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Dell Pocket Projectors, Are They For Real?

Dell is churning out the mini projectors, and techies over the world absolutely love it. New projectors are constantly becoming larger or smaller, but rarely ever staying the same size. A projector the size of your palm is very handy because of it’s size, but at this point in time it hardly has the output to compete with the larger portable projectors, that really are not that much bigger. With all this ‘James Bondery’ being developed, I decided to ask the question if the Dell M109S handheld is truly a useful invention?

The lamp that powers this micro projector needs to be small ,and thus Dell decided to use LED technology instead of a traditional UHP projector lamp. Traditional UHP projector lamps tend to be slightly larger than LED’s due to the fact that mercury vapor must be trapped inside an arc-tube. The igniting of this vapor is what makes an extremely bright light. The problem with LED lamps is that they still do not have the power to compete with UHP lamps since they do not produce the brightness required for a truly spectacular image.

The only other reason why an LED is being used in the Dell M109S is because they require less power to run. Chances are, if you are using a handheld projector, you are using it wirelessly and therefore are powered by Duracell or Energizer. Two AA batteries do not provide much time, and your time could be significantly reduced if your lamp is sucking the power.

The question comes down to whether you would prefer portability to brightness of image. With portability, you are able to present your case in a coffee shop or subway station if necessary, but for most professionals the locale is almost as important as the presentation.

And then come the cost of this technological marvel, or shall we say Richard Branson novelty toy. The retail price for the new Dell M109S is $499 USD, which is a little less than your traditional portable projector, but doesn’t nearly have the options and truly lacks professionalism.

I cannot really recommend this projector for any use other than rich man’s novelty toy, so unless you have a lot of time and money on your hands, there really is no use.