Optoma Portable LED Projector | 1000 lumens with Auto Focus | ML1050ST+

The Optoma ML750 700 lumen 3D portable LED projector is an amazing piece of technology. The first impression out of the box is how small it is and how light it is. The projector comes with a very nice travel zip-up bag with the Optoma logo on it, a small power supply that comes apart at the power box so it is a total of 2 cords. A universal in to VGA out with an audio in. Even if you don’t use this to connect to a computer you can plug in universal and bring audio in. The last thing is a very nice controller which has all the functions that you can use on the machine. I also bought a Sunpak SPK620786 5-Inch Flex Leg Mini-Spider Tripod which fits it perfect and works very well to hold it up and change angles.I connected via Macbook Pro retina through the HDMI port on the back. I changed input to HDMI and it matched my screen within 5 seconds. I first used it in my office which is very bright and I projected from about 10 ft back and I had an amazing, bright beautiful picture of my computer screen which is a stock Apple image with vibrant colors. I was amazed at how bright it is and how good the picture is. I then played a video from netflix to test the sound and the speakers are ok for a small group of people but not good enough for a good action movie in your house. I would just use the audio from your input device or from the universal cord with audio in. The keystone correction works very well but usually you don’t need it, keystone is always a salesman pitch but when its on your wall you don’t really care that it is a little bigger on the top than the bottom, trust me.I looked for about 2 weeks for which projector I wanted. I am using this for office presentations in a large well lit conference room, home movies and demonstrations at different stores that we have in our company. The other projectors I looked at are the Optoma ML550, Qumi Q5, Aaxa P300, Aaxa LED showtime, Dell M110 and a couple of the brookstone models. The Qumi Q5, ML550 and the Dell M110 were the only ones that were kind of close to this in the way of picture quality and brightness. The ML550 is the same thing just 200 less lumens, the Dell M110 is very close in size where the Q5 is a little larger and more rectangle shaped. After looking at these and testing them the ML750 was the best in brightness and quality of picture.This is one of the only projectors in this market that you can project a large picture in a room with bright lights and still have really good quality and brightness. I projected a powerpoint in our conference room with the 20 plus lights we have and I could read even the smallest print well. I tested this next to a standard light projector that was 2,500 lumen in our conference room and this has a better picture and looked brighter! That’s the power of LED.Overall this is in my opinion the best “pico” projector on the marker for its size, connections, and quality of display. You can’t fit it in your pocket but it comes pretty close to. I would not waste my time with the smaller below 300 lumens on the market, you just don’t get a bright enough picture. I have not tested the 3D but will test and amend this when I do.I would recommend this to anyone who is in the market for a small, LED projector that looks amazing.

I normally don’t trust reviews on Amazon, so I went around a lot of other venues, and looked up reviews on this. Most of the reviews were for this unit’s predecessor, the ML500.They gushed. Every single one. I grudgingly got this unit.I already own an EX330, which is a badass little unit, but is still just a bit too big for carry-on. Whenever I pack it, TSA ALWAYS opens my bag (which is often stuffed to the max, and they will mess things up when they reclose my bag), so I need to carry on the projector.First, this thing is REALLY SMALL. The pictures don’t really show how small it is, because the overall proportions pretty much match those of larger ultraportables. However, the lens is really small.The cables and power brick are basically bigger and heavier than the unit itself. With a little creative re-packing, you can fit this into a really small package.I tested with HDMI and some pretty hi-def digital input.Normally, I’ve been ignoring pico and LED projectors, as they project tiny, dim images only a couple dozen inches across.This is not a pico. It will project a full-size image, just like my 330, and almost as bright.It’s visible in a lit room, even an image that covers an entire 72″ X 48″ whiteboard. The EX330 is a bit brighter in a lit room, but not that much brighter, and the EX330 is rated at over 2000 lumens (LED lumens are basically brighter than incandescent ones, because coherence).The ML1000 is brighter, but it is also physically larger, and I need this to be very small. I can use my EX330 for bigger stuff.When you dim the lights, the image is tack-sharp, and beautifully saturated. Once focused, it tends to keep its focus, even when moved around. It’s not as nice as a laser projector, which basically never needs focusing, but it is better than an incandescent one, which can be finicky.There is a focus knob, but no way to adjust the zoom, except by physically moving the unit, which isn’t that big a deal, as the unit is fairly short-throw. You should keep this in mind when setting up. Plan to have a long wire to your computer, as you may need to set the unit up on a table (a little one), or a tripod (it has a tripod standard 1/4″ threaded hole).The tripod thing is nice. One of my biggest frustrations is getting a table set up for a projector. Since this thing is so small, you can mount it on even a very small or cheap tripod (like a point-and-shoot tripod).It has 3 fans, but doesn’t get more than a bit warm (It’s not like the “hair dryer” from my 330). The fans do contribute a bit of noise, but nothing like the incandescent unit.I don’t particularly care about watching TV on these things. I use them for presentations, and I have yet to encounter a projector, from any manufacturer, that won’t handle basic presentations.If you are gonna shell out $550 bucks on a little thing like this, then you should feel its worth it. I feel it was money well-spent.PROS: Absolutely tiny. Easily fits in a standard brief case or a carry-on. Extremely bright. Astonishingly so. Can be mounted on a tripod, so you have more options to setting it up. Surprisingly “short throw.” This means that you can place it fairly near the screen. I have the entire thing packaged in a small LowePro digicam bag. That’s including an 8-foot HDMI cable and a micro tripod. I also dropped the thing from about 3 feet, and nothing happened at all. My 330 would have been destroyed. This thing is absolutely fine for 90% of my presentation needs.CONS: Has 3 fans, which can be a bit “whiny.” No zoom. You have to move the unit. Surprisingly “short throw.” This means that you have to place it fairly near the screen, which is not always desirable. External power brick. This is always a pet peeve of mine. The brick is fairly large, as well, with a 3-prong plug. I’d love it if it were a little dinky thing. Color ain’t perfect. Tends to have a red cast. I was able to get something better with a calibrator, but still a bit off. The 330 definitely has better color. The focus can change from top to bottom if you have the unit fairly near the screen.Unfortunately, an entire industry has sprung up to create shill reviews. In general, don’t believe five-star reviews on Amazon. I wish it were different, but there’s lots of money at stake, and whenever there’s money at stake, there’s unscrupulous people willing to take it.This isn’t a shill; but then, that’s what a shill would say. Take this review for what it’s worth.UPDATE: Added a few more notes, now that I have used it a few times.

