Optoma PK320 WVGA 100 Lumen DLP LED Pico Pocket Projector (Discontinued by Manufacturer)

I had pretty low expectations - there are a lot of pico projectors these days that are junk - but have been pleasantly surprised. The picture is actually quite good even if you project it to 6-8 feet diagonal, and the projector is so tiny that it's really convenient to pack it along.To be clear, this is a pico projector, so you'll never have the quality or brightness of a good, full-sized projector, but if you are familiar with the limitations of this type of projector, you'll find that this is one of the best in its class. You do need the room to be fairly dark, for example (though less than I expected), and if there are more than a couple of people sitting around it, plan on using external speakers.

Purchased this projector for an upcoming sales road trip. This is the perfect size projector for carry on as it slipped into one of the slot pockets inside my briefcase and only added about a pound with power supply and cables. I didn't carry the battery pack as I wasn't going anywhere without power and wanted to keep the weight down due to carry on restrictions.The project works well with my MacBook Air, but the room had to be very dark. Also due to the light weight, the project is easily shifted sometimes just by the weight of the power supply wire. There is a tripod mount point and a mini tripod would be great as there is no height/angle adjustments on the project. There are just some things you have to forgo when shaving ounces off the weight.I ended up returning the unit as I was not satisfied with the brightness, but will look for the next generation to improve this.Great projector for travel and dark meeting rooms.

It was brilliant while it worked. I bought this unit about a year ago for business presentation while on the road. I used it less than 10 hours in total. Last month I was about to give a presentation to a small group of people using this projector only to find out 100s or maybe 1000s of pixels were dead. It was so bad that I had to use my small laptop screen to continue the presentation. It was a great idea to pack many features and LED light sources in the small body but terrible quality although, I admit, it feels solid. I would not recommend this unit at all. If you can live with a projector that is a size of 13" laptop instead of pocket size one, I recommend  Casio XJ-A256 3000 Lumens WXGA DLP Projector with USB and Wireless Projector  or  Epson PowerLite 1776W Widescreen Business Projector (WXGA Resolution 1280x800) (V11H476020) . These are 'real' projectors, not compromising brightness or features at all. 3000 lumens is high for regular projectors - you can use it in lighted room no problem and they will probably last many years. If they are too big or too pricy for your need, I would suggest View Sonic series, such as  View Sonic PLED-W200 WXGA Front Projector, 300 Inches - Black  or  ViewSonic PLED-W500 80-Inch 720p Front Projector (Black) . View Sonic PLED-W200 WXGA is a direct competitor of Optoma PK320 Pico Pocket Projector, but it's much brighter and let's be honest, View Sonic is much more established (trustworthy) brand. Brand name really matters IMHO. I ended up buying a  Epson PowerLite 1776W Widescreen Business Projector (WXGA Resolution 1280x800) (V11H476020) . Ass-kicking performance! No comparison!

