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Whether you're looking to enhance your viewing experience at home, in a dorm, at a conference, or even outdoors, a portable projector is an ideal solution and offers advantages that even the best TV cannot match like portability, image size, and more. Casting– If you have a Chromecast or an Apple TV, you can wirelessly connect to your projector and mirror your screen.You will need to be on the same network as the receiver, then use your built-in screen mirroring to send it to your projector.This is a nice option when you want to show photos or videos on your device, or for occasional use. What you personally consider a palmtop projector will vary depending on how big your hands are. But as a rule, these models have a square or near-square footprint (like your palm itself) and a relatively flat shape, so they'd be stable sitting in your palm. (Projectors shaped like towers aren't palmtops.) For our purposes, we limit size to no more than about 5 inches on the longest side. Typical weights are well under 2 pounds, and sometimes less than 1 pound; rated brightness is typically in the 200-to-400-ANSI-lumen range; while native resolution is often as high as full HD (1,920 by 1,080 pixels). At this writing, few projectors in this category offer built-in streaming features, but as this capability keeps migrating down to ever-cheaper projectors, that may change. (Credit: AAXA) The Optoma ML750e is a versatile and powerful projector but weighing in at just 0.4kg and measuring only 10.4 x 10.5 x 3.9 it it has a n incredibly small footprint that literally fit in the palm of our hand during testing. This makes it easy to carry around and more than worthy of our best portable projectors guide.
This makes it easy to hook up the M1+ to a range of different devices and means it's easy to carry this palm-fitting projector around with you. Most, but not all, oversize palmtops include built-in batteries so you don't always have to connect to a power outlet. When using battery power, however, they typically drop brightness significantly to get a longer battery life. Depending on the projector, you may or may not be able to set it for the highest brightness, even when using battery power. But if you can, don't expect the battery to last long. The other key difference is that mini projectors are designed to be set up speedily, and that can mean they have fewer connection options than wired models. However, the growing adoption of wireless technologies such as Google Cast and AirPlay and intelligent TV-style features such as streaming apps that work over Wi-Fi means that many mini projectors can get video from many sources. How to choose the best portable projector for you Portable projectors come in a wide variety of sizes, shapes, and weights, which are among the most important factors in deciding whether they fit the applications you have in mind for them. Quite simply, if a projector is bigger or heavier than you're willing to lug around, it's not the right model for you. The same three factors are also closely tied to capabilities—bigger, heavier models tend to be brighter, for example, and often deliver more robust audio, two factors that also determine the application they're best suited for.Keep in mind also that you'll find any number of standard, mainstream projectors that weigh between 5 and 6 pounds that are also reasonably portable, and in some cases even include "portable" as part of their model names. They include single-chip DLP and three-chip LCD models, can be virtually any common resolution, and can use lamps or solid-state light sources. They can also be designed primarily for business or for home use, and they all require AC power. Typical brightness levels are 3,000 to 4,000 lumens, making them good choices if you need a large image in a brightly lit room. While the picture quality is pretty adequate for the price and form factor, during our testing, we were disappointed to find the projector was a letdown on the brightness front. The listed 400 lumens brightness means the Nebula Solar Portable will struggle to remain visible in bright environments, while dark scenes are difficult even in ideal viewing conditions.
What's important here is that, despite its small size, it can project images that are up to 120 inches in size with a decent 150 lumen Eco-LED light source.Size and picture aside, the Optoma ML750e is also one of the best portable projectors in the world thanks to its impressive range of ports. It comes with one MHL-ready HDMI input, a USB 2.0 slot for thumbdrives, a universal I/O slot, and a microSD card slot. When it comes to projectors, "portability" is a flexible and evolving concept. Three decades ago, models that weighed about 12 pounds and fit in an airplane overhead bin were considered fully portable—in fact, they were the smallest and lightest available. Today, they're not, except for some that are designed for moving no farther than from one room to another. The vast majority of what we now consider portable projectors are 5 pounds or less. Some are mere ounces—small and light as a cell phone, and also perfect phone companions. No matter where you happen to be, they'll let you show your photos and videos, or stream a movie, at a larger size than you can get on a tablet. If you're looking for a decent projector, it's a good choice. But if you want a bright and impressive picture, you'll need to upgrade to one of Anker's more high-end models, like the Anker Nebula Cosmos Laser 4K below.
