And it's more expensive than we hoped it would be

Nov 5, 2008 20:21 GMT  ·  By

Over the past couple of weeks, we've been able to see quite a few ultra-small, "pico" projectors being announced, just in time for the Christmas shopping period. However, up until now, there was no official word about a particular product of this type, namely Optoma's Pico projector, which was rumored to be in production for quite some time now (since June, to be more precise).

It seems that Optoma is finally ready to shed some light on its upcoming product, since it has just updated the dedicated webpage of the Pico with several very interesting pieces of information, which will surely help you get an idea of what this product can really do (should you decide to go ahead and purchase it).

First of all, it's important to mention that the device from Optoma truly is one "petite" projector, measuring just around 50 x 15 x 103 mm and weighing around 114 grams, battery included. The ultra-portable device uses DLP projection technology and a LED light for a light source, its estimated functioning life being of around 20,000 hours.

The optics-related specs are really noteworthy (especially given the very small size of this projector), as the Pico provides a 1000:1 contrast ratio, a 1.9:1 throw ratio and a maximum projection distance of 2.6 meters. The size of the images generated by the Pico varies between 0.15 and 1.5 meters (6 to 60 inches), but there's no info regarding the resolution (although the fact that it supports 576i\480 video should give us a pretty good hint regarding the output as well).

The device is battery operated, and one charge of the built-in battery will last for around 1.5 hours of non-stop functioning. Moreover, the Pico also delivers extensive multimedia capabilities, since it's also been equipped with one 0.5-watt speaker. Unfortunately, the Optoma Pico is the most expensive model of the whole bunch of similar products to be available on the market. And that's because it will sell for an estimate 430 US dollars, around $130 more than some of its closest competitors out there.

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The Optoma Pico projector
Pico in action
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