Category Archives: featured

ZTE SPro2 Pico Projector offered exclusively on AT&T

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ZTE has been a staple of CES over the past few years, slowly iterating on it’s hotspot-projector combo options always showing up.  The SPro2 is their latest iteration and it brings a number of improvements to the device.  They’ve upped pretty much every spec you can find on the device, it offers 200 Lumens, with a 1280×720 resolution.  The battery is a 6,300 mAH battery, which should provide a lot of room for keeping it charged for hours at a time.  The hotspot built-in is slightly improved as well, offering 4G LTE connectivity with support for up to 10 WiFi devices.

A device like this is a lifesaver for business customers, giving them the freedom and flexibility to do a presentation anywhere, anytime.  The 200 lumens should be bright enough for a small presentation in a moderately lit room, while the Android system onboard and LTE connectivity give it flexibility to download presentations and play them back with ease.

The Android system is a fairly standard system, it has Google Play built-in meaning you can download any app you might have on your phone or tablet, offering TONS of options for playing back content.

The SPro2 also has an HDMI input for when you need a full sized laptop to do a presentation from.  The hotspot built-in is a great tool for anyone on the go as it gives you connectivity in almost any situation.

AT&T hasn’t announced pricing or availability for this yet but we expect it to be within $400-$550 and available probably Q2 of 2015.

We think this will be a solid device, but only if it lives up to the brightness and feature set they claim, we’ll get our hands on one as soon as their available.

AAXA Technologies Releases the World’s Brightest Battery Powered Projector

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It’s not everyday that a company releases a groundbreaking product, for AAXA, that day has come with the release of their M4 Mobile LED Projector.

The M4 is a compact projector that houses a new next generation optical engine providing 800 Lumens.  The built-in battery provides around 90 minutes of playback at 400 Lumens, which is still an insane amount for a battery projector.  Another great convenience is that the M4 offers a DTV function, if you have an antenna for your TV, you can plug the Antenna right into the projector and watch TV as you normally would on your TV, this adds a great deal of convenience and functionality to the unit.

AAXA has yet to send us one as a demo unit (please!) but from what content they’ve published on this unit it seems like a serious contender for anyone making presentations, this gives a full sized projector a definite run for it’s money.

Here’s a full breakdown of the specs:

Native Resolution: 1280×800 (WXGA)
Brightness (Plugged In): 800 Lumens
Brightness (Battery): 400 Lumens
Contrast Ratio: 2000:1
Maximum Image Size: 150″
Keystone Adjustment: Automatic
Speakers & Audio: 2x 2W Stereo Speakers, Headphone Jack
File Playback: MicroSD & USB Host
Aspect Ratio: 16:10
Dimensions: 8.3″ x 5.3″ x 3.1″
Weight: 2.44 lbs

Inputs: HDMI, VGA, Composite A/V, DTV Antenna

You can find more info on the M4 Mobile LED Projector on AAXA’s Website: http://aaxatech.com/products/m4_mobile_led_projector.html

M4 Mobile LED Projector

Video Conferencing with a Smart Projector

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One thing that’s always been a dream of mine is something you see in those futuristic movies, someone walks into a room, sits down and can start video chatting without any expensive or space consuming equipment.  Laptops brought this but if you have a large group of people it becomes hard to crowd around a small screen.

I had heard about some smart projectors coming out like AAXA’s LED Android and LG’s PA75U but I had never really put the dots together as to what you could do with them.  I saw this video online, the creator is demoing the video conferencing setup with their AAXA LED Android, it appears to work pretty smoothly with the Logitech webcam used.

Now if only I could setup something like this!

Make Your Pico Projector Wireless With Chromecast

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Pico projectors are small and plugging in a bunch of wires to just makes it hard to keep steady if you’re using a tabletop tripod.  So why not make it wireless?

This device uses your local WiFi connection to send audio and video securely from one device to another. Chromecast will basically create its own network with your WiFi to securely connect to your devices.
How to use Chromecast
 
Connect your Chromecast to your pico projector via the HDMI port. 
Download the Chromecast mobile application on your android/iOS devices or the desktop application.
Lastly, launch the application and enter your WiFi information.
Once you’ve completed these easy steps you can start mirroring your devices on your projector!

PicoPix PPX3610 Android Based Wifi Pico Projector with Touch Navigation?

featured, Micro Projector

Phillips_CES_Preview_2014-95

This year at CES 2014 Phillips showed off its new PicoPix PPX3610. Its an Android based pico projector that has wifi capability. The catchiest thing about this pico projector is that its physical navigation button is not a button at all, its a touch pad? …Yup, you can swipe and select through your menu of applications with your finger.

