June, 2022 - Organizer

Epson Pro Cinema LS12000 projector review

1:00 pm | June 7, 2022

Editor's note

• Original review date: June 2022
• Current flagship Epson 4K projector
• Launch price: $4,999 / £4,499 / AU$8,999
• Target price now: $4,999 / £4,499 / AU$8,999

The Epson Pro Cinema LS12000 has remained the company’s flagship long throw 4K projector since we first reviewed it back in 2022. A 3LCD model with a laser light engine, the LS12000 delivers stunning picture quality for movies and gaming and still sits at the top of our best 4K projectors guide as the best overall option. The LS12000 doesn’t get discounted on a regular basis, although we did see it drop to £3,999 in the UK during Black Friday, so expect to pay full price outside of major sales events. The rest of this review remains as previously published.

Epson Pro Cinema LS12000: One-minute review

If you’re looking to find one of the best 4K projectors out there, you don’t have to look further than the Epson Pro Cinema LS12000. This machine is delivering powerful technology that shines an almost unbeatable image. It comes at a predictable high price, though, and Epson has gone all-in on the picture-side of the equation, leaving you to fend for yourself when it comes to video sources and audio.

The LS12000 is a beefy (we’re talking 50 pounds) laser projector with a 3LCD system inside. This combination provides a bright light source for both color and white output, powerful contrast, and no artifacts we could detect. It’s an immaculate picture that doesn’t struggle to overcome bright lighting conditions in a room and then can step up to simply blow us away when we turn out all the ambient light.

The sharp and colorful visuals are also easy to get just how we want them. With zoom, lens shift, focus, and keystone controls, all we have to do is set the projector where we want it and then move and adjust the image to our ideal size and position. There’s a lot of flexibility for big rooms and even bigger rooms, though we wouldn’t recommend going all out like this for a small space — this is a serious home theater projector.

The Epson Pro Cinema LS12000 won’t make sense for a lot of people. But those who want the best and will set out to complement it with a capable AV receiver and robust sound system will likely be pleased as a peach with the LS12000.

Epson Pro Cinema LS12000 review: Price and availability

The Epson Pro Cinema LS12000 is available for $4,999 (£4,399, about AU$7,090), while the company’s lower-spec LS11000 (2500 lumen brightness and 1,200,000:1 contrast ratio) is available for $3,999 (£4,099, about AU$5,670).

Epson LS12000 remote control — (Image credit: Future / Mark Knapp)

Epson Pro Cinema LS12000 review: Design and features

48Gbps HDMI 2.1 ports (1x eARC) with 4K/120Hz support
No Smart TV platform or speakers
Hardware zoom and lens shift

The LS12000 is a bit of a beast. This isn’t your little shelf-top projector you set at the back of the room for a casual home theater. This is a purpose-built machine for a next-level home cinema. It comes in a substantial housing that feels well-built, looks elegant, and is actually not overwhelmingly heavy despite its size.

The LS12000 is ready for a variety of setups and flexes to meet its positioning. We set our unit up on a mantel at the back of a living room, roughly 14 feet from the opposite wall. Thanks to the projector’s optical zoom, we can easily squeeze down the image to fit in the available space on our wall without sacrificing detail (as with digital zoom). From there, the wide vertical and horizontal lens shift range lets us further center the picture all without having to move the projector. Essentially, it’s easy to find a convenient place to set the projector and then use its powerful adjustment tools to project the image where it fits best. The projector doesn’t do this automatically, nor does it auto focus, but it makes the process fairly accessible without having to dive too deep into menus.

The package is pretty bare-bones for anyone expecting an all-in-one entertainment device. It’s a centerpiece, for sure, but you’ll have to build around it. The kit includes just the projector itself, a beefy remote control, a port cover that can snap onto the back, and a ceiling mounting kit. There’s no Smart TV operating system running onboard, and there aren’t even speakers. This is just your display, and you’ll very likely want to run it to an AV receiver because it only has two HDMI ports. Thankfully, they’re both high-bandwidth, 48Gbps HDMI 2.1 ports capable of 4K/120Hz (which the projector actually supports) as well as eARC on one of them.

The projector naturally has extensive support for the kind of high-quality cinema features you'd want from a device like this. It handles HDR10, HDR10+, and HLG with 10-bit HDR color processing. It has preset color modes as well as options to dial them in just how you prefer. It can send through a variety of Dolby and DTS audio signals over eARC. It will even let you turn motion interpolation on or off as you like.

