Optoma Pico PK320 Pocket Projector

The Optoma Pico PK320 Pocket Projector ($450 street) is the brightest pico projector we?ve tested, with a good range of connections including HDMI. It stacks up well against other pico projectors in connectivity, and has decent image quality but for one notable issue we encountered in testing. It?s worth a good look if you?re looking for a powerful pocket projector.

The PK320 is rated at 100 lumens, and has a native WVGA (854 by 480 pixel) widescreen resolution. The projector is quite compact, measuring 1.2 by 4.7 by 2.7 inches. Using our postage scale, I weighted the projector at 0.5 pounds, while adding the power adapter brought the total weight up to just under a pound. The projector also can run off an included, removable lithium-ion cell that can last 90+ minutes in eco mode and 50+ minutes in standard mode, according to Optoma. It can fit in my pants pocket easily enough, though it takes up much of the room.

This copper-brown projector has the look of a larger projector, with the lens near the edge of one of the long sides, as opposed to the ?light saber? appearance of many picos in which the beam emerges from the middle of the narrow end. The focus wheel is in front of the lens, and is tricky to use, even if you can avoid putting a finger into the light path. On one side is the tiny power button; in back are the ports, a good selection for a pico projector: a proprietary port to fit a VGA cable; mini-HDMI; micro-USB for file transfer; AV-in, which fits an included cable with 3 RCA plugs for composite video, and an audio-out jack for headphones.

On top of the projector is a 7-button control panel, backlit with blue LEDs (though you have to quickly make a selection as the buttons soon go dark). The projector includes a tiny remote the same 7 buttons, plus buttons for Off, Bright, and for accessing VGA, HGMI, and Video sources. Working the menus can be awkward, especially at first. The controls (both on the remote and on the projector itself) make use of the arrow keys, but more often as symbol keys to access specific functions than to navigate menus. For instance, the Home screen shows six choices, each identified by a symbol: the right arrow denotes Setup, the up arrow, Music, etc.?they?re useless as arrow keys here in that you can?t scroll anywhere, but they do take you to the functions they symbolize. This takes some getting used to.

You can run presentations computer free from the projector?s 2GB of internal memory, or off of a microSD card. In addition to showing video, you can play music, show photos, or display business documents (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or PDF) from internal memory, memory card, or thumb drive.

I tested the PK320 from about 8 feet away from our test screen, where it threw a test image about 48 inches diagonally. Image quality suffered in modest ambient light, so it?s best used in a relatively small, dark room.

Image Quality

In testing using the DisplayMate ?suite, I found the PK320?s data image quality suitable for internal presentations, say to a small workgroup?provided that the room is dark and relatively small. You could use it for presenting to potential clients in a pinch, though you might not want to use it in presentations where sharp text or exacting color is paramount. The good news is that (with the exception of an issue that I?ll soon discuss) colors were bright and reasonably true, especially yellows, which often look dull or mustardy with DLP projectors. The projector also showed less of a rainbow effect? distracting red-green-blue rainbow glints, particularly in bright areas against a dark background?than most DLP projectors.

In our text testing, images showed some blur at the two smallest sizes in both black-on-white and white-on-black text, a bit more fuzzy than is typical of a data projector. The other notable issue involved tinting in images with white or gray backgrounds.

When I set up our test unit and turned it on, I immediately noticed a pink tint in the (rather busy) image?s upper left corner. It persisted even after I?d given the projector enough time to fully warm up. In DisplayMate testing, when viewing an image that should have been uniformly white, the tinting revealed itself more fully as pinkish on the image?s left side, and greenish towards the bottom center.

The issue was notable enough that I requested a second test unit from our Optoma rep. I noticed the same issue in the second projector, though it wasn?t as severe: Only a trace of the pink showed up (in the same location), but the green was still apparent, at nearly the same intensity as with the original test unit. It showed up against white to medium gray backgrounds in data images, and with Word and Excel documents. It?s hard to say how pervasive or severe the problem is among PK320s in general based on two test units, but it?s definitely an issue worth looking out for. Optoma says that it is looking into the issue, with an eye towards correcting any irregularities they encounter.

Video Quality

I tested video quality using multiple video sources over several connections, primarily HDMI. The Optoma ML300 is okay for short clips, provided that color fidelity isn?t critical. For the most part, colors were bright and well saturated, but some tinting was apparent at times. Flesh tones tended to look reddish, and some bright areas took on a greenish tinge. Also, there was some loss of detail in bright areas. One plus is that, as was the case in data images, rainbow artifacts were nearly nonexistent and shouldn?t be an issue except maybe for people particularly sensitive to the effect.

Other Issues

The audio from the PK320?s built-in 2-watt speaker is of modest volume, not bad for a pico projector but you?ll want to be close to the projector whether you?re watching a movie or playing music. Fortunately the unit has an audio-out jack for headphones or powered external speakers.

The LED light source will last an estimated 20,000 hours, so you should never have to replace bulbs. The projector is backed by a 1-year limited warranty.

The market for micro-projectors has changed in the past year, with the influx of small LED-based projectors, palmtop sized or a little larger, in the 200 to 500 lumen range. Though there were always a few palmtop projectors, there?s now more of a continuum in side and brightness between pico projectors and ultra-portable business projectors.

The PK320 is among the largest and most powerful pico projectors, and its price is just slightly lower than the new micro-projectors (which cluster in the $500 to $600 range). The PK320 is smaller and lighter than these models, which weigh between 2 and 3 pounds. One drawback, though, is that it has an external AC adapter?which, unlike the projector, isn?t pocketable?while the LED micro-projectors have internal power supplies. The micro-projectors offer higher resolution, generally WXGA (1,280 by 800), and they?re considerably brighter than picos? though we haven?t been impressed with TI?s latest generation of DLP chips that many of them use, as they tend to introduce apparent scaling artifacts in data images that may result in softer focus.

If you?re considering the Optoma Pico PK320, you may want to look at some of these slightly larger and brighter micro-projectors such as the Optoma ML500 ?($650 street, 3.5 stars), Acer K330 ($600 street, 3.5 stars), and the more entertainment-oriented BenQ Joybee GP2 ($599 direct, 4 stars) as well. As for picos, the Editors? Choice Optoma Pico PK301 offers much of what the PK320 brings to the table at a lower price, though it lacks an HDMI connection and is only rated at 50 lumens. The Favi B1-LED-Pico ($280 street, 3.5 stars) is also a respectable choice, though it lacks a battery and so must remain yoked to a wall wart.

The Optoma Pico PK320 Pocket Projector is a powerhouse as a pico projector, bright and with a wealth of connectivity choices. However, it?s less impressive for its price now that bright micro-projectors are available for a little more money, and it still has a few image quality kinks to work out.

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