[Review] Lenovo Pocket Projector – Big things come in small packages

While Lenovo is best known for their smartphones, slates and notebooks, they’re venturing into integrating projectors into their kit too like the recent Yoga 3 Pro notebook that integrated a built-in projector. This time around, they’ve decided to revised the idea again though they’ve opted to create a standalone pocket projector that’s about half the size and the thickness of your average paperback. While it’s not exactly small enough to fit your pocket, it’s compact enough to fit in a cargo pants pocket or your handbag without too much trouble.

The packaging is fairly nondescript and features the essentials – the projector proper, a USB cable and a two-pin USB plug.  Cut-out foam inserts keep everything securely stowed. They’ve also thrown in a small silk bag to keep the cables and power plug in one place.

The Lenovo Pocket Projector itself is made primarily of plastic with aluminium trim done up in a two-toned matte black and silver finish. The casing itself is bisected in the middle, with the half containing the lens and projector being able to rotate from it’s flat position all the way straight up to a vertical position. This section also contains a speaker, a microSD card slot and a focusing ring. The other half is made of a shiny silver finish that has a rudimentary D-pad and control button up top and a microUSB charging port and 3.5mm audio jack on the back.

Alas, the matte black projector portion of the device is a superb fingerprint magnet and even casual use in a controlled office environment saw a ton of lint adhering to the matte rubberised finish of the device. You’ll need frequent wipe-downs if you want it to remain pristine.

The base of the projector comes with three little rubberised nubs that act as feet. Adjusting the pitch and size of the display is via adjusting the focus lens and the pitch of the projector up and down with the ability to throw a 37-inch image at one meter range and up to a 110-inch image at three metres at 854 x 480 pixel resolution. The lamp on the projector is capable only of a modest 50 lumens which predicates its use in anything but indoors and darkened environments.