DBPOWER L21 projector review – Under $100

DBPOWER L21 video projector

DBPOWER L21 is a very affordable video projector we’re reviewing today. You can find it for just under $90 (Amazon link).

For that price, you get a projector that has an LED lamp with the brightness of 4,200 lumens and an estimated life span of about 50,000 hours. So realistically you should never have to replace the lamp.

The projector comes in a fairly small box but very well protected. In the box, aside from the projector, we are going to find the remote control.

The remote control is fairly basic but it works very well because the projector has an IR receiver on the front and one on the back. So it doesn’t matter which way you’re pointing the remote control: towards the front or towards the back of the projector – it always works.

Aside from that we are going find an HDMI cable, AV cable, and of course, the power cable for the projector. Of course, there is also a user manual in the box and if this is your first projector it may be useful to read but I found that the projector is extremely simple to use.

DBPOWER L21 Frontal view
DBPOWER L21 Frontal view

The projector itself is mostly made out of plastic like most projectors today. On the top, we see the branding, the focus ring, the keystone ring, and of course, the buttons for it but you can access everything right from the remote control so you don’t actually have to touch the projector at all.

On the front, we have the lens and IR receiver. There is also a plastic cap that can cover the lens. It depends if you wanna use that or not, you should basically use it whenever you’re not on using the projector.

DBPOWER L21 plastic cap
DBPOWER L21 plastic cap

On the back, we have a VGA input and of course the second IR receiver. On the left-hand side, we have the slot for the SD card, 3.5 mm audio jack (just in case you want to connect some speakers), we also have the port for the AV cable, two HDMI ports, and lastly a USB port. On the other side, we just have the port for the power cable.

DBPOWER L21 ports
DBPOWER L21 ports

Moving to the bottom of the DBPOWER L21 projector, there we have the holes for the speaker and I have to say that this speaker is one of the loudest speakers that I’ve heard on a projector so far. We also have a quarter-inch screw hole, just in case you want to mount the projector on the ceiling. Then we have a little adjustment screw, so you can adjust the position of the projector whenever it’s sitting on a table.

DBPOWER L21 menu
DBPOWER L21 menu

Using the projector is fairly simple and you can use it just like this by plugging in a USB Drive, an external drive, or an SD card. The maximum resolution supported by this projector is 720p. So whenever you are watching something on the screen or on the wall, you’re basically seeing it in 720p. However, if you do have a 1080p file on an SD card, for example, you can still play that file but you’re gonna be seeing that video in 720p. You can play video files up to 1080p if you want to play files right from the projector. If you have a 4K file, you’re not going to be able to play that file.

For the price of DBPOWER L21, I think 720p is more than okay because if you’re looking for a higher resolution you’re going to spend more money. The video quality is pretty decent if you’re using the projector in a darker place.

DBPOWER L21 1080p video
DBPOWER L21 1080p video

Of course, you can also use this projector connected to a TV box, Apple TV, computer or anything like that over on an HDMI port. All you have to do is to switch to the HDMI port from the remote control and then you can use whatever device you have connected to the projector.

DBPOWER L21 as a computer screen
DBPOWER L21 as a computer screen

DBPOWER L21 works great as a computer screen. It is difficult to capture the screen with a camera because cameras don’t usually do that great in low light. The image actually looks better in reality than it shows on the picture.

For the price under $90, I don’t think you can go wrong with a projector like this. However, if you do need a higher resolution you should probably buy something more expensive. For its price DBPOWER L21 does offer a pretty good value.

Find it on Amazon

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