Best in Class – Under $500 Projector: Optoma ML750

Posted on November 6, 2018 by Art Feierman

The Optoma ML750 was reviewed by Lisa Feierman in 2015. Though it is a few years old, it is still currently shipping but at a substantially lower price. When Lisa reviewed it, she did so with this question in mind: Is the ML750 ideal for cord cutting professional Millennials living in the Big City? Lisa’s first New York City apartment didn’t have a proper set up for a TV – her door swung all the way open and would easily hit the wall that TV would go on.

Luckily, Art is her father, and they were able to come up with a creative alternative in the Optoma ML750 – that is, in exchange for a review. This was one of two models she reviewed from Optoma, the other is the ML750ST, which did not win an award (more on that later). In the case of the Optoma ML750, it solved a very real problem Lisa was experiencing – a problem many New York City dwellers face – getting the “big screen experience” in a compact space. She would routinely project movies and other content from about 45” – 65” diagonal sizes instead of watching on her laptop. She wasn’t going for the home theater experience, rather the “this is a way better idea than a small LCD TV that I just don’t have room for,” experience.

Overview

The Optoma ML750 has some excellent color and does a great job on skin tones.

Colors are vibrant on the Optoma ML750.

I'm impressed with the Optoma ML750's contrast.

Colors on the ML750 are vibrant but still pretty natural looking.

Sports look great when projected by this Optoma.

❮ ❯

The Optoma ML750 was $1099.99 when Lisa first reviewed it in 2015, and has since gone down significantly in price. It can now be found online for as low as $499.99 (Amazon) – it only just made the cut to win our Best in Class – Under $500 Award! Its competition was the AAXA M5, which is a respectable projector with one near-fatal flaw (more on that in the Non-Winners Page). This 700 lumen projector has WXGA (1280 x 800) resolution – the business and education world’s 720p – and has an LED light engine. That light engine has a lifespan of up to 20,000 hours, as is typical of LEDs.

Best Pico and Pocket Projectors Report - Best in Class: Under $500 Optoma ML750

The ML750 has a fixed lens, so where you place it determines the size of the projected image. This Optoma doesn’t have as short a throw distance as the ML750ST, so Lisa couldn’t get it to be much larger than 60” in her space. You may have more room for your setup, so having the projector a bit further back would be an option in that case, allowing the Optoma ML750 to display a much larger image. If you have a tight space, consider the ML750ST for just $50 more – it would have won this award, but its price is $549. It can technically be found for under $500, if you’re willing to go refurbished (at the time of this being published), but as it’s not under $500 new, I couldn’t consider it for the Best in Class – Under $500 Award.

No lumens measurements were taken at the time for this one – but looking at Lisa’s photos, I think it’s safe to say it would’ve come in within 25% of its 700 lumen claim. It’s nicely bright and should be able to handle some mild ambient light, though there will be some wash out. Still, Lisa says that having the Optoma ML750 in her apartment was just as easy as owning a TV, if not easier. And, having the ability to move it from room to room, such as from the living room to the bedroom, makes it that much better.

A rather awesome feature of the ML750 that sets it apart from most other pico and pocket projectors is that it has optional wireless capabilities, via Optoma’s wireless dongle. This should make cord cutters happy – if you’re streaming Netflix from your laptop like Lisa did, then you wouldn’t need to have an HDMI running from the computer to the projector. You could wirelessly stream from that laptop and place it somewhere else, out of sight, out of mind.

Looking at Lisa’s photos, the Optoma ML750 has some truly good color. No pico or pocket projector has truly excellent color, in that there will always be something that’s a little off. Cinema Mode, however, has some really great color. Perhaps a little on the cool side with some pink hues, but skin tones look mostly natural and that’s one of the main things we look for in our home entertainment and home theater projectors. Lisa favored PC Mode over Cinema, but hey – to each their own. Check out the slider below to see some examples for this Optoma’s color handling.

Like the AAXA P300 Neo, the Optoma ML750 has a 1-watt mono speaker, though in the case of the Optoma, that 1-watt goes much further than it does on the AAXA. The projector has a couple of interesting features, one of them being that it is 3D ready. That’s not seen on most pico and pocket projectors! Nice. It also has a built-in media player and 5GB of internal memory. That media player can read Microsoft Office documents, PDFs, photos and videos for PC-free presenting, and has compatibility with an app called EZ View for wireless presentations via iOS and Android devices.

The Optoma ML750 has but a few inputs. It has one HDMI input, a USB port, a micro SD card slot, and a Universal I/O connector. That last port can be used with an adapter to connect a computer via VGA, but keep in mind that VGA doesn’t transmit audio, so you’ll be stuck listening to the audio on whatever computer you’re using. Most modern computers have an HDMI port on them, so you should be able to get away with using an HDMI cable to connect a computer, streaming/Blu-ray player, or game console, no problem.

The Bottom Line on the Optoma ML750

Bottom Line: Good color, super portable, with a few truly awesome features. Lisa was quite pleased with the ML750, stating that it’s “small, convenient, quick to power up, and definitely exceeded my expectations in terms of brightness and color.” Well, that’s nothing short of a glowing review! That it is 3D ready and has optional wireless, that built-in media player with 5GB of storage, and compatibility with iOS and Android devices, makes this a pretty unique pocket projector, and one to consider if you’re looking for one under $500!

