If you ask 100 different people what their favorite Android accessory is, you will likely receive 100 different answers. For me, it is the iDea Pico, a small wireless projector that eventually took pride of place in my lounge. Now the Pico is back with a familiar form factor but a big change in performance. You can read my review of the original Pico here.
The P200A like its predecessor comes with its own carry case and a few handy accessories. The case now a black affair instead of the previous grey houses a soft foam inner with a remote, car and wall chargers, tripod and a 3.5mm aux cable. But them aside for now, on to the main unit. The projector itself is slightly larger than palm-sized and weighs 0.4lbs and has a very clean aesthetic. A focus adjustment dial is all that adorns the left side, opposite to these are basic controls such as volume and power. To the rear, we have the infrared sensor, 3.5mm jack, micro-USB to charge the 5000 mAh battery and an SD slot. At the front, we have the lens, the unit’s LEDs have an estimated lifespan of 25,000 hours (enough to watch every James Bond Movie 500 times).
The changes between the original Pico to the Pico P200A are most apparent with the update to connectivity performance with Android devices connecting much faster than in the previous model. The second noticeable feature change is that support for Window’s wireless display and DNLA is no longer present leaving just AirPlay, Miracast and SD support. While the options were nice to have they are welcome if it was necessary to gain the additional performance. Is it better than the original? In my opinion, yes it is.
To celebrate UFC 200 over the weekend we decided to test out the P200A in the best way we could think. We cleared a line of sight across the lounge and set the projector up to cast from the BT Sport app. The projector has no zoom functions and therefore size adjustments are made by moving the projector closer/further from your wall/screen. Because of its placement, the projected image reached into the region of 150 inches (12.5 feet) although it is marketed as best at 120″ so at this distance there was some quality degradation, however, it was as can be seen from the images above still comfortably watchable. For a room containing 12 people, this was a great exchange instead of crowding around a TV.
At 80 lumens the projector is indeed usable inside during the day but not exceptional, draw the curtains or turn out the lights at night and you gain a great combination of battery life and excellent visibility. Yes, there are plenty of projectors out there that are brighter, or with higher quality but they often come with compromises in battery life or price. These are features I simply do not require and so the Pico suits my particular use case and price range well. There are a few things I would love to see added in future iterations, micro-HDMI support would be greatly appreciated, as would Chromecast support. However, these are just my personal preference for connectivity methods and I have had no actual difficulty with connecting to the device.
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