The VANKYO Leisure 470 is a portable entry-level projector with a 720p native resolution. You can use it to mirror videos from your phone, play media from a USB flash drive or SD card, or plug in various devices via HDMI, VGA, and a 3.5mm AV input. It can project images from 30 to 110 inches and has a built-in 3W speaker.
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.
Our Verdict
The VANKYO Leisure 470 projector is poor for watching movies in a dark room. It has terrible color accuracy that you can't fix with calibration and has limited coverage of the Rec. 709 color space used with SDR content, so colors aren't properly displayed. There's noticeable vignetting in the corner of the screen, and it's so dim that you can't use it in a room with any ambient light. Fortunately, it has very good contrast, so blacks are deep in darker scenes.
- Decent portability due to its size and weight.
- Very good contrast for deep blacks during dark scenes.
Not usable in a room with lights due to its awful peak brightness.
- Poor brightness uniformity with noticeable vignetting.
- Inadequate coverage of the Rec. 709 color space used in SDR content and terrible color accuracy.
The VANKYO Leisure 470 projector is a poor choice for gaming. It uses a 720p panel and only accepts up to a 1080p@60Hz signal, which it has to scale, so most games look soft and a bit fuzzy. Brightness is limited, so games look dim, although it does have very good contrast. Input lag is on the high side, so controls feel sluggish in all titles. There are no gaming extras like 120Hz support, VRR, or ALLM, and since there's no audio passthrough, you also have to rely on the built-in speakers or route sound from your console or PC separately.
- Very good contrast for deep blacks during dark scenes.
Not usable in a room with lights due to its awful peak brightness.
- Poor brightness uniformity with noticeable vignetting.
- Inadequate coverage of the Rec. 709 color space used in SDR content and terrible color accuracy.
High input lag at all resolutions.
Limited resolution support with its native 720p lens.
Changelog
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Updated Nov 17, 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.
- Updated Nov 12, 2025: We've converted the review to Test Bench 0.10, which updates our Design tests, and adds a whole new suite of Inputs tests. We also added new gaming-oriented usage scores in Our Verdict. See the 0.10 changelog.
- Updated Jul 31, 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.
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Differences Between Sizes And Variants
We bought and tested the VANKYO Leisure 470 projector, but VANKYO also sells two closely related versions. The Leisure 470 Neo keeps the same 720p LCD engine as the base model but adds built-in wireless/smart features and is rated slightly brighter. The Leisure 470 Pro is a more substantial step up, with a native 1080p panel and a higher claimed brightness, making it the better choice if you care more about sharpness and punch than price.
| Model | Native resolution | Light source / tech | Claimed brightness* |
|---|---|---|---|
| Leisure 470 | 720p (1280×720) | Single-LCD, LED | 110 Lumens |
| Leisure 470 Neo | 720p | Single-LCD, LED | 140 Lumens |
| Leisure 470 Pro | 1080p (1920×1080) | Single-LCD, LED | 170 Lumens |
*Manufacturer-claimed ANSI-lumen values; actual measured brightness can differ.
Popular Projector Comparisons
The VANKYO Leisure 470 is a bad projector, and we don't recommend buying it. Despite having very good contrast, it's so dim that it's unusable in a room with any lighting, and the colors are dull and severely inaccurate. There is also the cheaper Vankyo Leisure 3, but that model is even dimmer and has a much worse contrast. If you need something much brighter with better overall colors and are willing to spend a bit more, the Epson EpiqVision Flex CO-W01 has great value for the price, although it is bulkier and heavier. If portability is your main concern and you don't care too much about picture quality, the KODAK LUMA 150 is much smaller and is powered by an internal battery.
Check out our recommendations for the best cheap projectors and the best projectors under $500. If you'd prefer to shop for more expensive products with better image quality, look up the best 4k projectors instead.
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.
The VANKYO Leisure 470 and the KODAK LUMA 150 are similar projectors. Both are very dim and have dull and inaccurate colors, but there are some differences. The Kodak is the better choice if you're after portability since it is a lot smaller, lighter, and is powered by an internal battery. On the other hand, the VANKYO has deeper blacks, thanks to its higher contrast ratio, so it looks better in a dark room. The VANKYO also has a higher native resolution, so its image is sharper than the Kodak.
The Epson EpiqVision Flex CO-W01 is better than the VANKYO Leisure 470 in most ways. The Epson gets significantly brighter than the VANKYO, so colors pop more, and you can use it in a room with some lights on. Colors look better on the Epson thanks to its better color gamut and color accuracy, and you have calibration options to improve accuracy even further. However, the VANKYO is smaller and lighter and comes with a carrying case, so it's a bit easier to bring around with you, and it has better contrast for deeper blacks during dark scenes.
