Hands-On With the Microvision Pico P Projector

October 22nd, 2008 by Jeffrey L. Wilson  

It seems like it was just yesterday that the LAPTOP crew glimpsed a very early build of Microvision’s pico projector (“The Show”) at CES 2008. The prototype was raw, but held promise, and we were eager to see how the product would turn out once it was closer to completion. Today, we had a chance to follow up, and we’re happy to report that Microvision’s product (now known as “Pico P”) is coming along quite nicely. Unlike “pocket projectors,” the Pico P is a truly mobile video device that slides easily into a pocket. We had time to play with a prototype (in the video below) and it was incredibly light in  hand; it weighed about as much as a cell phone. In fact, the final production model is going to match the iPhone’s dimensions almost dead-on. Video quality was quite good even in the prototype stage, and as it’s powered by lasers it always remains in focus; no adjustments are required. It looks to be a great accessory for notebooks, cell phones, and other mobile devices that contain content that you’d like to project onto a wall, floor, ceiling, or the back of an airplane seat (you can expect approximately 2 hours of battery life). Microvision has partnered with Motorola, so hopefully we’ll see the Pico P engine integrated into phones (no ETA was given).  Check the video below for availability, pricing, and hands-on sweetness.




Comments (7 Responses) 

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7 Responses to “Hands-On With the Microvision Pico P Projector”

  1. bob Says:
    October 22nd, 2008 at 8:16 pm

    $400 is way to much. I’d consider it if it was $150

  2. JonGl Says:
    October 23rd, 2008 at 2:27 am

    Are you kidding? I pay almost a thousand for a huge thing that must be carried in a huge case, set up, adjusted, etc. If this would work with my Macs, it would be wonderful! An $400 for no focusing, no worries about lamps buring out (any word on that, BTW?), and so much more. If I could use it in a medium-sized church auditorium for about 200 people, I would be ecstatic to pay that kind of money!

    Plus, we can probably guess that the price will come down with time. :-)

    -Jon

  3. Kola Says:
    October 23rd, 2008 at 10:49 am

    Awesome thing! Its interesting what is working time resources. I think these stuff has great potential – big screen in pocket.

  4. Drifter Says:
    October 23rd, 2008 at 2:03 pm

    $400.00 per won’t make even a small blip on a corporation’s radar screen. As a business productivity tool, this unit can make or break sales & Misc. business presentations — especially if you could load-up your presentation into internal memory (or memory stick), and play without a mother unit attached.

    Another thought: There are wealther people with wealthy kids all over the country. $400.00 comes easy for a lot of people for a lasting entertainment device. (Some folks spend 10′s of thousands on their kid’s Sweet 16 birthday parties. So $400.00 is nothing. I will pay $400.00 just to be the first on my block to have one and so will thousands of other people.

  5. Bandit Says:
    October 31st, 2008 at 5:59 pm

    Why this short movie about the pico p. I like too see it with a film like you did with the 3M and Dell.

    The colors look very good on this one. Looks nice and small as well. Looks good.

    (it’s a shame that the filmmaker itself having problems with the camera which is not in focus)

  6. Pat Says:
    November 12th, 2008 at 1:36 pm

    Is the horizontal bar going across the screen visible to the naked eye or is that just due to the camera’s frame rate?

  7. WIDTAP Says:
    December 3rd, 2008 at 6:42 pm

    Microvision is OEM the core components to others, such a Motorola.

    Some smart cookie is going to put these things into the high end phones (Windows Mobile PDAs, Blackberries, iPhones) and Drifter is going to be able to make his/her business presentations or watch those big screen movies from your phone, with the presentation or movie loaded on the microSD card in the phone.

    Shoot, this means all of my BlueRays are obsolete, doesn’t it? :-)

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