- A portable projector for “when you’re away from home”
- Battery power for viewing anywhere
- Unusual “magic cube” design that rotates to adjust angles
One of the downsides of CES is that its enormous scale means there’s no time for presenters to talk in detail about each new product. And in the case of TCL’s latest set of ads, it’s a shame, because I’m intrigued by one of the products the company only fleetingly mentioned.
It’s called Playcube and, as the name suggests, it’s a cube that plays things: video and presumably audio too. This is a portable projector with an unusual design that TCL calls the “magic cube”: it is made up of two rectangular sections, one of which rotates to adjust the projection direction.
TCL Playcube: What we know and what we don’t
We know three things about Playcube besides its name. We know it has that unusual rotating design; We know that it has a built-in rechargeable battery; We know it is very small.
TCL is relatively new to the projector business – it announced its first portable projector, the TCL A1, in November 2024. It has an MSRP of $499 (around £395 / AU$770) and offers 1080p resolution with 360 Lumens brightness in images. From 45 to 120 inches.
That model has Google TV integrated, which seems likely for Playcube as well.
Without knowing the price or seeing a spec sheet (yet), it’s hard to know where this projector will fit in the market, although given that it’s TCL, it’s likely to be priced very aggressively.
Our current pick for the best portable projectors is the second-generation Samsung The Freestyle, which often retails for $599 instead of the list price of $799. And our favorite ultra-portable pocket projector is the Anker Nebula Capsule II, which is the size of a Coca-Cola can and has a list price of $579.99 (around £465 / AU$830).
We hope to get full specs, pricing, and a release date from TCL very soon (or maybe even experience it at CES 2025). We’ll keep you posted – watch this space!
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