Ultimea Nova C40 sets the standards for budget projectors

This is supposed to be yet another review of a projector you can buy without spending too much money. As I go through the features, options and settings of Ultimea Nova C40 (AmazonUK | AmazonUS), I slowly realise that this inexpensive projector sets a high bar for other companies in terms of what budget projectors should be in 2024! What’s so good about it?

Ultimea Nova C40

The Ultimea Nova C40 box is suspiciously void of best-selling keywords and marketing terms. At first, I thought that the projector which cost just under $300, could be so average, that even the marketing department struggled to overwhelm customers with keywords. Fortunately, this is not the case, Ultimea Nova C40 quickly became my favourite way of consuming media.

In my #TechDrop, I was super excited about the swivel that doubles as a stand and a ceiling mount point. As someone who had to prop my previous projectors with various items to cast the screen on my bedroom wall – I couldn’t be happier about this being an option.

The I/O at the back isn’t impressive: HDMI, USB-A, A/V and 3.5mm audio jack don’t sound like all this much, but considering that the unit is equipped with Android TV, Chromecast, 5GHz WiFi and Android OS with 16GB internal storage – it’s less inconvenient than you think.

They also added optical protection to the lens assembly that will extend the lifespan of the optics and reduce the need for constant cleaning. Projectors tend to be dust magnets. The optics after 2 weeks in my bedroom does feel a tad less dusty than on my previous one.

Android TV and Smarts

When I first powered on Ultimea Nova C40, I had my keyboard ready. Taught by previous experiences of hating entering my long WiFi passcode – I came prepared. It turned out that not once, did I need to use the keyboard, as the projector paired with my phone and most of the setup was taken care of by those associated with Google services.

That’s another convenience of using Ultimea Nova C40. Having a Chromecast and Android TV makes things simple. With apps like Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime or even Plex already preinstalled, the projector is ready to access your cloud subscription content or play videos stored on your local machine.

If access to the Google Play Store isn’t enough, the USB port serves as a handy way of playing local videos, sideloading apps or attaching controllers, USB to Ethernet adapters and more. Another nice feature is the dynamic screensaver with ambient sounds. You can play these to chill (loops are nice but a bit short) and the ability to turn off the screen and just have the audio played without the fan in the background was a very nice touch.

Remote

The included remote uses Bluetooth. It comes with a microphone and pre-defined shortcuts for the most popular platforms: Amazon Prime, Netflix, Disney, and YouTube. It’s a shame these cannot be modified. Ultimea Nova C40 would get extra points for having a remote with the backlight – especially handy as projectors are used mostly in the dark, but the layout of the buttons is pretty good. I was able to navigate it in the dark after an hour of use.

From time to time, it would fail to capture my voice. I don’t know if this is the remote issue or if Google TV is being weird, but I’m not particularly bothered about it. I don’t use voice commands enough to care.

Audio/Video

Ultimea Nova C40 (AmazonUK | AmazonUS) is equipped with enough smarts to set the projector up for you in no time. I had it up and running in minutes and it was time to see if the advertised 600ANSI lumens were enough to make me happy.

Sound

One of the things I care about is how quiet the projector is. After all, I want to use it in my bedroom at night and I don’t want to crank up the volume to drown the noise of the cooling fans. You can hear the fan inside the projector, but Ultimea Nova C40 is sufficiently quiet to get used to that sound in no time, and I didn’t have to turn up the volume to make it go away.

The built-in speaker is decent too. By default, I have it connected to my Majority Soundbar for a cinema-like experience, but the default speaker will do in a pinch. The sound profile is fairly flat, and adjusting the built-in EQ didn’t improve the low-frequency tones either. It’s what you would expect from a laptop. It’s clear enough for dialogues and loud enough to fill a living room with sound, but if you want a cinema experience, you’ll need a dedicated sound system.

Projection size

The minimum distance for this projector is 120cm. At this distance, you get a 43″ projection size. This scales up relatively quickly, as when I took the projector to my bedroom, the default projection settings would fill my wall and excess space on the ceiling.

The projector shoots straight, so you want to keep it as close to the centre of the projection as possible. At 3.5m I had to zoom in on the image and adjust the corners to scale down my screen to approximately 100″.

There are plenty of tools that will try to adjust the image automatically including 4D keystone correction, autofocus and manual options for corner correction. These are saved after each adjustment, so if you don’t move the projector, once set it won’t bother you again.

Video

Ultimea Nova C40 comes with a fixed brightness level of 600 ANSI lumens, and I can confirm it feels about right compared to the projectors I used in the past. It’s perfect brightness for evening cinema, but you’ll find it too dim for daytime use. At the very least, it would require you to close your blinds to enjoy the projection.

I was positively surprised with the image quality, especially with sharpness. Ultimea Nova C40 did a great job at displaying a crisp image and even though 1080P resolution may not look best on a 100″ display – it looked better than it should have.

The colour saturation is nice, and the contrast is adequate. I used presets to see what adjustments I could make to make it better, but frankly speaking, the settings weren’t really changing much, and I was happy with how Ultimea Nova C40 displays the content on the screen.

Whether I was watching a trailer for Rings of Power or a random video of mine or Kurtrzgezacht on YouTube, the experience was simply good. Ultimea Nova C40 did a good job of keeping corners sharp too.

Gaming on Ultimea Nova C40

With a sharp image and a dedicated gaming picture mode, I was keen to play some games on the projector. I tested it with my PlayStation 4 playing Alienation and decided to dig out old time favourite on Steam: Mirror’s Edge.

The twin-stick shooter played nicely, with controls being responsive and I had good (but short-lived) fun. When I connected Ultimea Nova C40 to my Laptop and filmed both screens at the same time, I was able to calculate the approximate latency between the primary display and the render from the projector.

The projector was 5 frames behind the primary display, which means that on my 1080P50 footage, it equalled a 100ms latency. It’s enough to make the FPS games harder and lose the competitive edge (what a pun) but in a game like Mirror’s Edge where timing is still important, the latency didn’t make me not enjoy the game.

In short, it’s good enough to have a game session as long as you are not competing online for the 1st spot in the leaderboard.

Final thoughts

Ultimea Nova C40 (AmazonUK | AmazonUS) has become my default bedroom projector. It offers everything I need to enjoy a movie, TV show or a cheeky PS4 gaming session here and there. It delivers sharp images perfectly suited for evening watching sessions and it doesn’t cost you an arm and a leg to get one. If you were in the market for a projector and 4K laser options outside your budget, I don’t think you’d have any regrets about getting this one. Let me know your questions or thoughts in this Reddit thread.

🆓📈💵 – See the transparency note for details.