Warpple, a manufacturer specializing in affordable projectors with solid performance, has once again launched a brand-new flagship. LA9 ProWanting to enjoy the immersion of a 100-inch big screen at home, people are often doused with cold water by their home’s space—mainly because there isn’t enough room or depth. To view an approximately 100-inch image from a short distance, aside from short-throw projectors, the only remaining option may be smart glasses.
and the all-new flagship LA9 Pro Positioned as an ace compact theater, its 0.8:1 throw ratio lets you easily enjoy the immersion of a 100-inch big screen at home. With built-in multi-angle adjustment and a portable size, whether you set it down anywhere or easily take it out with you, you can enjoy your own private theater. This time, we’re unboxing and testing this affordable flagship that was under NT$6,000 in early-bird preorders, to see how it performs in actual projection and everyday use!
Warpple LA9 Pro Unboxing
The outer box features a minimalist white box design:
LA9 Pro package contents: Projector x1, Remote Control x1, AC Power Cord x1.
Warpple LA9 Pro Introduction
The overall appearance of the Warpple LA9 Pro is pretty similar to the projectors Warpple has released in recent years, and the gimbal at the bottom is also one of the standard features included on recent models:
The gimbal provides 90° tilt adjustment, so if you want to project onto the ceiling for viewing, you can do it without setting up an additional tripod:
Overall dimensions are approximately 195 × 153.3 × 140.4 mm, and it weighs only about 1154g. With these dimensions, it takes up very little space at home, while its light weight makes it easy to carry out and use on the go:
Control method
The top of the unit features control buttons for function selection, back, signal switching, etc.:
Besides its control functions, the included remote can also perform voice search, quickly open YouTube / Netflix / Disney+ / Prime Video, focus, switch users, and more. It has quite a lot of features:
Port
The ports are located on the back of the unit, including the power jack, power button, HDMI, USB, and AUX 3.5mm audio jack. Plus, because it has a built-in gimbal, when tilting the projection up or down, it won’t get caught on the power cord, which is a pretty nice design.
Affordable but uncompromising image quality
This time, the Warpple LA9 Pro’s picture quality and brightness specs feature native 4K decoding / 1080P FHD resolution and brightness up to 900 ANSI lumens. It offers a 0.8:1 short-throw projection ratio, allowing the LA9 Pro to project an approximately 100-inch large screen from less than 1.8 meters, while its maximum projection size reaches 150 inches. It also supports autofocus, 4-way auto keystone correction, 4-point correction, auto obstacle avoidance, auto screen fit, screen scaling, and side projection support:
System & Features
The system now only supports genuine Google TV, rather than the previous OVO TV OS. It also drops the previous dual-system linkage, which I think is pretty good but also a bit of a shame. The good part is that users no longer have to spend time getting used to the operating logic of each brand’s custom system, and genuine Google TV not only has a clean, intuitive interface, but mainstream streaming services like Netflix and Disney+ are fully licensed and supported, while phone casting and voice search are also smoother and more stable; the shame is that it lacks the senior-friendly feature from the old OVO, which integrated cable TV channels and let you watch TV directly when you turned it on:
Also, a key feature of Google TV is that it supports multiple account logins. If this projector is shared by family members, the convenient account-switching function won’t affect other people’s viewing history or frequently used content:
Another feature of Google TV is the ability to install a massive number of legitimate apps:
Then you can download the real, official Netflix and Disney+ apps to watch, so unknown causes won’t stop you from watching normally.
However, OVO TV OS originally had a built-in phone casting feature, while Google TV does not have one built in. But you can download similar apps from the Play Store and use them just the same:
The connection speed is also quite smooth, and the visuals are silky smooth with no lag :
And as long as you’re signed in to your Google account, Google TV will also recommend content you’ll like based on your preferences. If you don’t know what to watch, you might just find a surprise here :
The connectivity section supports dual-band Wi-Fi (2.4G/5G) and Bluetooth 5.0:
The projector’s brightness, contrast, saturation, and hue can also be adjusted:
The Warpple LA9 Pro itself also supports autofocus, 4-way auto keystone correction, four-point correction, and other features, all of which can be adjusted manually. However, I think its built-in auto keystone correction is already very accurate, and from my testing, I’ll rarely need to use the manual adjustment features :
However, the autofocus is a little off, but you can still quickly adjust the image’s focus using the focus adjustment function on the remote control:
As mentioned earlier, the remote control also has a voice search function. Like this, press and hold the voice button on the remote and say what you want to find, and the system will quickly search and provide you with relevant content:
Additionally, since it has built-in commonly used ports like HDMI and USB, whether you want to connect a computer or game console via HDMI, or even plug in a USB to watch videos or listen to music, it can do all of that:
image quality
For image quality, the Warpple LA9 Pro supports 4K input and 1080P output, and on YouTube it can display up to 1080p60 quality:
We’ve also actually shot a few videos here for everyone to reference for image quality. First, you need to understand that at this super early-bird price of NT$5,999, this is an affordable projector with all the features it should have. So it’s normal that the image quality can’t rival high-end projectors; at this price, you really can’t nitpick too much. Although the price is what it is, 900 ANSI lumens still delivers solid projection performance. The images below were all projected from a distance of 100cm from the wall. At this distance, it can produce an image of about 50–60 inches, and the 0.8 : 1 ultra-short-throw spec is truly no joke. On top of that, the image details aren’t too blurry, and the color vividness is still acceptable. If you can’t fit a large TV at home, this one’s price really makes it one of the good choices:
At the same time, it has a built-in 5W speaker and a low-noise silent air duct. Although the sound can’t compare to external speakers, when used this way in an indoor space, the reverberation still lets you enjoy an immersive soundstage in terms of listening experience:
Although Google TV doesn’t have a feature like OVO TV OS that lets you turn it on and watch all kinds of live streams, you can still search for those live streams yourself on YouTube and watch them. You can even download ofiii 歐飛, which lets you watch licensed videos (the free version requires watching ads); its huge collection of videos can be said to be even more diverse than watching cable TV:
Summary
Overall, at an early-bird price of under NT$6,000, the Warpple LA9 Pro delivers three major highlights—a 0.8:1 short throw, a 90° flexible gimbal, and genuine Google TV—genuinely pushing the value of budget projectors to a new level. For budget-conscious renters or those whose rooms lack depth, it can easily project a 100-inch picture from less than 2 meters away. With built-in mainstream streaming platforms and convenient auto-correction, it greatly lowers the barrier to creating a personal theater. Although it cannot match high-end models costing over NT$10,000 in image quality limits or autofocus precision, its 900 ANSI lumens brightness already provides a pretty good viewing experience in low-light environments. If you are looking for an entry-level projector that is space-saving, ready to use out of the box, and wallet-friendly, the LA9 Pro is definitely a great option worth considering recently.
Source: KOCPC Chinese