Projector in a tablet? Blackview Active 12 Pro 5G review

Much like smartphones, most tablets nowadays have settled on a uniform look. Regardless of the manufacturer, you're getting an aluminum unibody chassis with flat sides and thin display bezels. But the rugged tablet scene is different and Blackview's latest offering is the epitome of this crazy sub-genre.

The BlackView Active 12 Pro 5G tablet is an imposing device that's meant to be used outdoors, away from the safety of your home. It certainly passes the rugged tablet eye test, but it’s not just an extra chunky device with a huge battery.

Blackview Active 12 Pro specs at a glance:

• Body: 267.7x179.0x28.3mm, 1522g; IP68/IP69K dust tight and water resistant (high pressure water jets; immersible up to 1.5m for 30 min), Drop resistant up to 12m, MIL-STD-810H compliant, Dedicated flood flashlight, 800 lm, 1080P 200 lm AF projector, built-in distance sensor, Stylus support, UL94 HB flame-retardant certified, 180° free-floating aluminum stand.
• Display: 11.00" IPS LCD, 90Hz, 650 nits, 1200x1920px resolution, 14.4:9 aspect ratio, 206ppi.
• Chipset: MediaTek Dimensity 7300 (4 nm): Octa-core (4x2.5 GHz Cortex-A78 & 4x2.0 GHz Cortex-A55); Mali-G615 MC2.
• Memory: 256GB 12GB RAM, 1TB 16GB RAM; UFS 3.1; microSDXC (uses shared SIM slot).
• OS/Software: Android 15, Doke OS_P 4.2.
• Rear camera: Wide (main): 108 MP, f/1.9, 1/1.67", PDAF
• Front camera: 50 MP, f/2.3, (wide), 1/2.76", PDAF.
• Video capture: Rear camera: 1440p@30fps, 1080p@30fps; Front camera: 1080p@30fps.
• Battery: 30000mAh; 120W wired, 10W reverse wired.
• Connectivity: 5G; Wi-Fi 6e; BT 5.4; NFC; FM Radio.
• Misc: Fingerprint reader (side-mounted); stereo speakers.

It has a few tricks up its sleeve, with the main highlight being a built-in projector for impromptu movie nights. But that’s not all, you also get a dedicated camping light and its 30,000 mAh (!) battery, which promises run times, and it can also double as your go-to powerbank for days on end. This is a full-fledged Android 15 tablet with 5G cellular connectivity and it starts at €576.

Unboxing

Active 12 Pro comes with a rich set of accessories. You get a rigid metal kick stand that you attach via four bolts and a nifty key-shaped flathead screwdriver.

Blackview Active 12 Pro comes bundled with a nice set of accessories

There’s a nice 120W GaN fast charger, a USB-C cable, an OTG adapter and a basic stylus too. The tablet also comes with a pre-installed screen protector.

Design and handling

There's no getting around it, Active 12 Pro is a monstrous device. It weighs 1.5 kg on its own and the metal kickstand brings the combined total to just over 1.7 kg. That's about three times the weight of the iPad Pro 13 (2024) and the 28.3 mm thickness makes it an absolute chonker.

Active 12 Pro is a true rugged tablet

The rigid plastic casing should be more than capable of taking a few falls. Blackview is advertising extensive drop durability and the device is also IP68 & IP69K certified so it can certainly handle dust and water submersion.

The SIM/microSD card and charging ports are sealed with rubber flaps which is another strong point if you plan to use this device around liquids.

Display

Active 12 Pro features an 11-inch IPS LCD of 1,200 x 1,920px resolution and 90Hz refresh rate with Gorilla Glass 5 protection. The panel's thick bezels look several generations outdated. It’s not laminated and has poor contrast and clarity.

According to our measurements, the maximum brightness is 627 nits in manual mode and 677 nits in automatic mode, which sits below the recent crop of tablets we've reviewed.

Active 12 Pro comes bundled with a sleek metal kickstand that you attach to the back with four bolts. The adaptable 180° hinge mechanism is smooth and allows you to prop the tablet at various angles when projecting. It’s also a handy way to carry the device.

