Lenovo Pocket Projector review: For most, it’s a want not a need

Pico projectors are one of those devices that never really caught on to the mainstream. They’re pretty cool and nifty, given the right circumstances, but for most of us, it’s more of a want than a need.

Lenovo recently launched their Pocket Projector here in Malaysia and it’s exactly as the name suggests — a pocket-sized projector. So, if you want/need a pico projector, is this the one you get? Well, I spent a weekend with it high in the mountains to find out.

It’s definitely a looker

When I first saw this little projector, I was quite taken with it. It looked adorable, sort of like an old-school video game controller from the future. Picking it up, I noticed the fairly good build quality with its robust hinge plus interesting colour combination.

The device is split into two parts: The projection half which is black and textured to the touch and the base half which is smooth and houses a D-pad as well as buttons to switch it on and off at the back.

Still, it remains fairly light and portable. That said, when Lenovo called this a Pocket Projector, I really wonder what kind of pocket they were thinking of because this thing did not fit into my jeans pockets.

Army standard issue cargo pants perhaps?

Nevertheless, this is a handsome looking device. Leave it on a table and people will definitely ask you about it even before you turn it on.

It should work well with most devices

Once you do turn it on, you’ll be greeted with a screen that shows you a whole bunch of connectivity options which you can navigate to via the D-pad. You can also adjust where you want to project by raising or lowering the projection half and the screen will orient itself automatically.

Setting up is easy as the Pocket Projector supports WiFi connectivity and is compatible with Android, Windows 10 and iOS/Mac operating systems. When I brought it with me, I streamed video via Miracast which worked pretty well.

There were occasional stutters and I would sometimes get a laggy playback, but for the most part it worked fine.

The Pocket Projector is a definitely a hot device

I mean that in the most literal of senses. A couple of minutes into the stream, the projector can build up a lot of heat in its little body. It does have a dedicated fan to try and keep it cool, but if you’re one episode into your Game of Thrones marathon, I wouldn’t advise that you touch the metallic side panels.

But, that’s to be expected as projectors do run very hot and since I didn’t notice any performance issues because of the heat, I’m not really complaining.

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As far as projection goes, Lenovo’s Pocket Projector is capable of projecting up to an 110” display at a distance of 3m, 75” at a distance of 2m and 37” at 1m. The bulb mounted on the front of the projection half of the projector is capable of pushing 50 lumens (with a physical display resolution of 854×480) and, according to Lenovo, is good for about 20,000 hours of bright performance.

In practice, the projector isn’t the brightest thing out there. Resolution and clarity wise, it’s pretty good for short distances (like in a car, for eg) in a dark environment. Once you stretch it and have it project further you will have to really squint to make out what’s on display.

The best case scenario then is to keep it at about 1m in a pitch black room if you want to watch shows. But even under those conditions, there’s another limiting factor – battery life.

To be fair, this is a tiny device so you can’t realistically expect battery life to be stupendous. Lenovo says that it will last about 3 hours on a single charge. During my testing, I managed to eek 2.5 hours out of the little projector which isn’t too bad.

It’s good enough to get you through a single movie, but if you want to marathon a season of Daredevil, you will have to keep it hooked up to another power source. The good news is that it has a microUSB port so that lets you get creative with charging options.

However, the issue with watching videos and movies on this is that you will have to bring an external Bluetooth speaker. The onboard speaker doesn’t get very loud. In fact, it’s soft to a point where the noise generated from the cooling fan drowns out your video’s audio.

But, one strength when it comes to projection with this Pocket Projector is that the 90-degree hinge gives you a lot of freedom to decide where you want to project.

At the end of the day

With the Lenovo Pocket Projector retailing at RM1,099, this isn’t exactly cheap. But as a pico projector, the Pocket Projector hits several high notes with good build, a sexy design and a great hinge that gives you lots of flexibility.

If you’re looking at this as a tool for you to binge videos with your friends on the go, it can be a tempting purchase. However, I still prefer the high-resolution screen of something like a tablet or laptop to the pico projector. It just isn’t as satisfying of an experience due to the relatively low quality of the projection, so this pocket projector isn’t something I would buy for this purpose.

That said, if you’re someone who does a lot of business presentations on the go and you need something to display your powerpoint slides, then Lenovo’s Pocket Projector could be the device for you. Its portability, flexibility and universal micro USB power can come in pretty handy.