Small Projector for Laptop: Guide on Choosing and Buying Them

Small projector for laptop is a good choice if you are traveling a lot and making business presentation in a rush and want to make a good impression while on the move. Small digital projectors can also be used as a backup if the main projectors will not operate under any conditions. This article will guide you on choosing and also how to buy them.

Small Projector for Laptop: Guide on Choosing and Buying Them

First of all, to get the projector that best suited for your needs, you need to answer these simple questions:

  1. How many people will be there when you are doing the presentations?
    Just get the average number, don’t need to be exact with this. This criteria will help you choose the requirement you need. The more people viewing the presentation, the more you should choose the size of the projected image in the projector. This is because the more people, the more people there are to be far away from your screen. That’s why the projected image needs to be larger as well. Another criteria you should consider when choosing a digital projector is the Lumens. It is the measured number of brightness in projectors. The more audience you will get, the Lumens number should be increased as well. Most consumer projectors have between 800-2200 Lumens.
  2. How is the light condition?
    Ambient light can make or break your presentation. In a perfect world, using a dark room, you will get the best image regarding the projector brightness. But in a common presentations, you should light up some ambient to let your audience taking notes, getting eye contact and other interactions. For a simple guide, follow these to select a projector based on lighting:
    1000-1400 Lumens (very little or no ambient light – very dark)
    1500-2000 Lumens (dimmed ambient light)
    2100-3500 Lumens (normal ambient light)
    If you are going to do outdoor presentations, make sure that you cover your screen in a shade to make the pictures visible.
  3. Projector function
    Here goes the big question, are you buying the projector just because it is cool or you are buying the functionality? In either way, you should know and need the thing first. It’s a nightmare to put your digital projector on the shelf and not using it at all because it simply doesn’t work. The main functionality you should get is the projector’s resolution. A general guide to this are:
    - SVGA resolution projectors (800×600) are best for displaying large text or less detailed images.
    - XGA resolution projectors (1024×768) are the most common and are compatible with the vast majority of PCs and DVD players.
    - SXGA (1280×1024) and SXGA+ (1400×1050) resolution projectors are appropriate for displaying engineering drawings, digital photography, HD applications or other images of a highly detailed or technical nature.
  4. Budget
    Before buying the projector, make sure that you have enough money. But if budget is short, you can try to get cheaper projectors. Nowadays you can even get a cheap digital pocket projector for under $200 like Optoma PICO PK100

Hopefully this guide will give you some thought on choosing the small projector for your laptop.

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This entry was posted on Monday, November 16th, 2009 at 8:58 am and is filed under Tips & Tricks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

5 Responses to “Small Projector for Laptop: Guide on Choosing and Buying Them”

  1. RoyalTek RPJ-2000 Small Pico Projector for Business and Entertainment says:
    December 29, 2009 at 3:56 am

    [...] a Taiwanese manufacturer has released a small projector that is suitable for travelers who do business presentations a lot on the go. The new handheld pico [...]

  2. Acer S5200 3D Digital Projector says:
    February 13, 2010 at 3:10 am

    [...] launced a new DLP projector, Acer S5200. This not so small projector comes with 3D support which capable of displaying up to 1024×768 pixel resolution with 4:3 [...]

  3. Samsung I8250 Android Smartphone with Small Pico-Projector says:
    February 23, 2010 at 8:48 am

    [...] business and professional to get rid the need of carrying big projector while on the go. Even those small projectors are big enough compared to this! I8250 comes with large 3.7-inch WVGA Super AMOLED LCD, 8MP camera, [...]

  4. New MacBook Pro Hardware Update Rumor: Integrated Pico Projector says:
    April 4, 2010 at 6:19 am

    [...] is reported to patent integrated pico projector in a laptop, which hints at MacBook with digital small projector component included. In the patent filing, it’s clear that the laptop described would have a [...]

  5. Justin Rasch says:
    August 20, 2010 at 4:51 am

    amazing stuff. technology is getting crazy.

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