AAXA M5 Pocket Projector Review – Special Features: LED Lamp, Media Player, PC-Free Presenting, Battery Powered
An LED light engine is a common feature amongst pocket projectors, and this AAXA M5 is no different. Three LED lights – separate red, green, and blue LEDs – make up the “lamp” to create the entire color spectrum. Because there is no lamp to change out, you can expect a longer life for the light engine – up to 20,000 hours in ECO.
Now, you probably won’t be using ECO all of the time, which is how we get that 20,000 hour claim, so you can expect a slightly shorter life than that. Still, that’s a higher rating than even some larger, more expensive LED projectors, and its more likely that you will replace the projector well before the light engine goes out than it is that you will see the end of its life.
The built-in Media Player is a nice touch on the M5, making it quite useable for on-the-go presentations for the road warrior on a budget, as well as great for sharing vacation photos with friends and family. Within the Media Player, or the main menu, there are several options for the type of content you wish to share, and sharing can be done from either USB or SD card. That feature is pretty awesome.
Picture this: You’re on vacation and have taken photos of your day using a camera (one that uses a micro SD card or micro-SD-to-SD adapter). Instead of looking at them on the tiny LCD screen of your camera, or uploading to a 15” laptop, you can simply take your micro SD card, insert it into the AAXA M5, and project your photos on the wall of your hotel room or other temporary housing unit. Talk about instant dividends.
What I mentioned above is an example of the type of PC-Free Presenting the AAXA M5 can do. Using a USB flash drive, USB hard drive, or that SD card from a camera, you can project images, video, and audio without using a PC. Now, this Media Player doesn’t read Word or PowerPoint files, but teachers and road warriors can still present using the M5.
The M5 can read JPEG files, and there’s a nice workaround built into PowerPoint that allows you to export your slides as JPEG images. They’ll export in the correct order, so all you need to do is hook up your device, select it, and start the presentation. The M5 and M6 both automatically place transitions between your slides. Nice.
The M5 has a removable, rechargeable battery that can last up to 70 minutes. That’s not quite long enough for a feature length film (especially now that feature-length no longer means 90 minutes), or even a decent amount of playing time in the newer, open-world video games, but it will be enough to binge watch shows like “The Good Place,” whose episodes last 22 minutes. You’ll be able to get in one episode of Game of Thrones on that battery life, just for some perspective.
Still, this is a truly desirable feature not seen on all pocket projectors. For the road warrior or teacher, 70 minutes is plenty of time to get through their presentations. The rechargeable battery also offers relief to outlet-anxiety, which I myself have come across many times. Since no outlet is required when operating on battery, the M5 can be placed wherever needed – for up to 70 minutes, of course.
