The archive · Product Ideas · Product decision · 2025
Aurzen ZIP: a tri-fold projector that folds into a pocket and unfolds into its own stand
The first projector built from three hinged segments: closed it is a pocket cube, opened it angles itself at any surface — no tripod or stand.
Aurzen
What it had to solve
Aurzen's team says ZIP grew out of a frustrating camping projection trip — poor network signals, unstable brackets and a cumbersome setup. Conventional portable projectors shared three limits: restricted angle adjustment, limited battery life and excess bulk, so the company set out to solve all three with one folding mechanism, unveiling the result at CES 2025 and on Kickstarter.
How it works
Aurzen says the ZIP began with a bad camping projection trip: poor network signals, unstable brackets and a cumbersome setup. The team concluded that portable projectors shared three structural limits — restricted angle adjustment, limited battery life and excess bulk — and answered with the world's first tri-fold portable projector, unveiled at CES 2025 and funded through Kickstarter in January 2025.
The mechanism is the product. Three segments joined by two hinges fold down to a 1-inch-thick, near-square block that fits in a pocket; when opened they form a Z, with the battery-packed bottom segment acting as the base and the top segment free to aim at a wall, ceiling, floor or tabletop. The image auto-orients when the device is turned on its side, so vertical video like TikTok needs no borders and no separate stand.
Inside the compact body, Aurzen fitted a DLP engine (720p via XPR pixel shifting), 100 ANSI lumens of brightness, a ToF sensor that drives autofocus and auto vertical keystone correction, touch controls, a 5,000mAh battery rated for about 90 minutes in eco mode, USB-C 24W charging, dual 1-watt speakers and Wi-Fi Direct casting from phones and computers, with no router required.
The gamble paid off enough to become a shipping product: Notebookcheck logged more than $170,000 pledged within days of the campaign opening, and Aurzen's award profile reports $674,625 raised in total. PCMag gave the production ZIP an Editors' Choice as a premium pocket projector in June 2025, New Atlas called its unique form factor and innovative design its reason to exist, and the design added a CES 2025 Innovation Award and a Platinum A' Design Award to its record.
Why it lands
- It deleted an entire accessory class — tripods, stands and cases — by making the product's own geometry do that work.
- Hinges gave continuous aiming freedom across walls, ceilings, floors and portrait screens that a fixed-box pico projector cannot match.
- Folding down to a pocket cube changed what the device is for: carried by default instead of packed deliberately.
- One mechanical idea carried a coherent story from CES and crowdfunding through retail reviews and design awards.
What it did
Notebookcheck reported the Kickstarter campaign passed $170,000 within days of its January 2025 launch, and Aurzen's own design-award profile says the campaign ultimately raised $674,625. PCMag's June 2025 review of the shipping product made it an Editors' Choice for premium pocket projectors, calling it "packed with more features than any other pocket projector we've seen," and New Atlas said its unique form factor lets it stand alone in the market; US retail launched at $399.99.
What you can take
When a whole accessory class — tripod, stand, case — exists only because the product is the wrong shape, redesign the product: folding the hardware itself removes every add-on.
Since then
Aurzen opened the ZIP Kickstarter campaign in January 2025 and closed it successfully; Notebookcheck reported more than $170,000 pledged within days, and Aurzen says the campaign ultimately raised $674,625. Backers received units in the spring, retail began at $399.99 in the US before a European rollout, and PCMag named the shipping projector an Editors' Choice for premium pocket projectors in June 2025. The design went on to win a CES 2025 Innovation Award and a 2025 Platinum A' Design Award, with Aurzen presenting the tri-fold as the core of its portable-projection line.
Sources
- Review: Going pico with world's first tri-fold portable projector
- Aurzen ZIP Tri-Fold Portable Pocket Projector: Petite and Feature-Packed
- Aurzen Zip tri-folding pocket projector scores over $170,000 in nearly-new crowdfunding campaign
- Aurzen Zip Tri Fold Portable Projector by Yang Cui
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