The cherry on top is the powered lens cover that slides open when the projector turns on and shuts back up when it’s turned off, helping keep the optics clean and protected.

Epson LS12000 rear-panel — The LS12000's rear-panel is equipped with dual 48Gbps HDMI 2.1 ports. (Image credit: Future / Mark Knapp)

Epson Pro Cinema LS12000 review: Picture Quality

3LCD system with laser light source
Huge, bright 4K pictures with vivid color
Rich detail across the spectrum

We’re inclined to say there’d be almost no reason to go out to a movie theater anymore when you can have a picture like this at home. The Epson Pro Cinema LS12000 provides a staggeringly brilliant image that hardly cares whether we’re watching in the daytime but will reward us greatly for watching at night with the lights off. Epson isn’t playing games with its brightness claims. It has the projector rated for 2,700 lumens whether it’s showing all white or showing color. You’d think that brightness might mean a machine that runs hot and has loud fans as a result, but we don’t hear a peep of fan noise while running the LS12000.

Brightness is an important metric for a projector, but oftentimes they can manage an acceptable brightness while struggling to present compelling shadow details, making for an image that lacks in contrast. The LS120000 doesn’t. This thing is virtuoso for challenging imagery. In The Batman, even in a dark scene, the details on Batman’s and Catwoman’s black outfits are discernible. The fact the projector can provide such rich detail in shadows while blasting out vivid color is simply astounding. Given how bright the projector can get, it even impresses during daytime without doing much to subdue ambient light. If the sun is blasting through our windows, we’ll draw the blinds, but otherwise the picture is still stunningly acceptable even without ideal conditions. Mind you, this is all without a projection screen, which will dial up the visuals even further.

We recently tested the Hisense L9G, a premium ultra-short throw projector that performs stunningly. It’s a remarkable product that we can readily recommend, but even it looks feeble next to the sheer might of the picture coming from the LS12000. Where the L9G had to balance its $5,500 budget on the projection, audio, smart TV platform, and included projection screen, the LS12000 has all of its cost going toward the picture.

Epson Pro Cinema LS12000 specs

Given how bright the projector is and the fact it can support a wide variety of image sizes, it naturally has to be sharp. While the projector is using three LCDs with a native 1080p resolution, Epson’s dual-axis pixel shifting creates a proper 4K UHD image with no artifacts that we can pick up such as the dithering we’ve seen on some cheaper DMD-based projectors.

Now, the LS12000 provides a lot, but it comes at a steep price. Assuming a $15 ticket, you could go to the movie theater about 333 times before the LS12000 made more financial sense. But, the LS12000 could still be more practical than it seems at first. If you’d go every weekend for six years, you’ve evened out, and the 20,000-hour light source lifespan ought to last well beyond that. If you’ve got kids or a spouse coming along to the theater, you reach that return-on-investment even sooner. If you have to pay for parking at the theater, don’t forget to factor that in. And the fact is you’re getting more than just movies from your home movie theater. You can’t go to the theater to watch Law & Order SVU. You can’t go to the theater to stream every season of The Office. You can’t go to the theater to play 500 hours of Elden Ring’s New Game+.

The Epson Pro Cinema LS12000 is definitely an investment, and one you’ll have to build around with a decent sound system and potentially a setup that makes it easier to switch sources given the meager two HDMI ports. But for those looking to have the ultimate home theater, this machine will handily deliver the picture.

Should I buy the Epson Pro Cinema LS12000 4K laser projector?

Epson LS12000 from above — The Epson LS12000's large size makes it best-suited for a permanent installation (cat shown for scale). (Image credit: Future / Mark Knapp)

Buy it if...

You want the ultimate home theater visuals

The Epson Pro Cinema LS12000 might not stream or output audio, but its picture is undeniably brilliant. Rich shadows, vibrant color, and dazzling highlights all come through wonderfully.

You don’t want to fuss with placement

If you’ve already got the perfect spot for setting a big projector, the LS12000 can likely adapt to that space. It has a wide zoom and lens shift range, letting you frame the image just where you want it.

You want it all

The Epson Pro Cinema LS12000 brings the 4K picture, blasts the HDR visuals, explodes with brightness, sinks into darkness, goes smooth at up to 120Hz, tightens down to 50 inches or scales up to 300 inches. It’ll likely be some time before you’ll feel like this projector is missing something you’ve got to have.

