The AAXA P7+ Mini is a pico LED projector with 1080p (1920x1080) resolution and DLP technology. Its lumen claim is 550 LED lumens—not ANSI lumens, but we'll get into that later. Its typical $329 street price tag makes it a good value for those who are looking for a portable projector for camping, backyard movie nights, indoor streaming entertainment, and even business; with current promotions at time of this writing it was selling for under $300. The P7+ has a tripod mount, and a mini tripod comes with it.

The AAXA can project up to 200 inches in low light settings, and has its own smart capabilities, including an Android streaming platform and screen mirroring. It is also highly portable with a built-in battery, and solar charging. It is a short throw projector capable of projecting a large image from a short distance away, with excellent placement flexibility due to that built-in battery and solar charging. The optional solar panel makes it especially useful for those who want to take it on the road for camping or other spaces where outlets will be scarce or non-existent.

Features

While the The AAXA P7+ can project a rather large image, I wouldn't suggest it. It claims 550 LED lumens in Boost mode, its highest power mode for light output. But LED lumens aren't the same as ANSI lumens and are really just an estimate of how bright the projector appears based on the idea that saturated LED colors may appear brighter to the eye. When measured for ANSI lumens, the industry standard, the projector produced significantly less lumens and came in at a maximum 282 lumens. That's to be expected, but it's not a lot of brightness. I found a 100-inch image to be okay in low light settings, but would much rather watch this projector at a smaller screen size, such as 60 to 70 inches. You can read more about the brightness of this projector and its effects on the image further down in this review.

This mini short throw projector is truly small. This is a 2.3 x 4.5 x 4-inch (HWD) little guy that can be set on a tabletop, used with the included tripod or a larger, steadier tripod like one you would use for photography, or even on a stack of books (though it does get warm, so keep that in mind). It literally fits in the palm of your hand, and it's something you can take anywhere you go. That is particularly useful for camping when you get the solar panel charging pad (sold separately). It may look like a cute little toy, but this projector has a lot of features in a small package.

The P7+ is smart. It has onboard Android 9.0, which is actually a rollback from the originally spec'd Android 10.0 platform that proved to be unstable. You still get a streaming menu where you can access a host of streaming apps: YouTube, Vimeo, Twitch, Netflix, Haystack, and Tubi. I was surprised to see Twitch. I think that's pretty cool. I have plenty of friends, a close friend in particular, that stream on Twitch. I watched that buddy stream Sea of Thieves on Twitch using the projector. Being able to watch Netflix directly from the projector without the need of a separate source input is also excellent, and rare among Android projectors.

The projector has screen mirroring for both Android and iOS. I use Apple products, so I used AirPlay with my iPhone and it found the projector instantly. I watched YouTube without a hitch, I was able to open apps and play around, and even accidentally opened my camera app and saw my room in motion, mirrored on the screen (which was fun). I didn't need to watch YouTube via my phone since the Android system has it built in, but I wanted to see if it would work and keep sound synced. In the videos themselves, it did. There were some advertisements that threw it off, but I skip through those anyway so that didn't bother me. Little did I know, that was the first red flag with the audio I would experience.

The P7+ has an LED light engine that lasts up to 30,000 hours. The manual fixed lens is focused with a little ridged wheel on the left side. It's difficult to move and get right. A little frustrating, but once you accept that this is how it is (as in, you may not get it right the first time) things get a lot easier. For placement of the projector, you can use our ProjectorCentral AAXA P7+ Throw Distance Calculator to see the required throw distance for your desired image size.

Using a TF Card and USB drive, you can load external content to be projected. There is an Office icon you can select via the menus to select Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or Templates files via "Office - Microsoft," and by selecting "Microsoft" you can then choose which file you'd like to open and project. There's also a Files menu where you can access all videos, photos, music, and documents on your device. If you want to play a slideshow of your photos, go to the "Apps" icon in the menu and select "Gallery," then choose which files you want to be a part of your slideshow. A USB or TF Card must be connected for this.

The projector also has Chrome, which can be accessed via the Browser icon in the main menu. Once that is opened, you just press the left arrow on the navigation pad or remote to type the website address you want to go to.