The wifi connectivity means you can run Netflix and Candy Crush on the projector just as you would a Word doc, although your mileage may vary when using the touchpad as opposed to a touchscreen. The brightness of the LED-powered DLP light engine is 100 lumens, which is pretty good for the pico projector category, although some designs are rated as high as 300 lumens.

Since the use case is quite different, the projector’s battery life isn’t anywhere near your regular Galaxy Tab. The PicoPix lasts a mere 2 hours, but you can buy an optional dock (see below) that extends the life to a total of four hours. The dock also adds 2-watt stereo speakers to add some oomph to those YouTube videos.

The PicoPix PPX3610 will be available in January for $549.

[Mashable.com]

Favi Entertainment Has New Pico+ Wifi Projector Supporting Miracast

featured, Micro Projector

 

FAVI pico+™ - WiFi Pico Projector with Miracast (J6-LED-PICO)

Favi Entertainment has a new mobile projector called the Favi Pico+ that is wifi enabled and supports Miracast and Airplay wireless playback. It syncs with mobile devices and laptops to project content on projection screens up to 100 inches in size. The company’s new Pico+ projector, unveiled this week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, is about the size of typical smartphone and packs a 5000mAh battery supplying three hours of continuous playback in eco-mode.

 

 

Lemoptix Set To Unveil Second Generation HUD and 720p pico projector at CES 2014

featured, Micro Projector

This year at CES 2014 in Las Vegas Lemoptix will be demonstrating their new Heads-Up-Display (HUD) pico projector that may change the way we travel.

Key Features:

  • High brightness – greater than 40’000 cd/m2 on the EPE (Exit Pupil Expander)
  • High contrast ratio – no parasitic light, compared to existing HUD display technologies
  • “Real Black” – no postcard effect (typically happening in current display technologies, due to backlight and full frame illumination)
  • High colour gamut – greater than 200% NTSC
  • High power efficiency – lower than 4 Watts
  • Possibility of software-based image ratio modification by changing image width and height by changing the mirror scanning amplitude
  • Software capability to compensate real time video stream image distortion on non flat surface
  • Small volume system, based on Lemoptix HUD-dedicated 3 cc Optical Engine

[www.lemoptix.com]

 

 

New Review: Brookstone Pocket Projector Pro and AAXA P300!

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Scenes from Paul Walker’s The Fast and The Furious projected on a huge wall by the Brookstone Pocket Projector Pro and the AAXA P300!

 

 

Who will be the main course in this years holiday pico/pocket projector review: Brookstone’s Pocket Projector Pro or AAXA’s P300?

Since it’s the holiday season, we’re going to be stuffing our homes with friends and family.  So you’re definitely going to have to keep them entertained with something when they’re all sitting around in their food comas.  Well this year you can prepare for it. The time is right buy some new gadgets and what better thing to get than a mobile projector! This year we’re going to compare projector recipes so you’ll have something to serve as entertainment. So we’re going to compare the Brookstone Pocket Projector Pro ($429) and the AAXA Technologies P300 ($389). There are some good ones out there, but we’re going to compare this new Brookstone pico/pocket projector with something fairly comparable in price, features, and brightness.

 

The Ingredients

The AAXA P300 is battery powered (battery Included) and lasts upwards of 60+ minutes on a single charge. Now the Brookstone Projector has the “optional battery” that will keep it going for 2-hours, which is really good. The down side is that the battery is going to cost you an extra $99 bucks! So the total to make the Brookstone completely portable is around $529…again, a side dish to think about.

While we’re on addition features, both the Brookstone and the AAXA have keystone correction.  The really cool feature of the Brookstone is that is has a USB output to give you the ability to charge other devices on the go, if you buy the external battery with it. The features that the AAXA P300 has that the Brookstone doesn’t is an onboard media player to project video and text files or play your music directly from a its built in MicroSD reader(up to 32GB) or through its full size USB port to read from a USB memory stick.


The Recipe

These projectors are very portable and pack some great features, some more than the other. However, the side dishes of any meal only complement the course, which in this meal review, is the projection quality. The Brookstone Pocket Projector is rated at 200 ANSI lumens and the AAXA P300 comes in at 300 ANSI lumens; both of which have a resolution of 1280 x 800 (WXGA).  The contrast ratio of the Brookstone is 1000:1, while the AAXA P300 is at 2000:1.

