Aaxatech P1 mobile projector review

So, it's been some time since I left my last post and since it seemed like no one has any experience with these devices, I've decided to leave a post for anyone in the future who may have the same questions as me. After endless comparisons between couple of units it came down to 1 thing, LCoS vs DLP. Yeah, arguably DLP could possibly be brighter, but the "mesh effect" of DLP just totally turned me off from it.

Ordering my P1 from www.aaxatech.com was quick and painless. The order went through and my order came within a few short days. The order was for a P1 and VGA convertor kit. The instruction manual is somewhat minimalistic, but enough to get you to know what you're doing.

The VGA convertor kit is interesting because along w/ VGA input, there was also various output options like S-Video and standard video out so I'm not limited to using this converter w/ my P1 only It's powered via USB.

So the first thing I wanted to try out was to see how good this would be for business presentations so loaded up some powerpoint files into the onboard memory. There was some ambient lighting so the image was pretty weak at first, but after playing around for a bit, I got it just right, check this out:


It looks like I need to have the lights in the room dimmed quite a bit though because I was caught between 2 things. I was able to get a closer/brighter image at the cost of a smaller one, and vice versa. But either way, it would be bigger than a laptop screen

Now that the work portion is done, time for the fun and games. I hooked it up to my Wii~! I'd put up more pictures, but this was the best one out of my POS digicam



Last but not least, I was pretty impressed w/ the image quality that I decided to play a movie off my laptop to see how that went and this is what I got.



Now I know some of you may be home projector buffs and comment that the black isn't black enough or that there are better projectors out there which I agree with, but I just thought this was a nice bonus, you know, try to get the most mileage out of this.

All in all, I think the value in this unit is in its versatility. There's always going to be something more specialized for something, ie MP3 player for MP3s, but for its price, it's like getting 3 devices in one. I hope this review has helped some make a more informed choice in their purchase of a pico mobile projector.

 

pics ain't showin...

 

Thanks, I noticed, but I guess I have to have a certain amount of posts? Oh well, I added them to the bottom, best I can do

 

Not to come across wrong, I am no projector buff but I am a review buff

I have an interest in projectors though so I clicked your review and noticed it was missing things I consider to be staples in any basic review.

> Product Cost
> Product Specs

Id love to know if this is expensive and thus not really worth the cost, or cheap enough to toy around with.

Specs are important especially things like resolution or bulb life/cost.

I suppose I could click the link to the site you got it from and look up the product and answer some of those questions myself but a review is supposed to do that for you.

Other things specific to the product type you reviewed I would love to know how large an image you were able to project and still have it visible, and how far away the projector needs to be to project that image (meaning is it wide throw or narrow) and also what kind of focus and adjustment settings does it have.

 

Thank you for your feedback vicious, it's much appreciated.

As for resolution, the P1 has 640x480 native. Optoma was 430x320. The 3M one is suppose to be 1280 x 768, but at 9Lumens, I'd take the lower resolution for something brighter and more viewable

At $219, it could be cheap or expensive pending on the depth of your pocket.

It has a manual rotating ring that adjusts focus of the lens. The largest image I was able to get was about 72" diagonally, about 7-8' feet from the wall, but this was in pitch dark though for the image to really stand out. I have I think it's a 26W powercompact light in my room. While the image is still viewable with that light on, the colors aren't as sharp.

I don't believe LCoS bulbs are changeable, so once the 30,000 lamp hours run out, you toss this I believe.

 

Ok thanks for taking the time to add the extra feedback.

72" is pretty respectable, if you could pull off even 50" in a room with lights on it should make a worthy projector for business use in a small group.

I cant wait till I have the funds to get myself a nice HD projector for home.

 

I've spent some time with the P1, but with the release of the P2 coming out, I'm so so so tempted to exchange it because it's almost 3x brighter! It's not that I'm unhappy with the P1, but being able to still exchange it, it's just oh so tempting.

800x600 resolution
built in VGA
33 lumens!

They just keep getting better, I'll post an update if I get one.

 

Yeah the P2 is way better, brightness & resolution.

The P1 resolution is a deal breaker for me.

I may be getting a P2 and its main purpose in life will be part of my portable Wii game station.

Basically a bag with the projector, a pair of PC speakers, my wii, controllers, and my hard drive with my wii game backups on it.

Just toss the projector on a white wall and let the party start. Best part is if one of your drunken friends tosses a wiimote fastball at the screen its going to hit a wall and not break a big LCD

I may also use it for some business presentations but we already have a projector we use for that.

 

I posted my first look at the P2 here http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=5403603#post5403603 in case anyone didn't see it.