How to Buy a Mini (Pico or Palm-Top) Projector

Portable projectors keep getting smaller and lighter. Whereas a 12-pound projector once qualified as portable, now it's considered acceptable only for carrying from room to room. The smallest, lightest projectors today are small enough so you can bring one along without a second thought, stuffing it into a briefcase or even a pocket. However, some compromises go along with the small size—notably low brightness levels. If you're thinking about getting a small projector, considering these questions first will help you pick the right one.

How Portable Does It Have To Be?

The smallest projectors today fall into two categories: palm-top and pico. There's some confusion about the categories, because most manufacturers call palm-tops pocket projectors. But with dimensions that top out at about 2.5 by a little more than 5 by 5 inches, the pocket description is more metaphorical than real. Pico projectors, on the other hand, are comparable to a cell phone in size and weight, so they can easily fit in a shirt pocket. Palm-tops are portable enough to carry with you easily when you need them. Pico projectors are small and light enough to carry all the time.

Some of these projectors also enhance their portability by being able to read files directly from a USB memory key. Ask yourself whether taking advantage of that feature will let you leave your computer at home. If so, a somewhat larger and heavier projector with a USB reader feature can be more portable in a practical sense than a lighter projector that won't work without your computer.

What Resolution Do You Need?

Ideally, for best image quality, you should match the projector's native resolution (the number of physical pixels in the projector's display chip) to the resolution you use most often. Unfortunately, you don't have the luxury of making that choice yet with either palm-tops or pico projectors. Palm-tops are universally SVGA—and in many cases not the standard 800 by 600, but a little off target (858 by 600, for example). That means the projector has to scale even a VGA image, which can degrade the image quality somewhat.

Pico projectors offer a little more choice in resolution, but currently top out at VGA (640 by 480), which is suitable for video or for basic presentations without much text or fine detail on any one slide. At least one projector offers only half-VGA (480 by 320) and is meant strictly for video or still images. None of the mini projectors—pico or palm-top—offers native widescreen resolutions. Pico projectors, and some palm-tops, are also relatively limited in the range of resolutions they can accept and then scale down to their native resolution. So make sure the projector can accept the signal you plan to send to it.

How Bright Should It Be?

The general rule for projectors is that brighter isn't always better, but you can ignore that rule for palm-top and pico projectors. None of them is bright enough to qualify as too bright under any lighting conditions for any reasonable-size image. So for these projectors, brighter is better. Always.

The rated brightness for pico projectors starts at about 10 lumens. As a rule of thumb, that's bright enough to let you project a useful image for extended viewing in a darkened room at roughly a 24-inch diagonal size. Ratings for current palm-top projectors run from well under 100 lumens to somewhat short of 200 lumens. As a rule of thumb again, that's bright enough even on the low end for at least a 40-inch diagonal image in dim lighting. On the high end, it's bright enough for at least a 70-inch diagonal image, even with some ambient light.

Don't Take Contrast Ratio Too Seriously

Contrast ratio is the ratio between the brightness of the brightest and darkest areas a projector can produce. But it's only one factor among many that affects your perception of image quality in exactly the same way. So knowing the contrast ratio doesn't really tell you much for any projector. Given the low brightness levels for pico and palm top projectors, the contrast ratio for them is even less relevant than for projectors in general.

How Do You Plan To Connect?

Most pico and palm-top projectors offer an SVGA (analog) connector for a computer and a composite connector for video signals. A few are limited to composite video only. There's also at least one pico projector that can connect to an iPod, letting you use the projector as an iPod accessory. For obvious reasons, make sure you match the ports on the projector to the ports available on the computer or video equipment you plan to connect to.

What Technology Do You Want?

Most palm-top and pico projectors use DLP technology, which can suffer from a rainbow effect, with light areas on screen breaking up into little rainbows for some people when they shift their gaze or if something moves on screen. Those who are sensitive to this effect can find it annoying. It's worse with some projectors than others, however. For any given projector you're considering, you might want to check out how obvious the effect is for yourself, or check PCMag.com reviews for comments on the rainbow effect.

The two other technologies in current and promised pico projectors are LCOS and laser. There simply is not enough of either yet to draw general conclusions about the pluses or minuses for these technologies, so there's no good reason to focus on or rule out projectors based on the technology.

Do You Need Audio?

Audio capabilities in pico and palm-top projectors range from nonexistent, to almost useless, to surprisingly good for such small devices. If you use sound in presentations or want to use the projector for, say, watching movies, make sure that the audio is both high enough quality and loud enough to meet your needs. Alternatively, consider using a separate sound system.

Mini Projectors We Have Recently Reviewed:

Optoma Pico PK101 ($399 direct)

No bigger than a cell phone, the Optoma Pico PK101 projector is small enough to carry anywhere and is a particularly good companion for a video iPod.

3M MPro110 ($359 direct)

The 3M MPro110 is one of the first projectors that can fit into a shirt pocket and the first of its size that can connect to a computer.

Dell M109 ($499 direct)

The Dell M109S is a new-generation palm-size projector—small, light, cheap, and suitable for both business travel and home use.

Samsung P400 ($550 street)

The Samsung P400 isn't the lightest projector, or the smallest, but it delivers a surprisingly bright image and high-volume audio in a highly portable package.

Toshiba TDP-F10U ($600 street)

Toshiba's second-generation LED palmtop projector, the TDP-F10U, improves on the first-generation Editors' Choice model, but it doesn't keep up with the competition.

BenQ Joybee GP1 ($500 street)

The BenQ Joybee GP1 is small, lightweight, and bright, and it offers built-in audio, making it the most impressive

Samsung P410 ($749 list)

Designed as an ultra-portable data projector, the Samsung P410 delivers a bright image and high volume, and it can read files directly from a USB memory key.