The metal kickstand is one way to carry the Active 12 Pro around

There’s another special addition on the back - an array of 606 ultra-bright LEDs aka camping light. These get extremely bright at 400 lumens and can transform the darkest of rooms to broad daylight. Blackview is advertising this as the ideal way to light up your camping site and we can see the potential here.

There’s a special ToolBag app which lets you control the LEDs with granular brightness control, quick flashing and SOS modes. Interestingly, the proprietary app is the only way to toggle the camping light on.

Projector

The built-in projector is the definitive highlight feature on the Active 12 Pro. With a rated brightness output of 200 lumens, the projector is not going to beat out a dedicated ultra-short throw (UST) projector in terms of daylight performance, but it’s still about 100 lumens brighter than the competing tablets with built-in projectors.

In a dim environment, Active 12 Pro’s projector does solid work and is honestly a great experience for casual movie watching. The automatic keystone correction does a great job of setting up the picture and the autofocus system works great. You really don’t need to do much more than point the projector, and it will take care of the rest.

The projector comes with a built-in fan for cooling, which turns on and off every few seconds. It’s definitely audible when sitting close to the tablet. Turning down the projector’s brightness also lowers the fan’s intensity and is one way to reduce the noise level.

As far as the projection quality goes, you can output up to 1080P content and it comes with full Widevine L1 support for high-res streaming on Netflix. Blackview claims you can get up to a 120-inch (304 cm) projection image, which is plenty big. In our testing, we got a 100-inch picture from about 2.9m away.

Cameras

You may be surprised but Blackview managed to fit a 108MP main cam using Samsung’s HM6 sensor (1/1.67") around the back and a 50MP front-facing module (Samsung JN1).

While the megapixel count is higher than what you’d normally find from a tablet, the results are not that impressive.

Selfie camera: 1x • 1080p Selfie video screengrab

Shots from the main cam feature limited dynamic range, muted colors and visible over-sharpening.

Main camera samples: 1x • 2x

Videos have similar pitfalls as you can see in this sample, and the lack of stabilization is also evident. Video recordings max out at up to 2K resolution (2,560 x 1,440 px).

Battery life and performance

Active 12 Pro features a 30,000mAh battery, which promises up to 112 days of standby and 6:45 hours of non-stop projection. The tablet is bundled with a 120W USB-PD fast charger, which tops up the monster cell in 2 hours and 31 minutes. That's quite impressive given that the Active 12 Pro's battery capacity is 3x larger than the Infinix XPad GT yet only takes 6 minutes more for a full charge.

Active 12 Pro managed 50h in our web browsing/social networks battery life test, which is stellar performance.

The projector can last for 7 hours and 55 minutes of local video playback. This is more than enough to watch two full-length movies or binge through an entire season of a TV show. It’s also worth noting that the projection won’t stop until the battery completely depletes its charge, no safeguards here.

Moving to performance, Active 12 Pro is equipped with MediaTek’s Dimensity 7300. It's paired with 12GB of RAM in our review unit, though you can also pick up a version with 16GB RAM.

The CPU has 4x 2.5 GHz Cortex-A78 cores and 4x 2.0 GHz Cortex-A55 cores, while the GPU is the Mali-G615 MC2. The SoC is a solid performer and offers similar performance to the Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 in CPU tasks and slightly lower graphics performance.

Conclusion

Blackview Active 12 Pro is not the first rugged tablet with a massive battery and a built-in projector but it’s our first encounter with this type of device. We didn’t have high expectations to begin with, but the projector surprised us as it offers a nice viewing experience, and its autofocus and auto keystone correction are great at taking the setup hassle away.

The massive 30,000 mAh battery means you can use the device for hours on end and even charge other gadgets. The camping light LEDs can serve as a construction site lamp, and the rugged build can certainly survive in the great outdoors. We'd also like to praise Blackview for adding 5G cellular connectivity, which is not something you see that often on rugged tablets.

There are several drawbacks, and the main one is the sheer size and weight of this thing. It’s a big and clunky device with a subpar screen, bad haptics, and we’re not sure about regular software updates.

We can certainly see the appeal of having a portable 120" projector that’s also a full-blown Android tablet and a powerbank wrapped in one device. At €576 for the 12/256GB trim, Active 12 Pro is a media powerhouse that's just meant for camping as long as you can cope with its size and weight. Blackview is also offering €50 off with coupon code JTN1M9C1V203.