By Adli Yashir

RESET to their factory default settings, each projector was placed on a plastic chair 2m away from a wall in my house.

Tests were done in the day as well as night and images were projected on a white background.

In the night tests, all lights were turned off. In the day, the doors were opened to let in ambient light.

Where the specs allowed, I tested the projectors' throw of an Excel spreadsheet, a Word document, fashion photographs on Photoshop, and the movie Indiana Jones: Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull on DVD.

I connected the projectors (except the Optoma PK101) to my Dell notebook and to the Xbox 360 to play Halo ODST.

The projectors were assessed on these points: colour saturation, image details, sharpness of pictures and videos and legibility of text. They were also assessed on throw distance.

In addition, battery-operated models were tested for how long they lasted from full charge to shut-down.

Adli Yashir is a correspondent/ Internet coordinator with Berita Harian

1. 3M MPro12 pico projector
$580

I was not particularly impressed with the older model MPro110, which I reviewed last year.

This time round, the MPro120 is a totally different story.

Leveraging on a second-generation MM200 engine and liquid crystal on silicon (LCOS) imager, 3M has built a much improved model capable of delivering better colours and sharper images.

About the size of a spectacle case, the 160g projector can turn small images into big ones. Plug this device to your laptop, media player or Xbox360 and then scale images up to 50inches wide. An optional cable lets you hook it up to the iPod too.

I had no problems figuring out how to work it. Navigation was a breeze: five main buttons allowed you to turn on the projector and to set the brightness level.

Like most pico projectors, this 12-lumens device worked best in a dimly-lit or totally dark room.

However, image quality suffered as images got bigger. While the MPro120 could, in theory, scale images up to 50inches, I found that 42 inches offered optimal clarity.

Standing 2m away from the screen, I could see relatively sharp images. I would not recommend, however, using this machine to present text documents or spreadsheets. Fonts and numbers smaller than 9 points were tough to read.

Its throw ratio was pretty good. I could project an image 42 inches wide with the device just 1.5m from the screen.

Equally impressive was colour saturation. The colours of the fashion photoshoot projected on the screen were true to those on the notebook.

Like most pico projectors, this device ran on battery. Unfortunately, the juice ran out after 42 minutes. To conserve battery power, try turning down the brightness level from 12 to 10.

One improvement I would like to see is in the design of the cables.

The projector had separate cables for use with a computer and a video player. Dell, for example, solved this issue by merging the connectors with the power cable.

I am sure that 3M can think of something similar or better.

2. TSR TP100M pico projector
$480 with extra battery (till Nov 15); usual $580 without extra battery

This Singapore-made, battery-operated device is a projector and video player rolled into one.

Not only does it do the usual job of casting images from laptop to screen, but it also has a built-in media player that plays MP4 videos at 640 x 480 pixels.

TSR or Technologies and Systems Research, is the home-grown company behind it.

With 1GB of built-in memory, you can store pictures, videos and presentations in this device. For music and movies, use the built-in speakers or plug in a pair of headphones.

If you need to present content from your computer or scale up Xbox games, this device is ready with a VGA connector and a composite video connector.

At full charge, the battery lasted just 30minutes but a low battery alert came onscreen and counted down 10 seconds before the system shut down.

Visual performance was not great. From distances of over 2m, images were blurred and text and small numbers were hard to read.

For better clarity, keep the width of the projected image small, say, 26inches. So place the projector closer to the screen or wall.

The colours projected came close to those of the original ones displayed on my notebook.

There is room for improvement.

First up, the menu navigation could be more logical.

Instead of having Left/Right buttons to move up or down a menu, Up/Down buttons would make things easier.

TSR should also spruce up the packaging so that it does not elicit negative comments. A colleague commented: 'Looks like a cheap product.'

To round it up, a quieter fan would be nice.

3. Optoma PK101 pico projector
$699

Although more expensive compared to the projectors from 3M and Dell, the Optoma PK101 does not come with a VGA input. Which means you cannot connect this projector to a notebook PC.

A new model which offers VGA input, the PK102, will be available at the end of this year.

To watch movies, connect it to a DVD player or your Xbox 360.

Getting this 108g device to work was a no-brainer: there was no array of menu buttons to confuse the novice user - just a power on/off switch.

The machine's specifications sheet promises that you can scale images up to 60inches.

Personally, I found that 25 inches was the sweet spot for clarity and size.

Pushed to 42 inches, images from the Halo ODST game turned out too dark and I had difficulty spotting the aliens lurking in the shadows.

Its battery lasted the longest of all the machines in this round-up though. It shone for 60 minutes.

4. DELL M109s
$599

Too big to qualify as a pico projector but too small to be called an ultraportable. So Dell calls the M109s its On-The-Go projector.

Though it is two to three times heavier than a standard pico model, its 360g weight is barely noticeable.

What catches the eye is its stunning onyx colour and design, which is part of the company's design theme across its notebooks, desktops and printers.

Its performance was excellent. Images were clear even when pushed to the maximum width of 60 inches.

Colours were accurate to boot. In my Photoshop viewing test, a model's red lingerie on the big screen was the exact duplicate of what was on my laptop's monitor.

My DVD movie tests produced an equally satisfying experience: there were no signs of ghosting or double images.

Heat dissipation was excellent as well. Even after an hour's use, there was no need to wait for the machine to cool down. I could immediately pack it up to go.

If I were to nitpick, the grouse would be the touch-sensitive menu buttons - they were, by turns, too sensitive or totally unresponsive.

5. Nikon CoolPix S1000pj
$799

Let us be clear. The S1000pj is a camera first and a video camera second. Its strength as a projector comes in a distant third.

We decided to include this device in the round-up to demonstrate the increasing trend of convergence of IT devices.

The projector is powered by a white LED (light-emitting diode) lamp. Features are basic, the resolution is VGA (640 x 480 pixels) and you focus with a simple lever.

Given the 10-lumens brightness, projection was a total washout in bright rooms or the outdoors.

However, with the lights turned off, the projected image was fairly bright and did not strain the eyes.

It was at 2m away from the wall that the projector threw a 42-inch image.

In short, it is not the device for scrutinising images. It is good enough though for watching TV programmes in big screen glory.

By Billy Teo

This story was first published in The Straits Times Digital Life.

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