The Samsung The Freestyle 2nd Gen is a 1080p portable LED projector. It's small and lightweight, and it tilts on its base, allowing the user to easily adjust its viewing angle. You can even combine two Freestyle 2nd Gen projectors to create a larger viewing area. It also has Auto Keystone correction, auto leveling, autofocus, and manual scale and image adjustments for an easy setup. This projector comes with Samsung's Tizen OS smart interface, is compatible with Bixby and Amazon Alexa voice assistants, and is fully cast capable through Samsung's SmartThings or Apple's AirPlay 2. It has an integrated 5W speaker, Wi-Fi 5, and Multi Bluetooth support, so you can pair two different sets of earbuds to the device.
Our Verdict
The Samsung Freestyle 2 is subpar for watching movies. It has a wide color gamut, but its contrast is subpar, so its blacks look gray in a pitch-black room. Furthermore, the projector's brightness is very low, so it always looks dim, and it's just not bright enough to make its colors pop. Its color accuracy is decent out of the box, but you can greatly improve it through the projector's extensive calibration options.
Small and light, and tilts on its stand, making it easy to carry and install.
- Impressive suite of smart features and calibration options.
Poor contrast leads to raised blacks in dark scenes.
Dim all the time due to its very low peak brightness.
The Samsung Freestyle 2 is definitely not a gaming projector. It tops out at 1080p @ 60Hz, and there's no 120Hz path, with high input lag, making it sub-optimal for most games; stick to turn-based titles if you want to game on this projector. Samsung's Gaming Hub does add cloud-gaming support with Bluetooth controllers, but you're still limited to 60Hz, and you're stacking network and controller latency on top of the projector's own delay. If you just want to play slower titles on a wall, it's fine; competitive players should look elsewhere. It also doesn't project a good-looking image, as it's a dim projector with limited contrast.
Small and light, and tilts on its stand, making it easy to carry and install.
Poor contrast leads to raised blacks in dark scenes.
Dim all the time due to its very low peak brightness.
Limited to 1080p @ 60Hz.
Very noticeable input latency.
The Samsung Freestyle 2 is a very dim projector, even for a portable unit. In Movie mode after calibration, it only has enough brightness for a modest-sized image in a completely dark room, so a 100" screen already looks quite dull and lacks punch. On the plus side, brightness is very uniform, and the Standard and Dynamic modes are only slightly different, with similar white and color light output, resulting in an even picture across the screen. However, if you need a projector for a large outdoor screen or for room lighting, this one simply doesn't produce enough brightness.
Very uniform brightness across the screen.
Extremely dim; only usable on a small screen in a dark room.
The Samsung Freestyle 2nd Gen's contrast is weak, which keeps movies and games from looking very cinematic. In a dark room, letterbox bars and shadows appear distinctly gray instead of black, and very dark scenes lose fine detail, looking somewhat flat. It holds up a little better in brighter content or when some lights are left on, where the lifted black level is less noticeable, but it never achieves the depth or punch you get from a good home-theater projector or a brighter portable model.
Blacks look clearly gray in a dark room, and dark scenes lose a lot of depth and shadow detail.
Changelog
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Updated Jan 14, 2026:
We mention the newly reviewed Anker Nebula Capsule 3 in the Native Contrast section of this review.
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Updated Jan 14, 2026:
We've modified the text in our Brightness and Native Contrast text boxes as a result of our latest test bench and added a Sequential Contrast test. We've also added Brightness and Contrast performance usages in the Verdict section.
- Updated Jan 14, 2026: We've converted the review to Test Bench 0.11, which renames our Contrast test to Native Contrast, and adds a Sequential Contrast test box. We also added new Brightness and Contrast performance usages in Our Verdict. See the 0.11 changelog.
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Updated Oct 22, 2025:
We've added Imaging, Optics, Noise, Supported Resolutions, HDR Format Support, 3D, Input Lag, and Audio Passthrough boxes as a result of our latest test bench. We've also added a Gaming usage in the Verdict section.
