Pico projectors were all the rage when they were in development, but as the first wave of products hit, so did a reality-induced malaise: They weren’t that great. Fortunately, 3M’s MPro120 goes far to outshine the original MPro110.

The Price

$US350, just like its predecessor.

Verdict

What a difference 10 months make.

While the 12-lumen projector isn’t noticeably brighter, the throw is substantially tighter, so at the same distance you get about 25 per cent more picture. In terms of use, I could comfortably watch a screen of about 32 inches on the 120 (as opposed to the 110’s 20 inches) and could get nearly 50 inches out of it in a very dark room before the picture just got too blurry to enjoy. A 32-inch screen size may not be great shakes in the age of $US1000 50-inch plasmas, but in a dorm room or other close quarters, it sure beats a laptop.

Connections & Accessories:
• VGA adaptor for laptops
• Composite adaptor for AV sources
• Female-to-male RCA converters so any video output kit for your phone, iPod or camera will work
• Small Gorilla Pod-style tripod
• Built-in flip-down stand for just a bit of lift

When I reviewed the MPro110, I bitched that it was pretty flimsy too. Not so with the MPro120. It’s sturdy, has nice firm buttons for volume and brightness, and has a focus dial on its face that stays where you put it. The MPro110 and MPro120 are so different despite their naming, my theory is that 3M shot the guy who built the 110 and hired his arch-nemesis to build the new one.

Does this mean you should buy a pico projector? If you have $US350 to spend and find yourself in situations where a very portable 32-inch monitor that requires relative darkness would come in handy, go for it. It’s still not good enough for corporate presentations, and it’s still not a true theatre-on-the-go. My thought is, if it got this much better in just 10 months, why not wait another 10 months for even more improvements—and perhaps a tiny cost drop? [Product Page]

The last 3M projector was a mixed bag: Passable video quality was tainted by poor build quality and low battery life, and the overall experience, while promising, just wasn’t quite there yet.

The MPro120 is a replacement for the MPro110, and on top of the verifiably awesome image quality from its liquid crystal on silicon imager, it multiplies battery life by a factor of six, adds speakers and pushes the life of its 12 lumen lamp to 20,000 hours, and keeps the prior product’s $US350 price tag. Another difference: Assuming this thing been tightened up on the quality front, people might actually buy this. The MPro120 is due to land on September 1. [3M]

COMING SOON TO A POCKET NEAR YOU: THE MPRO120
3M’s New Handheld Projector Set for September Launch
ST. PAUL, MINN. (August 26, 2009) – This fall, Hollywood’s biggest blockbusters are coming to a pocket near you! Less than a year after launching the MPro110 – the handheld digital projector that won the “Grand Award” in the gadget category of the Popular Science 2008 Best of What’s New Awards – 3M announced today the September debut of the MPro120, the newest member of the MPro family. The MPro120 provides improved functionality, increased portability and an expanded feature set.
The MPro120 is the first projector to incorporate 3M’s MM200 projection engine, the next generation of the MPro family. As announced at the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show, the MM200 engine uses an advanced liquid crystal on silicon (LCOS) electronic imager and boasts enhanced image quality with a full colour gamut. The MPro120 provides users with a robust battery life of two to four hours (depending on brightness setting) – enough to watch a full-length film – and, in full brightness mode, achieves a brightness of 12 lumens. Featuring an integrated flip stand, tripod, stereo speakers and a variety of input cables, the MPro120 is ready to use “out-of-the-box” with a wide range of today’s most popular video output gadgets. And, as with its predecessor – the MPro110 – the MPro120 will be the ideal projection solution for laptops and netbooks. Available optional accessories include an adaptor cable for Apple® products, component video cable and car charger.
“Following the success of the MPro110, the MPro120 will further reinforce 3M’s leadership position in the development and implementation of advanced projection technologies,” said Mark Colin, general manager, 3M Projection Systems Department. “The functionality of the MPro120 represents technical achievements that were manageable only by the long-term commitment to research and development that is 3M’s hallmark.”
The MPro120 will be on-sale September 1 with an estimated price of $US349. Optional accessories are sold separately.

[3M]

3M’s Nuclear Grade Performance Plus Duct Tape is certified for low leachable halogens and sulfur and can handle temperatures up to 93-degrees Celcius. It’s also UV resistant for up to one year. A 600-yard roll runs around $US15. [3M via Toolmonger via Red Ferret]

They had two prototypes on view: one played video off SD cards, the other plugged into an iPhone and played videos off that. Unlike other pico projectors, these have an RGB LED inside rather than a straight white LED, which is a significant step forward. Both were very nice looking, but alas, both were mere prototypes. The projector the prototypes were based on is smaller than ever, which is great, but until we see these things built into actual phones rather than in relatively bulky separate devices, I don’t know how far they’ll go.

