Pros & Cons
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- Lightweight
- Full HD (1080p) native resolution
- Android OS 9 for streaming, Wi-Fi, and screen mirroring
- Battery rated at up to 2.5 hours per charge in Eco mode
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- No controls for adjusting image quality, even for brightness and contrast
- Only one picture mode
- Image is slightly oversharpened
- Requires a network connection to mirror mobile devices
- Hard to adjust for best focus
Kodak Luma 450 Portable Full HD Smart Projector Specs
| Dimensions (HWD) | 1.3 by 5 by 5 inches |
| Engine Type | DLP |
| Inputs and Interfaces | HDMI 2.2 |
| Maximum Resolution | 3840 by 2160 @ 30Hz |
| Native Resolution | 1920 by 1080 |
| Rated Brightness | 200 |
| Warranty | 1 |
| Weight | 1.2 |
At $549.99, the Kodak Luma 450 is the flagship model in Kodak's Luma line, a set of similar-looking projectors that includes the Luma 75, our Editors' Choice pick for a pocket projector, and the Luma 350, our top pick among 854-by-480-pixel palmtops. All the Luma models share the same flat, rectangular palmtop shape, differing primarily in size and features. The 450 is tied for biggest in the group, while still being small enough to sit comfortably on a palm, and it offers the highest native resolution. It doesn't earn an Editors' Choice slot, but it delivers more than enough to be worth considering. At 1.2 pounds, it's the smallest, lightest 1080p projector we've seen to date.
Small, Light, and Packed With Features
Size, of course, is a relative term. The Luma 450 is a lot bigger than the Luma 75, for example, but it's also small enough to fit in a coat pocket, at 1.3 by 5 by 5 inches (HWD). Like most small projectors than can be battery-powered, it's built around an LED light source and a diamond-array DLP chip, which offers a lower power draw compared with TI's rectangular chips to increase battery life. For the Luma 450, the rated runtime on a charge (along with the image brightness) varies with the three power modes, at 1.5 hours for High power mode, 2 hours for Normal, and 2.5 hours for Eco.
The diamond-array chip can also introduce artifacts to the projected image, but these show up only in images with small, repeating patterns. They can be a potential problem for presentations that use patterned fills, but they're not much of an issue for other graphics, or for watching film and video.
As with many projectors today (though uncommon among palmtops), the Luma 450 includes built-in streaming, using Android OS 9 in this case as opposed to Android TV. Wi-Fi is the only connection choice to your internet-connected network. After you've completed the initial setup routine, you'll find apps for a number of popular streaming sites installed (including Netflix, YouTube, and Hulu), as well as an app for downloading more. Note, though, that at least the ones I tested require installing Kodak's Luma app on your phone or tablet, and connecting the mobile device to the same network as the projector, to actually use them.
Physical setup requires no more than (optionally) connecting to AC power and an image source, turning the power on, manually focusing, and adjusting the image size by moving the projector. The unit also features digital zoom and keystone features for that, but as with any projector, these are best ignored, since they lower brightness and can add artifacts.
Kodak also includes a table-top tripod in the box, which helps make it easy to aim at whatever you're using as a screen. In addition to streaming through a Wi-Fi connection, the Luma 450 offers an HDMI port and a USB Type-A port for reading files from USB memory or powering an HDMI streaming dongle. It also supports screen mirroring for iOS and Android devices connected to the same network.
The onboard set of two 1-watt speakers is suitable for use in a small, quiet room. For higher volume or better audio quality, you can use Bluetooth or the 3.5mm audio-out to connect headphones or an external sound system.
Image Quality: Good Enough for Presentations, Home Entertainment
Image quality for both business presentations and home entertainment is best described as good enough to be useful, which is about as much as you can expect from any projector in this category. The Luma 450 offers only a single picture mode, and no controls for adjusting even such basic settings as brightness, contrast, and sharpening.
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A sharpening control would be at the top of my wish list, since the locked-in setting was a touch over-sharpened. This was mostly an issue for small text that you might want to use in a presentation, since it resulted in ringing that made small fonts hard to read. But it also showed in fine detail in photorealistic images. In closeups of faces, for example, it tended to enhance small blemishes and pores.
The sharpening was less obvious in videos and film, since any movement of the image helped hide the effect. But the combination of the over-sharpening and a thumbwheel focus control that's hard to adjust for the best focus left the resolution, in the sense of ability to resolve detail, a bit below what 1080p promises.
Some colors in both business graphics and movies were off by enough to be obvious, with skin tones in our test suite showing a yellow bias in many cases. Also, some colors in photorealistic images were so oversaturated that they wandered a bit outside of a realistic range. However, that's not unusual for LED-based projectors, and forgivable for a palmtop. Some people even prefer oversaturated color. Some images also lost significant shadow in my viewing tests with movies and video, but enough held even in dark scenes to be able to make out what was happening in the shadows.
Note that there is no support for 3D, and input lag is too long for gamers. I measured the latter with a Leo Bodnar meter at 165ms for a 1080p, 60Hz input.
Kodak rates the projector at 200 ANSI lumens for the brightest mode. Don't compare that to the higher LED lumens that some competing projectors claim. (ANSI lumens are a standard, while LED lumens are not.) More important, the Luma 450's image was as bright as I expect from the rating. According to the Society for Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) recommendations, depending on how bright an image you prefer, 200 lumens is suitable in a dark room for long sessions to light up a 55- to 74-inch diagonal, 16:9, 1.0-gain screen. I tend to prefer the brighter end of the range, and in my tests, I settled on using a 56-inch image. (See our guide to choosing the right projector screen.)
The Verdict: A Tempting Lightweight Projector
If you want as light a projector as possible and a resolution that will show more detail on screen than models with 720p or lower resolutions, the Kodak Luma 450 is a strong contender. The AAXA M7 comes closer to delivering on the promise of its native 1080p spec, but without onboard streaming, and at about two-and-a-half times the weight.
On the other hand, if you don't mind a lower resolution, the 720p Kodak Luma 400 offers similar features to the 450 for lower cost, while the 854-by-480-pixel Luma 350, our top pick for its size and resolution, offers similar features, as well, at a still lower price. That said, if you need a projector with a built-in battery, a weight of little more than a pound, and the highest resolution for that weight, the 450 is the Luma projector you want.