Aiptek V10 PLUS Projector - Physical Tour

Posted on September 28, 2013 by Art Feierman

Appearance

The Aiptek V10 Plus is HUGE, but only compared to other pico projectors. In reality it's bigger in every direction than the Optoma, and is a bit longer, and wider than the 3M. OK, let's start at the front of the V10 Plus projector. The front houses the recessed lens, which is a fixed focal length (no zoom). The focus knob for the V10 Plus, is off to the left, and mostly recessed. It actually sits on the corner of the left side (looking from the front). The focus was the best of the pico projectors so far. It's smoother, and easier to get a sharp focus than the other two. Moving to the top, the Aiptek V10 Plus is the only of the pico projectors I've reviewed so far, to have a control panel. The others only have an off on switch. Also located on the top, just to the front of the control panel, are the two sets of perforated areas. At first glance I presumed these were for the speakers, but futher attention leads me to believe they are primarily there to vent heat. Some sound comes out of thes two areas, but far more comes out of the perforated areas on the left and right of the unit, so I consider those the locations of the speakers.

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Looking from the back of the V10 Plus, the left side has the min-jack for composite video and sound, as well as a covered area (rubber) that hides the SD card slot. The opposite side (the right, when looking from the back, has the infra-red sensor for the remote control, the other speaker, and at the very front, the focus dial. The back of the Aiptek projector has only the USB connector, which (as with the Optoma Pico) is used only for plugging in the power supply to recharge the battery, or run the projector off of AC. There is also a Kensington lock cut out, in the back right corner. I guess you can use that to put the V10 Plus on a keychain. Afterall, considering that the Aiptek is an extremely portable projector, it's hard to imagine applications where you would leave it on display, and need to use a security lock, when it can so easily be stuffed into a pocket, or locked drawer. There is no fan, but there are vents at the bottom, as well as the perfed area at the top, to allow air to circulate. Also on the bottom is a recessed, threaded hole for connecting the Aiptek V10 Plus to any tripod, that uses the standard tripod threading. Like the 3M MPro 110, the Aiptek V10 Plus cannot recharge the battery, while the projector is on. If the projector is plugged in, to charge the battery, you must turn the projector off.

Control Panel

To power up the V10 Plus, just hold down the Power button for three seconds. (marked with a red Power indicator). Just further to the back of the projector is an "M" indicated the Menu button, which, when pressed, brings up these choices: Tools (symbol - a wrench and nut), Movies, Photos, Music, and finally, Memory.

Navigation is straight forward. The V10 Plus as the usual four arrow keys, and an enter (labeled "OK") button in the center of them. When you are not using the menus, the Up and Down arrows are your up and down volume controls. The left and right arrows let you go back (left) or forward (right) when in slideshow mode.

The control panel is backlit by a white LED, but the cutouts for the symbols are greenish yellow, so that's what you see. The Power symbol, however is red, and therefore glows red when powered up.

Remote Control

Click to enlarge. So close. The small credit card type remote control basically mimics the control panel. It has a red power button at the top left, four arrow keys with the OK (enter) button in the center, a Menu button, but also an Exit button.

Finally, there are two volume controls. It works as advertised. I found the remote to effective as far as about 15 feet. Keep in mind that where you are when using the remote, comes into play, because the IR sensor is on the right side (when looking from the back of the projector), rather than the front, or back of the projector, where it is usually found on larger projectors.

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