Which pico projector to buy

We still got solid image saturation when filling our inch-diagonal indoor screen, even when the room had a bit of ambient light, and we were even satisfied with the brightness we got when pairing the GS2 with a inch outdoor screen for a backyard movie night.

Overall, the GS2 serves up a clean, natural-looking picture that has a less sterile, digital quality than you see with many projectors in this category. The projector has a nice design that makes it feel more sturdy and rugged than a lot of mini projectors. The charging cable attaches magnetically, and the connection panel is covered by a rubbery door. But since the dongle hides in the recessed chamber and you can still cover it with the door, that support is essentially built in.

The dongle supports Physical setup is fairly straightforward thanks to the automatic zoom and vertical keystone adjustments, which work reliably well. The attached stand can tilt 15 degrees to aim the projector up higher at a screen or wall. You should have no problem getting through your backyard movie night on a single charge, though keeping the projector plugged in does give you more light output to work with—and the included cord is over 8 feet long.

Unfortunately, what holds the GS2 back from earning an unqualified recommendation is the less-than-intuitive user experience. The biggest ergonomic issue is that the GS2 runs on the older Android 6. The good news is, you can get around most of the ergonomic concerns simply by using external sources instead of the internal OS.

It delivers a clean, detailed image, and a ton of picture adjustments are available. The M2e has a more traditional and slightly larger shape measuring 7. It offers automatic focus and keystone adjustment, and the menu navigation is straightforward.

The internal speaker has solid dynamic ability, and the projector supports Bluetooth audio input and output. Speaking of which, although this projector lacks a built-in battery, the USB-C port and supplied cable work with a portable USB-C power bank for use away from home.

And the package includes a nice travel bag. The Elfin has a traditional, horizontal form factor 7. The internal speaker is quite robust, and this projector is pleasingly quiet. We plan to test this one as a possible upgrade pick. The new model has the same brightness rating as the GS2 and is similarly portable and weatherproof. But it ups the resolution to p, makes the switch to Android TV, and adds a woofer for improved audio quality.

Unfortunately, in our tests the P6X performed more like a business projector, prioritizing brightness over accuracy. Also, the fan noise was quite loud. But it lacks Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and internal apps, the fan noise is extremely loud, and two different samples we tested had a problem where the picture settings locked into their default and less accurate state and could not be adjusted.

All of the preset picture modes were too dark, so they crushed fine black details; you have to go into the User picture mode and adjust the brightness to fix this problem. The user experience was far less intuitive than that of the Xgimi MoGo Pro: The battery life was below two hours, menu navigation was a bit wonky, the manual focus dial was imprecise, and the remote control was not at all intuitive, with a limited IR window and a bunch of tiny, circular buttons all crammed together.

Anker Nebula Capsule : This scaled-down version of the Nebula Mars family is around the size of a tall soda can. It has built-in Android 7. Though this model had better light output, its contrast was about half that of the MoGo Pro.

But most important, its older, Android 7. The battery life is good we got 2 hours 47 minutes in the auto brightness mode , and the picture quality in our tests was generally pleasing, with great detail, solid color, and measured brightness similar to that of the MoGo Pro. The audio performance was a step down, too: It sounded thin, with a narrow, beaming quality to vocals and less dynamic ability.

Cinemood Portable Movie Theater : A fun option for parents trying to entertain little ones on a trip, the Cinemood is a tiny, 3-inch cube with a stated five-hour battery life, and it comes preloaded with 40 Disney ebooks as well as cartoons and other kid-friendly content.

These projectors are much brighter than the other models we considered for this guide, so you can project a bigger image or use them in a brighter room. Epson X : This new p LCD projector looks to be identical to the Epson Home Cinema we reviewed in our budget projector guide , but it comes packaged with an Android TV stick and a carrying case.

Kodak Luma : This especially petite p projector costs about the same as our top pick. It has Wi-Fi and Android 9. Unfortunately, its claimed light output is only ANSI lumens, below the minimum we set for consideration in this guide, so we did not test it. It has a petite form, a nice remote, and a built-in battery and Bluetooth support.

It lacks Wi-Fi and internal apps, but it does support Miracast. In our tests, the picture quality was okay but not great: The color was decently accurate, but its measured contrast was only about half that of the MoGo Pro, its p image was softer than that of the p projectors we tested, and the tested battery life was only about one and a half hours.

Plus, in our tests its image was too dim and noticeably bluer than it should have been. It has desirable specs such as a p resolution, a claimed brightness of lumens, a claimed battery life of two hours, and USB-C charging and media playback in a fairly compact package.

Optoma LH : We requested a review sample of this p DLP projector, which had a stated brightness of 1, lumens and thus should have been able to produce a much larger image.

However, Optoma told us this model was being discontinued. In our tests, its picture quality was okay, but the image looked flat and dull compared with that of the MoGo Pro.

Plus, the Android 9 OS is not as intuitive as Android TV, and we encountered a lot of ergonomic quirks that made the projector frustrating to use. The pico projectors category includes the latest in ultra-portable projectors, micro projectors, and pocket projectors for laptops and other convenient device integration.

See below for a list of pico projector reviews and information pages. Pico projectors, are hand-held portable devices that use a solid state light source such as LED instead of a conventional lamp. Loosely defined as under 0. Thus, these pico projectors are no larger than the size of a pack of cigarettes. Each year, picture quality, resolution, brightness and even inputs have become more advanced and are expected to continue to improve in the future.

Welcome t …Read More. Optoma ML Projector Review. Advance projector search. These Pico projectors primarily use LED light engines, but there are a few laser light engines out there out of the perhaps assorted Pico projectors available in the US. Most of the pico projectors on the market can run 1 to over 2 hours on their internal batteries.

At this time we are unaware of any true Pico projectors with full p resolution — although there are some larger pocket projectors that are.