3M MPro review versus AAXA P2 pico projector review and shootout

Hi another user asked for a review about pico projectors and I have been meaning to make a review about them. I purchased the 3M MPRO 110 after reading about this projector on the Toms Hardware.com products section and I was really excited about this new type of product. I spent almost $300 on this projector and I believed it was 720P resolution because of 3M advertising. I can truly say I am extremely disatisfied with this product.

Firstly this projector is NOT 720P (1280x720). It is really 640x480 - I did not know this until getting the projector and reading the manual. It can accept 1280x720 video signals from a laptop but really it only displays 640x480. I feel that this type of advertisement is wrong. Second the brightness is only 10 lumens. The 3M website shows many people using this projector as a presentation projector. This is not accurate. It cannot be used as presentation projector it is far not bright enough. The only use it has is for watching videos in complete dark with all the lights off.

Comparing the 3M to the the AAXA P2 pico projector is a big difference in brightness and resolution. This projector is 800x600 resolution and it is 33 lumens. It is 3 times brighter. Immediately you can tell the difference between the two projectors the brightness difference is BIG. Also with a higher 800x600 resolution I can tell a big difference in the text quality. The 3M projector when I try to display small text all the text becomes crushed or distortion. The AAXA P2 does not have this problem, even when I select 1280x720 resolution. And while the AAXA P2 it is still not bright enough for lights-on type of use, it is pretty good for half-lights-off use, a lot better than the 3M Mpro and so you can still host a presentation without anyone sitting in the dark!

My opinion is don't buy the 3M Mpro, they're advertising is not truthful since it is not 720p resolution and it cannot be used to make business presentations. In reality the 3M Mpro is just a toy. The AAXA P2 is much better of a presentation projector. Right now it is more expensive than the 3M Mpro 110 by almost over $100 but trust me it is worth it if you are looking for something better than just a children's toy. Also the AAXA P2 has built in video player, speakers, and remote control. It is a much better projector worth more than the extra $100 compared to the 3M. I bought it directly from AAXA:

http://www.aaxatech.com/products/p2_pico_projector.htm

However of course this is a review so I must be fair. The 3M has some strong points - it is smaller than P2 and lighter, about 75% smaller. Also the battery life is much longer, almost 2 hours when I use it when the P2 is only 55 minutes. Also the P2 fan is very loud compared to the 3M. Almost too loud to be comfortable where the 3M operation is very quiet. So those are the strong points of the 3M.

I have taken some pictures of both projectors. Here is the AAXA P2 Projector Versus 3M Mpro

Please take notice as to the brightness differences. The picture size is about 40" so the difference is large!



Please take notice of the text appearance. The P2 displays text well while the 3M Mpro crushes the text!

Your are welcome!