Samsung is no stranger to the home theater, and it makes some truly high-end projection systems. The Freestyle is something a little different, though. With the first-generation Freestyle, Samsung introduced a novel little projector that was simple to plop down and project just about anywhere. With The Freestyle Gen 2, Samsung’s upgrades are mostly under the hood with a capable operating system for streaming movies, shows and games alike. At $800, it’s a bit pricey for a projector that’s not up to snuff in the image quality department, but for an adaptable display that’s mostly competent, it’s an interesting auxiliary to the home entertainment center.
Samsung’s The Freestyle Gen 2 is a capable streaming platform for movies and games with a lot of flexibility, though it’s not the best option if you’re looking for picture quality.
What we liked about it
It’s quick and easy to set up
The main highlight of the original The Freestyle was its flexibility, and this second-generation model leaves the physical design unchanged. The projector is a small unit that’s about the size of a large can of soup, and it sits on a small pedestal that makes it easy to point at just about any angle. If you make adjustments while the projector is running, it will quickly readjust the picture to square itself with the wall and correct the focus. It’s about as quick at making these corrections as any projector I’ve tested, which is to say that if you had to move yourself to move the projector, then the projector will likely have the image sorted before you have yourself sorted again.
Since The Freestyle Gen 2 is powered over USB-C, you don’t have to carry around a bulky adapter when you’re moving it from place to place. You can also feasibly buy multiple USB-C power bricks to station at different points in your house where you regularly set up the projector. You can also just run it off a compatible portable charger; it only requires a 50W output.
Even getting up and streaming is quick, as there’s a Samsung TV Plus app on the projector that works a lot like a standard TV, offering a variety of channels and live programming.
The operating system is snappier than a lot of competitors
I’ve tested a solid handful of projectors, and a good many of them have streaming platforms built in, but their ability to run their own operating system can vary widely. Many offer such weak computing components that navigating the operating system to pull up streaming content could be a real slog. It’s not surprising to see even a $1,000-plus projector slow to a crawl to the point where even just trying to adjust volume proves tedious. Samsung manages to avoid this with snappy performance on its Tizen operating system.
Generally, navigating to and within apps is quick and responsive. This is helpful not only when looking for something to watch (or trying to get back to content after accidentally hitting the remote and launching another app) but when trying to adjust settings while a video is playing.
The sound is unexpectedly loud
Despite its small size and the fact that The Freestyle Gen 2 is packing in a whole projection system and smart TV platform, Samsung still found space to pack in a potent little speaker. In a 100-square-foot room, it feels plenty loud and full even at just 30% volume. The sound is clear as well, not seeing bass overwhelm crucial things like dialogue or a tinniness weakening the listening experience.
The audio may not be up to snuff if you’re trying to have a large watch party, but the quality is good enough that The Freestyle Gen 2 isn’t a device you have to always plan on using with an external speaker. That’s a big plus for the projector’s flexibility and how easy it is to set up in different scenarios.
It has some interesting and potentially useful accessories
The little pedestal stand of The Freestyle Gen 2 is just a starting point for its flexibility. Samsung has a few different accessories to let you use the projector in different ways. One is an external battery that neatly attaches to the bottom of the projector stand. It increases the size and weight of the system considerably and costs an extra $190, but it provided three hours of run time in my testing.
While some projectors can be set up with ceiling mounts, the permanent nature of that kind of setup isn’t really The Freestyle Gen 2’s style. So Samsung has a curious adapter that plugs into an E26 or E27 light bulb socket to hold and power the projector. Unfortunately, it doesn’t interface with the stand but rather the bottom of the projector directly, so it’s not a good alternative to ceiling mounting, as the projector will only point directly down (or in whatever direction the socket faces).
What we didn’t like about it
The picture quality isn’t all that
Though it’s a capable little projector, The Freestyle Gen 2 isn’t going to offer the regal picture you might expect from a product in its price class. Epson’s EpiqVision EF12 is similar in price and delivers a much more stunning picture, and it’s got similar portability but not quite the same flexibility. Meanwhile, a projector like the XGIMI Horizon Pro is only a little more expensive and goes even further with a brighter picture than either and a 4K resolution to boot.
