While we love emulating the movie theater watching experience in our living rooms, it's always felt like an extensive military exercise trying to camouflage the bulky-looking mounted projector on the ceiling. With Samsung and now Nikon joining the pico projector integration race, it feels like only a short amount of time until the dedicated projector goes the way of the dodo.
Above, Nikon's latest release of their S1100pj point and shoot camera features 720p HD movie recording with a 14-1MP sensor and integrated projector (and built in stand!) that's 40% brighter than their previous pocketable projector unit released last year.
And while the resolution and brightness may not come anywhere near that of even the lowest end dedicated projectors today, we're still impressed at the rate of improvements seen in pico projection technology. We wouldn't be surprised if HD pico projectors started becoming the next big thing in the next few years, if not months.
What do you think of the new pico projection trend? Do you believe they'll ever reach the technological quality of dedicated projectors? Let us know what you think in the comments below!
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From every review I've read these micro projectors are pretty bad for anything other than sitting at a table and projecting something onto a wall a foot away from you.
How or why would this replace a dedicated home theater projector? That's like saying cameras with LCDs will replace computer screens or televisions.
I think if they matched the performance, had wireless HDMI support (I hate running wires to my current projector), and was cheap enough, I'd totally get a phone/camera with the feature integrated.
Maybe if you're shopping for projectors to put in your hamster's fancy cage, the pico would be a good replacement for a dedicated home theater projector (I just don't think your hamster would appreciate the latter). The tech will eventually shrink because that's what tech does, but I think it's going to be a while before pico specs are comparable to those of high-end home theater projectors.
We placed our Epson PowerLight Home Cinema projector on top of a white shelf to match it, and it basically blends into the wall; I really, really wanted to avoid mounting anything to the ceiling since we're in a rental, and I'm quite happy with the results. The wiring was a huge pain in the ass (100' HDMI cable vomit), but that's going to be an issue with any projector unless you go wireless.
I wish this was the case! I really wanted to get the LG Expo as my phone when my last upgrade came around because I could really use a portable projector for work purposes. Unfortunately, by the time my upgrade came, AT&T didn't stock the phone/projector anywhere. The sales guy said no one else wanted it. :(
Yah, we are way off from pico projectors being a solution. Small LED bulbs that put off enough light to actually drive a large picture are way off. There are still some serious hurdles to overcome in regards to LED projectors at a cheap consumer level. The current ones have lower level light output and massive light units.
The size of the LED emitter isn't the problem. If you do some snooping on candlepowerforums, you quickly learn about multi-die emitters that still fit on the tip of your pinky finger. Sure these guys can only put out a thousand lumens, and that can't compare to high end projectors.
The MUCH bigger problem in terms of adoption in pico projectors is heat dissipation. The more powerful the emitter, the more heat is generated, and you simply can't take care of that heat without fans, fins, or other size-gobbling solutions.