The Main Dish

Now on to the main course of this holiday projector review! Both these projectors are about 4 feet form the wall and are so we can see how well they compare to each other.

You can see that the brightness of both these projectors are very bright! The AAXA P300 does have a more vibrant range of color to its projection quality. Although the brightness of the AAXA is rated at 300 lumens and is a bit brighter, the Brookstone does a a good job itself. The brookstone is rated at 200 lumens but seems to be a bit brighter than that, guessing maybe hitting close to 250 lumens instead. But projected from the same distance you can see that there is a difference.

So putting the whole thing in perspective, the Brookstone Pocket Projector Pro is small in size and very bright for its size, comparing fairly well to the AAXA P300’s 100 lumen advantage. However, things to keep in mind from this is that the price is a little steep and gets really pricey if you want to add the battery to the package.  For the AAXA p300 that is a little bigger in size, but at a reasonable price, you’ll get those few extra features; the battery, onboard media player and USB/MicroSD memory reader ability.

Here are the specifications

Brookstone Pocket Projector Pro AAXA Technologies P300 
Battery Sold Separately ($99) Battery Included60+ Minutes on Full Charge
200 ANSI Lumens 300 ANSI Lumens
1000:1 contrast ratio 2000:1 contrast ratio
Aspect Ratio:16:9 Aspect Ratio:16:9
Image Size:Up to 115” Image Size:Up to 120”

 
1280 x 800 (WXGA) 1280 x 800 (WXGA)
2x 1.0-watt speakers 2x 1.0-watt speakers
No Media Player Has Onboard Media Player
Inputs:HDMI

3.5mm Audio-Out

DC Input

(MHL micro USB to HDMI cable, micro and mini HDMI adapters Included)

 

 

 Inputs:HDMI

24-Pin Universal Port/VGA

SD Slot

USB (For Thumbdrives)

Mini USB

3.5mm AV Input

3.5mm Audio-Out

DC Input

 

 

 

Brookstone’s HDMI Pocket Projector Review

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IMG_0255Will Brookstone’s HDMI Pocket Projector be in Santa’s bag this season or end up a stone coal lump?

After eating this year’s Thanksgiving turkey, our food comas didn’t stop us from checking out the Black Friday Sales in the early hours of the morning. So at 6:00am Friday, we got our hands on the Brookstone HDMI Pocket Projector ($299.99). Now we’ve already got a slew of projectors here that we use to compare and test the new guys, so today we’re going to compare the Brookstone HDMI Pocket Projector’s performance with the AAXA P4-X, since they are some of the most popular ones today. Keep in mind that all three of these projectors have built-in batteries, which is what we’re going to run these on. They’re suppose to be mobile so thats how we’re going to test’em!

 IMG_0256

Unboxing The Brookstone HDMI Pocket Projector

Opening the packaging you get 3 boxes inside which contain:

  1. The HDMI Pocket Projector
  2. An A/C charger
  3. 2 A/C Prong Adapters (U.S. and Euro)
  4. An HDMI Cable
  5. Two Adapters (Mini HDMI and Micro USB)
  6. Instruction Manual
  7. Travel Bag

IMG_0199

What Goes Where?

Video: The Brookstone is outfitted with an HDMI port for its only video output. But if you need a Mini-HDMI or Micro USB port you’re going to have to utilize those included adapters. Now the Brookstone projector only plays from the laptop of device thats plugged in. There isn’t an onboard media-player in the Brookstone but the AAXA P4-X does.The P4-X also has a memory card reader or USB reader (MicroSD/Full Sized USB).

Sound: You can get sound straight from the units themselves from their built-in speaker, which are better than most. Meaning you won’t need a hearing aide to hear it, but don’t count on putting on a show for everyone in your living room unless its absolutely quiet. But theres hope for you, both the P4-X and the Brookstone do have 3.5mm audio output jacks to plug in an external speaker system.

Bonus Feature: The USB 5V out power port has nothing to do with the performance of the Brookstone projector other than it’ll kill your battery power if you decide to charge other device. But its a cool side feature to be able to charge your phone or something with it!

Brookstone_HDMI_Pocket_Proj

Lights….Projector…Action!

Starting with the lights on against the AAXA P4-X, its not too noticeable but the brightness on the Brookstone is a bit lighter. So theres a light faded look to it. But not very notice in bright conditions. The color on the AAXA is more vibrant compared to the Brookstone.