The Price: $US300

The Verdict: If you have the cash and really want a little projector that can go wherever you go, this is the one to get. It’s got a much better build quality than the visually comparable 3M MPro110, but it’s got so many more goodies, you’ll be entertained for hours before even loading your first movie.

The key difference is that, unlike the 3M, the Aiptek has an SD card reader so it’s always ready to play something, even when nothing’s wired to it. You transcode files to Motion.JPEG AVI or MPEG-4 ASF—you can use whatever software you want, but if you don’t have an app, the thing comes with ArcSoft’s PC-only Media Converter—and they’re recognised with ease by the projector, along with JPEG stills and MP3 music files, which play fine by themselves, but not in the background of a photo slideshow where they belong.

The 3M, if you recall, had a VGA input along with a composite A/V input, but of course no SD reader. The Aiptek doesn’t have the VGA input, but it’s a tradeoff I can live with. The Aiptek does have a basic component video input, so you can run low-grade standard-def sources in there with no trouble.

You get a lot more for the money, too. Aiptek’s projector comes with a nice little tripod for quick-and-dirty setup, and a remote control if you’re going to give a presentation. (Speaking of that, the manual recommends converting PPT and PDF files to JPEG and loading them on SD card for best results. Like I said, “quick and dirty.”)

The beefs I had with it were basically the same as with the 3M: You really can’t set the thing back more than five feet or so when by which time the picture—at that point about 50 inches diagonal—really starts to blur. I’m not even going to begin to talk about contrast, colour accuracy, motion blur and all of the things we examine in higher TV technologies, but I do have to admit, in a sufficiently dim setting, the video for both projectors was entirely watchable.

In two weeks I’ve gone from not believing much in the pico movement to being a fervent supporter. And if you’re going to be an early adopter, I am happy to say that, because of the Aiptek PocketCinema V10’s better geek features and much improved build quality over the 3M MPro110—and $US50 cheaper price to boot—I found a pico projector that I can genuinely recommend. The only hold back is that they’re just gonna get better and better. [Aiptek Product Page]

The Price: $US350

The Verdict: I am in love with the concept, and this little LCOS-based 640×480 projector does some amazing things given its size and resolution. But even understanding its limitations, it still has some major build-quality issues that prevent it from true awesomeness.

As a portable projector for still presentations and videos alike, it has its strengths and weaknesses. It powers up easily, connects to composite and VGA sources (including component if you have the right cable adapters), and never gets so hot you can’t touch it. It’s got a tripod screw like most cameras, so you can easily position it where you want to. 3M doesn’t disclose the lithium-ion battery life though it should given the LED’s constant brightness. Still, plugging it into a wall isn’t a big deal, so battery life may not matter. (I will continue to test that and update if there’s anything significant.)

The MPro110 isn’t going to be of help in a big boardroom—you can only get up to a 40-inch screen (by positioning it about 6 feet), but even then, fine details are blurred. Your best bet for readable viewing is a 20-inch screen at 4 feet. Ironically, this is more of a problem for the businesspeople for whom the product was intended—I didn’t suffer much watching slightly blurred DVD rips or cable-box TV at the full 40 inches, though like most projectors, near-pitch darkness is required.

As you can see from the shots, there’s some pinch distortion and not a lot you can do about it. There’s no optical or digital compensation like on larger projectors—in fact the only control besides on/off is focus, and that only goes so far. Brightness-wise, it’s okay, but it suffers noticeably the farther back you pull. Its colours are impressive, especially here, given the fact that I was projecting against a dark yellow wall.

Again, I was forgiving of limitations based on size and functionality—my biggest problems were in construction. The focus dial felt flimsy and wouldn’t hold its place if jostled. Worse, it was hard to keep my computer connected, because the projector’s VGA cable wouldn’t stay inside the projector’s jack.

Yeah, $US350 is a lot for a toy, but it’s not the reason I wouldn’t recommend this. If 3M could apply more quality control, this would be a novelty more of us might carry. I can see it being a fun way to watch movies in hotel rooms when travelling, and as the technology behind brightness, throw and resolution improves, these could become hot sellers indeed.

The Mobile ID Reader boasts an 8GB capacity, so when hackers crack the “encrypted formats feature,” they’ll have access to tons of personal and privileged data. Other features include a sunlight-safe touchscreen and a capacitive fingerprint sensor. The device is meant to be used by authorities at event checkpoints, like its first tryout at the Euro Cup 2008 soccer tournament, but it shouldn’t be long before you see it at your local Trader Joe’s, checking up on the hippies. [Wired]