BenQ Joybee GP1 Mini Projector

(7 out of 10)

This is the best-performing small projector we've seen, but it's not without compromise.

Companies that manufacture ultra-portable video projectors like BenQ’s Joybee GP1 typically aim these devices at the business market, targeting corporate road warriors who travel from client to client making PowerPoint presentations. In an interesting twist though, BenQ is pitching this device squarely at the family. In fact, the press release announcing the product’s availability suggests a scenario in which a consumer loads up a USB thumb drive with digital photos and videos, throws it in a box with the projector, and mails it off to great grandma. Bear in mind that since the Joybee can host a USB storage device or even an iPod (with the optional dock), it doesn’t need to be tethered to a PC (although it can be). The big question though: Will great-grandma be able to make heads or tails of the gear when it shows up on her doorstep? We imagine less tech-savvy folks will need at least some handholding to get started—along with a very dark room and a very white wall, if not a bona fide projector screen—although the device is pretty easy to figure out. That said, the Joybee GP1 isn’t the tiniest projector we’ve seen—Optoma’s Pico PK101 is small and light enough to carry in your pocket—but the Joybee GP1 is brighter, more versatile, and considerably more useful. Both devices are based on Texas Instruments’ DLP (Digital Light Processor) technology, which creates an image by reflecting light off a grid of microscopic mirrors mounted on a semiconductor. Each tiny mirror creates a pixel by swiveling to either reflect light through the projector’s lens or to redirect it to an internal heatsink. If all the light is directed to the heatsink, the projected image is black; toggling between the two states creates a grayscale, and shades of color are produced by using red, green, and blue LEDs as light sources. BenQ claims the LEDs it uses can last upwards of 20,000 hours, which means the device will likely outlive its usefulness before its light source ever fails. Continue reading full review @ Digital Trends