Think about durability, LED technology avoids dimming projector issues, allowing smart projectors to shine brightly for up to 30,000 hours. LED light sources run much cooler than bulb-based light sources (meaning less fan noise). “Lamp-Free” is what to look for. It means you no longer have to rely on bulbs, which need to be replaced over time.They’re eco-friendly, too. Lamp Free means no glass bulb is needed, which means no mercury.
When searching for the best portable projector, there are several key factors to consider. These include connectivity options, battery life, picture quality, and price. Portable projectors are designed to be versatile, catering to various environments and preferences thanks to their compact and lightweight design. Room-to-room portables solve that problem. Most make extra room in their bodies for a worthwhile audio system by being about twice the height of a typical standard projector, making them cubical, or close to it. A few gain the extra space by using an oval shape instead. Because these models aren't meant to be moved far, they can be heavier than other categories of portables, and have a large range of weights. The lightest we've reviewed is just over 3 pounds. The heaviest is more than 14 pounds. (Credit: ViewSonic) It isn't the cheapest option on this list — look at the Anker Nebula Solar Portable below for a budget alternative — but it's the most polished and covers all of the bases. In our review of the Samsung The Freestyle projector, we wrote: "Compact, portable and with a built-in suite of apps, The Freestyle is a projector that offers everything you need in one place." All you need to do is provide a blank surface to project onto. Color accuracy – While commercial cinema projectors have strict color standards, there are still many classroom and conference room projectors that are not very color accurate. For newer home theater and commercial projectors, Rec. 709 is the standard for color accuracy and measurement to look for in the specifications. BenQ GS50: The GS50 is roughly the same size as the Xgimi Halo Plus, and is also 1080p and has a built-in battery. You can even use it as a Bluetooth speaker. However, it's dimmer than the Xgimi Halo Plus for similar money. Read our BenQ GS50 review.
Lumens for projectors is like horsepower in a car – it’s important but only a part of how well the projector is suited for the task.In the past lumens were the most important element.Now things are different, as most projectors today are far more advanced than projectors sold five years ago.So – what makes for a better projector? In a rather nice touch, the projector can also double as a power bank for other mobile devices as well. Solid State Lighting – Projector lamps contain mercury, are expensive, and need to be replaced every few years.They are being replaced by solid state light sources like lasers and high brightness LEDs that last up to 30,000 hours.Today you can get a high brightness LED projector with 4,000 lumens and higher color accuracy for only a small premium over a similar lamp powered projector. The Bluetooth speaker functionality is a great addition to the Solar Portable’s feature set, effectively delivering two devices in one: a Bluetooth speaker and a projector.The Anker Nebula Solar Portable is a compact and stylish mini projector that we enjoyed testing because it delivers in almost every area at an affordable price. So a good place to start your buying search for the best portable projector is to divide the universe of portable projectors into categories by size, shape, and weight. To help you decide which category you should be looking in, we'll start with the smallest, lightest projectors and work our way up, adding in additional factors for defining categories where appropriate, and covering what you need to know about key specs along the way. In addition to being well-suited to the same sort of applications as palmtop projectors, but for bigger audiences or brighter rooms, oversize palmtops can also serve as business projectors for small conference rooms. Models that handle movies and video well are good choices for casual viewing at home, particularly for ad hoc setup as needed. Some even include built-in Android TV or other smart TV choices for streaming. Mainstream Mini Projectors Cable– Nearly every iPhone and Android device has a video output port. Most projectors still use HDMI as their standard input port, so a simple adapter from either the USB-C connector on an Android or HDMI connector on the iPhone will enable you to get the cable connected – all you need to do is change the source to start screen mirroring from your phone to a projector. The main difference between a standard projector and a mini projector is that traditional projectors are designed to produce the highest possible quality at the most significant possible size, and if that means more giant bulbs or LED assemblies and louder fans, then so be it. Mini projectors also deliver good quality, but their priorities are different: they're also designed with portability and price in mind, so they're often more portable and affordable than their bigger siblings and often include built-in speakers and easy Bluetooth speaker connectivity.
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