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.

Features

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).

The small remote has the same 7 buttons, plus Power, Zoom, Hide [display], and brightness control, as well as dedicated buttons for accessing sources such as WiFi display, USB Display, VGA, HGMI, and Video. Working the menus, especially at first, can be awkward.? The menu system is more typical of a pico projector than a palmtop, in that you have to exit the presentation or movie you?re showing to make any changes to your settings, and then re-access your data or video connection (which can be time consuming, as you?ll soon see).When you press the Home button, it asks you if you really want to go to Home, which although it may spare you an accidental trip there, it adds another step to what can be a cumbersome process.

Also, the remote makes use of the arrow keys not to navigate the menus, but as symbol keys to access specific functions. For instance, the Home screen shows six choices, each identified by a symbol: the right arrow denotes Setup, the up arrow, Music, etc.?they?re useless as arrow keys here in that you can?t scroll anywhere, but they will take you to the functions they symbolize. This takes some getting used to.

The ML300 has a respectable set of connectivity options for a small projector: VGA; mini-HDMI; micro-USB (for connecting to a computer); USB type A (for a USB thumb drive); component video and audio-in; audio-out, and a micro-SD card slot. You can run presentations computer free from the projector?s 2GB of internal memory, memory card, or USB key. In addition to showing video, you can play music or display business documents (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or PDF from internal memory, memory card, or thumb drive.

Connecting to a computer with this projector via USB cable is best described as ?plug and pray?. Once you plug the cable in, you select ?USB Display? with the remote. If you?re lucky, your projector?s image will soon emulate what?s on your computer screen, but that?s not a sure thing. It only worked on the first shot on one of the 3 laptops I tested it on, though I got it up and running on all eventually. Still, I often experienced a long waiting time waiting for the connection to kick in when I switched to ?USB display?. Fortunately, there are many other ways to connect.

I tested the ML300 from about 6 feet from our test screen, where it threw a test image about 60 inches diagonally. Image quality suffered somewhat even in modest ambient light, so it?s best used in a relatively small, dark room.

Image Quality

In testing using the DisplayMate suite, I found the ML300?s data image quality suitable for use in typical business presentations?provided that the room is dark and relatively small?though you might not want to use it in presentations where sharp text is important. The good news is that colors were bright and reasonably true, especially yellows, which often look dull or mustardy with DLP projectors. It also showed less of a rainbow effect? distracting red-green-blue rainbow glints, particularly in bright areas against a dark background?than most DLP projectors.

One notable issue is that several test images showed the same sort of scaling artifacts that we saw in the Optoma ML500 and have seen several other recent small WXGA DLP projectors?including the BenQ Joybee GP2. They take the form of banding (spurious dark lines showing up in backgrounds that consist of repeating patterns or hatching).

Such scaling artifacts are caused by a mismatch between the image?s dimensions and a projector?s native resolution, which shouldn?t be the case as both the source and the projector?s native resolution are 1,280 by 800 pixels. The problem seems to rest in TI?s latest DLP Pico WXGA chips. Optoma says that the mirrors on the DLP chip are arranged in a way to produce higher brightness from a more compact design. However, the mirror arrangement also makes it impossible to have a true native resolution in the traditional sense, so the projector does indeed scale the image.

Although the scaling artifacts were more apparent it our test images with the ML300 than they were in my testing of the BenQ GP2, they shouldn?t affect most data images?at least, ones without repeating patterned backgrounds. But they may be responsible for the soft focus that was most apparent in our text testing, where the smallest font was notably blurred and the second smallest was fuzzy in both white-on-black and black-on-white text. We seldom see that much blur, especially in the black text. If you get this projector and design your own presentations for it, be sure to use relatively large fonts.

Video Quality

I tested video quality using multiple video sources over several connections, primarily HDMI. The ML300 is okay for short clips, provided that color fidelity isn?t critical. For the most part, colors were bright and well saturated, but some tinting was apparent at times. Flesh tones tended to look reddish, and some bright areas took on a greenish tinge. Also, there was some loss of detail in bright areas. One plus is that, as was the case in data images, rainbow artifacts were nearly nonexistent and shouldn?t be an issue except maybe for people particularly sensitive to the effect.

Other Issues

The audio from the ML300?s built-in 2-watt speaker was feeble; I could barely hear it when more than a few feet away from the projector, even at full volume. Fortunately the unit has an audio-out jack for headphones or powered external speakers.

The LED light source will last an estimated 20,000 hours, so you should never have to replace bulbs. The projector is backed by a 1-year limited warranty.

There?s a lot to like about the Optoma ML300: It?s supremely compact and portable for a WXGA projector, has a great choice of connectivity options including HDMI, a long-lasting light source, and minimal rainbow effect. It has significant downsides: an awkward menu system, scaling artifacts that may impact text quality, and unreliable USB connectivity among them. Thus, my recommendation is lukewarm.

The Optoma ML500 is slightly larger and brighter than the ML300; the BenQ Joybee GP2 offers iPhone connectivity but is as much a consumer as a business projector. Both showed the same issue with scaling artifacts that cropped up on the ML300?s data image. The 300-lumen ViewSonic PJD2121 ($450 street, 4 stars) provides better image quality, though the Optoma has a wider range of connection choices.

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