Customer Reviews

Optoma PK301 Pico Pocket DLP Projector

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I was initially very pleased with this little projector. However it has since proved to be both unreliable and erratic in functioning. (Runs hot with a loud fan). The supplied battery does not charge well and is always on red when you come to use it. With occasional usage over a 10 month period the screen projector has now failed and when you turn it on all you get is a grainy image. Overall quality is a bit suspect and the unit is manufactured in China. I will have to contact the UK Optoma Customer Service. I would not buy another one.

This is my third and definitely brightest pico projector. It also marks a return for me to the Optoma brand. I have to admit, Optoma invented this category of projectors and the PK301 takes this category of Pico projectors to a new height. Really bright projector. First Pico projector you could view in a lit room. Excellent for business presentations. Highly recommended.

I've been using the PK301 in my bedroom for about a month now. Overall I'm happy with it but I do sometimes wonder if I'd have been better off just getting a "regular" projector for a tiny bit more and using that instead.

I have a regular lamp projector which I use for my "home theatre" and the brightness and sharpness just doesn't compare.

The PK301 certainly isn't going to be much good as your main home theatre projector. It's simply not bright enough and you can never really get things perfectly focussed.

I've connected it to my macbook (mini-HDMI to HDMI>apple adapter) and can browse Youtube and such like without any problems. Even at 80+ inches the text is readable - but it's not perfect, it's a tiny bit blurred.

I use the PK301 in my bedroom, mainly for watching cartoons (futurama, simpsons, family guy, etc.). For cartoons with bright colours it is fantastic, but I find it a bit too dark for most movies (even with a pitch black room).

It does get hot but so far I haven't had any issues with it. The longest I've ran it at a time is probably 4 hours in a room which has a temp of ~30 degrees celcius.

I'd never use this projector running only on the battery. The video comes out pink and very dim!

Definately the brighest Pico I have had so far, also the most attractive.

Picture quality is better than expected for a 50 lumens pico and it works well in a dim light room.

The image is displayed best at about 100'' and the apple accessory kit is also a must as you can easily play videos via the mini usb to apple connector. This is an addiotional item to purchase and well worth the money.

It can be powered just by the battery so an added benefit there and the battery life is better than i thought it would be, approx 1 hour from the film I played.

This tiny projector has replaced my need for a larger projector. I use it for watching movies at home, at parties, and for business presentations. This projector is a significant leap forward in technology, easily projecting a 5ft image onto the dimly-lit wall, as opposed to others I've seen that max out at 21 inches. You can get even brigher/clearer picture by connecting the projector to a mains (power), but I've found the battery powered "max" to be plenty bright.

I bought this without realizing it had extra features! These aren't just little extras either. The key to the extras is an integrated micro-SD card slot on the side. The projector menu lets you browse a card you insert, and projects a slide-show using the image folder you select. You can control the playback, or manually switch pictures with the remote the projector comes with.

I tested this with the micro-SD card from my Android phone (HTC Hero), which has a bunch of pictures and all my music on it. The projector automatically picked up the fact that I had mp3s on the card and began playing them in conjunction with the slideshow! Ha! Absolute genius! This is going to make for real tear-jerkers whilst sharing pictures at family reunions! All that is without a laptop! That's right! If your laptop up and dies, or runs out of batteries for your presentation, you can still make your presentation off a microSD card. No cables, no compatibility issues, no 10-15 minutes of trying to find an outlet close enough for your laptop just a tiny pocket-sized projector. Unreal.

I've used it at parties to project video games onto the wall, and in the bathroom to turn the shower wall into a 5 foot screen to watch South Park from across the room while soaking in the tub.

The only problem I've had with it so far is that I can not get videos to play directly from the card. There is mention of software to convert the files, and even a licence key, but I've found nothing in the package that has software on it. I'll keep looking and post here if I can find it, or a link to it. The Optoma website was less than helpfull, offering manuals, specs, etc, but alas no conversion software for download. Since this is an extra feature, I've decided to give this projector a 5-star rating anyway, because this is THE pocket projector I've been waiting for, even without all the extras.

I've gotten satisfying results projecting up to 1280x800, which is the native resolution of my laptop (Dell XPS M1330), over the HDMI port. I've also been able to achieve this resolution with the included VGA cable attachment, and automatically got sound from the projector through the HDMI cable as well. The display is interlaced, which may offend some people, but it's only apparent if you've got your face less than a foot from the projection surface. At that distance, you're missing the show, anyway!

Worth every cent!

Update: 18/12/2010 -
This projector continues to be magical and saved my rear end at a convention recently. I was supposed to help a friend give a demonstration class on figure drawing to about 20 people. The hotel said they had a projector, but when we showed up, all they had was a 30inch flatscreen TV! :P

That wasn't the worst of it, though! In my haste to pack everything, I'd forgotten my laptop power supply, and had already spent most of the battery juice playing movies over the pocket projector in our hotel room on the wall. :P

There were two extremely lucky things that saved our presentation:
1. The white table cloths on the conference tables
2. this *awesome* Optoma Pico Projector.

