Yaber – Buffalo Pro U10 Native 1080P Entertainment LCD Projector with Bidirectional Bluetooth – Gray

I really like this Yaber 1080P LCD Projector, especially for the price point of this projector. This is not meant to replace your high end projector that you might be looking to replace. Instead, I plan to use this more when I go on road trips with my family. Out of the box you will notice that this Yaber projector is lightweight. It comes with some nice accessories that allows you to take it with you wherever you like. It comes with a nice carrying case and some cleaning accessories to keep the lens clean. It also comes with a nice little remote and a 3-in-1 AV cable and of course a power cord. This is all you will need to take it with you where ever you like. Once you get it connected and start it up, the first thing you will notice is the noise coming from the fan. This is the only reason why I gave this Yaber a 4 out of 5 stars. It is much noisier than I anticipated. Once you get past the noise, you won’t be disappointed. To begin with, you will need to adjust the lens to get it focused. In order to make the picture bigger, all you need to do is draw the projector further away from the screen. You can’t adjust the height of the picture with the projector, so you will need to make sure that you place the projector with enough height. Keeping in mind the price point, the picture that comes out of this Yaber projector is pretty good. The picture it produces has enough colors with enough dark colors to provide a nice picture. To summarize, I primarily like this projector because of its portability, picture quality and price point. I would recommend this projector if you are looking for something you can take with you.

My family and I love the outdoors but sometimes we like to bring the indoors out and this little projector will allow us to do just that. When we go on camping trips sometimes we bring a small tv but now we can make our own theater with this and a portable screen! The projector is small and lightweight with a nice carrying case for the projector and all accessories. The projector has Airplay and Miracst built in which makes it easy to enjoy your favorite movies or games. With two hdmi inputs you can also bring your favorite game console along for the ride. If the built in speaker isn’t enough you can also use a Bluetooth speaker for better sound. This will definitely be beneficial if you don’t wanna have to listen to the fan noise when the projector is running. The fan is not overly noisy but it might bother you if using this on a table between two chairs. Connecting to a Bluetooth speaker will solve this by allowing you to sit further away from the device. Along with hdmi it also has two USB-a ports, one VGA port and a 3.5 headphone jack.
The Yaber U10 offers an easy way to bring the party to the outdoors and not break the bank. Pairing this with an inexpensive foldable projector screen allows you to have a home theater experience anywhere you are. Back yard parties, camping trips, presentations or anywhere else you want to enjoy HD content, the Yaber U10 makes it easy.

Yaber – Buffalo Pro U10 Native 1080P Entertainment LCD Projector with Bidirectional Bluetooth
Have you been dreaming about an inexpensive, ultra-portable, high performing video projector? It’s here. Yaber has entered the projector market with a well-rounded high definition (1080P resolution) home theater projector. There’s even a carry case. I’ve provided a few photos taken directly off of my 110” screen. My comments should be considered in the context of my everyday viewing. The “other” projector that shares this same screen is a 4k SONY projector costing far more. It’s a tough and demanding comparison that the Yaber can not win. While it’s a great reference point for comparison purposes, it isn’t the point of my review. You and I both want to know how competent this much more affordable Yaber is and whether it will be satisfying for regular use with multiple sources. Having a point of reference should keep me grounded in reality.
In the Box: the projector, A Remote Control, Power cord, HDMI cable, carry case (bag), 3-in-1 AV Cable, Cleaning Kit, User Manual.
Weight 4.9 lbs.
Mount on table-top or from ceiling. Setting allows image flipping. Keystone correction available.
LED light source life is 25,000 hours. This is so much longer than a lamp.
SETUP: I set the Yaber U10 on a high platform, perfectly aligned with a really big (110”) screen around 14 feet away. This allowed me to fill the screen with the image and not have to fuss with the “keystone” alignment. The only way to change image size is to alter the Yaber-to-screen distance. There is no digital zoom, well, unless you count shrinking the image.
I used an AppleTV streaming signal to the Yaber. My audio output would be handled by my Yamaha Audio Video Receiver (AVR) which sits between my Apple streamer and the Yaber U10. The Yaber provides a 3.5mm audio jack input and output so you can send your audio to a soundbar. The Yaber U10 also includes bi-directional Bluetooth for audio connections. This allows the projector to be used as a wireless speaker or to stream audio to external headphones or speakers.
Later in my testing I inserted a USB drive that had family photos and videos which were easy to display. All this is managed using the small, but very complete remote control which helps you access USB ports (1/2), HDMI ports (1/2), audio input (3.5mm jack, or the VGA input. The REMOTE allows you to control almost every important feature but you will have to manually FOCUS. Which is fairly easy and reliable. I wish the focus control was a bit tighter and finer to give me more confidence.
After an hour of viewing I noticed a small black smudge/speck on my projected image. At my huge image magnification the speck is the size of an aspirin tablet on the lower right quadrant. The simple, fan driven cooling design of the Yaber means that dust might enter the area of the light path. It happened to my model, probably a result of residual manufacturing debris. Yaber provides a crude, but sensible solution for this in the form of a cleaning kit of sponge swabs and instructions on how to access the area of the problem speck. Firstly, and unhelpfully, the door accessing the light path is hidden under the specification label, though it can be removed fairly easily. Secondly, that door opening is small, offering little visibility of the multiple surfaces you can see. So, where is the microscopic speck? No idea. I carefully DRY swab what’s in easy reach with the foam Q-tip, and then close everything up to take a look. The speck is still there on the screen. I’ll come back and try again, but, a little help here, Yaber! They do provide a lens cover to help reduce dust on the lens surface, but dust here would appear as a cloudy graying of the image.
PERFORMANCE: My review was completed while watching images projected onto my 110” (horizontal), plain white screen. My reference projector that typically uses this screen is a SONY 4K unit costing 20x more. There is no doubt which projector wins the comparison, so let’s concentrate on the differences and how they impact my enjoyment. And remember, I’m also really stretching the image out bigger than most people might want. The Yaber lets you select the image size by moving the projector further or closer to the screen. Another important issue: this is a light controlled room. In other words, it’s very dark. While the Yaber U10 has sufficient brightness to allow you to view with indirect (not on the screen) light. If a high quality viewing experience is important to you, darken the room, or wait until after sunset for viewing the big game or favorite movie.
Upon startup the Yaber U10 is bright, quite colorful with sufficient contrast (nice black areas) to create a compelling image. The Yaber U10 offers a settings menu allowing you to modify brightness, contrast, color warmth, saturation or sharpness. Out of the box, Yaber aimed for a nice cinema quality image. I compared a photo of a full color test pattern taken using the Yaber and taken with my 4K Sony. All the colors were there on the Yaber and they were accurate. The Yaber image doesn’t have the subtle beauty of the more expensive projector. There is less range, intensity and depth in the colors. The image is somewhat noisier, with a rougher texture. Contrast/brightness ratio was pretty accurate. The edges of buildings or fine lines in the Yaber image are more jagged, not rock solid. Pixels were not visible from 5 feet away. Noise level was 42dB from my viewing position, 6 feet from the projector, vs room ambient noise of 34dB. You can hear the Yaber projector vs the silent, high priced projector.
Yep, you can see and hear differences. But, it’s the similarities that are more interesting. After fussing over the differences, I quickly settled into the movie, or music video or game. The overall picture is more right than wrong. It is more natural than flawed. It’s a quite surprising image for an under $300 projector. I can easily justify taking this on the road for show and tell, or an evening of entertainment. Sure, I see the differences, but that’s my curse. I also can shrug them off and enjoy the huge show. Speaking of huge, there’s nothing that improves a picture more than shrinking it somewhat. A 90” or 80” picture is really big, too, but will be sharper, have better line edging, and even deeper colors. Imperfections readily disappear. The Yaba U10 loses an unfair fight, but it has a winning picture in a lessor category. Few projectors look this good near this price.
SUMMARY: All those connectivity features really work. My iPhone or gaming console connected and sent an image as promised. I focused my review on image quality. If you’re trying to replicate the local IMAX in image detail, sharpness, color saturation, and reproducing reality, you’re gonna want to spend some serious money. What’s amazing about the Yaber U10 is that you’ll find yourself so impressed by the large image on a big wall or screen. You’ll ignore and forget about those nit-picky imperfections because they simply aren’t distracting. When the important elements of color, brightness and contrast are mostly right, the performance will win you over. There is so much here to like at a shockingly low price. I’m not sure that even with an aspirin sized speck on screen it’s fair to deduct a point.

