Projectors Tests Reviews

NothingProjector NP One Smart : Test and Review

Published on: 28-06-2025 / Modified: 28-06-2025

I don't test many entry-level LCD projectors because sometimes I feel like I'm repeating myself like a parrot. I've just finished testing the Etoe Whale Pro, which ended in disappointment because the projector gave up the ghost before the end of the test. When NothingProjector asked me to test the NP One Smart, I wasn't too keen because I'd already tested similar projectors such as the Formovie Xming Episode One. What made me decide to test it anyway was that it's the first projector from the NothingProjector brand. Up until now, they've only sold screens, and I've never been disappointed by their quality. The second reason is that this projector is sold at the ridiculous price of 199€... If it's at least as good as the Formovie Xming, it's going to put a big slap in the face of all the entry-level LCDs to be found on Aliexpress or other sites of this type

Video test

Audio: French, English
Watch on YouTube: NP One Smart / YouTube

Where to buy

The NothingProjector NP One Smart is available on the official NothingProjector website:

NothingProjector One Smart

It will probably also be available on Amazon.

Manufacturer web site:
https://nothingprojector.com?sca_ref=4432668.8PzggJJTbn

Price NothingProjector NP One Smart

Not yet available / tested

Timeline

June 25, 2025: receipt of NP One Smart

June 28, 2025: test begins, full test available one week later

Why this projector?

Not yet available / tested

Unpacking

The box for the NothingProjector NP One Smart video projector is pretty basic, containing the essentials you need. Obviously, there's the projector, neatly packaged, a transformer and power cable, a remote control (supplied without batteries, 2x AAA) and a manual. The box doesn't give away the fact that this is a projector for under €200

Operating system

This projector runs on Google TV and that's a very good thing, because it's the best operating system for projectors. It offers an experience designed to be controlled by remote control or voice, and streaming applications are very well integrated into the interface. So you can search across multiple apps and browse catalogs in a more unified way. Netflix is natively compatible, so you won't have to install an unofficial app to be able to watch your favorite series

Google TV also offers a wide range of image settings, and while this probably won't be the most exciting feature for the average person, these settings will give you better image quality and give you another reason to buy this projector rather than another low-cost LCD projector.

Finish

The NP One Smart has the same format in every respect as the Formovie Xming Episode One I tested last year. It also bears a striking resemblance to a Wupro projector whose name I've forgotten. I think that from a technical point of view, these projectors are more or less the same.

This projector measures 17 cm in height, 14 cm in depth and 11.5 cm in width. This means it's discreet enough to take with you wherever you go. If it were equipped with a battery, it would undoubtedly compete with XGIMI's Mogo range. It weighs in at 1268 grams. With its reduced dimensions and featherweight, this projector is sure to travel from room to room or with you on the move.

The optical compartment is huge, and as this is an LCD projector, you won't have the usual problems present on entry-level LED projectors. No grid effect and no rainbow effect. On the other hand, sharpness is likely to diminish around the periphery of the image, but I'll come back to this point later in the test.

On the top, there's just one button to switch the projector on. You won't be able to use the projector without a remote control

On the sides, there are large openings in the projector's secondary color. These openings are not decorative; their purpose is to evacuate heat from the projector. This type of projector often uses a lamp that generates quite a lot of heat, so it's necessary to dissipate the heat with fans and vents of this type. The integration of these grilles is quite aesthetic, a far cry from the car grille-type grilles found on some other entry-level projectors.

Sound is diffused on both sides, I haven't received the technical specifications, we're probably on a 2x10 watt or less configuration here

On the rear, there's a large grill for heat management, a reminder of the brand with the secondary color and connectivity limited to the minimum with an HDMI port, a USB-A port, a headphone output and a power port

The remote control is basic but does the job. The buttons have enough relief to make repeating easy

Projection room

My projection room is rectangular, 4.6m by 2.9m (height 2.2m). I have two projection walls, one white wall 2.9m wide with just white paint with a possible 4m setback. I then have a 133 inch ALR screen on another wall with a possible setback of 2.8m. I mainly use the ALR screen except when the layout or type of projector is not suitable for this situation.