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Differences Between Sizes And Variants
We purchased and tested the Samsung Freestyle, which has no variants but is a successor to a first-generation model. Both generations share most of the same features, with the main differences being increased memory in the second-generation model and the inclusion of Samsung's Gaming Hub for cloud gaming.
| Model | Smart Platform | Gaming Features | Optics | Zoom / Shift |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Freestyle (2nd Gen) | Tizen (Streaming apps, Cast/AirPlay) | Gaming Hub for cloud gaming; 1080p @ 60Hz | DLP + LED, ~1.2:1 fixed throw; autofocus & auto-keystone | No optical zoom; no lens shift |
| Freestyle (1st Gen) | Tizen (earlier hardware, less memory) | No Gaming Hub; 1080p @ 60Hz | DLP + LED, ~1.2:1 fixed throw; autofocus & auto-keystone | No optical zoom; no lens shift |
Our unit was manufactured in July 2023.
Popular Projector Comparisons
The Samsung Freestyle 2 is a feature-rich smart projector with a flexible tilting stand and slick Tizen apps, but its brightness, contrast, and gaming latency are limited. If you're looking for a more affordable ultraportable, the XGIMI MoGo 2 is smaller and offers a cleaner Android TV experience, although it's not brighter. For roughly the same money, the XGIMI Elfin delivers better picture quality and also caps at 1080p/60 for gaming, but generally looks sharper and cleaner in a dark room. Unless you specifically need the Freestyle's tilting stand and Tizen ecosystem, these alternatives will likely suit more shoppers, especially if gaming responsiveness is a priority.
See 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 $1,000 instead.
The Samsung The Freestyle 2nd Gen is a bit better than the XGIMI MoGo 3 Pro. While the XGIMI is a bit brighter, the Samsung has better contrast, a far wider color gamut, and is much more accurate right out of the box. The Samsung does lack a USB data port, which the XGIMI has, but in turn, the Samsung has eARC and Bluetooth 5.2; XGIMI is limited to Bluetooth 5.1 and just ARC.
The LG CineBeam Q is significantly better than the Samsung The Freestyle 2nd Gen. The LG is brighter, has way deeper contrast, and has a wider color gamut. The Samsung is, however, more accurate right out of the box, but that's pretty much all it has going for it compared to the LG.
The Samsung The Freestyle 2nd Gen is a bit better than the Anker Nebula Capsule 3, mainly due to being slightly brighter, and also much more accurate out of the box. Still, the Anker has some advantages, mainly in its inclusion of a battery, which makes it a bit more portable than the equally small Samsung.
The Anker Nebula Capsule 3 Laser and the Samsung The Freestyle 2nd Gen deliver very similar picture quality, but the Nebula is a slightly better portable projector. It has a built-in battery that Nebula advertises to deliver up to 2.5 hours of movie-watching. It also supports USB-C data delivery, so you can project directly from your laptop or smartphone.
We've independently bought and tested over 60 projectors, and we've published all the detailed results for each so you can decide which one to buy. These have all been tested under the same standardized methodology, allowing you to compare them side by side. We still have all these projects in our lab so we can continually go back and compare them to ensure our reviews are still accurate. All our test methodology is also public on our website, so you can validate the results yourself.
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Test Results
Unfortunately, the Samsung The Freestyle 2nd Gen projector is a very dim unit after calibration in the Movie SDR preset. It only puts out enough light for a relatively small image in a completely dark room; a 100" screen already looks dull. Brightness uniformity is excellent, resulting in a very even image, but this doesn't compensate for the low light output.
The picture-mode table shows that neither Standard nor Dynamic provides a significant boost: both have very similar, low white and color light output, so there is no hidden "bright" mode that makes this projector feel punchy.
| Picture Mode | WLO | CLO |
|---|---|---|
| Dynamic | 209 lm | 228 lm |
| Standard | 215 lm | 221 lm |
If you're looking for a brighter portable unit, consider the LG CineBeam Q instead.
