April 2011, Singapore –Pico projectors are becoming a “must have” tool for executives who often have to make presentations to their clients. A Pico projector is a “pocket size” projector that allows you to project any image wherever you are, with or without plug-in electricity since most pico projectors come with a built-in battery pack.
3M launched its latest pico projector, the MP180 in Singapore. It comes packed with many features including:
- 4GB internal storage
- micro SD external memory expansion
- WIFI
- Bluetooth
- web browser
- built-in speaker (2 x 0.75w)
- 30 Lumens
- Up to 80” projection
- Two hours of battery life
The package comes with a full suite of accessories:
- Computer VGA Cable
- Video Cable
- USB Cable – for file transfer between computer to MP180 internal storage
- Power Adaptor with US, UK, AUS and EU plugs
- Mini Tripod
- Pouch cover
Here’s a size comparison for 3M MP180 pico projector with an iPhone 4
The projector can project an image resolution of up to 1440 x 900 pixel at 60Hz. From the picture below you can see the projection performance under various lighting conditions. In this test, the projector was placed about two meters away from the wall, and projected image is about 70”. Although it is “pocket size”(weighing at 338grams), the 3M MP180 has 30 lumens brightness that project decent quality images even in a fully lit room.
To navigate through the menu, you can either directly click on the touch screen display or you can choose to project the menu on the wall/screen and navigate using the touch screen display. The touch screen display is a resistive touch display, which means you will have to use your fingernails to click on the icons instead of using your thumb. The touch screen display may look cool, but sometimes you just feel like having physical buttons to click and navigate through your presentation without the need to look at the touch screen display to see where to click.
With the 4GB internal storage, you can preload your files in to it so that you can independently carry out your presentation without the need to hook up with a PC or a laptop. You can also boost up the storage space by using a micro SD card. Here is the list of formats it supports:
- Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint Document
- Adobe PDF
- .mov, .wmv, .mp3, .mp4, .bmp & .jpg
3M MP180 has web browsing capabilities which it takes awhile to render a standard webpage, but it works faster if the site you visit have a mobile version website, then 3M MP180 will automatically choose render the latter.
The projector has a decent battery life of two hours, but it’s still wise to bring along the power adaptor just in case.
CONCLUSION
The 3M MP180 serves well as a pico projector and storage library for your presentations. For additional functions transferring files via Bluetooth is fast and easy, while web browsing is a “good to have”since you can still use a laptop to surf the web then project it using the 3M MP180. The 3M MP180 pico projector is retailing at $699, check this link to find out where to buy it.
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This is pretty rad! 30 Lumens is pretty dark though… i would love to see how this stacks up against the Aaxa M1…? I know they are basically 2 different projectors but in my experience i’ve always needed about 70-80 lumens for the projector to be effective enough for me to use in meetings..