Battery autonomy

This projector is not fitted with a battery, and as it is powered by a dedicated power cable, it is not possible to charge it with a USB battery either.

Power consumption

I measured a consumption of 65 watts with a totally white screen. I didn't see an economy mode for brightness that would have reduced consumption. Anyway, at 65 watts this projector doesn't consume much, so it's not going to blow up your electricity bill.

Operating noise

I measured just over 41 decibels close to the projector and less than 40 at a distance. LCD projectors are generally noisier than their DLP equivalents, which is again the case here, but this NothingProjector limits the damage. It makes an audible noise when you're close by, but it's far from disturbing. As soon as you go to watch a film, you won't hear it again.

Image quality

Not yet available / tested

Colorimetry

More explanations on colorimetry

Measuring color fidelity (colorimetry) is not a subjective question, it is something completely measurable. This measurement is carried out with a device (colorimeter, spectrometer, ...) which measures the difference between the real color and the displayed color. This difference is expressed in delta E (abbreviation: dE). A dE greater than 3 indicates a deviation perceptible to the human eye.

The dE must therefore be as low as possible but projectors rarely have a dE lower than 3 out of the box. They are often between 5 and 10, only a calibration can correctly adjust the colors.

For a perfect calibration, you must call a professional. I give you my parameters which correspond to my situation. These settings might work for your situation but it is not a guarantee, so take them as an indication of the direction to follow.

I measured color fidelity in all available configurations and obtained the following results:

Configuration	Delta E White	White Temperature	Delta E Colors	Delta E Grayscale	Gamma
Standard	8.2	7811	10.66	8.34	2.17
Vivid	9.5	8193	11.33	17.67	1.79
Movie	4.4	6879	9.01	2.01	2.27
Sport	9.7	8249	11.41	17.84	2.04
Game	4.5	6918	8.79	2.19	2.78

As a reminder, delta E must be as close as possible to 3 and even below to obtain correct colorimetry. With these results, we're pretty far from the target, but that's hardly surprising for a projector in this price range. The "film" and "game" modes fare best, with white closer to the target. You can improve the fidelity of whites and grays just by tweaking the color temperature. The projector emits a little too much green and blue, so you need to decrease the blue by between 5 and 10 and decrease the green by around 5. If the image is still a little cold, you can increase the red a little. These figures will vary according to your projection surface, but you'll always need to reduce the blue more than the green and increase the red in proportions similar to the blue. With the right setting, you can achieve perfect white. I obtained a white at 0.7 and a gray delta E below 1 as well.

Here's the color result with "film" mode:

And for grays:

The other primary and secondary colors are not so easy to tame and on a projector of this type and despite the richness of the parameters I wasn't able to get blue below 15, green was also above 10 and red a little below 10. It's the limited color space that causes this, it's not possible to pull the values towards a higher saturation

Given that the "games" mode and the "movies" mode are the closest, you might wonder which one to choose. I'd say that the "film" mode is interesting, because the biggest differences are less marked, and the grays are more faithful. It's just that contrast is a little less good, but it's still of a very high standard

Well, that's for the measured result, but what does it really mean? It doesn't mean that your image will be terrible to look at, but the colours will appear duller than on a projector with a wider gamut. A red will appear less vibrant on this projector than on an LED projector costing over €500. This type of image is typical of all entry-level LCD projectors, and this one doesn't do any better or worse, but it's considerably cheaper than the vast majority of similar projectors on Aliexpress.

Image Settings
Not yet available / tested

Brightness

More explanations on brightness

The brightness for a projector is absolutely crucial. The brightness is measured in ANSI lumens and the values provided by the manufacturer are very often higher than reality.

I measure the brightness with a lux meter and I convert my measurements into ANSI lumens in relation to the projection surface. You thus obtain a real value.

A video projector, even if it is bright, cannot compete with a television. The contribution of light (natural or artificial) will have the effect of drastically reducing the contrast of your image. With a brightness lower than 1000 ANSI lumens, the projector must be used in total darkness.

