Mobility Digest Review: Mini USB 2.0 LED Digital Projector

Lookie, Lookie it’s another review from me, four in a row, and that’s all I have right now actually. Today I’ve got another product from our friends at Geeks.com and it’s a mini LED projector that features a USB port so you can hook it directly to your computer to display your desktop on the big screen. The projector is very small, and it’s very well made, but it does have some flaws. There are many cheap digital projectors out there and really what can you expect for under $100 for a projector right, a few flaws are to be expected. Still though, read on to learn more…

Author: Kristofer Brozio

Vendor: Geeks.com

Price: $79.99

Overall Rating: 3/5

Mini USB 2.0 LED Digital Projector w/SD/SDHC Card Slot, Speaker & Tripod
– Enjoy Custom Viewing w/a 10-42″ Display!

Deploy a mini movie theater in any room with this Pico USB 2.0 SD/MMC LED Projector!

This pico LED projector features compact size, sturdy construction, and multimedia playback support that lets you carry a 10 to 42-inch screen in your pocket. Its LED light gives you thousands of hours of life and projects a 320 x 240 resolution screen on your wall, screen, or even your ceiling!

Slide in an SD/SDHC memory card loaded with MP4, AVI, and MOV files to watch videos, JPEG & BMP files for photo slide shows, or listen to MP3 and WMA audio files with the built-in speaker. With its built-in rechargeable battery, you get up to an hour of video playback time when fully charged! All this function in a device that easily fits in your pocket! Get your Pico LED projector today!

General Features:
– Compact, portable device
– USB 2.0 interface
– Display format: LCoS panel
– Resolution: 320 x 240 pixels
– 4 MB internal memory (driver inside)
– Supports SD & SDHC memory cards
– Aspect ratio: 4:3
– Contrast ratio: 200:1
– Manual focus
– Projection distance: 40 cm to 2m
– Projection size: 10 ~ 42-inches
– Lighting source: LED lamp
– Built in stereo (1W x 2) speakers
– Built-in calendar and clock
– Built-in rechargeable 850 mAh battery
– Supports Microsoft Windows XP, Vista, & 7 (32 & 64-bit)
– Lead-free components (RoHS compliant)

Supported File Formats:
– Photo: JPEG, BMP
– Audio: MP3, WMA
– Video: H.264, MPEG, MJPEG, AVI, MOV, MP4, 3GP

Supported Memory Cards:
– SD
– SDHC

Power Specifications:
– AC Adapter Input: 100-240V 50/60 Hz 0.1A
– DC In: 5V, 1A (USB)
– Consumption: 2 watts

Unit Dimensions: 0.6 x 2.4 x 4-inches (H x W x D)

What’s in the Box?

So we’ll start off with the video unboxing again:

Then the pictures, just a plain white box:

Inside that little white box though you’ll find the projector, tripod in two pieces, USB cable, USB style AC adapter, user manual and carrying case along with a remote.

Here’s the tripod assembled:

The projector itself feels very well made, for how small it is it’s surprisingly heavy. The top is black plastic while the bottom is chromed metal.

On the top are two buttons and a navigation pad.

On the back is where you’ll find the on/off switch, USB port and the infrared port.

On the front is ventilation and the lens with focus knob.

On one side is an SD card slot, and on both sides you’ll find ventilation / speakers.

Impressions / Review:

Here’s the projector on the tripod. You could use this tripod with most anything really, it’s spring loaded and padded on the inside. The legs are more like very thick wires and stiff but flexible.

I also own the Aaxa P1 Pico, here it is next to the Mini LED Projector:

As you can see the mini is quite a bit thinner.

To test it out I added a few things like movies and pictures to an SD card and put it into the min LED projector. I put Mpeg and Mp4 movies on there and neither would play sadly even though it says it can play them.

Actually the first thing I did was to test it with my netbook. You can plug it in via USB and show the desktop via the projector. The drivers and software are right on the projector itself, just install them and you’re ready to go. 42” is the maximum size and that’s what I went to, and I kicked the brightness all the way up and still it’s not that bright. it’s also very low resolution making things very pixelated and hard to read.

When you use it actually as a projector the main menu has selections for Photo, Video, Music, Calendar, File, Ebook and Setting.

When you click Setting you’ll be greeted with another menu:

Then here are the the individual ones expanded.

I loaded a few videos onto the SD card and two would not play, mpeg and mp4, but the .AVI file did. If you look at the specs it’s supposed to be able to play both mpeg and mp4 files though. Not sure what the problem is but when it won’t play what it’s supposed to that’s a a bad thing I would think.

Under the calendar option there’s actually three, a regular one, a small one with photos and an analog clock.

Under file you’ll find everything listed that’s on the SD card.

When you go to photos you can se the photos, simple really.

As you can see the pictures are dark, sorry about that but that was the best I could do with this projector. The room I was in was totally dark but the next room did have a light on, to really use this projector you need to be in a totally dark room void of all light. Sure it’s nice for night time viewing but you won’t be using it in the daytime that’s for sure.

The remote does work very well though, it’s infrared and the sensor is on the back so you’ve got to be behind it aiming at it.

The sounds is clear, but it’s very low, and I mean very low, like you have to hold the projector to your ear or be in a very, very quiet room.

Conclusion:

So it’s not perfect but it’s a mini projector that costs under $100, so what did you expect right?

Well I at least expected it to do what it was supposed to and be able to hear it.  It wouldn’t play the formats it was supposed to.

Sure it works as a projector but it’s very dim and pretty much unusable with any lights on.

For what it is it’s no more than a toy I would think, it’s fun to play with but it’s nowhere near a serious projector.

Pros:
+Small and portable
+Made of metal and plastic, well made really
+Includes case, remote, and tripod
+Easy to use

Cons:
-Very dim LED light, must use in very dark room
-Low resolution
-Doesn’t play the video formats it’s supposed to
-Speakers are very low