The crowdfunded OJO projector is essentially a dock that works as a projector for the Nintendo Switch. We had some hands-on time with a feature-complete prototype provided by the creators YesOJO, and have some thoughts on what it does right and where it can use improvement.
From our experience, the device isn’t all that bright. The OJO uses DMD LED tech from Texas Instruments’ which provides 200 lumens of brightness. Unless the room you’re in is really dark, it’s hard to figure out exactly what’s going on in-game, especially if the game environment itself is dark. The further the projector is pulled back, the dimmer the image becomes. The company suggests that it’s able to project between 30″ and 120″ of screen space. However, at about three feet away, I had a roughly 30-inch image with decent brightness. Pulling it back to around ten feet, I had a much bigger image, but things started to look a little hazy.
It’s also fairly low-res at 854×480 (16:9 aspect ratio). Games are playable at this resolution, but details are hard to make out in certain games. The text in Zelda: Breath of the Wild is a bit tough to read, and at night the world is tough to navigate. But under the right conditions, the projector can look just fine if you’re not too concerned with visual fidelity. I suppose it’s indented for more party-oriented games seeing as how the OJO isn’t ideal for games that have impressive visuals and use smaller details in their world, like Super Mario Odyssey or Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
When it comes to features, the OJO is battery-powered, so it doesn’t need to be plugged in and can be used on the go. It also charges through USB-C, and can use the normal Switch dock AC adapter. The projector can last up to five hours on a full charge, and can be set to charge mode which will replenish your Switch’s battery.
With its HDMI-in port, you can even use other devices. The OJO includes USB 3.0 ports and a 3.5mm auxiliary connection to use headphones or other external audio devices. Otherwise, the OJO’s five watt speaker can get pretty loud and sounds decent despite coming out of a small device. In addition, the cooling system seemed to keep the Switch and projector quite cool and didn’t get very noisey.
The OJO projector is a neat idea with plenty of well-thought out features to complement it, but at its core, it displays Switch games at a larger format, which is where it comes up a bit short. With a brighter screen and sharper resolution, it could really shine. But for now, you’d have to find the right conditions to be able to use it optimally.
The OJO projector hit its $30,000 crowdfunding goal on Indiegogo last month within 24 hours of announcement. Early bird packs are available for $300 and the first batch of units are planned to ship out in December.
