IT TOOK my breath away with its small size. Shaped like a candy bar, the MPro 110 weighs just 150g and fits nicely in the palm of my hand.
For road warriors, this handheld, battery-operated device is a godsend. It is compatible with notebooks, iPhones, smartphones and digital cameras so you can project movies, photos and digital files virtually anywhere.
You can connect the MPro 110 directly to a power socket or charge the battery for use on-the-go. At full charge, the battery lasted 60 minutes.
Setting up the device is easy - hook up external devices and it automatically detects the image source.
The MPro 110 uses LED technology, the same energy-efficient technology used in traffic lights. You can use the projector for up to 10,000 hours before the lamp loses its effectiveness.
My euphoria over this product and its practical functions, however, disappeared as soon as I switched it on.
For starters, the MPro 110 has a low brightness level of just 10 lumens (standard-sized projectors have brightness levels of over 1,000 lumens).
In my tests, I find that the MPro 110 works best in a dark room and at short projection distances of between 21cm and 100cm.
At 100cm, the projector will throw an image slightly smaller than a single page of The Straits Times - two or three people can comfortably view it.
The settings are equally limited. You cannot make keystone corrections (an image distortion that happens when the projector is not perpendicular to the screen), improve contrast or adjust image brightness.
There are only two controls on the device - one is the power switch; the other adjusts the focus.
However, it is unfair to compare the picture and colour quality of this device with full-sized projectors.
The MPro 110 works best if you want to show digital videos, photos and Powerpoint presentations. It is hard to read text documents and view Web pages with it.
While you can hold the device and project images, it gets hot after about 15 minutes. A solution would be to get a mini tripod to hold the projector in place.
Final say
Great with mobile devices. Lower your expectations and this device could turn you on.
By Adli Yashir, a correspondent/ Internet coordinator with Berita Harian.
This story was first published in The Straits Times Digital Life on 24 Dcember 2008.
