Tiny Carrying LED Projector for Laptop

Do you want a big video picture but without the big bucks for a big screen? Here I introduce BenQ Joybee GP1 mini projector to you. The $500 1.4-pound pico projector uses a 20,000-hour LED lamp for illumination, and includes a USB port. Put your media (movies, photos, business presentations) on a thumb drive and you can leave your laptop at home.

The tiny unit comes with a carrying case, but you have to carry the separate, equally sized power supply by itself. Fortunately, the GP1 really can be set up without reading a manual. It took me about five minutes to connect the cords and figure out the commands on the wafer-sized remote.

You can connect a camcorder, DVD player, TV, video game console or — with an extra-cost dock — an iPod to the Joybee. But if you want to watch videos, you first must convert your files into the AVI format, using the included Mac and Windows software.

The company claims that the projector can create an image up to 80 inches in diameter, but don’t expect that size during the day. Even in a dimly lighted room, the weak light output meant that I had to put the unit quite close to the wall to see a bright-enough image.

As a pico projector, the Joybee lacks an optical zoom, which means you have to move the entire unit to change the picture size. That may not be practical in a business setting, but if you’re planning on watching a movie in your hotel room with all the lights out, it may not be a big deal. Once set up, the colors were well-saturated, with acceptable black levels.

The menus are intuitive and the remote works well, but the on-unit touch controls were erratic, often not responding to multiple hard presses and then jumping into action with a very light tap.

So it is a low-cost way to get a big picture in a dark room, won’t rely on this projector for your PowerPoint presentations.

LED Projector in Hot

Recently, LED light sources have been widely applied in many domestic and foreign brands of projectors. Especially in the second half of 2008, LED projectors in the market has experienced unprecedented success, that among micro-projection, handheld projectors and home theatre projectors, LED light sources reviewed a clear lead in sales figures.

LED sources are being considered in the industry as the alternative for ultra-high pressure mercury halogen lamps and new projector bulbs, due to its excellent performance. As a cold-light source, LED light source advances over the traditional light bulb with its low heat, long service life of 20,000 hours. Therefore, LED projector sizes can be reduced mobile phone sizes, while also easy to maintain, without having the trouble to replace light bulbs every two years. In addition, LED light sources are also more environmentally friendly, as they do not cause mercury pollution.

In fact, as early as three or four years ago, LED light sources have been applied on projectors, but with a performance of dozens lumens brightness, those products cannot meet the general requirement of thousands of lumens, thus they were largely in the laboratory stage, without going into mass production. The development bottleneck was finally being overcome in 2008, with the projector light bulb manufacturer, Osram developed a new LED light source system that can achieve a brightness of more than 500 lumens. The breakthrough in technology allows LED projectors to finally emerge onto the markets, and with prices coming down quickly, the current home projector now costs about RMB8,000.

At present, the technology may not have reached a highly mature level, LED projector sales is no better than traditional projectors, but its energy-saving, environmental friendly, and other extraordinary features will make it a new favour in the projector market.