Optoma LH150 Review: Portable DLP Projector

The Optoma LH150 is a great portable projector that’s small, bright and it even packs in a huge battery that delivers about 2.5 hours of runtime without plugging the projector in to power. That offers a lot of flexibility in where you take and use the LH150. Whether you want to use it in your backyard or in a boardroom, this offers a nice bit of flexibility.

This projector supports up to 1080P resolution and is bright enough to use even in a room with some lights on thanks to the 1,300 Lumen brightness rating. It is capable of producing up to a 150 inch image. It also comes with a carrying case and a remote.

The Optoma LH150 retails for $899, but you can find it on sale for around $869 at B&H Photo.

Is the Optoma LH150 a Good Portable Projector?

Yes, the Optoma LH150 is a great portable projector. The image quality is good, the design is stylish and minimal and it is light enough to easily take with you in a backpack or in the dedicated carrying case.

While you need power to connect some devices, this built-in 12,000mAH battery is great for connecting to a laptop or a tablet to watch on a bigger screen. While this projector is really designed around portability, you can mount it to a ceiling mount and it works with front or rear projection setups adding to that flexibility and usefulness.

I spent the last two months testing the Optoma LH150 in my office, swapped into a gaming room on an Elite Screens screen and taking it with me to a family get together to to project movies on a wall. I love the versatility of this projector and the quality and brightness that you get for the price.

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Optoma LH150 Quality and Use

The Optoma LH150 easily accepts input form a variety of sources. You can connect to one of the two HDMI ports or you can use USB or wireless connectivity options. This opens up the use cases and offers a nice range of flexibility.

When you unplug it from power the brightness drops noticeably, which will limit how good the quality looks in a room with the lights on. There is a eco mode that lasts 2.5 hours and a bright mode that lasts 90 minutes. On battery power the bright mode is 1,000 lumens and the eco mode is 500 lumens.

While watching movies, streaming TV shows and playing some games I found the video quality was quite good. I enjoyed playing a range of games on the projector, taking advantage of the bigger display, but it’s not a good stand in for competitive gaming. If you play a lot of online games where input lag is a major concern, you should be looking at projectors specifically addressing that segment, but for casual gamers it fits the bill.

The surface you project on matters as does the room you are projecting in, but with 30 to 150 inches of screen size and the 1300 lumen brightness I found that the video quality was good both on my Elite Screens screen and on an office wall. I did not mount the LH150, instead I set it on a desk and on other items while using it mainly in a portable fashion.

To get a good image you can use a flip out kickstand and the keystone correction which offers 30° vertical, ±20° horizontal to give you some flexibility in where you set the projector. There are also individual corner correction options in the settings to quickly get the image lined up right even when you are limited in your placement.

With 1,300 lumens of brightness you don’t want to use this with all the lights on full blast, but it is bright enough to use in a room with some lights on for a presentation or watching a movie when a big group comes over. You could use this outdoors on a wall in the late evening or at night, though I wasn’t brave enough to test that with winter temperatures in Ohio.

For connectivity, you can use the two HDMI ports, wirelessly connect iPhone, Android, Windows or Mac, or plug an iPhone or Android device into the USB port on the back to play content. I enjoyed plugging an iPhone 8 Plus on iOS 12 in and using it to watch Netflix or YouTube on a bigger screen. Optoma is working on an update to make this feature compatible with the iPhone X and newer.

The audio quality of the built-in speakers is good, but it’s not great. If you are watching a movie or gaming you should plan to plug into speakers using the 3.5mm jack on the back of the projector or the Bluetooth connection to pair to a speaker for better audio.

When running the projector is loud enough to hear, but it isn’t loud enough to be annoying and it’s definitely not going to impede on a presentation or cut too much into a movie or game, if you connect an external speaker for the latter activities. The lamp is rated for 30,000 hours before you will need to replace it.

Optoma LH150 Design

The Optoma LH150 is small enough to slide into a backpack, even with the included case on. This makes transporting easy with your laptop or you can simply carry it with the case Optoma includes. It weighs 4.7 pounds, which isn’t too much to carry, but if you are looking for a super portable solution, you may want to explore Pico projectors. I think this offers a good mix of portability and specs. The dimensions are 11” x 7.5” x 2.25″ and the carrying case doesn’t add any noticeable thickness.

There is a sliding lens cover on the front to protect the lens while in transit. There is no lock to keep it in place, but it stayed shut during my time with the projector. There are buttons and an IR receiver on the top of the projector to control it with. You can use the included remote, or the on device buttons.

With a small kickstand on the bottom it is easy to adjust the height slightly when setup on a table or stand. All the connections are on the back of the projector. These include Two HDMI, one USB, one USB for a WiFi adapter, power in and 3.5mm out.

There is only one LED on the projector which indicates when it is turned on. There is a battery indicator on the screen when projecting, but no indicator that you can see without first turning it on.