Don’y buy it if…

You only have $5,000 to spend on a home theater

The LS12000 is amazing, but it is just a display. You don’t get sound and you don’t get a streaming or broadcast platform out of it. If you’re just starting an entertainment setup, you’ll need those as well.

You want more flexibility

The LS12000 can flex to a variety of setups, but it’s really the kind of projector you want to leave in one place. It’s big and hefty, so not likely one you’ll want to move frequently or tote along with you on a trip.

You’re not a die-hard cinephile

The LS12000 is a splurge when compared to the many projectors out there that you can get a large 4K picture from. Many do a great job for a night of entertainment and casual viewing if you remember to draw the blinds and dim the lights. Epson even has a $1,000 cheaper option in the LS11000 that sacrifices only a little.

TVs vs projector: which picture technology should you choose?

Xreal Air and Xreal Beam review: impressive AR tech but still not perfect

12:00 pm | June 5, 2022

Author: admin | Category: Computers Gadgets | Tags: AR | Comments: Off

Xreal Air AR Glasses: Two-minute review

The Xreal Air AR glasses aren't the first smart specs to hit the market, but thanks to their simple plug-and-play design and their great image quality they could be one of the first to achieve mainstream appeal.

Plug them into a compatible device – which includes a selection of the best Android smartphones, the Steam Deck, and now the best iPhones (via an adapter) – and you’ll be transported to your own virtual movie theater. Your gadget’s screen will be virtually projected in front of you by the glasses, allowing you to enjoy Netflix or Xbox Game Pass as if you were using a 130-inch HD TV.

Plus, thanks to the surprisingly decent internal speakers hidden in the glasses’ stems you can enjoy whatever you’re watching with immersive audio too. That said, I’d strongly recommend you couple the Xreal Air glasses with a good pair of wireless headphones – not only will you get much better audio performance, but the experience will be more private.

Considering that the Xreal Air AR specs look like a pretty normal pair of glasses – with a sleek yet comfy and fairly lightweight design – the performance they deliver is pretty impressive. Even though the glasses boast micro-OLED panels, the image is much more akin to what you’d expect from a projector in terms of contrast and colors (don’t expect Xreal’s specs to be an LG C2 OLED TV you can wear).

One noticeable feature the glasses lack is a camera. On the positive end, this means you don’t have to fret about your steps being tracked – or creeping out the people around you while you’re wearing the glasses. But this also means that the AR functionality of the Xreal Air glasses is extremely limited. They’re great for creating a cinema-like extension of your smartphone, but that’s about it.

Additionally, there are many devices out there that don't support the Xreal Air glasses because of hardware incompatibility. Xreal has launched the Beam adapter to combat this, but the $119 add-on isn't the perfect solution I hoped it would be (and is a hard sell considering the glasses themselves aren't cheap).

Because of this limited functionality, the price for a pair of the Xreal Air AR glasses can be a tough pill to swallow – they cost $379. While I had a blast trying this gadget out I feel like they don’t offer the most bang for your buck; those of you looking to improve your home entertainment setup would get more out of a solid 4K TV at this price, and commuters amongst you looking to liven up your travel would be better off with a great pair of headphones.

Xreal Air AR glasses: price and availability

The Xreal Air AR glasses are currently available to buy in the US for $379. They were previously available through EE in the UK for £400 (when they were known as Nreal Air), however, this partnership seems to have ended.

Our reviewer trying out the Xreal Air AR Glasses while sat on a bench in front of an old-looking stone building — Our reviewer trying out the Xreal Air AR Glasses while out on the go (Image credit: Future)

This price puts the Xreal Air glasses on par with other AR smart glasses, if not slightly cheaper than the competition. That said, while the AR smart glasses are impressive for a portable cinema the price will be tough for some people to justify. For the same money, you could a budget 4K TV, or buy a pair of the best wireless headphones (an upgrade that you may feel is a better investment if you want these glasses to keep you entertained on your daily commute).

The Xreal Beam adapter is also available in the US, and comes in at $119.

Price score: 3/5

Xreal Air AR glasses: design

No in-built cameras
Lightweight
Require a wired connection to a smartphone

Unlike some previous iterations of AR glasses, the Xreal Air look a lot more like a standard pair of specs. An eagle-eyed onlooker might spot a few key differences, but there aren’t any cameras so the AR aspect is not that obvious.

