Are there any good Handheld/Micro Projectors?

Horseshoe

Hey dudes,

I've been looking at the mini-projector thing recently and wondering if anyone has any experience with them.

My motivations are geeky, of course. There was an article that showed a tabletop gaming setup with a projector used to throw down the map, and the dude running the game could manipulate the displayed map in real time.

However, this was a few years ago and the projector was a monstrosity chained to the ceiling of his garage or basement or something.

So... seeing that really small projectors are coming out, wondering if they are any good. A portable way to throw maps on a table would be nice... and of course other applications too.

Thanks!

vonPoonBurGer

How small are you looking to get, and what's your price range? There are some really nice mini projectors on the market that do HD resolutions and fit into a smallish carry case. There are two units from Dell that get pretty good reviews (the slightly more expensive one has native widescreen and a higher native resolution). My girlfriend has an Optoma EW1610 that she's extremely happy with. Physically it's a bit bigger than the Dell units, but a bit brighter too. I'd easily consider these portable, the one my girlfriend has is maybe 6 or so pounds in the carry case with all the cables you need. This is all in the $700ish price range.

If you're looking to get smaller than that, there are some truly micro projectors out there, but by most accounts they're pretty limited units. The native resolutions are quite small, and the brightness on these is usually fairly low, which can limit the sort of situations where you can effectively use one. You can get these micro projectors for more like $500, but for my money I think you'll get a lot more versatility and value by stepping up to the slightly larger and more full featured models. Kinda depends on your needs though.