Acer K11 DLP Projector (LED Illumination, 2000:1, 200 ANSI Lumens, 800x600 SVGA)

I've had this a day now. Good buy.
It's tiny - about the same size as the body of my Canon ES20 digital SLR camera body and much much lighter - probably just a bit more than a plastic half litre bottle of water.
It works - so far I've connected it to a laptop (leads provided), my slingbox output (leads provided), my freesat box, SKY box, and my Archos TV (via HDMI lead - not provided but I have several of these) - aso USB stick and SD card.
Verdict:
(1) It's far brighter than I feared it would be. At only 200 ANSI lumens I thought it was a punt but it's watchable indoors with lights dimmed or off even in daylight.
(2) I projected against light blue wall in the bedroom to watch George of the Jungle. You can tell it what the wall colour is and it adjusts - well clever. The picture size was 80 inches diagonal and very watchable. The signal was via composite leads provided from the output of my slingbox which tool it's input from a SKY box. The sound is quiet at best - watching alone is OK but if anyone is eating popcorn or breathing, you need speakers connected to your movie source.
(3) I projected against a white wall in the kitchen from a laptop getting it's input wirelessly from the slingbox - wathcing Top of the Pops 2 Christmas special. The size was about 40 inches diagonal. Very good to watch. I projected from an angle and the correcting the angles feature worked well from the menu. The auto feature wasn't qwuite good enough but manual was. Focussing is done manually and is easy.
(4) The leads that come with it are OK but the laptop VGA lead is too short. Not a problem for me as I bought a long lead from Amaxon a year ago which wors well with no signal loss.
(5) The sound from the fan is negligable if you've connected an external speaker. I didn't see a headphones out hole anywhere which I think is my only complaint so far.
(6) I tried watching a version of my Madagascar DVD converted to avi on a USB stick then an SD card - worked fine. The only grip is low volume sound and no way to amplify. This is actually not so bad if my son is watching movies as not so loud.
(7) I tried watching photos from USB and SD card. It's really good. The slide show worked well and I've still not read the manual (not provided in book form but on a DVD and you can download from t'interweb).
(8) One reason I bought this model was you can attach to a tripod. I have a small desktop one for my camera which worked fine.
(9) What will I use it for:
(i) For work when travelling to use to share my laptop screen with colleagues/clients - our owrk ones are large/heavy and not always available. This one seems to say it has a lifetime bulb with LED and it does cool quickly. I can then watch TV in my hotel room from the laptop (using wifi and slingbox connection to my SKY box at home - so I can record on that and watch recorded programmes easily when abroad)
(ii) For my son watching movies - especially if we're travelling - with the Archos TV direct connection via HDMI it's so easy to set up and takes up so little room then you have the big screen too.
(iii) For me to use when I work at home on the laptop. The picture is great quality via VGA lead for working with a 20 to 30 inch screen. I've made a ceiling bracket ready for it - the projector has a mode where you can tell it it's upside down and it will flip over for you.
(iv) Home movies - but need an external sound source. It's fine up to 80 inches diagonal in a large room if dark for movies. It is native 4:3 but has a full picture and 16:9 mode.
(10) Overall verdict - just what I ordered but brighter and quiter (both fan and sound output) than I expected. For me I've always resisted pico projectors as too weak and feeble to be useable and I don't want one with an expensive/breakable bulb or noisy fan as too bulky/fragile for travel and too noisy with the fan. It loses one star as no headphone output and speakers are too quiet unless it's just one person watching with good hearing.

It shipped from Germany during the period when UK airports were shut for snow. No delays at all - I could track progress from Amazon.co.uk with UPS so knew almost to the hour when it would arrive.

Well never really thought about getting a projector before because of the ones I generally see at company meeting.
Large with expensive replacement bulbs seem to be the order of the day.
It was a friend who first mentioned the Acer K11 and it's LED lighting over the more traditional methods.

After checking out a number of Utube videos I decided to give it a whirl and jump in a buy one.
The first thing is , boy it's small i mean it's really small and neat.
Infact if you are familiar with the WD media player then it's really not much bigger than that.

Firstly I plugged in the sky HD box and fired it up.
Although the K11 is not HD the picture quality is excellent and much better than I imagined.
I placed the image on a 84" screen and I couldn't help but smile.
For anyone who is interested I first placed the image on the magnolia wall and it still looked very impressive only really showing a more reddy look to picture, however without having the white screen to compare I may never have noticed.
Sound wise you gotta forget about the speaker installed it just not really any good for films or gaming but if you were showing a PowerPoint for instance it would be a reall bonus and do the job.
Myself I had the sound coming from the sky box to my soundbar via optical cable.
Next I connected the western digital media player to play some HD MKV files off my hardrive.
After some messing around plugging and unplugging I got it working
The Acer searches for anything connected like HDMI , USB ,VGA but for some reason doesn't seem to find the WD every time via HDMI which can be a little annoying but once found can be forgiven due to that picture quality again.
Finnally I connected the XBox 360 and popped in gears of war,oh my god I just couldn't get over the size of Marcus Felix.
Infact I just stared at the screen for about 5 minutes it looked superb even though I knew it wasn't HD projector.
Haven't worked out the sound from the XBox yet because I have a elite and when connecting the HDMI to the K11 it only leaves that poor speaker again.
I decided to buy a 360 VGA cable connected it to the ACER and plugged in the optical from the cable to the soundbar but for some reason didn't get any sound , strange that one !!!
Overall the ACER K11 has been a brilliant little gadget and one I am so glad I took the plunge on , I mean how on earth could you get a picture that big at the price.
If you haven't watched a film in your front room at over 80" you really are missing out honestly it brill.
Warning though , be prepared, you can only really enjoy in a dark room or at night, during the day forget it everything looks completely washed out but at night ooh lar !!!
Although this is my first projector and I am unable to compare against any previous models this has been a real eye opener to me in regards to how good these things are these days and because of this when ACER finally introduces a true HD 1080p model I will have credit card in hand , can't wait , till then I'll continue to enjoy this little beauty.

I'm really happy with this projector, which I've had for a bit over a month now. I wanted something portable, but bright enough to use when providing training to small groups of people. I often use it at night, but without wanting to create a dark room by turning the lights out. It manages this perfectly well, in fact brighter than an ancient non-DLP projector that I've previously been using at one venue. Auto-keystone is useful too. It comes with a nice padded case, though sadly the PSU doesn't fit inside the case. The whole thing is sufficiently small that on one evening I cycled 25+ miles with both it and my laptop without problems. I'm not aware of too many other projectors I'd have wanted to do that with!

Why not 5 stars?
The fan is a little loud. Not really a problem, but definitely audible.
Adjusting the projected image size is only possibly by moving the projector closer or further from the screen.