viewsonic m2 review

Compact, with a good image, but sensitive to mains voltage;viewsonic m2 review

Viewsonic M2 looks very cool. The subtle rounded square in bronze and black is a bold combination against the backdrop of projectors that stuck in their design language in the mid-2000s with rounded bumps and white when the main boldness is matte black plastic.

On the back comes a respectable set of IOs: an HDMI 2.0, USB-C and USB Type-A 3.0 input (both with phantom power for devices like HDMI media players), a microSD card reader, and a headphone output. Great kit for portable/household projector.

Equipment

Usually we don’t write about the equipment of the players, but the Viewsonic M2 has it more interesting than usual. In addition to the remote control and power supply with cables for European and American/Japanese plugs, the M2 comes with a double-sided USB-C cable and a bag that will fit the projector itself, its PSU, remote control, and even a small cable. There is no shoulder strap in the bag, no special shock protection either, but it’s still nice to see such an accessory along with a portable device.

Image

In testing, the Viewsonic M2 delivered the best results of any projector we’ve come across. It lags behind in maximum brightness, but everything to do with color looks very good even without calibration. We tested in the Film color mode. The contrast ratio of the M2 is excellent with a ratio of 4600:1, although 1000:1 is considered the benchmark for SDR.

Usually if projectors claim 100% coverage of the standard sRGB color space, then we measure the result by 20-30%. The screen and its distance may play a role, but in the case of the M2, everything is fine. 99% sRGB is just what you need for games, movies and TV shows in SDR.

Surprisingly, the Viewsonic M2 shows a near-perfect gamma of 2.2 at the 2.2 gamma setting. In our experience, this is rarely seen in consumer devices, especially without pre-calibration.

Gamma and contrast perform well in the saturation test as well. This is where the Viewsonic M2 manages to beat even many monitors. It may not be visible in the photo, but in reality, each sector of each color of each brightness was perfectly readable and did not merge with the neighboring ones. This is a very good result.

In this photo we have “raised” the shadows to make it easier to see, but the M2 does show details even in the almost black squares. Excellent result.

The same applies to light areas. Even in the brightness zone of 254 (out of 255), you can still see the details, as in the previous ones.

(photo taken at 1/1000 second)

The M2 doesn’t have the motion blur issues that LCD displays (including projectors) have. The temporal resolution of the M2 is excellent, although this slightly spoils the problem with 1080p120 (more on that below).

The sharpness of the Viewsonic M2 is not the best. Yes, in theory it supports 1080p, its optics project pixels clearly, but the image itself suffers from noticeable aliasing, which is not found on other models of Viewsonic projectors or other manufacturers that we have written reviews about. Plus, the image has a slight temporal instability and is slightly “noisy”. With what it is connected, we do not know. Perhaps with strong post-processing – this will explain both the problems with 1080p120 and the delay of 125 ms. In motion, the “noise” is imperceptible, on static (in the menu, for example), it can be seen, but it is not particularly distracting if you do not peer.

Viewsonic M2 is not made for eSports, 125ms lag is felt. It is not suitable for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, but it is very pleasant to play story games, even such fast ones as Marvel’s Spider-man. In something more leisurely, you probably won’t even notice the delay. 125ms sounds terrible by today’s standards and a bit too much even for a projector, but in reality it’s not as bad as you might expect.

Portability

The Viewsonic M2 comes with a carrying bag. It is not padded with soft material to protect the projector from physical damage, it does not have a shoulder strap, only one handle, but the accessory is unusual and potentially useful. However, not everywhere there is a convenient outlet, which limits the range of applications for such a projector.

But Viewsonic M2 can run on battery. Viewsonic sells an optional battery to power the projector via USB-C, but the projector is actually powered from the regular 12V input as well. We managed to power it from a standard V-mount battery, which is widely used in television and film technology. The M2 can be tossed into the trunk or bag and taken with you on shoots or business trips.

Dirty current vs. 120Hz

The native resolution of the Viewsonic M2 chip is 1080p at 24 to 120 Hz. But we ran into a lot of problems. When working from a network with a complete power supply, the M2 was not at all capable of displaying an image either at 120, or even at 30 FPS / Hz. Viewsonic engineers couldn’t tell us what the problem was, but it seems we figured it out ourselves. The problem is in the “dirty current”. If the projector is connected to a good current source, then there are almost no problems; if it is not the best power supply, where other devices “break” the standard European 50 Hz sine wave, then this may affect the fact that you won’t be able to play at 120 Hz.

However, 60Hz works fine, and when testing the M2 on batteries, we found that it worked perfectly at pure DC. If not for the batteries, they would have guessed so. Perhaps this is exclusively our problem, but with other projectors it did not occur.

Soft

The M2 is powered by an Android-based operating system, and the store has apps for popular streaming services, but, unfortunately, mostly Western ones. There are almost no Russian applications, only RuTube, and after the departure of Netflix, only YouTube and a video player make up the company. The absence of Kinopoisk and other popular online movie theaters in Russia is a little frustrating, but they can be launched from a browser.

This gap is corrected by support for Apple AirPlay and Android Mirroring, which allow you to mirror the video from the screen of your phone, tablet or laptop to the projector. This is convenient because you can not only watch movies or TV shows, but also show presentations at work or school directly from your mobile device without a wired connection. In theory, you can also play, the delay is very small, but it’s better to play something unhurried. All in all, a great feature for a portable projector. On a business trip or on a night shift, you can simply get a projector, turn on a movie or game from your phone and enjoy a giant image on almost any light, smooth wall.

Settings and remote

The Viewsonic M2 has a really nice and modern menu. The gear button on the remote control in the corner of the screen opens a translucent menu with all the image settings for calibration. They are divided into two menus. The first contains color, contrast and gamma settings, the second contains more general settings like HDMI range, frame interpolation, aspect ratio, etc.

The remote runs on AAA batteries and has most of the most essential functions, including lens focus adjustment, Bluetooth connectivity, playback controls if you’re playing a file from the projector itself, and other more basic buttons. Autofocus is weird. If you hold down the button, the projector will try to focus itself. He does it not very well and is slightly mistaken almost every time. If you quickly press the button, a strange circle will appear, which does not explain at all what to do. The left and right buttons can be used to manually adjust the focus (left – closer, right – farther). Why not show a linear focus scale, or at least display a “press left-right” hint on the screen, is not clear.

The remote control is black, there is no backlight, you have to periodically bring it up to the projector’s light stream or the screen to see the icons on the buttons. However, the biggest problem is its indispensability. On the projector itself, there are no control methods at all. If you lose the remote, then the projector is useless. You will have to buy a new one or it is better to look for a complete one.

Noise

Like all LED projectors, the Viewsonic M2 is extremely quiet. In fact, it’s practically silent. We have nothing more to add.

The Viewsonic M2 is an imperfect but very attractive projector. It’s beautiful, small, light, handy, with good image quality, and supports a bunch of great features like video players and mobile screen mirroring. It can even run on battery power. But a delay of 125 ms will not suit every gamer. The ViewSonic PX701-4K from our previous review is much better for gaming with its dual native resolutions and 1080p240, but it has a narrower stream with a smaller image and a lamp that makes coolers very noisy. M2 against this background is much easier to recommend. Not the best projector, but the most versatile – one that will suit almost everyone.