The 2-watt speakers pack a punch. With the volume turned halfway up, projecting screen-mirrored YouTube from my iPhone, the speakers filled my bedroom. The room isn't huge, but for a tiny little thing like the P7+, it's impressive. The speakers have some issues when hooked up to game consoles via HDMI, but do not present the same issues when hooked up to a computer via HDMI, streaming from the built-in streaming apps, or screen mirroring from an iPhone. More on that in the Performance section.

The P7+ is equipped with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. The Wi-Fi is easy to set up. There's a Wi-Fi icon in the main menu. You just turn Wi-Fi on, then select your network and enter the password. Bluetooth allows you to connect an external speaker. It's for audio output only. The projector can't be used as a Bluetooth speaker itself. I had some problems with syncing, which I'll address in the Performance section.

The remote control is one of those tiny credit-card type remotes—about an inch wide, and a few inches tall. The button layout is simple. The remote can navigate the menus, inputs, adjust volume or Keystone Correction. It can also Play/Pause, Stop, and go Forward/Back through video.

The control panel is on the top of the projector, flush with the top, to make an attractive look. It has the four membrane-style directional arrow keys surrounding an Enter button. Here, you can access the menus and go back, as well as raise or lower the volume.

The inputs and connectors are simple, but exactly what you need for this little projector. On the rear panel are a single HDMI input, USB Type-A, and the DC power input. The side panel has a USB Type-C, the TF Card slow, and a 3.5mm headphone output. That's where you'll also find the On/Off switch and the focus ring.

The P7+ Mini comes with the power cable and brick, the remote control, and its own tripod. The AAXA P6U solar panel pad is sold separately for $79.99 or can be purchased with the projector in a bundle. I did not test the solar capability, but buyers should be aware that it does take much longer to fully charge the battery from the panels than if you plug it in to an outlet. The projector comes with a 1-year warranty.

Performance

Color Modes. The AAXA P7+ has three color modes, which can be accessed through the Settings menu, then found under Display and Color Temperature. Those modes are: Cool, Medium, and Warm.

Cool is named for its cooler tones, leaning toward the blue end of the spectrum. It results in whiter looking whites, bluer blues, and lips generally look pretty pink or magenta. Skin tones look okay in this mode. That is, it's completely usable for watching TV and movies in the daytime, but I would switch to one of the warmer color modes for nighttime viewing. This mode is best used in combination with the Boost power mode to get the most umph out of the projector. For daytime, you're going to need it.

Medium is, as you would expect, the middle ground between Cool and Warm. It's decent enough. I would choose Warm over this one if I were switching from Cool to another mode. It slightly tones down that magenta look to the lips, but generally looks close to the same otherwise. What is noticeably different is that when you switch from Cool to Medium and you see the white change on the menu background to a warmer tone.

Warm is the equivalent of a Cinema or Movie mode on a home entertainment or home theater projector, in that it's got the warmer (more red-leaning) tones those modes typically embody. This mode looks good on TV shows, movies, YouTube videos, you name it. Cool does as well, but if ambient light isn't an issue and you want the best color, this mode is your friend. You can also use Boost for this mode, or switch to one of the lower power modes if you find you don't need as much light output.

Presentation Viewing. Projecting presentations in the middle of the day in a semi-darkened room with the shades drawn, with a bit of ambient light leaking in from the side, there's not too much of an effect on the projected image. It's a bit washed out, but not so much that you can't present. Presentations are still readable. With direct ambient light, it's washed out and very difficult to impossible to read. With this projector's lumen count, I wouldn't expect anything else. Standing 10 to 15 feet back from a 60-inch screen, the text is readable, especially with that 1080p resolution. White text on color background looks good, no issues there, and text is sharp.

Text looks good in all sizes, except 8-point, which I found to be pretty unreadable. Even 10-point is too small, though it is readable, you just have to be pretty close, like within 10 feet or so on a 60-inch screen. 12-point font looks great, and most presentations will have fonts larger than that. The projector has PC-free presenting via a USB drive. That's easy to use and project files with. The file name of your media will pop up on screen so make sure it's named something you wouldn't mind someone seeing. The files can be chosen as a slideshow as well. I wasn't able to access my files via USB-C on my external hard drive.

