I consider the AAXA M5 to be a projector that is suitable for the younger crowd, perhaps as a first projector or for someone who needs an HD projector that is highly portable. It has reasonable color for a pocket projector, and with a little tweaking, you can get better color. It has a sharp image and is 720p, which is the lower end of HD, but still looks pretty good.
I am not a fan of the squishing issue, where the image is slightly squashed inward and makes people’s faces look skinny and slightly off. For a $499 list price, I would have liked to see that issue resolved before the projector hit the market. That said, I did find the AAXA M5 on Amazon for $382.50, which is a much better deal. Again, I did bring the issue to AAXA, who says they are putting their engineers on it because it is likely a software issue. That means it should be able to be fixed with a firmware update. My dealings with AAXA have been great, so I trust they will find a solution shortly.
Personally, I’d say to go with the AAXA M6, their 1200 lumen, 1080p pocket projector with a 90 minute battery life. That one sells for $599, so if you’ve got the extra $100 in your budget, go with that. If not, the AAXA M5 has quite a lot of lumens and reasonably good color for a pocket projector, and that rechargeable battery and media player give it higher value than some of its competition, and its predecessors – just don’t pay full price, if you can swing it.