As a guy who’s spent a good chunk of his career running through airports with suitcase, laptop and other assorted heavy stuff, I (and my back) find myself a little jealous every time I come across another device that used to weigh ten pounds, came in a cumbersome case and now fits in the palm of your hand or jacket pocket. Ten years to late.
These days, business travelers can seemingly get away with just a pocket full of gizmos. Most important laptop functionality has been replaced by a iPhones, Blackberries or some other tiny genius phone. And now this – the world has recently been inundated with tiny, ultra-portable presentation projectors, like the Dell109S and Optoma’s tiny Pico.
There was a time not long past, when the projector – an expensive, hulking, delicate mess of a machine with a $400 light bulb in it – was the bane of many a business traveler’s existence. If you lugged the projector with you, you were stuck carrying an extra twenty-five pounds on your off-shoulder, and the ringing of the office manager as she cried, ‘don’t lose it! don’t not break it! We only have two of them and the other has a bad bulb! The CEO has a meeting on Wednesday!’ This was the existence of a technology business development executive. But no more – and that’s why I’m envious.
The new generation of tiny-projectors literally fit in the palm of your hand – with dimensions commonly around 3.5” by 4.5”. So with smart phone in one hand and mini projector in the other, business folks have literally all they need for a big presentation. You almost don’t even need the conference table anymore. The horror!
As you can imagine, top-end performance for pocket projectors isn’t nearly as good as the big guns. The pocket competitors have lower resolutions, lower light output (so you need a fairly dark room to make ‘em work), and typically only scale up to a 60” projection. Whereas, traditional projectors can scale to more than 300” projections, are HD capable and work well in well-lit rooms.
What pocket projectors lose in performance, they clearly make up for in price, weight and eco footprint. The market price for pocket projectors hovers around $300, and unlike its earlier cousins these projector use energy efficient mercury-free LED light sources with a claimed usage life of up to 10,000 hours – as opposed to about 3000 hours claimed for traditional bulbs (300 hours? Sure!). Pocket projectors are light, energy efficient, use fewer materials and are easy to share. Over the long haul adoption of these babies should help companies save significant money, resources and energy. Having one may also make you one of the coolest parents on the planet too – since watching YouTube on the ceiling is one of the least dorky things a dad can do….for now…
There are several competitive offerings available, including the aforementioned Dell 109S and Optoma’s Pico , along with 3M’s Micro Professional Projector. So grab a pair of cargo shorts, your iBerryDroid (aka iPhone, Blackberry or Android phone) and a Pocket Projector – you’re know ready to fly!
My back forgives you for how easy you have it.
