initial 15-20 minutes after turning on the projector and then disappeared.

Watching 4K HDR content was a breeze, with faultless tone mapping and great contrast. Just like its predecessor, Theater Premium covers 107% of the BT.2020 (aka Rec. 2020) color gamut, allowing for natural colors in supported content. All of the popular streaming platforms work flawlessly and play content back at up to 4K HDR where supported.

Moving on to the speaker setup, we found the updated Bowers & Wilkins speakers deliver rich and detailed sound with great bass, potent mids and sharp highs. You get finely tuned audio out of the box, which, combined with the Dolby Amos and DTS/X support, makes for an immersive movie-watching experience.

We also hooked up the Theater Premium to an M1 MacBook Pro 14 and SteamDeck to see how it fares via HDMI. The MacBook only managed to output a limited 30Hz refresh rate at the full 4K resolution with noticeable input lag as a result.

The SteamDeck fared much better in tandem with the console mode setting on the projector with a solid 60Hz output with the Gaming Mode, making for an enjoyable gaming experience. Input lag from the Steam Deck was hovering around 20ms, which is more than good enough for casual gaming titles.

Noise pollution is kept to a minimum, and it’s way less intrusive than what you may be used to from a traditional DLP projector. The integrated fan does a great job of cooling the device even during several hours of usage. Fan noise levels vary between 25 and 40dB, leaning in the mid to low 30s in idle mode measured from a meter’s distance.

Software features

The updated Google TV interface based on Android 11 found on the Theater Premium is a welcome addition from Android TV on the older Formovie Theater. This is Google's latest TV operating system and offers an updated interface UI with card-like tabs and a unified search engine that better understands contextual searches across different streaming platforms.

Google TV on Formovie Theater Premium

You also get the vast Google Play app catalog, which includes 10,000+ apps. One worthy addition to the Theater Premium is the Netflix app, which did not work on the original Formovie Theater for some reason, forcing you to install an APK or connect a separate input device.

The top part of the home screen comes with Home, Apps and Library shortcuts. You also get a “For Your” tab as the default home screen and separate category lists for Live TV, Movies, Shows, Apps and your Library of content. There's a fine level of control over the projector setup, picture, and sound settings with neatly laid out menus.

Projector and Picture settings

Navigating the interface was smooth and without any lag for the most part. The quad-core MediaTek MT9629 chipset and 2GB of RAM are more than enough to handle everything you throw at them.

In our test, YouTube ran without any issues, delivering up to 4K60 videos with HDR where applicable. Netflix also worked flawlessly with the onboard Widevine L1 certification, ensuring smooth playback with a maximum of 4K HDR content.

YouTube 4K60 HDR playback, Disney+ and Amazon Prime Video apps

The same can be said about the other big streaming platforms like Max, Disney+, Apple TV and Amazon Prime, which all worked great.

Verdict

Whether we were watching movies from the big streaming platforms, catching up on our YouTube subscriptions list or playing some casual games, the Formovie Theater Premium delivered an immersive and enjoyable experience. The ability to turn any wall into a 150-inch screen is a real game changer, and doing so without the limitation of regular LCD projectors is a real win.

The colors pop with great contrast while darker hues remain inky black. Brightness output is really impressive, even in rooms with natural light coming through the windows. The updated Google TV operating system now comes with native Netflix compatibility, which was a major omission on the previous model.

The updated Bowers & Wilkins speakers sound great for casual movie watching and offer great surround sound performance.

At $3,500/€3,500 MSRP, Formovie Theater Premium is a big investment, but we reckon it’s hard to find a better UST projector for that price. Formovie is also pushing a Black Friday sale between November 11-12, which will keep the price at $2,999/€2,999. You can pick up a Formovie Theater Premium on the company’s official website.

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