Microvision Showwx+ HDMI review

The Microvision Showwx+ HDMI is a pico projector that uses lasers, rather than the LCOS (Liquid Crystal On Silicon) technology we’ve seen previously in products such as 3M’s PocketProjector MP180 (see What’s New, Shopper 284). Laser projectors use three different lasers for the red, green and blue components of the image, each of which can control the brightness and colour intensity of the beam. A lens combines these into a single beam, which is then directed onto a moveable mirror which projects the laser out of the lens to produce an image line by line, rather like the beam in a CRT display.

It’s a tiny device the size of a large smartphone and weighs only 117g, and yet it can project an image up to 100in diagonal. Its battery lasts for two hours and recharges via USB, so it’s ideal as a travelling companion for business trips.

As well as being small, the MP180 is also quite easy to use. There are only three ports – one USB port for charging, a mini-HDMI output and a proprietary port for attaching to an Apple device such as an iPhone or iPad. It comes with a cable for the latter, a composite video adaptor and a mini-HDMI cable. You can also buy a VGA adaptor for £30, which also includes a clamp with rubber feet for added stability, which is a good idea as the Showwx+ HDMI’s low weight means that a cable’s weight or stiffness can drag it out of position. The controls are simple too: along with the power button, there’s a menu button and two arrow buttons for selecting items.

We tested the Showwx+ HDMI with our Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc S smartphone, and also plugged in a laptop to test games, presentations and film quality – everything worked as soon as we plugged it in. However, it’s worth adjusting the colour balance the first time you use the projector, and although Microvision says there’s no need to focus, there’s an Image Alignment option that you can adjust if the picture is fuzzy.

We found the Showwx+ HDMI had problems with the colour balance between green and magenta, but this can be minimised by using the dedicated options in the menu. We found the Auto option did a good job, but you can also adjust it manually. The menu also lets you tweak colour, brightness and gamma. We see no reason to reduce brightness from its maximum setting unless you’re projecting at close distance with the lights off, and the Brilliant colour mode helped to make up for lost detail with the lights on, although Standard mode gave us more accurate colours.

The 848×480 resolution matches that of some smartphones, but when using a laptop you’ll have to reduce your desktop resolution to match. With only 15 lumens brightness, you’ll either have to turn the lights out or move closer to your projection surface to get a decent image. With office lights on, we found we couldn’t get a clear enough image beyond about three feet, which resulted in a 27in-diagonal image – not bad, considering it could be magnifying your smartphone’s 3-4in screen.

With the lights off, it’ll project much further, depending on your subject matter – we tested a presentation and got a decent-enough 62in-diagonal image at seven feet. It’s not perfect, though – the further away the surface is, the more you start to notice horizontal, flickering lines, and at large distances these can be distracting. These artefacts don’t show up at short distances, but you do get a speckle effect at close range.

Provided you get the projector’s distance from the screen right, image quality is great. Charts and text in our presentation tests were sharp and clear, although the low brightness meant detail was lost in some pictures. With the lights off and the screen close, colours and contrast in films were great, although slightly marred by the speckle effect. There’s also an Inverted option, which is useful if your presentation has black text on a white background – you can make it more readable by changing it to white on black.

If you have a smartphone with an HDMI output (or an Apple device) and the ability to run presentations, the Showwx+ HDMI could be the ideal travelling business tool, although it’s on the expensive side. The 3M PocketProjector MP180 offers similar mobility with memory card support and a built-in media player, so is more versatile, but at close distances the Showwx+’s vibrant colours give it the edge in picture quality.