AAXA P3

With its 50-lumen rating, the LCOS-based AAXA P3 ($270 street) isn't the brightest pico projector available. The ?Optoma Pico PK320 Pocket Projector ($450 street, 3 stars), for one, claims 100 lumens. However, the P3 is bright for the price, and it offers any number of additional features that you might not expect at such a low cost, starting with an HDMI port and the ability to read files from a USB memory key. The combination makes it well worth considering.

One complicating factor is the 1,024 by 600 native resolution. This is better resolution than you'll find in most pico projectors, and generally counts as a plus. Both the PK320 and the Editors' Choice Optoma PK301 Pico Pocket Projector ($400 street, 4 stars), for example, offer WVGA (854 by 480). On the negative side, however, 1024 by 600 is unusual enough that most computers don't support it. If you set your computer to another widescreen resolution, like 854 by 480 or 1280 by 800, you'll introduce scaling artifacts caused by adding or dropping pixels to make the image match the projector's resolution.

Among other issues, the artifacts can make text harder to read. The alternative is to stay with standard SVGA (800 by 600), which will avoid the scaling artifacts and give you better image quality than with lower-resolution projectors, but that limits you to a 4:3 aspect ratio. As a practical matter, you may want to stay with 800 by 600 to get crisper data images and reserve the widescreen capability for video.

Basics, Setup, and Connections
As with any pico projector, one of the P3's key strengths is its portability. Measuring only 1.4 by 2.6 by 4.6 inches (HWD) and weighing 7.5 ounces, it's small and light enough for a shirt pocket. The power block adds 4 more ounces, but you can also run the P3 from its rechargeable battery, so you don't necessarily have to carry the power block on every trip. You'll probably want to bring it most of the time, however, since the claimed battery life is only 65 minutes.

Setup is mostly standard fare for a pico projector, with an assortment of adaptors to let you connect to a composite video source, a USB memory key (to read common image, audio and movie files), or a computer (using a VGA port). In addition AAXA also sells adaptors (at $12.99 to $19.99 direct each) for iPod, Zune, and PSP connections. The one connector worth special mention, because it's unusual for a pico projector, is a full-size HDMI port, for a computer or video source.

Brightness and Image Quality
The P3's 50-lumen rating is admittedly meager compared with most full-size projectors, but it's reasonably bright for a pico projector. As a practical matter, based on the SMPTE recommendations for brightness, 50 lumens is bright enough for a roughly 28- to 37-inch diagonal image at a 16:9 aspect ratio in theater-dark lighting.

One moderate issue is a problem maintaining uniform brightness across the entire screen. On the test unit, I saw vertical strips on both the extreme left and right sides that were noticeably dimmer than the rest of the screen. The issue showed only in screens with light color backgrounds, but is noticeable enough that some people might find it distracting.

Data image quality at 600 by 800 resolution was better than most pico projectors, with the P3 scoring relatively well on our standard suite of DisplayMate tests. Color balance was good, with suitably neutral grays over the entire range from black to white; colors were nicely saturated; and I saw only the slightest pixel jitter with an analog connection on screens that are designed to bring out jitter. Text was easy to read at sizes as small as 9 points.

Video quality was also good for a pico projector, with the P3 doing a reasonably good job in my tests of retaining shadow detail (details based on shading in dark areas) and resisting posterization (shading changing suddenly where it should change gradually.)

Also very much on the plus side is that the P3 shows far fewer rainbow artifacts?with bright areas breaking up into little red-green-blue rainbows?than most pico projectors. Even if you're sensitive to the effect, as I am, it's not likely that you'll see the artifacts often enough with either data or video images to find them annoying.

Other Issues
As is standard for pico projectors, the P3 uses LEDs for its light source. More important, the LEDs are meant to last the life of the projector, with a rated 15,000 hour lifetime, so you won't have to spend money on replacement lamps. As is also standard, the 1-watt speakers are hardly worth having. If you need sound, however, the audio out port lets you plug in a headset or external powered speaker.

It would be easier to give the P3 an enthusiastic recommendation if it offered a native resolution that was more widely supported. But even if you ignore the widescreen capability and treat it as astandard SVGA projector, there's still a lot to like. Its balance of small size, low weight, reasonable battery life, and good data and video image quality adds up to a strong argument for the P3. Factor in such niceties as the HDMI port plus the ability to read files from a USB key, and the combination makes the P3 a more than reasonable choice at an attractive price.

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