The VANKYO Leisure 3 is a very basic, entry-level projector. It's designed to quickly share media from your phone or mobile device over a wide selection of inputs, including USB, microSD, or even VGA for older devices.
Our Verdict
Unfortunately, the VANKYO Leisure 3 Mini Projector is bad for watching movies in a dark room. It has terrible contrast, so fine details are very hard to make out in dim scenes. There's also noticeable vignetting in the corners, and it's so dim that it's not useable at all in a room with any light.
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Decent portability.
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Terrible contrast.
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Terribly low peak brightness.
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Terrible accuracy.
- 2.3 Movies
- Updated Aug 02, 2024: We've converted this review to Test Bench 0.9. We've overhauled our Contrast tests, as we now measure contrast at various average pixel levels (APL). You can see the full changelog here.
- Updated May 23, 2024: Mentioned the newly-reviewed WiMiUS P63 in the Brightness section of this review.
- Updated Feb 13, 2024: Review published.
Differences Between Sizes And Variants
We bought and tested the VANKYO Leisure 3 projector. This brand has a wide selection of projectors, including a wireless variant of this one known as the VANKYO Leisure 3W. The 3W supports wireless casting and streaming from many popular streaming services, including Netflix, but the projector itself is the same.
Compared To Other Projectors
This projector is terrible, and you shouldn't buy it. It's so dim that it isn't useable if there's any light on in the room, and it looks terrible in a dark room due to its low contrast.
Check out our recommendations for the best portable projectors and the best outdoor projectors. If you'd prefer to shop for another product in the same price range, look up the best projectors under $500 instead.
The KODAK LUMA 150 is better than the VANKYO Leisure 3, but only because the KODAK is much more portable due to its smaller size and integrated battery. When it comes to image quality, they're both equally abysmal.
The VANKYO Leisure 470 is better than the VANKYO Leisure 3. Both projectors don't get bright enough for use in a room with any lighting and have dull and inaccurate colors, but the Leisure 470 has deeper blacks thanks to its much better contrast, so it looks better in a dark room. The Leisure 470 is also more versatile since it has two HDMI ports, whereas the Leisure 3 only has one.
Test Results
This projector has decent portability. It's compact and lightweight, and it comes with a carrying case, so you can carry it around easily. There's no battery, and it has to be plugged in, though, so you can't just use it anywhere. There's also no automatic keystone adjustment, so you need to adjust the screen geometry each time you move it. There are speakers, but they're not very loud. There's also a built-in fan to help with cooling, but it's very loud.
This compact projector uses an uncommon aspect ratio with an 800x480 native resolution. It uses an LCD panel with an LED backlight, so you'll likely never have to replace the backlight.
Unfortunately, the VANKYO Leisure 3 has terrible brightness and bad uniformity when projected on a 100" screen. The center of the projected image is nearly twice as bright as the sides, and there's noticeable vignetting. It's too dim to be used in a room with any ambient light. For something similar yet brighter, look up the WiMiUS P63.
Unfortunately, this projector has bad contrast. Blacks are deep, but mainly because the projector is so dim.
This projector has terrible accuracy. The white balance and color accuracy are completely off, to the point that some colors show up as something completely different.
Even after calibration, the accuracy is terrible, as this projector has almost no calibration features available. The white balance and color accuracy are slightly better, but it still looks terrible.
The color gamut is sub-par. This projector can't even display anything close to the full range of colors in SDR content, and it's no better with Rec. 2020 content in HDR.
