Acer K11 LED DLP Pocket Projector First Look

There are very few things more impressive than arriving at a meeting or at a friend's home and pulling a projector out of your wife's purse or, better yet, your pocket. Suddenly, you've got an audience (or the audience that you already had) enthused and interested. Pocket projectors can take a business meeting and make it a special event. And when you aren't taking it to business meetings, it can turn your kids room into a screening room for the latest Pixar opus so the adults can watch their own movie or a sporting event in the main theater. Regardless, we've found no end of uses for pocket projectors and we love to see more of them released.

Acer has brought to the market the world's smallest projector (for now) called the K11. While the picture above doesn't really show it, check out the back:

Check out that HDMI port. It practically takes up a 1/4 of the back of the projector. That's tiny. the K11 features an LED backlit DLP display technology with 200 lumens and a 2000:1 contrast ratio. While the native resolution is SVGA (858x600) and 4:3 aspect ratio, it can be configured for 16:9 for video playback. There is an RGB port (D-sub), an USB 2.0 port, and an SD card reader (not sure where that last one is). Composite video and analogue audio can be connected by a 3.5mm 4-pin mini jack. Acer specifies that the K11 can work with external speakers (maybe through the 3.5mm jack?) or you can use the built in 1-watt speaker.

Yep, 1 whopping watt.

But a projector this small isn't about the size of its speaker, it's about the size of the case. The Acer K11 is 1.3 pounds (we know guys with wallets heavier) and is 4.8" wide, 4.6" deep, and 1.7" tall. We looked around the house for something the same size and we came up with one of those cases that has a bunch of tiny screwdrivers for fixing eyeglasses and getting the covers off battery powered toys (though the projector is a bit thicker). That's tiny. Heck, depending on the size of your monitor, the above photo might be bigger.

The LED lamp used in the Acer K11 will keep down the heat plus offer a long life for the projector (rated at 30,000 hours). Acer has included an Auto ECO Mode to increase this lamp life even further. By the time the lamp needs replacing you might be on the market for a new projector. By then, they'll probably install them in your finger.

Other technologies include ColorSafe and SmartFormat. ColorSafe keeps the DLP colors crisp and clear even with prolonged use (Acer says it makes the projector "virtually immune to color decay"). SmartFormat makes sure the K11 supports many different PC formats and make sure that resolution changes doesn't faze the projector. 

Of course, more than anything your boss will want to know the price. Sure the lamp will last forever and it's small enough to impress even those more jaded technophiles, but if it breaks the bank, it's a no-go. No worries there as the Acer K11 is currently offered for only $419. That's practically an impulse buy to many corporations.

Conclusion

If you own the business, maybe you don't want the Acer K11. You want a huge, full featured projector that you take home every weekend to watch Lord of the Rings marathons. But if you have salesmen that need to impress, or if you are lacking a dedicated meeting room, a pocket projector is a must. The Acer K11 has a lot going for it. It's small, light, and portable, it's got an LED lamp which means you'll probably have to replace the projector before the lamp dies, and it is very reasonably priced. With an integrated speaker, HDMI input, and a focus on supporting all the different PC video outputs, the K11 looks to be a trouble-free projector for the businessman (or woman) on the go.

For more information, please visit www.us.acer.com.

Unless otherwise indicated, this is a preview article for the featured product. A formal review may or may not follow in the future.