Favi E1-LED-Pico

The Favi E1-LED-Pico ($200 street) projector is the consumer counterpart to the Favi B1-LED-Pico business-oriented pico projector ($280 street, 3.5 stars). Geared mainly for projecting video and photos, the E1 can be used most anywhere, as it can run off AA batteries when it's not plugged into its included power adapter. It's equally at home in a family room, a hotel room, or on a camping trip (provided you have a makeshift or portable screen). Though not the brightest or most full-featured model in town, it does a good job for a projector at this price.

The matte-black E1 measures 1 by 4.5 by 2.4 inches (HWD) and weighs 4 ounces, excluding batteries. The 12-lumen, RGB LED-based lamp—using LCoS (liquid crystal on silicon) display technology—is rated to last up to 20,000 hours, so it should last the life of the projector. The E1 has a native VGA (640 by
The focus wheel is positioned in the front of the projector, just above the lens, and is best turned by an index finger. Focusing isn't as smooth as with the lever control in the Favi B1. It's also easy to get one's finger in the way of the projected image while trying to focus. The E1 includes a tiny tripod with bendable legs. If the projector should topple (between the lightweight tripod and the projector usually being tugged at by at least one cable, that's bound to happen sooner or later), the focus wheel can pop out, as I discovered while doing video testing. Be careful not to lose the wheel, as the projector can't be focused without it.

The E1 has 1GB of internal memory, and a slot for an SD card, hidden behind the door that also houses the 4 AA batteries that power the E1 when it's not connected to a wall adapter. Favi claims that the battery life should be 4-6 hours. I tested battery life with Duracells; they lasted about 4 hours, although the image started to fade after about 3 hours. Although a rechargeable internal battery would have been preferable, a set of batteries will get you through a long movie, and you could always use rechargeable NiMh or NiCad AA cells.

In addition to the power adapter and tripod, accessories that come with the projector include a mini USB cable for transferring files, a composite video cable, a carrying pouch, a remote control, and a set of international power-plug adapters.

The E1's small remote lets you access the menu system as well as control basic video functions (play, pause, fast-forward, rewind, increase or decrease volume). It lets you choose between internal memory and SD card as the file source. One level down, you can choose between Photo, Video, and Setting. Clicking on Photo will show you the photos and let you access them. Clicking on Video will show the filename name, time, date, and size of video files you have stored.

From Setting, selecting Photo Setup lets you choose between browse mode, slideshow, and thumbnail; select whether you want the images full-screen or cropped; choose a duration of the slideshow (between 5 seconds and 15 minutes), and choose between various slideshow effects. It only plays .mp4 and .avi movie files, as well as files of other formats after being converted into .mm2 files by the ArcSoft Media Converter software that comes with the projector.

From Video Setup, you can choose between full-screen and original size in Display Mode, and whether to play a video once, repeat it, or play videos in random order.

The E1's composite video connector lets you use the projector to show video from, say, a DVD player. I viewed video in a dark room: It could project video up to about a meter wide without it significantly losing detail. The video quality was reasonable, adequate for showing a full-length DVD in darkness. The built-in speakers, however, weren't really up to the task—either for volume and sound quality. You'd want to use either headphones or a powered set of external speakers. On the plus side, the projector has no fan, so you won't be contending with fan noise like you would with the Favi B1-LED-Pico.