The best way to present with a computer is with HDMI. It's just seamless. Screen mirroring my MacBook Pro made a 4:3 aspect ratio even though my computer's screen is 16:9, it scrunched it. It didn't distort any of the app graphics or anything that was being mirrored, just the projected canvas shape. It was quite odd. The cursor movements are slightly delayed between what is done on the computer and how it shows up on the screen.

Video Viewing. I tried to play Hogwarts Legacy on PlayStation 4 in a fully dark in the room in the evening around 7:30 PM, with some ambient light leaking in through the shuttered windows.

I was projecting at approximately 100 inches on my light gray wall in ECO mode at first, and it was definitely too dim. I was in the Forbidden Forest battling spiders that were way too big and way too scary (I hate spiders), and I could barely see anything on the P7+. I was getting wrecked, especially since I couldn't tell the brutes could burrow and reappear behind you since it was so hard to see. Switching to Boost mode helped, but I still wouldn't project that large during daylight hours—60 inches or 70 inches would be better. Also, I did end up beating those spiders.

You can download movies and TV episodes to watch on the go without using data. There are so many options for this! The Witcher is available for download, Outlander, Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, Peaky Blinders, and more—those are just based on what my Netflix thinks I'd like to download because of what I've watched. Watching Netflix (or watching the other streaming apps) is the most enjoyable way you can consume content, because you get to have both a good picture and audio that is synced—this is not universally true for all devices and ways of viewing content. There's in-depth discussion about this in the following section.

Now, if watching via a method that does not have lip-syncing issues, then the video viewing experience is quite nice. Color isn't bad for a pico projector, the 1080p image is nice and sharp, and the skin tones look decent. I did notice a general favoring toward yellow in some scenes, but none of the color modes were so intense that you couldn't use them. It'll be about your lighting conditions and preferences.

Audio Quality. The AAXA P7+ is a perplexing little projector when it comes to audio. Its speakers aren't inherently bad. They're just bad at some things, while performing well in other conditions. As mentioned in the Features section, the projector had some issues when hooked up to gaming consoles via HDMI. This was true for both PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

It's something I first noticed when playing Hogwarts Legacy on the PlayStation 4. While gaming, I had the volume all the way up and the sound was skippy when the characters talked and in parts of the music, as well as in battle. I tried lowering the volume, but the crackle of the audio was still there at 75% volume while playing the game. Reducing volume further to 50% or 25% didn't make a difference. It was less noticeable because the volume was lower, for sure, but still obviously there.

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Playing the movie Ready Player One from the PlayStation 4, I found several issues that made the P7+ and this gaming console an unusable pair. Ready Player One is one of my favorite films, and I use it as a test for video and audio quality in every review. I'd know the sound in my sleep. I could tell it was awful, right off the bat.

First, the audio wasn't synced. It wasn't just that the audio wasn't synced, however. It was slightly sped up, so the pitch was raised. It's weird. The overall sound was choppy, clipped in the voices, sound effects and music. If there's a lot going on, it was extremely obvious and rendered the experience unwatchable. Not good. Connecting to a Bluetooth speaker, the audio sounds amazing. That would be great but as with a lot of projectors, the Bluetooth transmission was way out of sync, by about a second. It was worse than when I used the internal speaker.

I tested the projector paired with the Xbox One via HDMI, playing The Fifth Element. While there was no crackle or skipping this time, once again the audio wasn't synced. In this case, it wasn't sped up and the pitch wasn't shifted. This movie, paired with the Bluetooth speaker, had the same syncing issues as Ready Player One with the PlayStation 4.

The news isn't all bad. This projector is primarily meant to be used with its built-in streaming apps, like Netflix, YouTube, Twitch, Tubi, etc. Watching Peaky Blinders on Netflix, streaming directly from the projector itself, there were no issues with the audio. No syncing issues, no snap, crackle, or pop, and it's just generally an enjoyable experience. It can even be linked to the Bluetooth speaker while streaming with no syncing issues when your program originates with the projector.

It also worked well with my Mac Mini via HDMI. For continuity, I streamed Peaky Blinders using Netflix, and that was a seamless experience. The audio was perfectly synced when using the projector's onboard speakers. In this case, however, there are syncing issues again when hooked up to the Bluetooth speaker.