Even before starting this test, I knew that brightness was going to be a weakness. It's not a hidden flaw, NothingProjector doesn't hide it, this projector has a low luminosity that will force you to use it in daylight. I measured a brightness of between 220 and 250 lumens, with the "vivid" mode providing the most luminosity, but it's still very low

Brightness will have an impact on the recommended image size, and with a brightness of 220 lumens, you can aim for a 70-75 inch screen. You can of course aim wider, but the image will start to look too dark. NothingProjector indicates a screen size of up to 120 inches on its site, so there's nothing to stop you doing so, but with a large image size like that, your image will be too dark.

Here's an example of an image taken with ambient brightness and in full darkness:

The image remains visible, but at the cost of a huge loss of contrast. In this example, the image is approximately 80 inches on a screen with a gain of 1.2.

Sharpness

Almost all entry-level LCD projectors have the same weakness when it comes to sharpness. It's generally good in the center, but gradually diminishes at the periphery, sometimes resulting in a pronounced blur. The good news is that this projector loses very little sharpness at the periphery, and that alone is a very good thing.

Here are some photos taken to assess sharpness from horizontal and vertical lines, and you can clearly see moiré appearing on the squares with a difference of 1 pixel

I thought it would be interesting to do a similar test with text and I was really positively surprised by the result because the text is sharp from edge to edge, which is very rare for a projector of this type. The optical block therefore seems to be of better quality than most entry-level projectors found on sites like Aliexpress

Contrast

More explanations on contrast

Contrast (on/off) is used to measure the difference between white and black. This measurement gives an indication of the ability of a projector to produce a good rendering in dark scenes.

A contrast lower than 500:1 should be considered as a very low contrast and the consequence will be especially visible in dark scenes where you will lose details. This is less of a problem for sports, bright films or even cartoons.

A low contrast ratio does not mean that a projector is not usable, you just have to be aware that for films like Aliens, dark scenes will no longer allow you to distinguish details.

Projectors of this type often have superior contrast to most DLP projectors, even those over €1000. I've obtained contrast in excess of 2000:1 on many entry-level LCD projectors, which are indeed ON/OFF contrasts, but in equal measure, these projectors are impressive. This little NothingProjector is clearly in the big league, thanks to an excessively low black level that makes blacks much deeper. I measured a black level of 0.01 cd/m², which is very rarely the case. Even with low luminosity, this black level makes it possible to obtain a contrast ratio of over 2000:1

Here's what I obtained with my measurements:

Game 2524:1

Standard 2781:1

Vivid 2948:1

Movie 2556:1

Sport 2901:1

This contrast is incredible for a projector of this price and these figures could undoubtedly be higher with a more neutral screen in terms of gain

Here's what it looks like with the Batman scene I use every time:

The brightness is probably a little exaggerated by the camera, but you can see that the dark areas are perfectly visible, on the other hand you can see the limits of the color spectrum here

Motion compensation

Image size and projection distance

More explanations on the projection distance

The projection distance determines the size of the image and the size of the image is determined by the projector's throw ratio. If a projector has a throw ratio of 1.2, it will have an image width of 83 cm with possibly a gray border.

The distance also plays a role in the brightness because the brightness decreases with the square of the distance. A projector placed at 4 meters will therefore lose 4 times more brightness than a projector placed at 2 meters.

Keystone image correction does not modify the projection cone, it resizes the image inside the projection cone. This means that in the event of a significant correction, you will see a large gray border appear around your image.

This projector has a projection ratio of 1.2, which means that for every meter separating it from the screen, you get an image approximately 86 cm wide. There are no edges here, as with a projector using a DMD chip. NothingProjector indicates that you can use this projector on a 120" screen. Well, no one's stopping you from doing so, but the image on a 120-inch screen will be far too dark. If I assume a brightness of 250 lumens ansi, the recommended size for this type of brightness is just over 70 inches and therefore with a distance of almost 2 meters

I often receive comments from users of this type of projector telling me that they are very happy with their 120-inch image. Yes, I'm not saying they aren't. The threshold for determining the ideal screen size corresponds to a standard. If you're more tolerant than the norm, you'll be able to project your image onto a larger surface. I once had fun projecting an image from a portable projector onto a 15-meter-wide factory wall. The image was visible and it was too dark, but a 15-meter image has an effect on everyone who passes by.

