3M MPro-120 review

The 3M Mpro-120 is 3M's second generation pico projector. The new MM200 projection engine is LCoS based, has 12 lumens, 640x480 resolution, and works for 20,000 hours. One of the major improvements is the battery life - 4 hours at low brightness, and 2 hours at max brightness. The MPro-120, which also includes stereo speakers costs 309$.

3M has kindly sent us one for review.

First impressions

One of the first things you notice about the MPro-120 is that it's a very high-quality product. It looks and feels great. Even the accessories are good - the charger has nice changeable plug connector (US, UK, Europe and NZ/AU plugs), for example, and the leather bag is a nice touch.

What you get in the box:

• The projector
• A nice leather bag
• A tripod
• A tiny manual
• A charger, with changeable plug connectors
• 2 Connectors - one for A/V component input, one with VGA and stereo-in
• 3 Female-to-male RCA converters

There isn't a lot to say about the projector itself. On the front you got the lens and the focus wheel. In the back you have the VGA or A/V connector, and the DC-In. On the top you have 4 buttons: volume +/-, brightness and battery status, and also the main power switch. You have a small LED which shows the battery status (full, empty, charging).

Finally, on the bottom you have the tripod connector, and also a small 'flip down' stand..

The projector itself is a bit larger than a mobile phone. Here it is side by side with my Nokia N73:

Image quality

I have tested the projector in several scenarios:

• Connected to a DVD player
• Connected to a laptop
• Connected to a digital camera (Nikon D90)

The quality of the image is rather good - the colors are nice. The main problem, as with all pico projectors, is that the image brightness is very low. If you want to display a large image, you have to have a very dark room. Obviously the larger the image, the less bright it is. I could view a comfortable 32" in a room that is very dimly lit.

Watching movies on the MPro-120 is nice. But don't expect this to replace your normal TV. The major problem with Pico-Projectors is where to place the projector. It's tiny (and so falls easily), and it needs cables, so it's just not useful in a normal living room. One of the problems is that if you project at an angle (i.e. the projector is not perpendicular to the projected surface) than the image dimensions are distorted - and instead of a rectangle image you get a trapezoid. But if you want a large image, it's hard to place the projector in the right place without a 'stand' of some sort.

Projecting from a laptop was a nice surprise. Even though the resolution is only 640x480, I could still read the lines (even rather small ones) quite easily, and the colors were great. Some of the lines did get 'smeared' a little bit sometimes (you can see that in the photos below). 

I'll definitely take the projector on my next trip, and use it to show photos (especially in order to choose which ones to delete at the end of the day...).

One of the annoying bits about the MPro-120 is that it's a bit noisy. After a few minutes of operation the fans starts to work, and you can hear a small wheezing sound. I'm quite sensitive to noise, though.

Here's a comparison between the laptop (which is not set to full brightness) and the projected image. You can see how much brighter the laptop is:

Conclusion

The MPro-120 is cool, because:

• It is very a very high build-quality product, a joy to hold and use
• The image quality is good (considering that it is a pico-projector, of course) - viewing a 32" or so size display is great in an "almost" dark room
• The battery life is good
• It easily connects to an A/V source or computer

The things I do not like about it:

• No on-board memory or card slot (it's not a PMP). It is difficult to 'show-off' with it, because you always need to carry another device to feed the video from
• It can get a bit noisy

Altogether, it's still a product that is not for everyone. A pico projector is small and portable, but not very bright, and difficult to use comfortably. But if you decide you need a pico projector, the MPro-120 is a great choice (if a bit expensive).

You can buy the MPro-120 costs 327$, over at Amazon.com.