A few weeks ago Syndiant announced 3 new pico projector modules. One of them is the SYL2041 that supports both SVGA (800x600) and WVGA (854x480) resolutions. Here's a photo of a 120" projected image from that module (from Syndiant's CTO blog):

SYL2041 demo, photograph by Syndiant

As you can see, the Arial 8 point font is clearly readable.

The demo projector is about 14mm thick - about the same size of an iPhone. It has 17 lumens of light output. Syndiant say that there are over a dozen companies with plans for products based on this new module. Most of them are expected to include media players, have 20 to 50 (or more!) lumens output, and be smaller than the demo projector they show here. Some of these will be shown at CES (January 2010), with production in 2010. They hope that a few will be announced in 2009.

Syndiant has two basic microdisplay families: one is of the larger type for media players (or stand-alone projectors), and smaller modules for embedded products (projector phones and cameras).

The smaller size microdisplays are:

• The SYL2010 is available today, and has 800x600 resolution, and is 7mm tall. The first projector based on this is the laser-driven Laseno SMP-101.
• The SYL2030 is smaller (6mm tall), and will be used in embedded product (projector phones or cameras). It has 854x480 pixel resolution.

The larger microdisplays:

• The SYL2041 (used in the photo above) has 800x600 and 854x480 resolution. It has a bigger active display, and thus can be used with a brighter light source. It is only 9mm tall.
• The SYL2061 has a 1024x600 resolution and is also 9mm tall.

In the future Syndiant wants to have a 1080p large microdisplay, and to increase the smaller-displays to 720p resolution and beyond. When lasers become more cost effective, it'll be possible to get high-brightness with the smaller microdisplays.