The media could not be loaded. I was originally looking at a pocket projector when I saw them at brookstone under their own name. The ones they had worked reasonably well up to 60″ in a very dark area. I did a little more research and found they just came out with a newer model that is 300lumens, and saw it up close, and it works much better, then I did a little internet research and found there are a LOT of choices in the 300-400 lumen range. Then I found this optoma projector, and saw it was available in 500 and 700 lumens which is unheard of for a pocket projector. Unsure of what I really needed, I decided to play it safe and order the 700 lumen model. Picture quality is amazing, projects 50-60″ in a brightly lit room, and 100-120″ in a dark room, HD quality picture. Also has a built in media player where you can throw a bunch of DivX movies on a microSD card and it will play them completely standalone without a PC. Colors are very rich, and despite other reviews, in “cinema mode” colors are pretty accurate. I probably could have gotten away with the 500lumen version, but I am VERY happy with this projector. I also run this from a portable lithium battery pack, and can watch full length movies on a battery charge.Update: I also got an ML1000p and have compared these projectors side by side in terms of physical size (I made a neat video to show how similar in size they REALLY are) and picture quality. Aside from a slight increase in brightness over the ML750, the ML1000p has MUCH better looking colors. There is also no major shift in focus on the ML1000p as the projector warms up that is noticeable on the ML750. The touchpad on the ML1000p is gesture based and can be a little annoying when compared with the conventional buttons on the ML750.Given the ready to run size similarity between these units and the better performance of the ML1000p, if you are deciding between the ML750 and ML1000p or the ML550/ML750, buy the ML1000p. If you are looking for lower cost, go with the ML550.

Easy 5 star, just how easy it is to take around and versatile it is for use, I bought a screw on stand for it with adjustable grip and i pretty much hang it from the ceiling, being so light I don’t worry much at all from the weight bringing it down/loosening, and thank you so much for the mini PC with AUX plug in adapter! it works like a charm and have it on a 2 speaker + subwoofer set up behind me with a 9.5 wide and 5.7 high (feet) projected screen (max for my room size and can go bigger!), I use it for games a lot and the quality is really good to see far away ahead of me in games!Though there are 2 small issues that could be fixed (maybe) when it runs for a long time like 5+ hours on a setting that makes the temp go up you can hear the small buzzing sound coming from the fans (on quiet times) but it gets drowned out by noise, and the other thing is that when its hanging up side down all the fan vibration causes the focus to reset/change on its own, I have to climb up like every 30-60 mins to re-adjust, but its been fixed temporarily with tape! and now if I’m lucky I have to re-adjust every 1-2 days if I use it for a long time (adhesive gets worn out) but if its sitting straight up nothing happens, just when its upside down.If your the kind of person who is smart enough to not buy a big screen TV for the same price as this, and yet not be big enough to match the screen size of this! I totally recommend this for you! showing some of my friends this made them reconsider the choice they made buying such a heavy piece of television! the small carrying bag is very convenient!

I recently borrowed a colleagues PK201 projector from Optoma that got me into the whole portable projector thing in the first place. But unlike that model this one has such rich, accurate colors that it’s like watching a whole different thing! OK so it’s more expensive and slightly bigger than smaller picos and has a faint fan noise, but if you’re gonna splash out on something like this you don’t want a picture that’s constantly greenish or blueish; even if those smaller ones may run silently. It’s almost a full rendition of the picture color that comes up on my MacBook Pro. Impressive! I would say the picture detail, although billed at up to 1080p looks just as good, if not better, at 720p. Although I guess 1080p would show up at 100′ projection better, which I haven’t got round to viewing as yet. Focus could be a little sharper especially at the edges, and there seems to be a square area around the screen size that’s slightly lit, making me wonder if I have got the aspect ratio correct to fill the viewing area. The edges of the frame seem a little un-straight, (could be that I currently use a stretched bed sheet as my screen!!) But I have soon got used to these without much distraction. The remote is handy – back-lit would be useful in the darkness of a room perhaps. And the keystone feature is great if you can’t get the projector completely head on to the screen.All in all a solid little piece of equipment so far. I am revisiting the contents of my hard drive night after night, and I’m loving it!