JMGO PicoPlay Review

Design

• HDMI 2.1 input
• Clever design
• No integrated battery.

With its soda-can design, the JMGO PicoPlay is very much a portable projector in the traditional sense. It even has a hanging strap at the back for easy carrying.

There’s also a soft bag in the box, so you can slide the projector in there when it’s not in use. Arguably, a hard case or camera-lens-style padded carry case might have been nicer, but it’s still good to have some form of protection in the box.

Rather than having a single way of standing, the JMGO PicoPlay is designed to either stand upright on its end, for speaker mode, or you use the rubber feet so that the cylinder can lie flat on a surface.

It’s a clever design, and the lens can be angled up or down by twisting the end of the projector to adjust its feet.

If you’d rather have the option to line the projector up straight on with a projection surface, there’s a tripod mount underneath, too.

There’s not much space at the back of this projector, so you get a USB-A port, USB-C (power), and one HDMI 2.1 input, which supports eARC, just in case you decide to pump the audio to a soundbar.

There’s no integrated battery on this model, although, as with the XGIMI Mogo 3 Pro, there’s an optional battery tripod that gives you three hours of playback.

It might make more sense to just power this from a portable power station instead, provided you’ve got one capable of delivering 65W. That’s easy to do, as the projector has a USB-C input on the back. JMGO provides a USB-C power adaptor in the box.

Some touch buttons are on the front for navigation and volume. They’re handy to have for quick control, but for the most you’ll want to use the provided Bluetooth remote control.

This is a standard type for a projector, with a minimum set of buttons for navigation, volume, settings and shortcuts to some streaming services. And, of course, it has an integrated microphone for voice control.

A backlit option would be nice, given that this remote is more likely to be used when camping or in a dark hotel room, but you can’t have everything.

Features

As I’ve seen from JMGO’s previous projectors, such as the N1S 4K, the JMGO PicoPlay runs Google TV. It’s a decent choice, as it’s mature, easy to navigate and you can set it up using your Android or Apple phone via the Google Home app. 

As good as Google TV is, there’s the old problem of app support. You’ll find that the big streaming services, such as Netflix, Apple TV+ and Disney+, are all present, but in the UK, there’s no BBC iPlayer or Channel 4. That might not be such a big loss to many, but it’s a shame that there’s no integrated apps for these services, and you might end up having to stick a streaming stick into that HDMI port.

Generally, Google TV is nice to use. It has large icons, a simple, easy-to-understand interface, and there’s not a lot of clutter to get in the way.

The interface is generally alright, but after running an update the projector was unusably slow while this was being applied. If you get a notification about an update, don’t run it until you’ve got a good spare 30 minutes or so.

All of the good auto setup stuff is built in, including screen fitting, obstacle avoidance, keystone correction and auto focus. There’s a chance that you might need to do a bit of manual correction, but the automatic routines at least take most of the pain away. 

Several picture modes are available, although there’s not a huge amount of visible difference between them. Set the JMGO PicoPlay to User mode and you even get full colour calibration and 11-point white balance correction, although it’s unlikely that you’ll ever need such options on a projector that’s designed to be carried about.

Picture Quality

• Needs a dark room
• Does well with bright content
• Blacks look a bit grey

Rated at 400 ISO Lumens, the JMGO PicoPlay is just behind the similar XGIMI Mogo 3 Pro, but brighter than the Nebula Mars 3 Air. Even so, this level of brightness means that the projector is really for darkened rooms and nighttime use; don’t expect to get a viewable picture with a lot of ambient light in the background.

Resolution is Full HD (1920 x 1080), although that’s not quite the whole story. Rather than a native Full HD resolution, there’s actually a 0.16-inch DMD chip inside with a native resolution of 640×360. 

XPR technology shifts the sensor around to build up a higher-resolution image, much like how many 4K projectors actually have a 1080p chip at heart. The difference is that starting at Full HD and moving to 4K, you’ve got a good baseline image; here, the low resolution starting point means that fine text is a little bit softer than I’d like. 

HDR10 is supported, but not advanced formats, such as Dolby Vision. That’s not necessarily a problem, as the JMGO PicoPlay really isn’t bright enough to make the most of HDR.

That’s clear from watching the opening scene of Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. The fire’s just not bright enough, and the apes in the foreground blend into the black, which ends up looking quite grey. 

Similarly, the opening scene of Frankenstein on Netflix is slightly shrouded in darkness, and it’s hard to see details, such as the crews’ faces. It’s by no means terrible and I am talking about a projector that costs just over £300, but don’t expect a full cinematic experience.

Get into something brighter, and things are mostly better, although there is a lack of vibrancy. With Kingdom, for example, the forest at the beginning looks lush, but it lacks the vibrancy and richness to the greens. That’s likely to be down to the projector’s limited brightness.

Fast-panning scenes also have a little bit of judder to them. It’s not terrible, but there’s not the same smoothness here that you get with more expensive projectors.

Again, it’s important to remember what this projector is for: that’s getting a big screen wherever you might go. In those terms, provided you don’t want cinematic quality, the JMGO PicoPlay does a good job.

Sound Quality

• Loud and clear audio
• Delivers a semblance of bass

Sound from the 8W speaker is better than you might expect, with the JMGO PicoPlay able to go loud enough to fill a room, and deliver a sense of bass, too. I found that speech was rendered cleanly and clearly, and there’s enough volume to fill a decent-sized room.

Audio does tend to get a bit muffled and sound a touch harsh at the high end. Explosion, gunshots and the like lack a bit of punch, but overall the JMGO PicoPlay lets you hear the important bits.

Should you buy it?