Mini Camping Projector

[rchapman80]

I'm interested in getting a mini projector for camping. It would be used in a tent projected on a small sheet/screen. It would be great to have a battery that lasts about 3hrs but I have ecoflow batteries so not a necessity. I don't need/want 4k. It doesn't have to have wifi. Sometimes we aren't anywhere where we can get internet.

 

I don't need to spend thousands or even hundreds. This is for camping and winding down 4 people in a 10 person tent with a movie or show. It doesn't need to be a 100" screen. 

I don't want to spend any more than $200-250. I want it to be pocketable like the Anker Nebula but not quite as expensive. 

 

Anyone have experience with these cheap projectors like the Kodak Luma or Vankyo X3? Something like these. Around $200

[aggie113]

I purchased, and ended up passing on to a friend, a pico projector for this kind of use.  While I never tried it out outside of the control of my house, my friend has used it while out camping several times projected on an interior wall of his tiny camping trailer.  This class of projector isn't going to be bright, isn't going to have auto-keystone adjustment (or maybe very limited adjustment at all), but it will be cheap and good enough for your use case.  Would suggest paying attention to the inputs that it has, as well as audio out (don't count on it to do sound as well as video duties), and find a good mounting solution for it.

[QuantumRand]

About 5 or 6 years ago, I got an AAXA P7 Mini with the intention of using it to play some Smash Bros during a multi-day offsite event through work. It worked great for that purpose and then became an auxiliary TV for my bedroom after. I put probably 1000+ hours on that thing and it still works great to this day!

 

I don't think they still offer the P7 Mini, but the P400+ looks similar and is in your price range. The battery life might be a bit shy of what you're looking for though, so those Ecoflow batteries will be a necessity. The P7+ is listed on Amazon from a few sellers, but the price is all over the place. Might be able to find one around $200.

 

I will say be careful in this product category. There is a lot of dishonest specs. Most manufacturers flat out lie about the light output, especially if it's in the sub $150 range. Aaxa in general seems pretty trustworthy, although they must use a giant for their product photos. Their projectors are small, but not fit in the palm of your hand small. My P7 Mini is advertised at 600 Lumen of brightness, which has been enough for me while using a white background (wall/sheet, never tried an actual screen) and decent light control (moonlight or bedroom with only a bit of light bleeding in from a door around a corner).

 

If you're willing to go with 1280x720 native resolution, your options open up quite a bit in your price point. Pay attention to supported resolution vs native resolution. Plenty of "4k" projectors are actually just 960x540 (or less!) but accept a 4k signal.

[rchapman80]

Thank you both for your responses. I'll look into both of these.