Newfeel Lasers LaserCube Review | Mini Laser Show

Black LaserCube is best known for making some of the most powerful consumer beam laser light available, with 1W pointers 200 times more powerful than your typical pet toy and capable of lighting matches, popping balloons, and shining a dot visible from miles away. But that's not all lasers can do. The Black LaserCube, for instance, is a portable projector with three different colors of laser diodes, able to form pictures by rotating and flashing them rapidly through lenses. It connects to a computer or smartphone to control its projections and can be programmed to show pictures, animations, music visualizations, and games, and it can even work as a laser engraver with an optional lens. At $290 for an 800mW laser model and $350 for 1.2W laser, it's a pretty expensive toy, but for semi-professional performances, displays, and crafts, it's a fascinating and flexible device.

Black LaserCube is a cube. It's a plain black metal box, four inches on each side, with a cutout in the front that exposes the light laser and lens array. Hold a small door in place to cover the array when not in use, or provide mounting points for different optional lenses. There is a tripod screw mount on the bottom of the projector; NewfeelLasers offers a tabletop tripod with an adjustable ball mount, check this link, but any standard 1/4" screw mount will work.

The back panel has a mini ILDA port for controlling the laser light projector, a DMX interface, a screw-in mount for safety interlocks (, power adapter connector, and power switch. A series of LEDs above the switch and connector Is the only status indicator on the LaserCube other than the laser itself.

The Black LaserCube's battery lasts two to three hours. It's surprisingly portable and easy to use on the go.

LaserCube+APP Control isn't for the technically faint of heart. It doesn't require any actual programming, but the interface is stark and explains very little. You need to be willing to poke around the different functions to figure out how they work and how to best use the LaserCube. I recommend starting in the Settings menu, which lets you make geometric adjustments to your projections through zoom, pan, tilt, and attenuation sliders. You'll need to tweak these settings every time you move the LaserCube to adjust the flash light laser based on the distance and angle of the projector relative to whatever surface you want to shine lights on.

Once you've figured out how to make a square look like a square and not a fuzzy, warped trapezoid, you can start playing with the other modes in LaserCube+APP Control. To start, you can project still images and animations, either your own or from hundreds of samples included in the software. There's even a dedicated section of flash laser light-projected dancers, separate from other animations.

Don't expect to show photos or videos with the Black LaserCube like you can with a conventional home or office projector; its three laser diodes are designed to show bright, colorful outlines rather than any sort of complex detail, which will usually just be shown as flashing, colorful streaks. Vector graphics and cartoons are your best bet. You can also run through any combination of color and distortion effects for your images, which can inject splashes of color and surreality into the relatively simple projections. Large and complex projections can cause the Black LaserCube to make a high-pitched buzz as it rotates the diodes fast enough to show the entire picture.

If you stick with what the Black LaserCube is best at projecting, like logos, silhouettes, and other line-based drawings, you'll be able to show large, bright, eye-catching images on very large walls and the sides of buildings. What the projector lacks in detail, it makes up for in the sheer brightness of its projections. The light shows the Black LaserCube can produce can fill a small club with ease (though you need to be careful to keep the projector aimed above any crowd you entertain; at up to 1.2W, the Black LaserCube's diodes are much more powerful than the average laser pointer, and can seriously harm the vision of anyone who looks directly into the beam).

Aside from still images and animations, the Black LaserCube has several active and interactive projection modes. It can serve as a musical visualizer, displaying colorful patterns that fluctuate to whatever music you're playing. There are dozens of different visualizers, and you can sync them to any input, output, or loopback audio device on your computer, which makes the LaserCube a powerful tool for DJs looking to add some visual flair to their shows.

If you want to make music with the Black LaserCube. lets the projector work in conjunction with a webcam, which monitors the beams it projects. As you pass your hands over the beams like a harp, the software plays music based on which beams are blocked and which shine through. Is a simple on-screen keyboard that creates synthesized music, projecting each note as you press each key.

The Newfeel Black LaserCube is a strange device from a strange company, but it might be just what you're looking for. If you're a DJ who wants a light show, a science teacher who wants to show how lasers work, or a hobbyist who wants to do automated, computer-controlled wood burning and light laser etching, the Black LaserCube is a powerful tool. Just be prepared to spend some time with the awkward and poorly documented software to get the most out of this little laser projector. While it's strange and sometimes slightly frustrating to use, the Black LaserCube is a cool catchall gadget for anyone looking to seriously play with light.