The decision to go camera-less instantly solves many of the privacy concerns that plagued previous devices, such as Ray-Ban Stories and Google Glass. You don’t have to worry about your vision being tracked, and those around you can rest easy knowing they aren’t being recorded without their consent.

Still, there are some signs that these aren’t regular glasses. In order for the Xreal Air to function, they need to be plugged into your phone. Using the USB-C to USB-C cable in the box, you can easily hook up your devices through a port hidden at the end of one of the glasses’ arms.

While not as free as a completely wireless device – like a pair of Bluetooth earbuds – I never had any issues moving my head around while plugged in. It caused so few issues while I was wearing the glasses that I actually completely forgot about the cable – until I went to take them off and it would snag on my ear.

The reliance on your phone's power means these glasses are pretty light, just 90g (0.2lbs) – they don't have an internal battery. But in exchange, they will drain your phone's battery fairly quickly, particularly if you're using them for an extended period of time.

The other dead giveaway that the Xreal Air aren't a normal pair of glasses is the inner lenses. These are what give the glasses their AR capabilities, reflecting an image of your phone’s screen in such a way that it appears to be floating in front of you.

Xreal Air AR Glasses' inner lenses are facing the camera, the stems are in view too — The Xreal Air AR Glasses' inner lenses (Image credit: Future)

There are also two small speakers on either arm of the glasses, as well as brightness controls and an on/off button on the right arm. We never had much reason to dim the screen, so we definitely would have preferred the brightness controls on the arm be replaced by managed audio; to change the sound levels, you have to rely on your phone’s – or headphones’ – controls.

In addition to its power cable, every pair of Xreal Air glasses comes with a carry case that can be used to store it; additional nose pieces that you can use to help the glasses fit better; and an optional attachment that can be fitted with prescription lenses. You’ll also get a plastic lens cover. This cover will give your glasses some added protection as well as privacy and clarity, serving as a backdrop for what you’re watching to help make the image clearer.

I'd have preferred a reflective cover more like the one that comes with the TCL Nxtwear S glasses because while both options work just as well TCL's version looks more normal.

Design score: 4/5

Xreal Air AR glasses: performance

Solid HD image
Mimics a 130-inch display that's 4m from the user's face
For better sound try using headphones

The Xreal Air AR glasses are more like a portable personal projector than a TV that fits in your pocket.

By this, I mean that the image through the glasses is best when you’re looking at an opaque, plain background in a room that isn’t filled with bright light. If you’re outside or facing a light source, you’ll need to attach the optional visor to have any chance of seeing what’s being displayed.

The Xreal Air AR Glasses with the black opaque visor clipped on — The Xreal Air AR Glasses with the visor clipped on (Image credit: Future)

That being said, the glasses’ HD image is pretty impressive. The colors aren’t as vibrant as we’d like and the lack of 4K resolution is a little disappointing but the device’s relative screen size more than makes up for it. It’s roughly the same size as having a 130-inch TV 4m away from you – while not completely vision-filling, it is certainly more immersive than staring at your phone screen.

The audio performance is, in a word, fine. It’s certainly less dynamic than a great pair of headphones but is more than passable if you don’t mind those around you overhearing what you’re listening to. Thankfully, if you decide to use headphones, the AR glasses’ speakers will automatically mute themselves, just like your phone does.

Performance score: 4/5

Xreal Air AR glasses: Compatibility

Not all devices are compatible
Beam can help, but it isn't perfect

It’s not just the glasses’ specs you need to think about though, as the Xreal Air are only compatible with certain smartphones. This includes the Sony Xperia 5 III, the Samsung Galaxy S22, and Oppo Find X5, in addition to several others you can find on the full official list. You can also hook it up to a few other handhelds like the Steam Deck and even Apple's M1 and M2-powered MacBooks.

And thanks to an Xreal Adapter you can connect them to one of the best iPhones out there and a Nintendo Switch now too, but it'll cost you $59. You'll also need to buy the $49 official Apple Lightning Digital AV adapter, effectively making the total cost of the glasses $487 for Apple fans.

