LG CineBeam PU700R projector one-ups the Samsung Freestyle — but it’s plagued with issues

Last year, Samsung introduced the Freestyle, a projector with a unique pivoting design that let it shine at a wide range of angles. LG comes (not quite hot) on the heels of that with the CineBeam PU700R, which sits on a pedestal and uses a similar pivoting system. There’s a major difference, though: LG’s projector is offering a substantial picture upgrade with a 4K resolution and notably higher brightness. As a natural result, LG has a higher asking price, calling for $1,700. Here’s a look at how it holds up:

What we liked about it

A crisp and colorful picture

The LG CineBeam PU700R gets at least one crucial thing right: its picture looks great in a dim room. It’s plenty bright for casting a large picture in the 60-inch ballpark, though it can get a little washed out in dark scenes if you stretch it beyond that and don’t have the lights out and black-out curtains. Whether casting a smaller or larger picture, the 4K resolution holds up quite well, keeping the fine details crisp and avoiding the sort of pixelation I saw crop up on the Anker Nebula Capsule 3 Laser — though that one was an outlier among 1080p projectors.

LG pairs that with solid color presentation. Cartoon content appears vibrant, keeping the lively feel of a show like “Bob’s Burgers” perfectly intact. Even the bleak environments of southern Texas in “News of the World” have plenty of energy with the large, blue sky filling much of the screen. The Vivid and Sports picture modes can feel a little oversaturated, though that has a nice effect in some highly stylized content — think “Cyberpunk: Edgerunners.” The standard picture mode offers a decent balance of strong color with realistic skin tones, and there’s always Filmmaker mode to keep the picture closer to what the creator intended, even if it comes at the cost of color vibrance.

A cute design

Projectors have been making a push toward being a little more design-forward in recent years, but many are still utilitarian machines that look like they’re next in line after the printer for an “Office Space” smackdown. By contrast, the LG CineBeam PU700R is rather cute. Its hinge-and-curved frame makes it look a little like a droid — not far off from the ill-fated Jibo. Even the grille design around the front and back of the projector add to its aesthetic. Stylish though it is, it’s also a bit eye-catching, which may not appeal to some who prefer the more subdued aesthetic of ultra-short-throw projectors like the Hisense PX1 Pro or the LG CineBeam HU915QE.

What we didn’t like about it

Slow and inconsistent automatic picture adjustments

From the jump, I ran into an issue: the picture was completely out of focus and struggling to sort itself out. This wouldn’t have been an issue if I could have adjusted the focus manually with buttons on the projector or remote control, but there are none. Eventually the projector sorted itself out, but it took a lot of shifting around to force it to try autofocusing again and again. I later discovered there are manual focus controls, but they’re a few menu options deep into the software — menu options that are impossible to see and navigate when the picture is out of focus.

Issues with LG’s Auto Screen Adjustment (ASA) persisted throughout my use of the projector. Its automatic keystone adjustments sometimes were completely off the mark, and I would have to wiggle it around to get it to try again. It was a similar issue for focus, which not only could it get wrong but was often rather slow to sort itself out, taking a couple seconds to even begin autofocus adjustments and then several more seconds to complete them. It’s a pretty disappointing result from a $1,700 projector when significantly cheaper models from XGIMI and Anker, like the Halo+ and Nebula Capsule 3 Laser, perform much better.

Ultimately, this undermines one of the big selling points of the LG CineBeam PU700R: its flexibility. Built on an adjustable pedestal that lets you control the angle should mean easy setup wherever you want it, but the poor picture adjustment ends up making it a tedious process.

The software and processing are a big letdown

LG has long used its own webOS platform for TVs and projectors, and there’s little to complain about there. But the LG CineBeam PU700R doesn’t benefit from the best of webOS. Part of the problem is that the processing on the LG CineBeam PU700R is somewhat slow, which makes navigating the operating system sluggish and a bit of a chore. This also makes motion smoothing inconsistent, with many noticeable stutters. Thankfully, that feature can be disabled. The bigger letdown is how incomplete webOS feels on the PU700R.

The system comes with the Prime Video, Disney+ and Apple TV+ apps — good, fine, common streaming services. After I’d had my fill of those, though, I thought I’d hop over to Netflix to check out the new season of “I Think You Should Leave.” LG’s app store said, “I think you should leave,” because it didn’t offer Netflix.

It’s not unheard of for projectors not to support Netflix. A great many I’ve tested don’t. I moved on and went to install HBO Max (or Max as it’s recently been rebranded). It also was not available for the projector. Surely, at least Hulu must be, right? Nope. So many of the bigger streaming services were painfully absent on the LG CineBeam PU700R that I have to wonder why it even includes a smart TV OS.

Fortunately, there is a way to skip some of the initial setup and jump right into the projector’s software to select an external video source giving privacy-minded users a way around the low-utility software that comes baked in.

The audio falls way behind the picture

1,000 ANSI lumens and a 4K picture are nothing to scoff at. But pairing that with a single 5W speaker? It’s a recipe for disappointment. Even in a small, roughly 100-square-foot room with little ambient noise, I had to crank the volume on the LG CineBeam PU700R to between 90% and 100% just to hear everything going on during movie night or a TV show. With it maxed out, it’s rather tinny. For ceiling projection, the sound is particularly weak, though it’s a bit better if you’re sitting directly behind the projector with it shining forward. That again undermines its utility in various setups. With the projector paired to even a cheap Bluetooth speaker, like the Oontz Angle 3, the sound quality is dramatically improved.

Not so standalone anymore

Given the weak speakers and the limited app selection, the LG CineBeam PU700R more or less needs to be set up with an external streaming device and audio system. That’s easily achieved with a Roku or Chromecast and even a simple Bluetooth speaker, but it adds more to your shopping cart, more to your setup, and more cables.

If you look at the LG CineBeam PU700R in the market of similar pedestal projectors, it pretty much just runs against the Samsung Freestyle, which also has a 5W speaker and is much dimmer but is cheaper. However, if you look at the broader market, the weak speakers and app support has left the LG CineBeam PU700R swimming among sharks. The Epson EpiqVision Mini EF12 is cheaper, smaller, has two 5W speakers for louder stereo sound and gets just as bright at 1,000 lumens. It’s only a 1080p projector but a much more balanced package, though it requires a streaming stick. XGIMI has a handful of competitive options that can let you go more portable, as with the much cheaper Halo+, or brighter with the Horizon Pro 4K, which still doesn’t exceed the LG CineBeam PU700R in price.

How it compares

Bottom line

A good picture isn’t nearly enough to dig the LG CineBeam PU700R out of the trough it dug itself into with issue after issue in my testing. A lot of other projectors look great and cost less while avoiding the LG CineBeam PU700R’s shortcomings. Lacking app support, weak processing and even weaker audio make this a projector that needs the support of extra accessories, but it’s designed and priced as an all-in-one machine.

Most shoppers will be better off with something like the Epson EpiqVision Mini EF12. You could even combine the EF12 and a proper TV like the Hisense U8H, the combination of which could still cost just as much as a single $1,700 CineBeam PU700R even without discounts commonly available on the two products.