I’ve never had a projector and really wanted one for use by the pool. At such a great price point, it’s hard not to give this one a whirl.
​​TL;DR for my frequent readers and details below.
Good:
Adjustments / Digital Zoom
Brightness indoor & at night outdoor
Throw distance
Inputs (HDMI, etc)
Exhaust temps
Carrying case
Bad:
Bluetooth delay from projector to speaker
Remote useable from front only
Meh:
No velcro on inner case kid pocket, manual, tools fall out
No front height adjustment
Once unboxed, powered up & connected to WiFi, I was ready to go.
Just a heads up – when opening the case, the books or whatever thin materials you keep in the top lid pocket fall out as there isn’t any velcro to hold the pocket together – makes me not want to use the pocket
I tried to update the firmware after attaching it to WiFi, but it gave me some message about ‘not fully booting up’ – so I figure I’ll chase that down at some point in the future but it wasn’t a huge deal.
I used a Chromecast with GoogleTV dongle via HDMI and a bluetooth speaker paired to the Chromecast. This setup worked perfectly with no audio lag. I also tried out a Roku that doesn’t support bluetooth pairing, forcing me to pair to the projector. This is where I had a problem.
Via the projector, I found that the bluetooth delay can range from half a second to over a second – you see the mouth moving before you hear the audio. In looking through the menus, there is no bluetooth delay setting to tune the audio so it was perpetually out of sync.
When trying to adjust the zoom to fit my 120in screen when it should be 140in, I found that you can’t control the projector when standing behind it. You have to be just about directly in front of the projector to control the menus and for me that was putting the remote over the pool & hoping I didn’t drop it.
But even if the throw is a little too big for your screen, Digital Zoom (in the keystone menu) allows you to size it down a bit. I found it useful as my first attempt at an outdoor screen wasn’t completely square and used this feature to make the projection fit cleanly within the even parts of the screen.
In using this for a number of days, I found great response time and no motion blur. I recall the early LCD days and the blur on just about anything ‘sports’ – but not the case here. Movies looked nice and sports scores were easy to read even at 100+in at 20ish feet.
Exhaust temperature from the unit isn’t all that terrible. Actually, it exhausts somewhere between 95-111 degrees F, and my 16in MacBook Pro throws around 115F – so pretty good heat removal which makes me hope for some longevity of the components. In a smaller room, the fan is audible, but no more than a regular desk / floor fan is.
Prior to getting my screen, I gave it some indoor / wall / door tests along with basic usability evaluation. From what I could tell, there’s a multiplier of around 7.5. So, for every foot of distance from the screen, you’ll be at that size screen. At 6.5 feet, it was roughly a 52in display (based on me measuring diagonally against a door). At 20-ish feet, I was around 140in screen but using the fantastic digital zoom function, sized it down to fit my 120in screen & a little further to fit nicely in my makeshift screen setup!
For the price point and if you aren’t an audiophile or videophile, this should do you just fine.
Recommended!