When the projector becomes a "ball": Haier iSee mini user experience

Nowadays, electronic products come in more and more diverse forms. Some pursue extremely thin design, while others like to work hard on the shell material and color.

But for the recently launched Haier iSee mini, its design concept may be beyond the expectations of most consumers. It chose a creative "ball" shape, and it is not only an extremely portable projector, but also an audio-visual entertainment platform equipped with an intelligent operating system.

Appearance design: The projector is truly portable

The spherical design of Haier iSee mini is extremely compact and can be easily held in one hand by an average person. The main unit weighs only 267g, which is lighter than the Apple iPad mini tablet computer, which is known for its portability.

In terms of packaging contents, Haier iSee mini comes with a charger, HDMI high-definition video cable, remote control and a rubber base for fixing the machine. The color of the accessories is the same as the host, using the Apple-style pure white tone. The appearance of the charger also adopts a design style that is extremely similar to Apple.

Although Haier iSee mini is limited in size, it has all the necessary parts for a portable projection device. With the joint of the machine as the axis, there are two speakers, heat dissipation vents and the interface of the machine on the surface of the body, while the speakers are surrounded by circular colored indicator lights, which not only display the operating status of the device, but also make the product look more fashionable.

The interface part of Haier iSee mini has one power, HDMI, MicroUSB and standard USB interface, and supports MicroSD card to expand the capacity. When you get the device, a PNY C4 expansion card with a capacity of 8G has been inserted in the expansion card slot.

The remote control button design of Haier iSee mini is similar to that of general TV box products. It adopts the traditional infrared remote control method and adds a "focus" option for projection equipment. However, the key arrangement is slightly conservative. For example, when using the "Menu" and "Home" buttons for the first time, text recognition is still required, which is not user-friendly enough.

In terms of hardware configuration, Haier iSee mini uses an LED projection module with a brightness of 80 lumens. The maximum projection size exceeds 60 inches and the resolution reaches FWVGA level. It has a good display effect in general indoor scenes. It also uses an A9 architecture dual-core processor to provide data processing support for the intelligent operating system. With so many parts installed in a "small product", Haier iSee mini uses fan cooling in the heat dissipation structure, and the heat generation of the product is very well controlled in actual use.

Haier iSee mini is positioned as a portable projector. It should not only be easy to carry, but also be usable anytime and anywhere. Therefore, Haier iSee mini itself comes with a 4600mAh capacity battery, which is enough to give it a certain mobile endurance, which also makes us more looking forward to the product.

User experience: Massive film and television resources are the biggest highlight

Haier iSee mini is a projector and also a smart hardware device that supports dual-band Wi-Fi network and is equipped with the Android system. In actual experience, it is more like a smart TV that displays in a projection manner.

The system of Haier iSee mini is customized based on Android 4.2. In terms of interface design, it adopts the horizontal layout commonly seen in smart TV products. Similar to the Windows 8 system, the "tile" icons will be highlighted when selected, and the operation is intuitive and easy to understand.

In terms of content, Haier iSee mini can be said to have combined the strengths of various companies. A rough glance will reveal that the number of movies it covers exceeds 10,000, and most of the resources come from mainstream Internet video service providers such as iQiyi, Tencent Video, PPS, etc., which provides a strong guarantee for the quality of viewing movies.

In addition, it is worth mentioning that Haier iSee mini will also create some content topics classified by film themes. For example, when we use Haier iSee mini for the first time, we can directly enter the "brain-burning" movie topics including "Source Code" and "Inception" on the home page of the interface. This design will greatly facilitate movie lovers to "find movies" online.

In terms of the browsing logic of the movie content page, the design of Haier iSee mini also meets the needs of movie fans to the greatest extent. Swipe left on the homepage to call out the actor list of the movie on this page. Click to enter to find all the movies of the actor. Swipe right to call out other movies related to this movie. The only shortcoming is that the accuracy of "related movies" really needs to be improved.

Of course, in addition to movies, Haier iSee mini also includes TV series, children's programs, educational sections, etc. Even compared with some smart TV products, Haier iSee mini is not at a disadvantage in terms of watchable content.

But it is a pity that although the main interface of Haier iSee mini is well designed, other parts of the system are rather simple. For example, the product setting interface is almost native Android, and the system's built-in file manager is also quite simple. It is completely a ported software of a mobile phone app and lacks optimization for remote control operation.

In terms of expandability, Haier iSee mini supports external USB flash drives to read the contents of USB external storage devices, and also supports the direct installation of third-party APK applications. Support for wireless display functions such as Miracast also greatly increases the playability of the device. It is quite simple to project the screen of smartphones and PCs through Haier iSee mini.

However, due to the performance constraints of the processor itself, Haier iSee mini cannot play 4K ultra-clear videos smoothly. For high-definition enthusiasts, 1080P is already the highest requirement that Haier iSee mini can handle.

However, the battery life of the Haier iSee mini is not satisfactory. In actual tests, with Wi-Fi turned on, the built-in speaker adjusted to a medium volume, it is difficult to play a 720P movie in MKV format for more than two hours. Although the 4600mAH battery capacity is not small for common smart devices such as tablets, it is obviously not enough for the components in the Haier iSee mini that have high requirements for power supply, such as the projector and cooling fan.

Summarize:

In a sense, Haier iSee mini is more like a geeky technology device. In the eyes of many people, it is not a necessity in our daily life, but it does have a unique charm different from traditional products. On the other hand, for the new generation of young consumers with limited living environment, the lightweight and portable Haier iSee mini is definitely the most effective solution for them to enjoy the big-screen viewing experience.

Although there are still many areas for improvement in the new product, whether it is battery life, system design or Haier iSee mini's own video playback capabilities, it is undeniable that Haier iSee mini is a product with outstanding highlights and great innovation. Under the traditional concept that the "screen" size has always been proportional to the product size, Haier iSee mini allows us to see a new idea.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.