On my journey to find some of the most random pieces of cheap tech on the internet, I stumbled across a $50 projector that seemed to promise the Moon. Truth be told, the $50 price tag was already tempting enough for me, and I was curious to see what it was really capable of.
After all, it’s a surprising (if not crazy low) price of entry for a projector that can go up to several hundred degrees, and I fully expected the worst. Imagine my surprise when it exceeded my expectations. The projector isn’t perfect for sure, but it is very, very usable and boasts features usually absent from other, pricier devices.
Meet the mystery $50 projector
It’s the Ailkin WaveSmart J40, and it has absolutely zero documentation online
Known only as the Ailkin J40 WaveSmart “Ultra HD” projector, this piece of equipment came in under $50 with basically zero information online. I looked everywhere — even throwing in some Gemini-assisted deep web search — and found nothing.
Despite what it says, it is most certainly not an Ultra HD projector. It’s a 1080p output, with the ability to decode 4K input, which is a very important distinction. The box it came in was also rather basic, with very reassuring, unmarked white cardboard.
As for its contents, it included a power cable and a remote. No HDMI or even batteries, for that matter. Connecting it was super simple, thanks to the included, rather thoughtful L-shaped power cord.
It also took surprisingly little time to boot up, and was snappy despite only having a gigabyte of RAM. I should say that my unit was also, suspiciously enough, not factory reset. It defaulted to Russian and had a bunch of things pre-installed, which was an immediate red flag (and a reason to reset the device before moving forward).
Surprisingly capable, with what appears to be a native 1080p output
Loud speakers and 1080p display output
Of course, a good projector needs to do the projecting thing right in order to qualify. And the result is a bit of a mixed bag. You get what you pay for, but the image quality by itself isn’t too terrible and is most certainly usable for most.
Yes, you will have to pretty much ensure that the room you’re projecting into has zero lighting, but when it works, it works. The brightness is fairly average, but what impressed me was the display resolution — which was a native 1080p.
Budget projectors usually come equipped with a disappointingly low 720p resolution, and some outright lie about it, realistically only handing out 720p. Based on my limited testing, the Ailkin projector is indeed a native 1080p60 output, with the ability to accept 4K input sources.
The speakers were another nice surprise. The projector comes equipped with a set of stereo speakers, which aren’t all that terrible, as I thought they’d be. While it certainly won’t blow your socks away, the sound output is at the very least loud and distortion-free. It lacks bass and won’t wow you with its range, but you don’t need to connect it to a speaker to get acceptable audio.
Extra niceties that just work, and are hard to find elsewhere
HDMI-CEC support, Netflix and more
The Ailkin J40 also packs a ton of ports. It has HDMI, USB, 3.5mm audio, and MicroSD card support to play files directly. It also comes with a small but functional remote that is unfortunately limited to an IR blaster instead of a fancier Bluetooth-operated one.
This means you’ll have to keep a direct line of sight to the sensor on the back, or it won’t respond. It also didn’t come with any batteries in the box, but that might be asking for too much at this point.
What surprised me the most was complete HDMI-CEC support. CEC is not easy tech to certify, and I very much suspect that none of the hardware listed in this projector meets any of those certifications. They’re likely spoofing things to get it to detect as a CEC device.
Still, it works and works quite well. So much so that I couldn’t tell a difference. There’s even wake-from-sleep baked in, and this was despite no mention of it on the product page either.
As for the software side of things, there isn’t a lot to talk about. The design is very barebones, and the app menu is sparse — probably for the best, given how ad-infested these things can often get.
You do get a Netflix and YouTube app built-in, and YouTube seemed to work just fine at 1080p. It also runs on Android, which means you can technically sideload any application you’d want to use. Unfortunately, it also has only a gigabyte of RAM (you read that right), so I wouldn’t go expecting too much out of it.
$50 is $50, and you’ll run into limits sooner or later
No amount of tweaks and workarounds can change a cheap projector into a more expensive-quality one. $50 is still $50, and there is not a whole lot you can do with a restrictive budget.
Projected images lack detail, with text appearing “pixelated.” The brightness also goes for a toss when you turn on any kind of light, no matter how dim it might be. There’s also the fact that the software is very limited, running a custom, lightweight version of Android that completely lacks Play Store support. I would not trust this device with my credentials, and logging into something like Netflix on it seems like a bad idea. If anything, I’d recommend going for a factory reset first, followed by intense deliberation on what to log in and not log in to.
If you manage to extend your budget by just $40 more, you can pick from one of the excellent but still affordable E-GATE series instead. The Atom 3X gives a sizable boost in image brightness and clarity, making it well worth the extra money spent. It also has a much more premium design, and the stand is actually functional.
I wouldn’t complain too much, though. $50 is not a crazy amount of money for a projector, and you can definitely do a lot worse. It’s just that you can do so much more with just 50% more of the budget.