LAS VEGAS — Lasers make a big difference for pico projectors, says Microvision, which, coincidentally, is showing off the first laser pico projector made for iPod at CES.
Although pico projectrors are a crowded field, Microvision’s SHOWWX Laser Pico Projector is the first powered by laser, which gives it better color and infinite focus, the company says. Most other pico projectors are powered by LED.
In a dark room, the SHOWWX can project video up to 100-inches wide, said Michael Carmean, the projector’s project manager at Microvision, which is based in Redmond, Wash. That’s twice-the size of most big-screen TVs and comparable to the truly giant TVs on show here in Vegas.
In a living room or office, the image is best at about 30-40-inches wide. And under the bright lights of the CES show floor, the projector looked pretty good at about 24-inches. It was quite watchable.
“In optimum conditions, a really dark room, you can get a really big image,” Carmean said. “And it looks pretty good even under bright light.”
The projector is currently sold in Europe and Asia and will be coming to the U.S. in March for about $500 (pricing is still TBD), Carmean said.
The SHOWWX outputs 10 lumens at WVGA resolution (848×480). It offers about 1.5-2 hours of battery life and for sound uses the iPhone/iPod internal speaker, headphones or an external speaker. It comes with an iPhone/iPod dock connector and is Apple “Made for iPod” certified. It can also be connected to a laptop or cell phone with TV out.