Screen choice

Given the low brightness of this projector, the only type of screen really suitable is a white screen, preferably with a gain greater than 1. I've added a white/gray screen comparison to my video, and you'll quickly see that the loss of brightness is too great. Beyond the discussion of brightness, it's reasonable to ask the question of screen use. With a 200€ projector, is it worth investing in a screen of the same price? Personally, I think not, but it's obviously your choice.

Audio quality

More explanations on audio quality

I use several types of music tracks to illustrate the sound quality of the projector but the rendering will always be limited by the recording device. Since I always use the same device, you will be able to compare the difference on the same basis.

I regularly use well-known songs protected by copyright to illustrate the sound quality of a video projector. It therefore sometimes happens that YouTube decides to block my videos for these reasons. In this case, you can listen to the soundtracks directly on YouTube and hope that YouTube has not completely blocked my channel.

I've added a 3-minute soundtrack to the YouTube video corresponding to this test, and I note that this projector has a few shortcomings at the extremes of the spectrum (low-pitched sound, high-pitched sound), but this is quite normal for a projector of this type, and we shouldn't have expected a sound equivalent to a dedicated audio system.

Video games

Encoutered bugs

Not yet available / tested

ALR/CLR Projection screen

Are you looking for a good ALR/CLR screen for your projector? I may have what you need:
ALR/CLR NothingProjector Screen

Test / Review conclusion

The NothingProjector NP One Smart is a small, unpretentious projector with a few serious trump cards to send a whole series of entry-level projectors packing.

Argument n°1 ... The price! With an introductory price of €200, you can already forget about the vast majority of entry-level projectors sold on Aliexpress above this price. So yes, the brightness isn't extraordinary, but that's also the case with most other projectors, which you'll have to use in total darkness anyway

Argument n°2, the contrast. Its contrast rivals that of much more expensive projectors. The black level is incredibly low, giving deeper blacks than most projectors. So you can watch dark movies without losing detail in dark areas.

Argument n°3, noise. The NP One Smart isn't completely silent, but it's considerably quieter than most projectors in this price range, which usually use large fans to dissipate heat.

Argument n°4, image sharpness and uniformity. Peripheral sharpness degradation is a very common problem with entry-level LCDs. This projector's peripheral sharpness is more than adequate, and that's very rare.

This type of projector can't compete with a good DLP projector like the Formovie S5 or even a portable projector like the XGIMI Mogo 4 Laser, because the technology used doesn't allow for a very wide color space. The most visible consequence is that colors will be less saturated. This projector is therefore not intended to be used to create a faithful cinematic experience. On the other hand, it will enable you to obtain a larger image than a TV for a much lower price. I can think of lots of uses for this kind of product, and its size makes it easy to carry around, so you can take your movies and TV series with you wherever you go. Its compatibility with Google TV also offers native compatibility with all streaming applications (including Netflix), whereas projectors on Aliexpress often use exotic, unofficial versions of Android.

In fact, this projector is weak from a technical point of view, but it's the choices it makes that make it very attractive in this price range. If you were thinking of buying a Blitzwolf, Wanbo, Etoe, Ultimea or similar projector, here you have a product that does better for less. Brightness is low, yes, but the others aren't that great either

Strengths

Contrast

Google TV

Power consumption

Noise

Compact size

Input lag

White fidelity

Exceptionally low black level

Good level of sharpness

Weaknesses

Brightness

Color space

Sound in bass and treble too weak

Basic colorimetry

A little slow in more complex operations

LAURENT WILLEN
Head of myself on this blog

I share my passions on my blog in my free time since 2006, I prefer that to watching nonsense on TV or on social networks. I work alone, I am undoubtedly one of the last survivors of the world of blogs and personal sites.

My speciality? Digital in all its forms. I have spent the last 25 years working for multinationals where I managed digital teams and generated revenues of over €500 million per year. I have expertise in telecoms, media, aviation, travel and tourism.