The Xreal Beam in our reviwer's hand, it's smaller than a phone but has a similar shape, has two USB-C ports on the bottom, control buttons on type and volume buttons on one side. — (Image credit: Future)

Alternatively, you can pick up the Xreal Beam, a new adapter for the Air glasses with a few extra benefits. For a start, the Beam makes it much simpler to connect non-compatible devices. For the Nintendo Switch, I just needed a USB-C to USB-C cable and then I could lie back in bed and enjoy playing Tears of the Kingdom on a massive virtual screen projected above me. This experience couldn’t have been better frankly. If you don't want a tangle of wires you can also connect your phone (including iPhones) to the Beam wirelessly.

The Beam not only expands the range of compatible products but helps to alleviate some of the battery drain problems – as the Air glasses will drain the Beam's power instead of your smartphone's.

Unfortunately, the Beam isn't quite perfect. Some devices – like the Google Pixel 7 and my Google Pixel 6 – aren't compatible. That's because the Pixel phones not only lack DisplayPort support but also use Google's proprietary Chromecast tech for casting (so they don't support third-party options like the Beam). As such, we'd recommend checking your phone is compatible before picking up the Air glasses or the Beam.

Compatibility score: 3.5/5

Xreal Air AR glasses: features

Limited feature set
Clunky controls

The glasses aren’t just portable projectors though; they also open up access to exclusive AR features through the Nebula app.

The first is a virtual multi-monitor setup, allowing you to project multiple screens in front of you at once. While watching a YouTube live-streamed event on one screen, you can have an expert liveblog on another, a group chat with your friends on a third, and a store page opened up on a fourth so you can order everything you’re watching, reading, or chatting about on those other screens.

On the glasses’ massive-sized display, you’re able to have all this going on without having to shrink any windows down – everything is easy to see even when you have several open at once. Unfortunately, this feature is severely limited by the lack of cameras in the Xreal Air glasses.

To move these windows around and open them up in the first place, you have to use your phone. Unfortunately, the controls are a bit too clunky to make this an enjoyable experience and make me wish the glasses had cameras. Rather than blindly swiping on your phone screen, you could pinch your fingers together and type on a floating keyboard, giving you a true Tony Stark-like experience.

A person watching a show on their Xreal Air glasses, we can see the screen projected in front of them as they relax on their couch — (Image credit: Xreal)

Then there’s the cycling app. Borrowing from services like Peloton, this feature transports you from your gym to a cycle path by playing a video of a fellow cyclist out there making the journey themselves. It’s fine, but nothing to write home about. If you’re after an immersive workout, you’d be better off grabbing a VR headset and trying out some of the best VR fitness games.

Once again, the glasses could offer much better experiences by being able to capture the world around you with cameras. They could digitally map realistic virtual objects into the world that you could interact with, but instead, these glasses go no further than pasting images at a set distance in front of your face.

Features score: 2/5

Xreal Air AR glasses: battery life

No internal battery
Can really drain your phone's charge with prolonged use

Because the Xreal Air AR glasses plug straight into your smartphone without the ability to operate wirelessly, they don’t have or need an internal battery. But without their own battery, these glasses will significantly drain the battery life of the device to which you connect them.

The Oppo Find X5 face up on a chair — We tested these glasses out using an Oppo Find X5 (Image credit: Future)

Using the Xreal glasses with a pair of Bose 700 Bluetooth headphones to stream Netflix over 5G on an Oppo Find X5 was enough to drain the phone’s charge by about 50% over my hour-long commute.

If you find this to be an issue we'd recommend picking up the Beam adapter as this can spare your phone, though we wish we didn't need a $119 to solve this issue. In the next iteration, I'd love to see the glasses or their cable offer a second USB-C port so that I can connect my glasses, phone, and power source together simultaneously.

Battery life score: 3/5

Should I buy the Xreal Air AR glasses?

Buy these if…

Don’t buy these if…

Also consider

Xreal Air AR Glasses scorecard

How we test

We pride ourselves on our independence and our rigorous review-testing process, offering up long-term attention to the products we review and making sure our reviews are updated and maintained - regardless of when a device was released, if you can still buy it, it's on our radar.

TeraBox: Pricing & plans

When it comes to cloud storage capacity, TeraBox’s free offering is unmatched. 1TB of space at no cost - it’s a bold pitch. However, there are a few catches, including a fairly ungenerous 4GB file size limit. Users can only store up to 500 files in a free TeraBox account, and once they’re deleted, they are permanently removed after 10 days. The biggest drawback of the free account, though, is the reduced upload and download speeds, designed to push users towards the unthrottled Premium account.

