A portable projector with a bright display and excellent battery life, but limited connectivity
The MP160 pocket projector from 3M is a basic handheld device aimed at the travelling business user. It performs its primary function well, but is let down by a lack of connectivity.
Measuring 150mm x 65mm x 30.5mm, the MP160 is about double the size of a regular smartphone and just about manages to squeeze into a trouser pocket, but it’s quite heavy at 300g.
Design-wise the projector is rather bland and looks like it was made 10 years ago. Onboard controls are limited to on/off, battery and volume buttons, and there’s a wheel on the front to adjust focus and a solitary LED light to denote power.
Set-up is easy, and the device automatically detects a connection to a laptop as soon as it is plugged in. The size of the display ranges from 10in to an impressive 80in from a distance of just over three metres.
Images can be projected onto any surface, but the display becomes trapezium in shape, something known as the ’keystone effect’, when the MP160 is not perfectly centred onto the screen.
The lack of any keystone correction means that the device has to be manually adjusted to avoid distorted images, but this is not a major problem.
Brightness The LED lamp runs at 30 lumens, which is brighter than fellow pint-sized projector the Acer C20 Pico. The native SVGA 800 x 600 resolution displays a picture that’s easy to see, and the MP160 offers a maximum resolution of 1,280 x 800.
A mini tripod is supplied with the MP160, but the flexible legs make it very fiddly to set up and align. The little kickstand built into the device is easier to use, but a standard sized tripod is recommended.
Connectivity The projector generally performs well, but we did have a few gripes during testing. The lack of connectivity is probably the main issue, as the MP160 comes with just one VGA-AV port.
In theory the device can connect to smartphones, tablets, laptops, camcorders and MP3 players, but users will only really be able to connect the device to a laptop or PC with the standard VGA cable provided. A separate adaptor will be required to connect other gadgets.
