Welcome to the Age of Ultra-Cheap, Ad-Filled Projectors

With all the Roku-native TVs crowding the market, the company behind today’s popular streaming platform wants to project a new kind of cheap option for streaming. Roku partnered up with Aurzen, the makers of the $300 Z-shaped Aurzen Zip mini projector, and now they have a full $250 cinema you can set up for quick and dirty Netflix or Howdy (Roku’s $3/month ad-free streaming service) and chill sessions on your bedroom wall—as long as you’re not expecting the brightest display.

Take a breath and read with me: the Aurzen Roku TV Smart Projector D1R Cube (breath out) is Roku’s first smart projector that comes with Roku TV OS by default. For its cheap price, it comes with access to all your usual streaming apps (Netflix still isn’t fully integrated with Google TV) plus all the free movies you get through Roku’s service and live TV channels. The main unit contains both the projector lens and dual 5W speakers. Of course, it will still connect with Roku Smart Home as well as Apple AirPlay. The device also supports 2.4GHz and 5GHz Wi-Fi, along with Bluetooth. There are a few other ports for HDMI and USB, and a headphone jack.

Aurzen and Roku’s latest device is a relatively cheap projector, and considering its price, you can’t expect the brightest and best picture quality. The D1R Cube boasts 1080p resolution with a max of 330 ANSI lumens. That will be enough for a dark room, but your picture quality will dim significantly with lights on or in daylight. While Roku and Aurzen promoted their projectors for backyard watch parties, you’ll want to make sure your backyard is as pitch black as possible for the best experience.

It can technically boost the image to 150 inches, though with its limited resolution I would suggest keeping the image contained. But hey, it’s relatively cheap and promises to be relatively idiot-proof with a guided setup, autofocus, and auto keystone correction. The latter option should help center your projector image, though it may come at the cost of image quality.

At under $300, the all-in-one projector seems even more enticing when you glance at the more luxury models, such as the Anker SoundCore Nebula X1 Pro, which comes with a full surround sound speaker setup for $4,000. Smaller devices may prove more up your alley, such as TCL’s PlayCube, which boasts 750 ISO lumens packed into a cute box-like design with a rotating speaker. That device also costs $800 and comes with Google TV packed in. Going cheaper will lead to drawbacks, but for a quick camp-out cinema, it’s going to be pretty difficult to find something more affordable than the D1R Cube.

Then again, if you’re not one to appreciate more ads marring your viewing experience, Roku has not been shy about promoting all the ways it intends to fill its TV OS with advertising—including AI-generated ads. Like I already mentioned, affordability will inevitably come with a share of drawbacks.