There's something special about watching a movie on a projector, and QKK aim to deliver that warm fuzzy cinema feeling direct to your home, with the QKK AK-81 projector, with 6,000 lumens image brightness, and 50,000 hours lamp lifetime.
The AK-81 is a modestly sized white box, with the lens mounted on the front (obviously), with focus dial, keystone dial and menu controls on top, whilst the left side has various inputs:
Headphone port
AV port
USB x2
SD Card
HDMI
VGA
Sadly there is no bluetooth, but the available inputs means you're able to connect pretty much anything from consoles, USB sticks, and memory cards so you're more than able to watch your content.
A point to mention, I had trouble playing MP4 files, which is bizarre. The AK-81 had no issues playing AVI or MKV files, but it refused to play MP4 which was both infuriating and intriguing, as it's one of the most widely accepted formats. The instruction booklet does say it recognises MPEG4, but every single file I tried would give an "unsupported files" error from the USB Hard Drive I had connected, so I instead attached a laptop via HDMI and watched content through that.
The AK-81 does have built in speakers, but they're not going to wow you, so connecting an external set or a soundbar would be an ideal solution - they're not the worst speakers I've ever heard, and you can absolutely watch a movie with them, but external sound would be better.
I found weirdly, that the 'Sport' option in the sound settings was much better for watching movies than the 'Movie' mode, which set the bass to horrific levels, much more than the speakers could handle, whereas the 'Sport' mode kept everything much cleaner.
Again, external speakers will solve this instantly, and I'd still recommend this option over the built in speakers.
The included remote has the all basics that you need - power on/off, menu, source, direction buttons/skip/rewind, play/pause, back and volume controls, but the required AAA batteries are not included.
The AK-81 has a great picture, and is able to project from 32 to 176-inches, and the included screen means you can hang it up on the wall and start viewing pretty quickly, providing you have the space to set it up. As mentioned before, the top has a keystone dial, which allows you to pivot/slant the image up and down - but not side to side. This proved problematic when trying to line the image up, as it kept wanting to stay on an angle.
I got around this issue by using a ball joint to connect the AK-81 to a tripod, and angled it slightly to the side, which worked wonders.
Not sure if this is just an issue with the unit I was sent (or if my house is on a slant!) and it's a simple fix, providing you have space or options to tinker around, but a rotation dial would be brilliant, and make setting up much easier.
With the blinds drawn and AK-81 set up, I took a look at Black Widow, which has recently been released on Disney Plus, and I'm genuinely surprised how good the picture and colours are. I'd watched Black Widow the day before on a 65-inch 4K display, so I had a good idea what the scenes should look like - and the AK-81 is a fantastic projector, providing great colours and crisp clarity - especially movies like Luca on Disney Plus, colours on this vibrant animated movie look terrific.
Obviously, the example footage in the review is showing copyright free video, but the AK-81 handles movies with ease, and there are some stills in the gallery below.
Colours were great using the 'vivid picture mode', with the only exception being the bottom corners being a little muddy in dark scenes, but I would put this mostly down to the placement I chose to project (shadows off the radiator, back of the sofa etc). Results are great straight on to the wall if you're in a pinch, or if you're an impatient man-child like me and don't want to work out creases on the screen and want to watch movies straight away, a clean all will still work well.
Honestly, for a £67.99 projector, the AK-81 looks far better than it deserves to.
That is, so long as you're viewing in a dark room - I found it extremely difficult to make out a picture with the blinds open, and whilst I would always opt to use a projector in a dark room and not with blinds/curtains open, if you intend to use the AK-81 in the garden, for instance, any light will disrupt your viewing.
The same can be said for most projectors, but I did notice the AK-81 suffered a great deal. Again, I would never opt to use any projector in a bright environment, but it's still worth noting.
Picture wise, you're getting 1080P max, which is more than fine, and the image is solid, and thanks to the included screen, you don't need to mess around trying to get the projection to play nice with your paint if you have something otehr than white or wallpaper.
There are dual fans present on the AK-81, which QKK claim cuts 80% noise, which I wouldn't quite agree with - the fans are still noticeable, but it's not a jet engine and is perfectly quiet enough to watch a movie.
Overall, if you're after a projector for watching movies, and aren't too fussed about 4K, the AK-81 is a great consideration, and for £67.99 it's an absolute steal.
Check out the QKK AK-81 Projector: