// WIRED US/UK — MOBILE & WEB
BenQ GV50 Review: Highly Portable, but With Quality Trade-Offs
Portable projectors offer flexibility and the freedom to watch Netflix anywhere and from any angle—including looking straight up at the ceiling from your bed. When I tried this setup using the small, battery-powered BenQ GV50—which the brand markets as a ceiling projector—it worked well. I can’t say the picture quality or even the sound were spectacular, but the projector is indeed capable of project-it-anywhere portability.
Though the GV50 is a ceiling projector, it also works fine against a wall or using a projector screen. It’s versatile and uses the built-in Google TV operating system, so you can use just about any streaming app. And though it’s cheaper than portable-projector competitors, like the Soundcore Nebula P1 (6/10, WIRED Recommends), you’ll make some compromises in picture quality, sound, and speed. In the age of 4K and eventually 8K video, this projector is stuck in the distant past of 1080p video and doesn’t even support HDMI eARC for pass-through audio or Dolby Atmos. Instead, you are stuck with lower-quality ARC 5.1 surround sound that only supports Dolby Audio.
Still, I ended up liking the GV50 for its portability, and I tried it out in various spots in my house. At its current $599 price, it’s a good buy, as long as you’re aware of and OK with its trade-offs.
The GV50 looks like a large gray and white seashell, and it tilts vertically and horizontally. The build quality is not outstanding, made from a cheap-feeling plastic. Alas, aesthetics are not what BenQ is after here; first and foremost, the GV50 aims to be a functional and highly portable low- to midrange projector. And it’s successful in that pursuit: At 4.6 pounds and 8 inches tall, it’s easy to move. It has a small strap on the top for portability ease, though the strap would be easier to grasp if it were a little bigger. When you’re not using it, you might store the projector in BenQ’s protective carrying case ($59) that has a place for the remote and the base.
You can slide the projector up or down on the base for a vertical shift up a wall or ceiling. For a horizontal tilt, you can fold out the base’s two feet and point the projector at a slight angle on the ceiling. No matter the direction, it’s easy to slide around but also stays put.
The projector only has one HDMI port, which you can use for ARC 5.1 pass- through audio or connecting to another source, like a gaming console. There’s a USB-A port and a USB-C port, both for connecting a thumb drive or a hard drive (or charging a gadget), plus a 3.5-mm port. The GV50 does not have an Ethernet port and uses Wi-Fi 5, which is older and not as widely compatible or as speedy as modern standards like Wi-Fi 6E or Wi-Fi 7. I had some connection issues with my Google Nest mesh network where the projector couldn’t connect.
Aside from needing to complete a system update that took about 45 minutes, setup was ultra-smooth and mostly involved using the Google Home app to scan a QR code and install the apps. The GV50 used auto-keystoning to map to my projector screen, and it worked well. When I used the projector on a wall and on the ceiling, the keystoning also worked—I only made a few minor adjustments to the size. The GV50 remote uses the typical, intuitive BenQ layout with a Home button in the center, a setup button that's easy to find, and shortcut buttons for Netflix, YouTube, and Prime.
Not only can the GV50 run on battery power, but it also has plenty of settings to manage its efficiency, including powering down automatically after a set period. I found Battery mode to be marginally helpful, since I use the device in my house, connected to a wall outlet, but the capability does add portability should you want to use the projector while camping or living anywhere else that outlets are sparse. You can use the projector on battery charge alone for a few hours, but the device will dim a little bit to save power.
The GV50 is not trying to be a cinematic marvel by any means, but the projector failed