There were also no issues with the audio when screen mirroring from my iPhone. That is for both the onboard speakers and syncing to the Bluetooth speaker. I tested this with the YouTube app on my phone, and my current audiobook from Audible. The only issues were with the advertisements on YouTube, where the audio went out of sync, as I mentioned in the Features section. The content itself was fine.

Conclusion

The AAXA P7+ mini short throw projector is a smart pico projector with full HD resolution for an attractive price. It's got a lot of value packed into a small size, and even with its issues, it's still got promise if those issues aren't ones that are relevant to you. With all projectors, there are trade-offs, but it is important to make sure those trade-offs are not sacrificing your non-negotiables.

Overall, if you're looking for a super portable projector that you're just going to be using to stream Netflix, YouTube, Vimeo, Twitch, Haystack, or Tubi with, or you plan to use with a computer or screen mirroring from your mobile device, then this projector may be one to consider. Everything works great on that end, from the video and audio standpoint. If you want to game, or watch from a console or Blu-ray player, you should look elsewhere. There are too many issues on the performance front for you to be satisfied if you are of the latter crowd.

This is a good projector for camping in particular. With the built-in streaming that actually works, the ability to download episodes and movies to watch later, and the solar charging capabilities/built-in battery, it's really a projector that can be taken into the great outdoors to enjoy a movie night in the wilderness. If you're not the camping type, but still enjoy that portability, you may find this projector suits your needs.

Measurements

Brightness. The AAXA P7+ has a brightness claim of up to 540 LED lumens in its brightest Boost power mode. LED lumens are inflated from the traditional ANSI measurement provided for most projectors to account for the concept that saturated LED colors appear brighter to the eye in some conditions, however there is no universal standard to calculate this. On a 9-point averaged ANSI measurement, the P7+ measured a maximum of 282 lumens in its brightest mode, Cool, with the Boost power mode.

With this kind of brightness you can watch bright content, or presentations, so long as the room is dim and any modest ambient light is simply leaking in from shutters or blinds from the side. Direct ambient light washes the image out. It's truly best to watch this projector at dusk or night. My preferred image size was 60 to 70 inches, or even smaller, to optimize the brightness. It is watchable at 100 inches, but I wouldn't go larger than that despite AAXA's spec of 200 inches maximum.

AAXA P7+ ANSI LUMENS

Color Mode	Boost	Standard	Eco
Cool	282	266	164
Medium	276	235	112
Warm	266	225	112

Brightness Uniformity. The brightness uniformity of the P7+ is 77%, which is good. While hot spots and dimming aren't visually evident while viewing video content or gaming, I did notice some issues when projecting a completely white image. When in Cool mode, switching from Boost to Standard power, light gray horizontal lines of resolution appeared across the entire screen. Switching to Eco, the lines disappeared. They weren't present on any other color modes, in any power mode.

Fan Noise. Our casual single-point measurement for this projector's fan noise was measured from about five feet behind the projector in a quiet room. The fan is about as loud as my PlayStation 4 sounds. It's not distracting. As measured:

Boost, 40.1 dBa
Standard, 39.5 dBa
Eco, 35.2 dBa

Input Lag. The input lag was measured for 1080p at 60 fps. At 73.6 milliseconds, it's out of the range of what we'd consider acceptable for casual gaming, with 50 ms being about the maximum for casual gaming, 30 ms being good, and 16 ms or better being best for competitive gaming. But I was able to play a solo open world RPG fine, save for those audio issues.

If you're a gamer and you plan to game online with friends (and frenemies), there are better options, though you're likely not going to find what you're looking for in a tiny pico or pocket projector, either, so consider that most of these little guys are going to have input lags more fit for a casual gaming experience. Solo gaming or Nintendo Switch type gaming should be fine, but I wouldn't play Call of Duty online unless you want to get really mad. But beyond just input lag, I can't recommend this as a gaming projector because of its issues with audio and the gaming consoles I experienced.

Connections

• HDMI
• USB Type-A
• DC Power
• USB Type-C
• 3.5mm Audio Jack
• TF-Card Slot

For more detailed specifications and connections, check out our AAXA P7+ projector page.

To buy this projector, use Where to Buy online, or get a price quote by email direct from Projector Central authorized dealers using our E-Z Quote tool.

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