Projectors, notably moveable ones, provide much more versatility than a typical display reminiscent of a tv or laptop monitor. The shape issue and ease of use makes it attainable to take a transportable projector together with you wherever you go, which will be on enterprise or leisure journeys, and even to the workplace and again house. Projectors can even produce a lot bigger display sizes than televisions; even easy moveable projectors can undertaking as much as 100 inches in measurement, relying on the projection distance.
It is this versatility that makes the thought of getting a good, well-equipped moveable projector so engaging. Among the many main manufacturers within the enterprise of projectors is ViewSonic, and I am reviewing the ViewSonic M2e moveable full-HD LED projector right here. Priced at Rs. 85,000 in India, this projector has loads of connectivity choices, will be powered by way of an influence financial institution for wi-fi use, and has built-in audio system from Harman Kardon. Is that this the very best and most useful resolution for on-the-go leisure and productiveness? Discover out on this overview.
The ViewSonic M2e comes with a distant, and is sufficiently small to take with you in a backpack or purse
ViewSonic M2e Projector design and specs
The ViewSonic M2e is, to some extent, a successor to the a lot smaller, extra moveable, and extra inexpensive ViewSonic M1. Nonetheless, as the value of Rs. 85,000 suggests, it is positioned otherwise; this is not an ultra-portable projector, however is healthier thought of as an everyday house theatre projector with some flexibility in how and the place you should utilize it.
That mentioned, the ViewSonic M2e is not very giant, and positively is not heavy. There’s a two-driver Harman Kardon speaker system with a complete output of 6W alongside the lens on the entrance, and warmth vents on the suitable aspect of the projector. There’s only a single button on the again for energy, together with a 3.5mm Audio-out socket, one HDMI 2.0 port, one USB Sort-C port, one USB Sort-A port, a microSD card slot, and an influence socket for the included energy adapter.
The underside of the ViewSonic M2e has an adjustable kick stand, which permits for a little bit of angle adjustment for the projector. This strikes freely for exact changes, and is tight sufficient to lock in place as soon as you’ve got discovered the perfect angle. There’s additionally a screw socket on the underside to mount the projector onto a tripod, if desired.
Not like many moveable projectors, the ViewSonic M2e doesn’t have a built-in battery, and must be related to an influence supply to perform. Ordinarily, this could be the included energy adapter, which plugs right into a wall socket and connects to the projector. Nonetheless, the ViewSonic M2e has a USB Sort-C port, which can be utilized to energy the machine.
It is value stating right here that this doesn’t suggest that any energy adapter and cable can energy the projector; you will want one able to delivering no less than 45W of energy. Usefully, this will even be a suitably-specced energy financial institution with assist for the Energy Supply protocol, which is able to let you use the projector even open air or in locations the place a wall socket is not out there.
The LED projector has a rated brightness of as much as 1,000 lumens, and a lamp lifetime of 30,000 hours
A USB Sort-C cable for that is included within the gross sales bundle, however not an adapter for this cable. The USB Sort-C port can be utilized by the projector to obtain an audio-visual sign from appropriate units, along with energy. Additionally included within the field are a distant for the ViewSonic M2e, 4 totally different plug cords to make use of with the facility adapter (for various international locations’ plug requirements), and a carry case for the projector.
The lens on the ViewSonic M2e has a mounted place, so the scale of the projection is dependent upon the gap between the projector and the display or wall. The projector is acknowledged to undertaking at a measurement as much as 100 inches, with a throw distance vary of 0.65m (24-inch projection) to 2.68m (100-inch projection). The ViewSonic M2e is a full-HD (1920×1080-pixel) decision LED projector, with a rated brightness of 1,000 lumens and lamp lifetime of as much as 30,000 hours.
ViewSonic M2e Projector connectivity and options
Main connectivity for the ViewSonic M2e is thru its ports and inputs; HDMI and USB Sort-C cowl most fashionable supply units reminiscent of streaming {hardware}, laptops, and gaming consoles, whereas USB and microSD allow you to use conventional storage media.
There’s additionally Bluetooth for wi-fi audio connectivity with headphones or audio system, and Wi-Fi to allow a point of standalone usability, via apps and display mirroring. The projector is AirPlay-enabled for display mirroring from Apple units, and in addition works with an app to allow mirroring from Android units.
The ViewSonic M2e has its personal Android-based working system with a customized consumer interface on prime, which will be managed with the included distant. You need to use Wi-Fi 2.4GHz connectivity to obtain and set up apps from the included app market, however most of those apps are designed to be used with contact screens and are tough to navigate and use with the projector’s distant.
There are additionally detailed settings for the projector, together with guide calibration and focus settings, and a file browser to entry storage media content material. Usefully, the projector itself has 16GB of in-built storage, of which round 10GB is user-accessible. There’s native assist for media as much as 4K decision, however the projector itself will downscale this to full-HD for projection.
The ViewSonic M2e has mounted optical zoom for the projection, so the scale is dependent upon the gap between the projector and the wall or display
Though I did discover a handful of apps that labored, most together with the Netflix app could not be used with the distant to navigate. It is a good set of options to have for infrequent use, notably display mirroring from a smartphone which will help with slideshows and displays, however you will need to join a correct supply machine to the ViewSonic M2e to have the ability to use it correctly.
As with most moveable or semi-portable projectors, the ViewSonic M2e has autofocus and auto keystone correction for straightforward setup of the projection, and each of those labored nicely at brief or average distances. At lengthy distances (near the utmost advocate vary of the projector), I skilled frequent focus points, and was solely capable of repair the projection angles with a little bit of guide calibration.
