Portable cannister projectors are not only becoming a big business, they allow small companies like XGIMI or (what was a small company) Anker/Nebula to move up the value chain. These companies, mostly coming out of China have names that you may not have heard of that nevertheless have sold hundreds of thousands or even millions of devices. Yaber was formed in 2018, shipped its first projector in 2019, and claims it hit over two million units sold by 2022. As it moves upmarket, Yaber sought out stylistic collaborators to stand out, and it launched a Keith Haring version of one of its larger portable projectors in 2024 partly covered with the late illustrator's iconic pop graffiti figures.
I picked up a review unit of Yaber's T2 Keith Haring edition at IFA in Europe, and when I went to test it in the U.S., the first challenge was finding a plug converter kit (units sold in the U.S. should come with the appropriate plugs in the box; all can run on 100 - 240V). I had one in my travel bag, so that didn't take long, but it set the tone for what was to follow. In the U.S., Yaber is selling the base T2 model for $340 or as the T2 Plus for $400 with a Google TV dongle. The Keith Haring Edition is only sold in the Plus version in the U.S., which is a good idea (see below), also for $400, so there is no upcharge for the artwork. My press version also included a wonderful Keith Haring carrying case, which does not appear to be on sale in the U.S. at all. That's a shame.
The good:
- Setup was straightforward. The carrying handle doubles as an angled stand and auto-keystoning worked well to center the image on my projection screen. (Most users will have a blank wall rather than a proper projection surface, but that should be even easier.)
- The Keith Haring designs on the projector are delightful and yet are somewhat restrained -- this looks like a projector with artwork on portions of it to add character, not a distracting art piece. That's crucial for something that is supposed to disappear when you are watching content.
- The JBL speaker in the T2 is clear and plays loud enough to be heard over the fan. Yaber includes a Bluetooth speaker mode, and I can absolutely see people using this that way.
- Yaber allows for physical HDMI connection and casting via app or NFC.
- Yaber built the power supply into the unit itself -- no bulky power brick lying halfway to the outlet.
- There is an internal battery that is spec'd at 2.5 hours so this can be fully wireless.
The bad:
- Unfortunately, once I tilted the projector up enough for the keystoning to work, the 1080p starting resolution dropped enough to be noticeable. The image was reasonably bright (it is spec'd at 450 ANSI lumens), but not terribly sharp. The colors were not especially well saturated, even with my lights off. If you buy this projector, make sure to put it on a stand or counter that is tall enough for the image to hit the wall without needing much keystoning. You'll probably also want to use an off-white
- This is a non-smart projector. You will need to either connect it to an HDMI source, buy the version with the Google TV dongle, or cast content from your phone or laptop.
- I had some difficulty casting content to the projector from my Samsung Galaxy S25. It isn't using Google's own tech, so there are a million different permissions you need to set, and at the end of the process I managed to stream photos from Google Photo and videos stored on my phone using the VLC media player but not Disney+. This is not surprising; copyright material generally can't be streamed to devices.
- This is a portable projector with a nicely integrated carrying handle, and the press version of the Keith Haring Edition came with a great padded travel case. However, the Yaber T2 is a lot bigger than cannister projectors that are far more portable. That, and the fact that you're probably going to want to plug in a media or game device via HDMI, make it not nearly as portable as other options that are fully integrated.
The Yaber T2 costs $340 (or $400 with a Google TV dongle), which is more than reasonable for the specs, but not for the picture quality I saw in my testing.
Disclosure: Yaber provided the T2 Keith Haring Edition for review. HomeTheaterView has no financial relationship with Yaber and does not accept affiliate payments.