Samsung The Freestyle
Expected More
21/03/2022 20:26
From the initial industry reviews, and the launch RRP, my expectations for the Freestyle were high.
Unboxing was good. Packaging was excellent, well designed and clearly a push by Samsung to become more sustainable.
The Freestyle has a reassuring build quality and remains very stable on the built-in stand no matter which angle you point it. It also has a neat power cable, simple power brick and easy connections. The travel case is good quality and is made from a sturdy plastic that breeds confidence.
Unfortunately, the performance didn't match the build quality. For what is an expensive piece of AV equipment, the software and menu interface lagged significantly. Whether this is a hardware or firmware issue remains to be seen, but the menu speed was comparable to my 4 year old Samsung 4K smart TV. This was a let-down for a 2022 product.
I've never owned a projector, but I do have a wide range of AV tech. Setting up, the automatic adjustment works really well with minor tweaks required on only a couple of occasions to get the picture 100% square. In the 2 weeks that we've had the Freestyle, we've tested as many types of programming as possible including sport, film and animation (tested by the 6 year old). In very low light/darkness, the picture is bright and crisp, which is the minimum I was expecting from a product of this type. The ability to easily project the image onto most surfaces is a nice touch which sets the Freestyle apart from other products (the 6 year old loved lying in bed, watching films on her ceiling!).
However, in anything resembling daylight, the Freestyle is almost unusable as the brightness isn't high enough (at around 500 lumens). The picture quality was washed out and there is no situation that I would use this indoors over a comparatively priced TV. Adding to the sub-par daylight picture performance, the sound quality is very poor, made worse by the cooling fan noise. Connecting to a quality Bluetooth speaker was a work-around but takes away from the portable nature of the Freestyle.
As an all-in-one device, I can see where the Freestyle could appeal to some, but this is a niche product. Those looking to replace a TV with the Freestyle will be disappointed, as will those looking to use this as a music streaming device or smart speaker. We'll use the Freestyle occasionally for 'garden cinema' in the summer, but I can't recommend this because of the RRP. It's simply too expensive for an occasional use product.
Dan_H1
Offord Darcy , Spojené království
Age: 41
Gender: Female