We were able to get some masking tape from the hotel staff and made an 8ft high screen on the wall with the table cloth. We then plugged the projector into a wall socket on the other side of the room. With the remaining battery power on my laptop we copied the pics off my friend's USB flash drive onto the card, and loaded it into the projector, using the remote to switch images.
The projector was a bit light, and was hard to aim properly with the cord dangling off the back of the chair, so I got out my gorilla pod (also a great buy for this projector!), and affixed it to the top of the chair instead. We were able to larger than life-sized nude models for the group to draw. Despite our many screwups on the occasion, we came off looking like professionals. Needless to say, I'm still very satisfied with the projector, and it is still my main means of viewing movies at home as well. I plug it into a laptop for videos, and into a Bose portable speaker system for sound. Already paid for its self several times over in convenience. This projector is the Swiss-army-knife of presentation tools!

Bought one of these in Feb 2010 for presentations. Easy to set up and image very good from a MacBook Pro. The tripod is a joke though, you need a proper camera tripod and an extension lead to make any real use of this item.
The reason for only 2 stars is that after keeping the item in its pouch throughout its life and only using it for half a dozen presentations in the past 2 1/2 years, it's now developed a fault which results in any image looking as if it's behind a blizzard. Optoma support advise its probably a 'faulty DMD chip', whatever that might be, and likely to cost over £200 to fix. This for a unit that's hardly been used and only cost £300 new.
Buyers beware!

Wasn't sure what to expect from such a small projector, but this one does a fine job.

I use it for tv, movies and games for both home and at work. I'm a support worker and find it great for entertaining the guys, at home I have found it a very enjoyable way to catch up on the weeks tv and so forth.

Before I purchased I knew it didn't work well in daylight, bright rooms. This was a given and is really not an issue tbh. Currently projecting onto walls as I don't have a screen and it works fine. The picture can be trickty to get crystal clear, but I'm putting that down to the surface I'm projecting onto, size of the image etc. I'm not a projector buff, hence buying a small hd projector that would do the job.

Playing skyrim on the projector was rather fantastic, really immerses you in the world. One of the guys I work with loves playing driving games and loves having a giant screen.
My wife also enyoys watching tv and film on it, so it's an all round winner on the entertainment front.

As previously stated, it runs hot, makes a bit of a whine when on full power, the inbuilt speaker are pityful but these have not really been that much of a big deal. Granted it gets hot, but your hardly going to move it around when it's on. The whine is easily filtered out when external speakers are used and solve the problem of the very tinny speaker...I didn't really expect much from the sound anyhoos.

Deffinately happy with it despite it short falls, £240 well spent and could be my best gadget of the year

I spent a lot of time over a couple months checking every available projectors around this price and specifications and finally opted for this Optoma PK301. It's been a month now and I am very happy with it. I use it with my PS3 for gaming, and with my laptop through the HDMI port, for movies.
First of all, it is TINY! it will definitely fit in your pocket or a handbag if you carry the adapter/charger along, and very light as well, which can sometimes be a problem with stability, and you might find yourself repositionning the projector a bit if you move it whilst connecting/disconnecting devices or using its buttons located on top, although that could be solved by using a tripod. I really appreciate its connectivity, although I mostly use the mini HDMI port, and audio out to a sound system. There is no HDMI cable though, so you will need to buy one, which I got for a few quids on Amazon.
It is very user-friendly although the manual is completely useless (you can download info on their website as well).
There is a small remote with it, wich can prove useful if you want to avoid touching it after you set it up.
As far as quality is concerned, I am no specialist of course but I would say that it seems good, especially considering its size. I project onto a white painted wall, from a distance of approximately 3 meters, and get a big picture, approximately 2 meters diagonally. I have also tried shorter distances/smaller pictures and obviously it is best at around 2 meters distance, and you still get a fairly big screen. Colours are vivid enough, although on the warmer side, darks/blacks are fine; I will however definitely point out the need for a darkened room whilst projecting, obviously depending on your source material.
Finally the battery powered function can prove useful, but don't count on it to go through a feature-length movie. Whilst powered from the battery, it is very silent, more than when plugged into a socket, when the fan noise is audible but not especially obtrusive.
Overall very satisfactory, well packaged by Amazon and delivered earlier than expected. Would recommend for casual users on a budget.

I bought this wonderful projector for my father's birthday and he is really happy, this is the perfect solution it is very small so it fits in your pocket or in your suitcase, it has battery so you don't need to plug it in and it really works very good, although you need to be in a dark room, not completely dark but not really clear.

i agree with some of the previous reviews. the projector runs hot, the image is often 'out of focus' or very grainy. the battery is perpetually out of charge. it cannot be charged via USB as well. overall, i would not get this projector.