There are small increases in storage available for free in the app. We were able to add 2GB for watching an advert, and up to 61GB can be claimed for users who open the app every day for seven days, though the small print says that this storage has a validity period of 180 days.

Premium subscribers get 2TB of storage for $3.49 a month or $35.99 a year, which is significantly cheaper than iCloud Drive and Google Drive, both of which cost $9.99 a month. As ever, there are savings to be had when committing longer-term,

There is a seven-day free trial period, however card details are required and auto-renew is enabled. Along with additional storage, the benefits of Premium accounts include a 20GB file size limit (using the mobile apps or Windows client only), the ability to store up to 50,000 files, and a 30-day recycle bin retention period. The most notable of all, though, are the "ultra fast" upload and download speeds that are unlocked.

TeraBox: Interface

Signing up was the first hurdle we had to overcome with Terabox. Our StartMail address was rejected and the website provided a list of acceptable email domains. In fairness these included major players like Gmail, iCloud and Outlook. One AOL registration later and we were in.

The web interface will be familiar to most users, with typical drag-and-drop support for file uploads and for moving files within the browser itself. In fact, most users will end up settling with browser access only, as the downloadable windows client is virtually identical.

There's a clear, visual representation of your data and your remaining storage in the left-hand sidebar. The tile and list views add an extra layer of welcome customization.

TeraBox promises faster downloads through its desktop client. However, this is a Windows-only software, leaving macOS users left out. There are iOS and Android apps too, but only the Android version supports automatic folder backup.

Automatic mobile video backup is completed using the app, and the Premium plan’s 20GB maximum file size limit applies to the desktop client and mobile apps only - not for browser users (and, as such, Mac users).

The mobile app looks a little busy in comparison with the browser interface, with distracting dynamic advert blocks. At least its layout is simple, with specific tabs for files, photo albums, videos and sharing tools.

The safe - which is seemingly not available in the browser although there is no mention of this - provides a password-protected space to store important files. It’s great to see support for biometric (face and fingerprint) protection, however you will still need to remember your safe’s password. By default, this is a 4-digit passcode. We had a little trouble setting this up at first, as the software told us there was a 'network error' but the vault was created on the second attempt.

TeraBox cannot help you to recover a forgotten password, and files inside the safe are deleted after too many incorrect attempts. Strangely TeraBox's pricing page doesn't list this 'Encrypted space' as an option for free plans, which begs the question if the 'Personal Vault' is encrypted at all.

TeraBox: Features

When it comes to cloud storage, there are two approaches. Most people think of an online storage space for their files, while some companies offer automatic backups of users’ machines (or a combination of both). TeraBox is a storage solution only, so is best compared to companies like Google Drive, Box, and Internxt.

Like Google Drive, it’s most likely that TeraBox users will access their files - whether that’s to upload, download or view - using the browser portal. Here, there are clear folders running down the left-hand side for file types, like documents, photos, videos and music. The recycle bin is also accessed here - files that are deleted sit here for 10 days before they are permanently deleted, though this can be upgraded to 30 days with paid Premium accounts.

To share files, users can choose between items already in their cloud drives or from their computer or other device. While some other cloud storage solutions offer greater control over sharing permissions, we like what’s on offer here. As well as choosing how to share a file (via email or with a unique link), TeraBox users can select the period for which it will be available (7 days, 30 days or permanently), and add an access code to somewhat boost security. Terabox warns that some 'objectionable' content won't be shared, which suggests they may be monitoring files in users' drives..

The company - Flextech Inc. - also offers a way to share big files without requiring users to make an account. Controls for this TeraTransfer service are a little more limited, with links only available for 24 hours, and a 50GB file size limit (unlimited for TeraBox free or Premium users).

It’s worth mentioning that this file transfer software is currently in beta testing, which is said to be for a “limited time”. This means that in the future, users may need a TeraBox account to continue.

TeraBox: Security

Spend any time digging through forums and reviews and you will find concerns over TeraBox’s security. The website claims to store metadata and file data separately, and to encrypt files during the upload and download processes via HTTPS and SFTP.

