First thing to know about the projector is that it’s way, way smaller than you think it is. Like, it won’t fit in a pocket, but it will fit in a cargo pocket, or a jacket pocket. It’s just about the size and shape of my palm, and only two inches tall at its tallest. And it’s meant to be portable; it has content built in, sort of, in the form of a Roku Stick (a tiny but full-featured Roku that needs no extra power); it has a rechargeable battery; and it has speakers. So the projector can, theoretically, provide a home theater experience anywhere. It’s a really cool idea. In the real world that’s tempered a little bit. The Roku does need Wi-Fi, the battery life is about an hour and a half at most, and the speakers are pretty tinny and unimpressive. But you can get around all that. I’ve used it with a mobile hotspot created by a 4G LTE smartphone (speeds are faster than my home internet anyway) and with a Jawbone Jambox, which sounds great and gets loud. That stuff costs extra, but combined with the projector, you can make a pretty legit full-featured portable theater. Oh, right, the projector. So, its major weakness (and it has several weaknesses) is resolution. It’s WVGA quality, which means, roughly, 480p. DVD quality, not high-def, not Blu-ray. That’s noticeable when you’re used to an HDTV. The picture can expand to 120 inches–huge!–but I wouldn’t recommend it; the lacking resolution gets very noticeable above maybe 50 or 55 inches. It’s only a 60-lumen bulb (though it’s an LED bulb, so it shouldn’t need replacing), which is fine for a pico projector but means you really do need darkness. It’s perfectly usable in dusk, low-light rather than pitch-blackness, but the bulb just isn’t powerful enough to blast through daylight. There are minimal picture controls, too–just one little wheel for focusing. But, I found the picture absolutely good enough for most uses. Yes, I wish it was better, but in a dark bedroom, it looks really pretty good. It has two flat sides so you can point it horizontally (at a wall) or vertically (at your ceiling), which is awesome. I wouldn’t want to watch The Tree of Life or anything amazingly visual with it, but I watched about four hours of The West Wing with it last night (cool guy over here) and it was totally serviceable. And a bigger picture than my TV! Out of this tiny little thing! So the 3M Projector is a novelty, yes. You can’t really replace your TV or full-sized projector with it–it just has too many compromises in the picture department. But I really, really like the thing. It’s adorable and tiny and so easy to use, and the Roku gives it tons of content. And the price, $299, is so tempting; yes, pico projectors often cost around $300 or under, but this one is better than most. Major legs-up over its competitors: it includes a Roku Stick ($100 on its own) and it’s battery powered, which means you’ve got display, content, audio, and power, all in one tiny package. I don’t think it’ll change my life, like the Jawbone Jambox (another tiny, wireless version of a bigger home theater element), but I think the 3M Projector is great. Plus, it’s really exciting for the future–here is a gadget that’s legitimately good, at a very low price. Imagine the next one! If they can keep the price at $300 but bump the resolution and the lumen count for the next generation, it could be a must-buy.
STATS
Product: 3M Streaming Projector Powered By Roku Category: Pico projector Price: $299 Cool bonus: You can pop the Roku Stick out and use it in any compatible TV Rating: Inessential, but a very fun toy