Optoma ML750 Review

Full Review

The Optoma ML750 was reviewed by Lisa Feierman in 2015. Though it is a few years old, it is still currently shipping but at a substantially lower price. When Lisa reviewed it, she did so with this question in mind: Is the ML750 ideal for cord cutting professional Millennials living in the Big City? Lisa’s first New York City apartment didn’t have a proper set up for a TV – her door swung all the way open and would easily hit the wall that TV would go on.

Luckily, Art is her father, and they were able to come up with a creative alternative in the Optoma ML750 – that is, in exchange for a review. This was one of two models she reviewed from Optoma, the other is the ML750ST, which did not win an award (more on that later). In the case of the Optoma ML750, it solved a very real problem Lisa was experiencing – a problem many New York City dwellers face – getting the “big screen experience” in a compact space. She would routinely project movies and other content from about 45” – 65” diagonal sizes instead of watching on her laptop. She wasn’t going for the home theater experience, rather the “this is a way better idea than a small LCD TV that I just don’t have room for,” experience.

Overview

The Optoma ML750 has some excellent color and does a great job on skin tones.

Colors are vibrant on the Optoma ML750.

I'm impressed with the Optoma ML750's contrast.

Colors on the ML750 are vibrant but still pretty natural looking.

Sports look great when projected by this Optoma.

❮ ❯

The Optoma ML750 was $1099.99 when Lisa first reviewed it in 2015, and has since gone down significantly in price. It can now be found online for as low as $499.99 (Amazon) – it only just made the cut to win our Best in Class – Under $500 Award! Its competition was the AAXA M5, which is a respectable projector with one near-fatal flaw (more on that in the Non-Winners Page). This 700 lumen projector has WXGA (1280 x 800) resolution – the business and education world’s 720p – and has an LED light engine. That light engine has a lifespan of up to 20,000 hours, as is typical of LEDs.

The ML750 has a fixed lens, so where you place it determines the size of the projected image. This Optoma doesn’t have as short a throw distance as the ML750ST, so Lisa couldn’t get it to be much larger than 60” in her space. You may have more room for your setup, so having the projector a bit further back would be an option in that case, allowing the Optoma ML750 to display a much larger image. If you have a tight space, consider the ML750ST for just $50 more – it would have won this award, but its price is $549. It can technically be found for under $500, if you’re willing to go refurbished (at the time of this being published), but as it’s not under $500 new, I couldn’t consider it for the Best in Class – Under $500 Award.

No lumens measurements were taken at the time for this one – but looking at Lisa’s photos, I think it’s safe to say it would’ve come in within 25% of its 700 lumen claim. It’s nicely bright and should be able to handle some mild ambient light, though there will be some wash out. Still, Lisa says that having the Optoma ML750 in her apartment was just as easy as owning a TV, if not easier. And, having the ability to move it from room to room, such as from the living room to the bedroom, makes it that much better.

A rather awesome feature of the ML750 that sets it apart from most other pico and pocket projectors is that it has optional wireless capabilities, via Optoma’s wireless dongle. This should make cord cutters happy – if you’re streaming Netflix from your laptop like Lisa did, then you wouldn’t need to have an HDMI running from the computer to the projector. You could wirelessly stream from that laptop and place it somewhere else, out of sight, out of mind.

Looking at Lisa’s photos, the Optoma ML750 has some truly good color. No pico or pocket projector has truly excellent color, in that there will always be something that’s a little off. Cinema Mode, however, has some really great color. Perhaps a little on the cool side with some pink hues, but skin tones look mostly natural and that’s one of the main things we look for in our home entertainment and home theater projectors. Lisa favored PC Mode over Cinema, but hey – to each their own. Check out the slider below to see some examples for this Optoma’s color handling.

Like the AAXA P300 Neo, the Optoma ML750 has a 1-watt mono speaker, though in the case of the Optoma, that 1-watt goes much further than it does on the AAXA. The projector has a couple of interesting features, one of them being that it is 3D ready. That’s not seen on most pico and pocket projectors! Nice. It also has a built-in media player and 5GB of internal memory. That media player can read Microsoft Office documents, PDFs, photos and videos for PC-free presenting, and has compatibility with an app called EZ View for wireless presentations via iOS and Android devices.

The Optoma ML750 has but a few inputs. It has one HDMI input, a USB port, a micro SD card slot, and a Universal I/O connector. That last port can be used with an adapter to connect a computer via VGA, but keep in mind that VGA doesn’t transmit audio, so you’ll be stuck listening to the audio on whatever computer you’re using. Most modern computers have an HDMI port on them, so you should be able to get away with using an HDMI cable to connect a computer, streaming/Blu-ray player, or game console, no problem.

The Bottom Line on the Optoma ML750

Bottom Line: Good color, super portable, with a few truly awesome features. Lisa was quite pleased with the ML750, stating that it’s “small, convenient, quick to power up, and definitely exceeded my expectations in terms of brightness and color.” Well, that’s nothing short of a glowing review! That it is 3D ready and has optional wireless, that built-in media player with 5GB of storage, and compatibility with iOS and Android devices, makes this a pretty unique pocket projector, and one to consider if you’re looking for one under $500!