The AAXA M7 measures 7.3 inches x 6.4 inches x 1.85 inches, making it smaller and lighter than its predecessor. On the front of the M7, there is a small, recessed lens off-center towards the projector's right. An air exhaust vent is also on the front. On the left side of the projector, from front to back, are the following components: twin speakers, an LED light, a USB-A connector, and one HDMI input.
The rear panel has a security lock connecter, a cooling fan, and the projector’s Charge Off/On position selector.
On the left side of the projector are a recessed Hard Reset button, a TF Card slot for Mini-SD cards, a USB-C connector, a 3.5 mm AV input connector, one 3.5 mm Headphone Out, and two electronic Focus buttons.
The bottom of the M7 is where you can access the projector’s rechargeable lithium-ion battery should you ever need to replace it. AAXA has also included three threaded ¼” tripod inputs for easy connecting to compatible tripods or light stands.
CONTROL PANEL
Control Panel
The keypad on the AAXA M7 is simple and easy to figure out. On the back, there is a physical switch that turns the projector on and off. Being a solid-state LED projector there is no need for slowly cooling the LEDs. Vice versa, the LEDs also rise quickly rise to full brightness. The keypad worked well. The buttons are large with well-defined icons. My only real complaint is the lack of any backlighting. This is also a feature I would have liked to have seen on the remote control. I ended up pressing the wrong option on the control surface too many times to count. Sometimes I would find myself pressing on areas outside the control pad.
If you wanted to adjust the focus, there are two small +/- buttons on the side of the projector closest to the projection lens.
M7 Lens
The lens is recessed so that it is relatively safe from scratches. It does not come with a lens cap, but the deep setback means it shouldn’t require much cleaning.
This fixed lens has no zoom capabilities. Focusing on this type of projector is typically done by moving the device. Still, AAXA has added an electronic focus controlled on the side of the M7 projector or by the remote control. There is even a handy focusing graphic to adjust the image to be as sharp as possible. Electronic focus is a nice feature, and I applaud AXXA for putting it in the M7.
Electronic Focus Controls
I noticed that the image is a bit soft at the extreme edges of the screen, but when I dropped to 100 inches diagonally or less, the softness in the image's corners became much harder to see. At least to a minor degree, almost all projector lenses suffer from curvature at the image’s top and bottom. In the case of the AAXA M7, I could not detect it.
MENUS
The M7 menus are easy to navigate. The Main Menu is your direct access to the projectors Media Player. Here, you can choose from these options: Videos, Music, Photos, and Brightness.
The Setting and Inputs Menus are also located on this screen.
The Setting menu allows you to select and adjust Picture, Sound, Basic Options, and Text settings. The rest of the menus are easy to navigate. Though the parameters are simple, you can customize the picture and color, which I consider a selling point of the AAXA M7 PICO Projector.
One thing I don't like about this UI is that you have to exit the projected content completely to get into the Manu and make adjustments. Exiting the menu is a multi-step process rather than being able to just touch the menu button to make the menu disappear. Instead of just shutting off the menus with the touch of a Menu button AAXA makes users go deeper into the menu system to select the Inputs option and from there selecting one of the three source options. It is so frustrating to use.
REMOTE CONTROL
The M7 remote is about the same size as an Apple TV or Fire TV Stick remote control. It is small, lightweight, and easy to use.
The top section consists of five buttons: Power, Mute, Rewind, Play/Pause, and Fast Forward. The Power button is red and located in the top left corner, while the Mute button is black and directly opposite, in the right corner.
The Rewind, Play/Pause, and Fast Forward buttons are helpful when using the M7’s media player.
Next are the directional buttons for navigating the menus and an OK button in the center for choosing options. There are four additional buttons: two for Volume, a Home button to bring up the menus, and a Back or Escape button.
The projector only has one remote sensor located on the back of the projector so the remote does not work unless in line of sight to the rear sensor. If you are standing in front of, or beside the projector like I often found myself the remote just did not work. I found myself constantly stopping and trying to get the remote in range of the IR sensor.
