Dangbei DBOX02 Pro review

Minimal effort, cinema-grade projection. That's what Dangbei's new addition to the DBOX02 lineup is offering. DBOX02 Pro is a 4K gaming projector that wants to take over your living room with thumping speakers, immense projection size, and a wildly adaptable auto keystone. It's an attempt to replace your TV and your Hi-Fi system with something altogether compact and stylish, that won't falter when the sun comes shining in.

While there are plenty of TV replacement projectors out there vying for that spot in your home entertainment system, few have the chops to nail gaming too. That's where the Dangbei DBOX02 Pro comes in.

Smooth and shiny on the front, this mostly matt black cube features subtly rounded edges and a lightly curved facade. It's a modern aesthetic that proudly flaunts a touch of those lovable retro vibes, without being smothered in buttons and dust-catching greebles.

The projector itself sits atop a seamless stand that grips it on either side. It allows for a 360 degrees rotation and 120 degree tilt for ceiling projection. There's none of that twisting the little feet to get the perfect angle, either, since the DBOX02 Pro comes with an impeccable InstanPro AI auto keystone and focus feature that makes it super easy to shift around without messing with manual keystone. Rotating it so the picture moves across a wall, you can watch the keystone autoupdate in real-time to keep everything perfectly aligned—it's quite magical actually.

This isn't a portable projector per-se, not compared to the Xgimi Halo or MoGo 4 I've tested, but against the average short-throw TV replacement in our best gaming projector guide, there's a little more leeway for switching your cinema setup around. If you have four meters (13 feet) of space in your living room you can get a 150-inch out projection going, even 300-inch if you're lucky enough to have up to eight meters of space.

Having ceiling mount capability gives you the option to go full home cinema while retaining the ability to rotate as needed, which I'm sure is helpful for some very specific circumstances I have neither the imagination nor the space for. Still, all this means you can get some truly cinematic experiences from the DBOX02 Pro, without wasting too much energy.

As for image quality, you're looking at smooth, high-resolution imaging with great colour handling and, above all else, a brightness to rival the whitehot intensity of a thousand suns. It's not quite giving cinema-grade blacks—even the best gaming projectors struggle here—but when the sun streams through the curtain you can be sure it won't affect your viewing experience. It's not been super sunny in the UK (as usual) while I've been testing it, the DBOX02 Pro has really impressed me with its stalwart lumens. Countering extremely bright sun in High Performance mode can be noisy as the fans rev up a lot, but you shouldn't need to push it that far too often.

The same goes for gaming mode, particularly if you opt for the highest refresh rate, but crank up the speakers and forget about the fans because man is it worth it. The inclusion of HDMI 2.1 means you can get 120 Hz refresh rates at native resolution, which is more than enough for most gamers today. Switching down to 1080p lets you go up to 240 Hz to make the most of whatever high-powered gaming PC you're running at higher frame rates.

But the deciding factor is always going to begin and end with response times. Sitting between 10 and 20 ms in gaming mode, the DBOX02 Pro doesn't quite beat out our current king of gaming projectors, though it can still dance with the best of them. Pro gamers will want to opt for something like the BenQ TK700STi and its 4 ms response times, but for the privilege of dedicated chops they'll forgo the usability and high-quality media features a piece of home entertainment equipment like the DBOX02 Pro offers. The keystone also works in gaming mode which, while it doesn't do the response time any favours, isn't as common a feature as you'd expect in gaming projectors.

Clicking around in the menus was a bit of a fuss since gaming mode only becomes accessible when you've got an HDMI device plugged in. Getting to that setting once you're in HDMI mode isn't as intuitive as I'd have liked, as the only way to find it from HDMI mode is through the larger side button on the controller/clicker/remote/zapper (I'm fascinated by what people call this). You'll have to do it time and time again, but at least that means you don't get locked into gaming mode, wasting energy while simply streaming movies.

The OS in general is easy to navigate otherwise, and there's a lot of helpful features to prevent eye damage, allow HDMI devices to wake it and vice-versa. I don't rate the one-click dust removal feature, since it just blasts dust out into the room at large, but it's nice to have the option (I suppose you could take it outside for a self-cleaning session).

Google TV wouldn't have been my first choice as an older Android OS would have fewer ads up-front, but did we expect any less from modern tech than Blade Runner style commercials? Speaking as a lobster in a slowly boiling capitalist pot, none of this is enough to put a dampener on what is frankly one of the most well-rounded gaming projectors I've tested.

It's high-speed, it's gorgeous, it defies daytime obscurity, and it does all this for two thirds of the price of other 4K projectors. It's not short-throw, meaning you'll need to find a potentially awkward mounting spot away from the wall onto which you're projecting, but a little effort in the initial setup goes a long way here. The rest of your troubles will melt away pretty swiftly once you're immersed in a 300-inch fantasy world of your preference.

If you've been looking for a simple, flexible gaming projector with hardly any discernible gaming lag, I can definitely recommend this beast of a home entertainment box.