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What we wish is that more pico projectors in the market had onboard media players. At first we thought that the Brookstone HDMI could be used that way because it has a USB Port but the port is only for charging. The AAXA P4-X actually does have this feature which makes it truly portable giving the user the ability to play view files and movies straight from a USB Memory Stick or even a MicroUSB card up to 32GB, which is pretty cool when your our and about. We think feature is a more useful than the ability to charge an extra device. Althought the charging port is an excellent feature for the traveler the USB port on the Brookstone could have been put to better use.

IMG_0290

Here is the onboard media player on the AAXA P4-X

Lights Out!

Hitting the light switch you will notice the difference in color. The AAXA P4-X’s native resolution is 858 x 480 which is comparable to the Brookstone at 858×480. Keep in mind that these projectors are only about 6 feet from the wall to see the best possible resolution.

Brookstone says the projector accepts a 1080p signal, but the signal gets downcoverted to the projector’s native resolution of 858×480 pixels. This basically means the wording on the box is misleading (“Projects up to 1080p HD images up to 60 inches diagonal”). So it takes a Blu-ray picture and downconverts it to slightly better than DVD quality (480p is 720×480). Not bad but HD is HD and this is not HD.

 IMG_0221

IMG_0227

IMG_0234

Let The Show Begin….

The differences in just having a still image isn’t noticeable. So lets get to movie and play something to really see the differences, if any,  between these projectors. How will the Brookstone HDMI Pocket Projector compare to the AAXA P4-X?

So why do we see a slight difference here right? Well, simply put the AAXA just has a better optical engine. So if you’re never able to find “Where’s Waldo” you can still spot the differences between these two projectors. You can clearly see the brightness and vibrant color between the 95 lumen P4-X and 85 lumen Brookstone HDMI. So the difference here is about 10 lumens.

The Brookstone HDMI Pocket Projector (on the right) has its good points, like the USB battery charger to charge extra devices(very useful for travelers), the U.S./Euro adapters (Useful for the International traveler), and it’s slim size which makes it pretty easy to carry around. Something to keep in mind is that mobility may be at the list for most people; but the projection quality (Brightness/Color) should still be the reason why you buy a projector in the first place.

 

The Comparison Chart

Comp-Chart

P2 Jr and P4-X Pico Projectors Reviewit Program!

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Hey readers,
We recently discovered that AAXATechnologies is running a promotion program for their P2 Jr. and P4-x pico projectors – you can save up to $110! The catch is, you’ll have to post a review of the units once received. We’ve already applied for the progam. We will be posting up a video review of both units soon.

AAXA Technologies is offering both professional and amateur product reviewers a chance to review our new P2 Jr. and refurbished P4-X Pico Projector at a substantially discounted price. Both devices offer a portable, yet powerful solution for your entertainment and presentation needs – connect your iPhone, iPad, Android device or use the built in media player to play your videos, photos, music, and more!

All reviewers must be active in their respective communities, able to write a clear review, and able to post pictures of the product. Upon application approval (apply here) reviewers are eligible for our “Review It!” discount. Order our P2 Jr. or P4-X Pico Projector. Try it out and write a review. It’s that simple!

We are only offering one review per community with a limited number of “Review It!” discounts.

Program Specifications

How the “Review It!” program works:

*All reviewers must meet our qualification standards (read below).
*Apply to become a reviewer by filling out our form located here
*If approved you will be sent a PayPal payment request for your new P2 Jr. or Refurbished P4-X projector. The current reviewer price for the P2 Jr is $139.0 ($60 discount) or P4-X is 189.00 ($110 discount).
*Your new P2 Jr. or Refurbished P4-X projector will ship as soon as possible.
*You are on your own honor to post your review within 10 days of receiving the projector.

Current Review It! Price for the P2 Jr is $139.00 ($60 discount) or Refurbished P4-X is $189.00 ($110 Discount)

Review It! Qualifications:

1. Member of a forum, community, video blog, or blog with over 10,000 members or 10,000 monthly unique visitors (Moderator or Owner preferred)
2. Member with over 100 posts in the community or authorized reviewer
3. Post at least a 250 word review for a one minute video review with descriptions within 10 days of receipt of product
4. Post at least 1 picture of the product
5. Post at least 1 link to our website

We are currently primarily interested in reviews related to:

*Portable electronic communities (Ipod, Iphone, Samung Galaxy phones, androids, PSP.)
*Entertainment media communities (DVD, Bluray, etc.)
*Photography communities
*Professional communities (Real Estate, Marketing, etc.)