Boxlight BumbleBee LED/DLP, Palm Portable Projector Review: General Performance-2

Boxlight Bumblebee Lens Throw and Lens shift.

Bumblebee has no adjustable lens shift, and it lacks a zoom lens. As a result, there is only one ratio for screen size vs. distance. As noted in the first page of this review, placing the front of the projector 5 ft. 6 inches to a 50″ diagonal screen (standard 4:3 aspect ratio). This is identical to the Mitsubishi PK20

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Boxlight Bumblebee Projector - Screen Door Effect and Rainbow Effect

Almost Perfect! Since the Bumblebee doesn’t need a color wheel, there cannot be any Rainbow effect, and since it is a DLP projector, the pixel structure is barely detectable, unless you get very close.

Boxlight Bumblebee Projector – Audible Noise

While using the Bumblebee, I noticed that the noise will increase and decrease, as needed, to keep it cool while operating.. Most of the time the projector is very quiet, rivalling a good home theater projector. Sometimes, however the fan kicks into high gear. When it does, it still isn’t offensively noisy.

Boxlight Bumblebee Projector Brightness

While I did not measure the Mitsubishi PK20 when I reviewed it, I did hook up my gear to see if the Bumblebee hits its claimed 150 lumens. I must confess, however, that I don’t know how accurate my light metering system is at these low levels.

Still, the Bumblebee not only did not achieve the 150 lumens, but measured in at less than 50 lumens (actually 38 lumens in its brightest mode, and as little as 22 lumens. These are not official numbers, as this is the first time I have tried using my metering system for a projector with such low light output. I have no idea how accurate it is at these levels, but I can tell you its one of the reasons in my home theater projector reviews that I don’t measure grayscales below 30 IRE, because of the the accuracy of my gear at such low light levels.

In the brightest mode – “enhanced”, the color shifts strongly to green, which can be cleaned up with the RGB controls. Color temperature was measured at 6670K. The other modes were even warmer (shifted more towards red).

Boxlight Bumblebee LED/DLP Projector - Lamp Life and Brightness

This is the beauty of LED lit projectors. The LED lights last far longer than traditional projector type lamps – whose life is normally between 2000 and at most, 4000 hours.

Boxlight rates the Bumblebee at 10,000 hours. Now that’s 10 hours a week for twenty years!

In other words if your lamps go out anywhere near that time, I’m sure you’ll be able to buy an even smaller, much brighter projector, for far less than the cost of repairing the Bumblebee. I am not aware of what it would cost to replace an LED light that failed early. There is no traditional lamp door, as would be found on most projectors, so, who knows – it may be like the new Apple iPhone’s battery, if it goes, it needs factory service. Still – 10,000 hours expected life – that should be long enough for just about everyone.