Optoma ML300

Optoma ML300

The Optoma ML300 ($500 street) is one of a growing breed of small, highly portable projectors of high resolution and modest brightness that combine an LED light source with TI's DLP projection technology. It shares the wide range of connectivity options that many of these projectors offer, and it shares one notable image quality issue with them as well. The ML300 is rated at 300 lumens, and has a native WXGA (1,280 by 800 pixel) resolution. It is supremely compact, measuring 1.8 by 7.2 by 4.4 inches—a little larger than what we'd consider a palmtop projector, although it can just fit in my (large) hand with my thumb and fingers fully splayed. Using our postage scale, I weighted the projector at 1.4 pounds, while the power adapter adds another pound. It's smaller and lighter than the 500-lumen Optoma ML500 mini-projector that we recently reviewed. The ML300 comes with a soft carrying case for easy transport. On top of the projector is a 7-button control panel, backlit with blue LEDs (though you have to press any button to activate the LEDs and then quickly make a selection, as they go dark again after 6 seconds).