The Samsung Freestyle 2nd Gen has poor native contrast. In near-black test patterns and very dark scenes with only tiny highlights, blacks are already lifted and look dark gray rather than black, so shadows lack depth in a dark room. It performs a bit better once there's more overall brightness in the image, but even in darker-than-average scenes, the contrast remains low compared to most home-theater projectors, and mid-bright scenes can appear fairly flat and washed out. Overall, it never delivers truly convincing blacks unless you add some ambient light, where the already-raised black level is less noticeable.
The Anker Nebula Capsule 3 has much better contrast in an even more portable format.
The Samsung Freestyle Gen 2 has a wide color gamut. It covers almost the entire Rec. 709 color space used with SDR content. It even does a decent job with the wider Rec. 2020 color space, although here most colors are off-target, especially greens and cyans.
Out of the box, the Samsung The Freestyle 2 has decent color accuracy. Colors are satisfactory, but there are frequent accuracy errors throughout the entire color range. White balance is okay; blues are overrepresented in brighter whites, while reds, in turn, are underrepresented, giving whites a noticeable blue hue. You can see this in the color temperature, which is mediocre at best, as it leans far too cold.
The Samsung Freestyle projector has a full-color calibration mode and a 10-point white balance calibration. After calibration, the color accuracy is fantastic. Colors still exhibit minor accuracy errors, but the white balance and color temperature are near perfect.
The Samsung Freestyle projector uses a single-chip DLP engine with an LED light source. LEDs give you instant on/off, long life, and stable color over time with no lamp replacements. Some viewers may notice rainbow artifacts on high-contrast edges due to the single-chip design.
The Samsung The Freestyle projector is a fixed-lens long-throw design with autofocus and auto-keystone for quick setup; there's no optical zoom or lens shift. Here are some typical throw distances:
- 70" image: 6.1 ft from the screen
- 80": 7.0 ft
- 90": 7.8 ft
- 100": 8.7 ft
- 110": 9.6 ft
- 120": 10.5 ft
- 130": 11.3 ft
- 150": 13.1 ft
The Samsung Freestyle features a compact design and weighs only 1.8 pounds, making it easy to carry. However, it lacks an integrated battery, so it must remain plugged into an outlet to function. Samsung does sell a compact battery base for the Freestyle, but it must be purchased separately. Otherwise, it includes full auto keystone correction and autofocus, simplifying setup, and its tiltable stand allows you to adjust the projection angle as needed.
At full brightness, the fan is audible at arm's length, but from a typical seating distance, it blends under dialogue.
You can only use the USB-C port to charge the device; it can't carry data. The device supports Wi-Fi 5 and Bluetooth 5.2. The micro HDMI port doubles as an eARC port for audio passthrough when using the internal apps.
In Game Mode, latency is very noticeable on the Samsung Freestyle 2; this unit is only truly usable in very slow games, like turn-based titles.
The single HDMI port supports eARC, but think of it as audio out of the projector's own apps, not a passthrough hub. Since there's only one HDMI port, you can't connect an external player and use the port for ARC simultaneously.
From internal apps, eARC can return the following:
- LPCM: 2-channel and 5.1 (6-ch) at common sample rates (up to 192 kHz listed for multichannel).
- Dolby Digital (AC-3): 5.1.
- Dolby Digital Plus (DD+): up to 8-ch (used for streaming Atmos).
- Dolby MAT (MLP): 8-ch container (object-based/Atmos over PCM).
The Samsung Freestyle 2 projector features Samsung's popular Tizen smart OS, offering full casting support via Samsung's SmartThings or Apple's AirPlay 2, allowing you to share your phone or laptop screen directly to the projector. It also has a 5W speaker system.