About Pocket Projectors Posted on May 3, 2014 By Lisa Feierman 1. The 2014-2015 Classroom Projector Report: Special Features and Considerations - Table of Contents: Things to Consider!2. About Ultra Short Throw, and Very Short Throw Projectors - About Ultra Short Throw, and Very Short Throw Projectors3. About Interactive Projectors - About Interactive Projectors4. About Laser Pointers, Optical Pointers, Tablets and General Remote Mousing - About About Laser Pointers, Optical Pointers, Tablets and General Remote Mousing5. About Pocket Projectors - Pocket Projectors - They Have Come of Age6. About Solid State Light Engines - About Solid State Light Engines7. About Interchangeable Lenses - About Interchangeable Lenses8. About PC Free Presenting, BYOD, Presenting Over Network - About PC Free Presenting, BYOD, Presenting Over Network9. About HDMI (or DVI), USB, DisplayLink USB Interfacing - About HDMI (or DVI), USB, DisplayLink USB Interfacing10. About Picture Quality – Brightness, Color Fidelity, Accuracy, Color vs Brightness - About Picture Quality – Brightness, Color Fidelity, Accuracy, Color vs Brightness11. About Cost of Operation, Maintenance, Filters - About Cost of Operation, Maintenance, Filters - Cost of Installation - Cost of Replacement Lamps - Cost of Replacing Lamps - Filter Costs12. About Wireless Networking - About Wireless Networking13. About Wired Networking and Networking Protocols - About Wired Networking and Networking Protocols14. About Cloud Presenting/Teaching - About Cloud Presenting/Teaching15. About Presenting / Teaching from iOS and Android devices - About Presenting / Teaching from iOS and Android devices16. About Active and Passive 3D In the Classroom - About Active and Passive 3D In the Classroom - Active vs. Passive17. About Cost of Operation and Ownership - Upfront Costs - Post-Sale Costs - That's A Wrap Pocket Projectors - They Have Come of AgeToday’s pocket projectors – really not pocket sized, but the term often used for small projectors with solid state (laser, led, or hybrid) light engines, are smaller than lamp based alternatives, but relatively expensive. First of all they are not near as bright, but is that an issue? Most classrooms that were equipped with projectors more than a decade ago, had projectors doing 800 to 1200 lumens. And they did just fine. Today, the typical entry level lamp based projector does 2500 lumens, but that’s typically a lot more than is really needed in most K-12 classrooms. Today’s brighter pocket projectors produce around 600 – 800+ lumens, definitely adequate in those K-12 classrooms – at least the large majority of them. The advantage though is the light source, which should outlast the useful life of the projector, most are rated 20,000 hours or more. That’s 4 hours a day, 5 days a week ,40 weeks a year, for 25 years. That solves the problem of future budgets being too thin to pay for replacement lamps, but realize you are paying a big premium up front for those light engines. Where the pocket projectors really shine (pun intended), is when they are needed portably. After all, not every school has enough money to equip most or all of the classrooms with projectors. Still larger lamp based projectors are still very portable, and cost less, so the best “market” for these pocket projectors is when real mobility is called for. That makes them ideal for special projects, for specialty teachers that teach in multiple schools, and for the teacher that due to lack of school financial support, chooses to buy their own projector to take to class, and then take home. One market unique to pocket projectors is not commonly found in the US, but is in the rest of the world. I’m talking about the ability to run off of battery. In the US, that might be a field trip, but in many 2nd and 3rd world countries, such battery powered projectors can be taken from rural villiage to villiage where electricity is not always guaranteed. We know doctors groups and missionary teachers groups that do good charitable work around the world that rely on battery powered portable pocket and pico projectors. Today though you can buy such a projector that has an internal battery and still put out 250+ lumens. Years ago, those same groups were buying 25 and 50, and more recently 100 lumen projectors, the brightest that could run on batteries. We’ve reviewed a reasonably bright small pocket projector for this report – claiming 300 lumens on battery. That’s still a significant amount of brightness or a 50 inch screen presentation. (For reference, 400 lumens in a dark home theater fills a 100” screen). In this report we look at a number of pocket projectors for the first time. The one battery operable projector – the Asus P2B, and four others. The two brightest claim 1000 lumens! Click Image to EnlargeRemember, that solid state light sources dim very slowly over time. So after say 3000 hours of use, a 1000 lumen solid state, may be almost as bright as a 2000 lumen lamp based projector. Portability, though, ultimately is the reason for using pocket projectors in an education environment.