The cloud provider claims not to be able to see files inside the Personal Vault. But once data has been uploaded to the cloud, in theory there's nothing to stop them from examining it. The company’s warning that it won't allow sharing of 'objectionable' content suggests some kind of scanning or filtering.

This in contrast to other cloud storage software like Nextcloud, which offer zero-knowledge "end to end encryption". This means that even the providers don't know what data is held by customers on their servers.

Digging into the company’s past reveals further security concerns. TeraBox was previously known as Dubox before it was purchased by FlexTech Inc. Chinese-owned Dubox made it explicit that data was stored in Chinese data centers, which are sometimes seen as less secure than their American or European counterparts. Again, this would be less of a concern if TeraBox provided client-side encryption, securing data before upload, so even their employees couldn't read it.

As we are unable to confirm the current situation with data storage and security, we recommend using TeraBox cautiously. This means that you should avoid storing sensitive and personal information in its cloud space. If you truly have no choice, consider using the best encryption software to protect your files before upload.

Terabox: Our tests

Across three key tests, we measured Terabox’s sync speed, file recovery and versioning. This was done on a Windows 11 virtual machine connected to the internet via VPN server, that showed a consistent average upload speed of 70 Mbps

TeraBox cloud storage during our test and review process — (Image credit: TeraBox)

Test 1 - Sync speed

For our first test, we copied a 650 MB folder to the application directory, measuring how quickly the desktop client was able to sync the files to the cloud. The folder contained 22 files including MP3s, images, metadata files and a PDF.

We didn't have much joy syncing data with the TeraBox cloud in our original tests in 2022. It took us several attempts to upload our 1GB test file, with progress coming to a halt on all but our ninth attempt. This final, successful upload was complete in under four minutes, which is very respectable when compared with other cloud drives, although we do have concerns over the service’s stability.

We would typically expect a download to complete significantly quicker than an upload with our typical Internet connections, however this is where TeraBox’s speed throttling comes into play.

Using our free account, the same 1GB was re-downloaded in under nine minutes. This would have been reasonable before the introduction of high-speed Internet connections; most other competitors manage the same download in less than half the time, with several sub-one-minute times.

Our most recent tests in 2023 performed much better. Our data uploaded in just under 105 seconds. Our upload speed averaged 70Mbps but as before we were victims of TeraBox's throttling which slowed the upload below cloud storage competitors like Dropbox and OneDrive.

Test 2 - File recovery

In this test, we deleted the folder from the application directory, removing it from the device. After seeing whether the files were gone from the cloud drive, we looked to see if it was possible to recover them.

As TeraBox only offers a cloud drive rather than local sync of files we decided to delete our test folder from the Files section of the client itself.

As soon as we did a helpful pop up appeared informing us that deleted files would be stored for 10 days in the Recycle Bin but this could be extended to 30 days with a Premium subscription.

Once we confirmed deletion, another pop up appeared pointing to the Recycle Bin where we were able to recover all files intact.

Test 3 - Versioning

In our third and final test, we checked the versioning options. This lets you open an older version of the document - useful if unnecessary changes have been made to a file.

TeraBox allowed us to upload our test document to the cloud drive. However we were unable to edit it online. When we uploaded the modified version, TeraBox simply appended a '(1)' to the new file. Clearly this isn't a good cloud storage solution if you want to store multiple versions of the same file and revert to them with a few mouse clicks.

TeraBox: Verdict

TeraBox’s unique selling point is its 1TB free cloud storage. While there are trade-offs to be had in terms of bandwidth throttling and file size limits, these are all reasonable compromises to make, and the affordable Premium plan is always there if users need greater control.

The bulk of its competition comes from other cloud storage drives, like Dropbox, Box, and Google Drive, all of which are more expensive and offer nowhere near TeraBox’s 1TB of free storage.

None of TeraBox's competitors also seek to throttle users' bandwidth to control upload and download speeds. Admittedly, you can sidestep this issue by signing up for a Premium plan but we would have liked to see an unrestricted upload/download quota, for example 10GB per day instead of a blanket restriction.

While there have been questions raised around the company’s privacy, users of any Internet-based service should maintain reasonable levels of privacy and security themselves, and it’s best practice not to store any confidential documents online unless you've properly encrypted them first.

With this in mind, if used sensibly and with a reliable encryption utility, TeraBox is at the top of its game for this price point. We hope to see the rollout of a macOS client as well as even more features to give it the same clout as more seasoned rivals, though.

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