The WiMiUS P63 is better than the VANKYO Leisure 470. The VANKYO is even less accurate than the already terribly inaccurate WiMiUS, and it doesn't have an integrated smart OS, while the WiMiUS comes with Android TV built-in. They're both dim projectors, but the WiMiUS is slightly brighter than the VANKYO. They're equally portable; the VANKYO is smaller than the WiMiUS. However, the latter compensates with auto vertical keystone correction and a nifty digital focus, making adjusting the projector from a distance easier.
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Test Results
Unfortunately, the VANKYO Leisure 470 projector has awful brightness and poor uniformity. There is noticeable vignetting, with the sides being much dimmer than the center. It's not nearly bright enough to be used in a room with ambient light, so it's only really suited for a dark room. If you're looking for a similar yet slightly brighter projector, look up the WiMiUS P63 instead.
The projector has a very good native contrast ratio. Blacks are deep in darker scenes, but that's mostly due to the projector being so dim.
Unfortunately, this projector has terrible accuracy out of the box. Blues and greens are significantly overrepresented in whites, and reds are significantly underrepresented in bright whites. Gamma is completely off the mark, so all scenes are severely over-brightened. Colors are also so inaccurate that purples and cyans are blue, many reds are purple, and some yellows are green. The color temperature is no better, with the entire image being drastically cooler than the 6,500K target.
The accuracy is still terrible after calibration since the projector has very limited calibration features. The color temperature is a little closer to the target, but it's still very off. White balance is still terrible, with blues and greens massively overrepresented in whites, and reds underrepresented in bright whites. Gamma is the same, so the entire image is still significantly over-brightened. Color accuracy didn't change much; purples are blue, some reds are purple, and some yellows are green.
The color gamut of the projector is inadequate. It doesn't even cover close to the full range of colors in SDR content, and colors are displayed incorrectly, so whites and purples are blue, and blues are misrepresented completely. Its coverage of the wider Rec. 2020 color space is very limited and is also significantly inaccurate across the board.
The VANKYO Leisure 470 has a native 720p resolution but can display images with a resolution of up to 1080p. It uses an LCD panel with an LED backlight, so you will likely never need to replace it.
The VANKYO Leisure 470 has very simple optics. There's a basic manual zoom and manual focus ring, with a fixed 16:9 lens and no keystone correction or lens shift of any kind. That means you really have to line the projector up with the center of the screen and move the whole unit forward or backward to resize the image. Once you've found the right spot, it's easy enough to dial in focus, but small adjustments to image size or height require physically repositioning the projector every time.
The projector has decent portability. It's lightweight, compact, and comes with a carrying case, which makes it easy to carry around, but since it lacks an internal battery, you need to plug it in. It has no automatic keystone adjustment, so you must manually adjust the screen geometry every time you move it. It also doesn't have auto-focus, so you have to manually focus the image. It has an adjustable front foot that you can use to help raise or lower the projector. It also has a built-in 3W speaker, but it's not very loud.
The VANKYO Leisure 470 is loud. You hear a constant whoosh that stands out in a quiet room and can be distracting during softer scenes. If you're using a modest soundbar at normal listening levels, it's mostly masked, but for late-night viewing at low volume, the fan noise is hard to ignore.
The VANKYO Leisure 470 has basic but versatile connectivity. You get two HDMI 1.4 inputs for a streaming stick, game console, or laptop, plus a single USB port and a micro-SD card slot for local media and firmware updates. There are separate 3.5mm audio-in and audio-out jacks and a VGA input for older PCs, along with an IR receiver for the remote. There's no Wi-Fi, Ethernet, or digital audio output, so you'll need an external streaming device, and you can only feed audio to speakers or a soundbar through the analog headphone jack.
The VANKYO Leisure 470 has a native 720p resolution, and everything you feed it gets scaled to that resolution. It can accept a 1080p @ 60Hz signal, including 4:4:4 chroma, but the image looks a bit soft, and fine text never looks like true 1080p because of the downscaling. There's no support for 4k or 120Hz signals, and the maximum refresh rate is 60Hz.
The projector's input lag is rather high. While it's okay for slow turn-based titles, it's just not fast enough for anything quicker than that.
The VANKYO Leisure 470 doesn't support any kind of audio passthrough. There's no ARC/eARC or digital output, so you can't send Dolby Digital, DTS, or multichannel LPCM to a soundbar or receiver.
The projector doesn't have a built-in smart interface, so you must connect an external streaming device if you want to use it for streaming shows and movies. Fortunately, its built-in Wi-Fi lets you view content from your phone via screen mirroring.