Today, ASUS is announcing that they are bringing the ASUS P1 LED Pico Projector to North America! Originally announced at CeBIT 2011, the P1 had previously been available in Asia. This little projector is absolutely perfect for the traveling professional for quick and easy on-the-spot presentations. It can also be useful for entertainment purposes too! I was able to get my hands on a P1 and give it a spin for myself.
First off – the P1 is really small.
In the above photo, you can see the P1 next to my Nokia Lumia 800 Windows Phone. The P1 is literally the size of a CD case and as thick as a small paperback book. Its size makes this projector incredibly portable. ASUS includes a carrying case with the projector that allows you to put the projector and required cables all into a single case that you can put in your bag for travel.
The size, however, is just one piece of this amazing little device. It also comes packing some amazing features. The P1 operates with 200 ANSI lumens with a 1280×800 HD resolution and can scale projection size up to 40” from only 3 feet away. And being that it is a LED projector – the LED light source helps save energy and lasts over 30,000 hours in terms of operation. The P1 also has “instant-on” capabilities – turning off and on in nearly 5 seconds. There is virtually almost no wait for the projection to reach full brightness either. It just shows up.
In trying the P1 out here in my office, I got a very clear image. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get the projector 3 feet away to fully test the 40” display size but I had it projecting at a decent size! The P1 also has a feature called Auto Keystone Correction. What this does is it allows the P1 to automatically adjust the corners of the projection to 90-degree angles so that the projection will appear centered instead of off-balance.
The P1 was developed with the traveling professional in mind – someone who does a lot of traveling to different places who might need to present a Microsoft PowerPoint deck to a small group of people. But the P1 also has value to someone like meet who isn’t necessarily a traveling professional. Its capabilities can be also applied for personal entertainment purposes too!
Imagine getting a small group of friends together to watch a movie from your PC and you whip out the P1 to project a 40” image of the movie? Pretty incredible.
Starting today, the ASUS P1 LED Pico Projector will be available in North American for $499 at major retailers.