Up close with the cool-looking BenQ GS50 portable projector

Battery powered, with big sound and a great design, the BenQ GS50 is a sweet little portable projector.

Geoffrey Morrison

Geoffrey Morrison is a writer/photographer about tech and travel for CNET, The New York Times, and other web and print publications. He's also the Editor-at-Large for The Wirecutter. He has written for Sound&Vision magazine, Home Theater magazine, and was the Editor-in-Chief of Home Entertainment magazine. He is NIST and ISF trained, and has a degree in Television/Radio from Ithaca College. His bestselling novel, Undersea, and its sequel, Undersea Atrophia, are available in paperback and digitally on Amazon. He spends most of the year as a digital nomad, living and working while traveling around the world. You can follow his travels at BaldNomad.com and on his YouTube channel.

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Geoffrey Morrison

Nov. 19, 2021 4:00 a.m. PT

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BenQ GS50

The BenQ GS50 is a small portable projector roughly the size of a lunchbox. A lunchbox filled with TV shows and movies.

For our full review, check out BenQ GS50 portable projector: little lunchbox of light.

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HD

Rated at 500 lumens of light output, the GS50 also has full HD resolution of 1,920x1,080 (1080p). It can also accept 4K and HDR sources, but doesn't deliver their improved image quality to the screen.

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Handle

There's a faux-leather handle on one side.

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Vent

On the back, a vent to let the LED's heat to escape. Below is one of the projector's three speakers.

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Sound

Each of the small speakers is powered by 5 watts. The subwoofer has 10 more watts of its own. Overall the sound is quite loud for such a small device.

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Inputs

There's a headphone jack, USB A and C, and an HDMI. You can connect a battery pack via USB-C, though it won't charge and project at the same time.

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Minimalist

Only power, volume, and Bluetooth buttons. Everything else requires either the included remote or BenQ's free mobile app.

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BT

You can use the GS50 as a Bluetooth speaker.

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Included streaming stick

The included streaming stick runs Android TV, though it lacks native support for Netflix (see the full review for more on that). Alternately, you can connect a Roku or Amazon stick either here or on the side, though it might not fit as well as this one.