Aiptek V10 PLUS Projector - Competitors
How does the Aiptek V10 PLUS compare to other "pico" projectors on the market?
7/19/2009 - Art Feierman
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The Aiptek V10 PLUS is only the second of the pico projectors we have looked at.
Pending a more in-depth article (soon) comparing these projectors, I've kept the comparison sections below, rather brief.
Aiptek V10 PLUS vs. Samsung
Stil waiting for a demo of the Samsung.
Aiptek V10 PLUS vs. Optoma Pico PK101
The Optoma's noticeably smaller, but likely not enough that anyone cares. Lighter too, but the real difference is that it's about 30% brighter, with it's 11.3 measured lumens compared to the V10 Plus'es 8.3.
The Optoma however only accepts a composite video source, while the V10 Plus, has an SD card slot, and a built in media player. That means that with the V10 Plus, you can download your images into a memory card, or the internal 4 gigabytes of memory, and leave your portable device (digital camera, laptop, camcorder, etc., at home, which you can't do with the Optoma!
Picture quality - I give the advantage to the Optoma, as the V10 Plus images tend to be darker looking, with less shadow detail. The Optoma also seems to have slightly better black levels. If you store your content in the Aiptek's internal memory, or load it via SD card slot, then you have access to the V10 Plus'es image controls, which will allow you to make the overall picture quality at least comparable to the Optoma.
Both have sound, but the V10 Plus is just a bit more robust and better sounding, as it has 2 .05 watt speakers instead of just one like the Optoma Pico. Dont expect too much from either. Think, at best they are about comparable to an average laptop, when it comes to sound quality.
Ultimately, the big difference between the Optoma and Aiptek, is the extra brightness of the Optoma versus the internal media player and SD card slot of the V10 Plus. And of course, the Optoma is smaller (cuter?)
Both projectors get about the same "almost" 1 hour life per battery charge. (That will, of course shorten as the battery gets older.
The Optoma is less expensive, at $299 compared to the Aiptek's $349.
Aiptek V10 PLUS vs. 3M MPro Plus
When I started working with the 3M, it was actually $40 less than the V10 Plus in terms of list price. $359 vs. $399. By the time I have finished this review, however, Aiptek dropped their list price to $349. That makes the two, effectively the same price.
If you want to do presentations directly from your laptop, with a standard VGA port, there's no contest, the 3M is the better choice. Even lacking it's own speaker shouldn't be a problem, as you should be able to use your laptop's speakers while presenting.
For non presentation purposes - mostly viewing photos, videos, movies, perhaps playing a game, etc., the V10 Plus has the advantage thanks to its built in media player, and 4 gigabytes of memory, not to mention the card slot. The Aiptek also has the advantage of actually having some image controls (brightness, contrast, saturation), that the 3M lacks, although remember, they only work with content being run by the media player, from either the SD card slot or internal memory. Those controls won't work when you are, for example playing a movie from a DVD player.
Bottom line - if you are rationalizing your purchase of one of these two, for business presentations, and are carrying your computer, you'll get the better image off of the 3M. For almost everything else, the flexibility and features of the Aiptek provide more capability.
I would say that the 3M's image handling is inherently a bit better (composite video source) than the Aiptek (slightly better color, more shadow detail), but if you save everything to memory card or internal memory, on the V10 Plus, then using the image controls, you can improve the quality to be slightly better than the 3M.