Conclusion:

The Geeks.com mini USB 2.0 LED projector with tripod is a cool little gadget. It doesn't work well enough to get extremely excited about it, but for the price it could be a practical solution for business or for pleasure.

The LCoS panel was able to project an image of decent quality up to - and beyond - the specified 50 inches maximum, and all that had to be done was to connect it to a PC via USB. Still images looked very good, and I was pleasantly surprised to see it keep pace with video at 30 frames per second.



My main complaint is with the whine of the cooling fan. While in some settings it may get drowned out, if you want silence, the fan will most definitely interfere with that. Otherwise, my only complaint would be with the somewhat touchy controls on the manual focus found on the lens.

The main thing I would like to see as an improvement on a device like this would be a higher resolution. 640x480 may be fine for some images and videos, but high definition is ruled out, and you can't do much in terms of desktop applications with such a low resolution. The contrast and brightness worked just fine for a completely darkened room, but improving those features would also make the device more appealing. I tested at night in a basement room with no lights on to get a pitch black environment where it worked well. During the day, even in a room with the lights out and blinds closed, enough light crept in through the cracks to sufficient wash out the image to the point where you really couldn't see it.

When in stock, Geeks.com carries the mini USB 2.0 LED projector for $159.99, which may not sound cheap, but for a projector with features like this it actually is rather inexpensive.

The Geeks.com mini USB 2.0 LED projector with tripod could use some refinements to make it an extremely desirable gadget, but as is it is pretty cool. That said, it earns the Bigbruin.com "Great Idea" award.



Pros:

» Extremely compact - easily fits in a laptop bag or even your pocket
» Able to project still images and videos with decent detail
» Was able to go beyond the specified 50 inch screen size maximum and still have acceptable quality
» All you need is a USB 2.0 port

Cons:

» Cooling fan is whiny and annoying
» Manual focus is touchy and can be tricky to dial in
» Relatively low light output means that it has to be used in extremely dark environments
» 640x480 resolution rules out things like gaming, real high definition, or desktop applications

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