By comparison, Samsung’s projector has some serious shortcomings. For one thing, the 1080p projection doesn’t feel as sharp as it could. It may be a shortcoming of the DLP chip used to project light from the device, but small gaps show between pixels, making what might have otherwise looked like a reasonably smooth image feel more pixelated. I encountered a similar artifact in testing the Anker Nebula Capsule 3 Laser projector and XGIMI’s Elfin, but it’s not an issue I’ve run into on every small 1080p projector.
Color is decent but not as vibrant as you can get from some systems, and there are plenty of TVs offering exceptional color under $1,000. And the brightness, at a 230 ANSI lumen peak, is perfect for a dark room but far too dim to use in a fully lit room or one with daylight pouring through the windows. While most projectors will suffer in bright conditions, some can do considerably better. The previously mentioned EpiqVision EF12, for instance, hits 1,000 nits.
This all adds up to visuals that are OK for some casual viewing. I enjoyed watching cartoons such as “Invincible” on the projector well enough, but I was unimpressed by the visuals and lack of fidelity while watching live-action films like “Sicario.”
Connectivity options are not ideal
The Freestyle Gen 2 relies on one of two things to be useful: Wi-Fi for its built-in streaming services or HDMI for external video sources. Samsung has made disappointing choices for both connections, though. The projector only supports Wi-Fi 5. Wi-Fi 6 has become far more commonplace (and Wi-Fi 7 is already appearing on the market), and it offers faster and more stable connections, ideal for things like streaming video and games.
In my testing, the projector didn’t really struggle with internet connections for watching shows and movies, but it was always in an environment with a strong Wi-Fi signal. Perhaps the more demanding scenario is gaming, where the connection for cloud gaming should be high bandwidth to support the video feed of the game, low-latency to keep gameplay responsive and impeccably consistent. The Freestyle Gen 2 has a helpful gaming hub baked in, which lets me tap into both Samsung-provided games (which stream through Blacknut) and cloud streaming platforms like GeForce Now and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. The hub made finding games to play quick and worked smoothly with an Xbox Bluetooth controller paired with the projector.
While I was able to game satisfactorily on The Freestyle Gen 2, I did catch a hitch every now and then, and there was plenty of visual degradation during big camera movements. Compression of the video stream could be a culprit for the visual issues, but Wi-Fi 6 would have given the projector a better shot at consistent quality. That was also with a rock-solid 5GHz Wi-Fi signal. A weaker signal led to dramatically worse visuals, spotty audio and less responsive controls.
Then there’s the HDMI port. Instead of the full-size port you’ll find on just about anything in the AV space, Samsung has gone with a Micro HDMI, which I don’t think I’ve seen on a new product in the last decade. For many, this will probably mean buying a new HDMI cable or adapter dongles to use the projector with external devices, like game consoles or streaming players. Micro HDMI connections also feel far more delicate than those with full-size plugs, raising some durability concerns for the port (my last device with a Micro HDMI port, a pico projector that could fit in my pocket, had the port fail before anything else). USB is also a common port for projectors for local playback of media, but The Freestyle Gen 2 only has its USB-C charging port, so local playback requires either casting/screen-mirroring or using a USB-C hub with sufficient power passthrough to keep the projector running.
Bottom line
Samsung’s The Freestyle Gen 2 isn’t an exceptional projector, but it is a fun toy. That’s perhaps how to best think of it. Image quality leaves a lot to be desired next to the competition, and it’s hardly a replacement for a similarly priced TV. It’s simply not bright or beautiful enough to stack up to the alternatives. That said, its edge is in its ease of use and flexibility. No TV is as easy to set up in all the places you can simply plunk down the projector, and it’s a lot less fussy than plenty of other projectors.
If you’re after an excellent home theater, this is not the right projector. But as a way to set up a quick viewing party for a kid and their friends, to watch a movie on the ceiling before bed or to shine some decorations and ambiance on the wall during a party, it’s an effective pick. With its ability to tap into cloud gaming, it’s also a fun gaming platform but still a little underwhelming next to other projectors and TVs.
