Mitsubishi PK20 Portable LED Projector: Summary, Pros and Cons

Posted on October 2, 2013 By Art Feierman

Mitsubishi PK20 Portable LED Projector: Summary, Pros and Cons

Playing with the PK20 projector was much fun. I’m pretty sure I don’t need one myself, as I have a (relatively) lightweight business projector and a great home theater model. Neither of mine, however, will fit in a large pocket, nor run for two hours on batteries. I’m thinking of the PK20 more and more, as a “personal” projector, used a lot by just one person, but then able to do some things well on a very small screen in front of a very, very small group.

I’m still not happy that the review PK20 projector didn’t come with the PK20’s rechargable battery pack as part of the review, I would have liked to see if the PK20 can get the full 2 hours on a charge that their literature states. Taking it outside at night might have been an interesting experience, perhaps showing a movie on the wall of my house, in my backyard.

What impresses me most about the PK20, though, is that it’s image quality is rather good. As I pointed out earlier, it actually does better bright reds and yellows than the typical business DLP projector can do, in their brightest – their presentation modes.

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(They all do very well when in their video modes, but those portable DLP projectors give up, typically, about half their brightness.)

I can definitely see the PK20 for limited presentation use, best for presenting data, graphics or video to 1 to 3 or 4 people.

And it looks like it has great potential for working with PDA’s and Smartphones that can output a signal, not to mention, game machines, and other gadgets.

Mitsubishi PK20 Pros:

Tiny, extremely portable
Very lightweight
Very clear, sharp image
Works very well with PC’s and Macs, SD cards, digital cameras, supports a wide range of other devices, such as video iPods
Handles SVGA beautifully, and does a very good job on XGA resolution sources (compressed)
Affordable
Better than average color accuracy for a DLP projector
Can be mounted to tripod
Long life lamps (10,000 hours)
Solid build quality
Good warranty
Very functional remote control
Optional rechargable battery, mounts to bottom of the projector
Low cost, extremely low cost of ownership (thanks to 10,000 lamps).

Mitsubishi PK20 Projector - Cons:

Very low brightness (25 lumens)
No zoom lens (not really an issue for a product of this type)

Mitsubishi PK20 Projector - Typical Capabilities

Documentation (the tall skinny print manual is extremely thin on details, but the included CD has the full manual on it, and it is rather comprehensive)
Menu layout
Audible noise levels

Mitsubishi PK20 LED Portable Projector - Summary

The bottom line is that the PK20 represents a new breed of portable projector, one which redefines portable, to include battery operation, and redefines size with a footprint about a quarter that of the smallest traditional DLP projectors (and even less compared to the smallest LCD projectors.

It comes down to this. If you really want a “hyper-portable” projector solution, whether for small presentations, gaming, gadgets, movies, etc., the PK20 is a very impressive projector. In low light environments, images can be projected and look good up to about 60″ diagonal, although with some lighting, 40″ is definitely more ideal.

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You just have to get used to the idea, that it cannot compete with “traditional” portable projectors in terms of brightness, but it certainly is a serious contender, in terms of overall image quality.

In summary, the Mitsubishi PK20 LED projector offers a combination of size, battery operation, and image quality, that make for a most respectable product. One that is likely to find many enthusiastic users.