Having never owned a pico projector before, I was intrigued by the idea of them. My old projector has a blown bulb, and instead of spending another $300 for a new bulb I decided I would give this a whirl. I spend a lot of time at work or traveling, so I wanted something to have handy if I ever wanted to play a game or watch a video on the go. I just received my pk320 today and here are my initial impressions:Pros1) Very small2) Lightweight3) Still feels durable despite 1 and 24) Bright picture....this one shocked me. In my living room with the lights on (granted this took place at night) I could clearly see the picture when projected onto a wall across the room. I imagine the result with my projector screen will be better.5) Built in card reader and decoder work well. I loaded some avi's onto a memory card to test out how this would work. Not only did it work quickly, it also was able to find the avi's I nested within a folder.6) Built in speaker works surprisingly well7) Seems like optoma listened to some of the feedback from earlier models and included a remote and some accessories with this model.8) Padded case seems niceCons1) There is no keystone adjustment feature. This is actually a large issue, in part because of the size of this unit. If you put this on a table/desk/furniture/etc... there's a high chance you will not be directly centered from where you are projecting the image. The tilt up/down/to the side causes very visible distortion in the image shape. It's still watchable, but this seems like a huge oversight for a projector that cost $400+2) Fan is loud when on "bright" mode (100 lumens). Fan noise is most definitely audible when the projector is running at 100 lumens. This isn't a deal breaker, and honestly it's not terribly loud.3) Even though the padded case seems nice, there is no spot to put your charger or any accessories.4) Unit heats up quickly. I haven't had it on for prolonged periods yet, so I'm not sure how this will effect the picture quality or processing. I can tell you that during my 10-15 minute trial runs today it became warm to the touch. These were all during 100 lumen "bright mode" tests, so perhaps the effect is not as great on the normal mode.5) Cords for accessories are short and move the projector if you are adjusting the input device position. To fix this (and help fix problem 4), I would recommend getting a good mini-tripod. I wouldn't skimp on something in the $1-2 range. I personally went with  Joby GP1-A1EN Gorillapod Flexible Tripod (Grey and Black) . It was still relatively cheap, and does an excellent job holding the projector firmly in position. I imagine that tripod will also come in handy when I want to bring the projector outdoors along with some external speakers to have a movie night with friends.6) No lens cap for the projector. The lens appears to be made of plastic and is recessed, but this still seems like an area for concern. A small modification to add a lens cap, which I can't imagine would cost much, could have corrected this issue.I'll try to do a more detailed review soon, and maybe a video review if I get enough time. Overall I am pleased with the projector, but I still have some other tests I want to do before rendering a final verdict. If you go into this purchase expecting to get high definition, movie theater quality images...you will be disappointed. If you go into this realizing you are trading off movie theater quality picture and a huge projector in exchange for ease of portability while still maintaining a good picture, you will likely be happy.Initially I'd give this a 4/5.*Update 3/10/2012*After having some time to play around with this, I have some additional comments:* The sound is not nearly as loud as I thought when you are in a large room. It is still better than nothing, but you will likely need an external speaker of some sort to fully enjoy this. Not a deal breaker though, this is a small projector so this shouldn't come as a shock.* The unit is not as bright when played for a long time. This was expected, as Optoma has admitted their projector dims itself slightly if it gets too hot. Mainly mentioning this so others are aware this is normal behavior.* I have had some severe problems when playing media directly off the projector (either via micro SD or internal memory). In a handful of cases, the audio is out of sync. In one case, the audio did not play at all. Other times when moving from one video file to another, the projector simply will not play the file. If I restart the projector, the file plays fine. These examples are all using files that meet the Optoma specifications for what the projector can play back. I thought that there may be a chance the firmware was outdated, but when I went to the Optoma site I couldn't even find firmware for this model. Seems to be a big oversight. I plan to call tech support tomorrow to find out what is going on.* I'm going to do further testing on this issue, but yesterday I started up my projector and after the "Optoma" logo, I got a blank white screen. It did not take me to the menu. This continued several times until I plugged the projector into the charger. I'm not sure if this is normal behavior for when the unit is low on battery, or if there is a bigger issue. This is another item I plan to address with tech support tomorrow.Overall I am still happy with this unit, but a lot will be riding on my interaction with Optoma tech support tomorrow. I'll keep this updated with the results. Also, I did get a chance to take some pictures in full fluorescent lighting as well as dim lighting. I'll post those in a future update.*Update 3-18-2012*I contacted Optoma tech support and they confirmed that my unit is faulty. They said it either has bad software, or a bad battery. Strangely, they advised me to return the unit to Amazon and have Amazon fulfill a new unit. Strange, specifically because the paper inside the box says "STOP! Call tech support and send your unit in for repair before returning it to your place of purchase".At any rate, I have my new unit now and I'll be testing it out during the week.

I gave this projector a 4 star rating only because it displays best in a darker room- not surprising considering the lumens. This projector appears to have a higher lumens number than many of these small projectors. In spite of this it works well and I find it very useful. I use it for small group presentations.I paired it with an appleTV so I can run a presentation easily from a computer or ios device over a wireless network. Because of its small size it is very portable- slips into my laptop bag together with the appleTV and a cheap wireless router that I carry just in case there is no wireless connection in the room.

not clear or bright when projected on to a white wall or screen, a bad buy?

Great for our needs. Not as good as our Epson, but super light and portable.

I ended up returning the idem as I could not get it to work. Two of us tried to get it working for a few hours with no success and much frustration. I finally decided to pack it up and sending it back. :(I was very pleased with how easy it was to return the item to Amazon.

It works very well. I use it in my classrooms or where necessary with a tablet. Don't forget to buy a mini-hdmi to hdmi cable to use it. So easy tu use and to configurate. It's not a big deal at 400$ but the quality/price ratio is acceptable.