Though optical zoom is mounted and this decides the scale of the projection, the ViewSonic M2e has a digital zoom vary of 0.8X to 1X, which can be utilized to cut back the projection measurement barely. This will come in useful when attempting to suit the projection inside a display or wall when the gap or positioning cannot be modified, and is a helpful contact.
ViewSonic M2e Projector efficiency
The shape issue and options of the ViewSonic M2e offers it lots of flexibility and makes utilizing it very simple, however the mounted zoom lens signifies that positioning of the projector is the important thing to making sure good efficiency. Moreover, whereas the projector has a rated vary of as much as 2.68m, I discovered that efficiency of the projection high quality fell significantly at longer distances; the projector is greatest used at shorter distances.
For a lot of this overview, I had the projector set as much as undertaking onto a white wall from about 1m away. I used the Amazon Fire TV Cube (2nd Gen) as a supply machine, watched a couple of video information from a USB drive, often mirrored my smartphone display, and in addition watched a couple of YouTube movies utilizing an app on the projector’s personal working system. Efficiency was largely uniform throughout sources, however high-quality streaming content material on the Fireplace TV Dice seemed so much higher than anything I watched on the ViewSonic M2e.
Connectivity choices on the ViewSonic M2e projector embrace HDMI, USB Sort-C, and extra
The projector often took some time to start out up, with the Android-based working system taking a few minute to optimise apps, and cargo up the consumer interface. At distances of round 1m or barely extra, the projection measurement was round 40 inches or so, which was satisfactory for many of the conditions the place I used it.
The projector’s native consumer interface was solely actually helpful to regulate the settings or get to exterior supply units or storage media; I discovered the built-in apps too clunky and tough to deal with. With an HDMI supply machine such because the Amazon Fireplace TV Dice, the projector merely served because the ‘show’, with the supply machine taking up the precise content material administration. I additionally observed a couple of unusual bugs every now and then, such because the projector refusing to totally energy down and rebooting again and again on one event.
On the distances and projection sizes that I used the ViewSonic M2e with, I discovered the image to be sharp and pretty detailed in the suitable setting. Watching the visually spectacular Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and some stand-up comedy specials on Netflix, I fairly preferred how detailed the image was when projected onto a dull-white wall. Giant projection sizes naturally made a big distinction to sharpness, however the ViewSonic M2e performs nicely at affordable distances that make it an excellent substitute for a 43-inch TV or show.
Projectors want a darkish room to work greatest, and turning off all of the lights and watching at night time naturally made for the very best expertise utilizing the ViewSonic M2e. The colors had been brilliant and vibrant, notably with the trippy comic-book-style animation of the Spider-Man film. Movement was dealt with nicely, and the projector managed to maintain up with the quick tempo of the picture more often than not.
Nonetheless, darkish scenes did not look too nice, due to the plain nature of the projected image. In the course of the day with brilliant daylight, the projector solely made for first rate image when the projection measurement was saved small, however even one thing so simple as drawing the curtains to dim the room made a substantial distinction within the image high quality, and the projector typically carried out nicely with full-HD content material in even a dimly lit room.
Low-resolution content material reminiscent of SD-resolution youngsters’s movies seemed first rate in dimly-lit circumstances, supplied the projection measurement was saved low. Whereas the ViewSonic M2e is acknowledged to have the ability to undertaking as much as 100 inches in measurement, there was a big distinction in image high quality between small and huge projection sizes.
That mentioned, the mounted optical zoom and restricted digital zoom meant that I often needed to make do with no matter measurement I might obtain, on condition that positioning the projector was usually tough at house. In skilled environments reminiscent of convention rooms with projector screens and simply accessible energy retailers, for instance, the ViewSonic M2e might work nicely as a approach to mirror your laptop computer or pill display for displays, and the portability and ease of use is an added bonus.
Sound high quality on the ViewSonic M2e is excellent, because of the 6W Harman Kardon speaker system constructed into the projector. Though this does not sound very loud, it is greater than satisfactory in shut vary, ok for a typical room, and tuned for every kind of content-based audio. Stand-up comedy specials had been enjoyable to look at on the ViewSonic M2e, with the sound nicely tuned for speech. You possibly can hook up with an exterior speaker if wanted, however the comfort of getting good built-in sound offers the ViewSonic M2e fairly a little bit of versatility.
Verdict
Projectors are sometimes costly and the ViewSonic M2e is not any exception. At Rs. 85,000, it is across the identical value because the Extremely-HD 55-inch Xiaomi OLED Vision TV. Nonetheless, so far as projectors go, the M2e is a formidable machine. It has numerous connectivity choices, good video and audio efficiency, and the power to go as giant as 100 inches in projection measurement.
The important thing benefits of the ViewSonic M2e are the portability and ease of use, and this makes it a worthwhile possibility to think about for each house, journey, {and professional} projection wants. I would not go so far as to say that this will change your TV at house, however the ViewSonic M2e is certainly value contemplating in case you’re in search of one thing that’s simple to journey with and use.
Worth: Rs. 85,000
Scores:
Design: 9
Efficiency: 7
VFM: 7
General: 7
Execs:
- Very simple to retailer and carry round
- Good connectivity choices
- Respectable projection efficiency, even in dimly lit rooms
- Superb sound high quality
- Fast, efficient keystone and focus correction
Cons:
- Considerably costly
- Mounted optical zoom
- Sluggish in addition up, occasional bugs in software program
- Fundamental built-in UI
For particulars of the newest launches and information from Samsung, Xiaomi, Realme, OnePlus, Oppo and different firms on the Cell World Congress in Barcelona, go to our MWC 2023 hub.