Taipei (Taiwan) – Foxconn’s palm-sized ‘Pico Projectors’ are wowing the crowds at the Computex tradeshow in Taipei, but after spending a few minutes with these things, we can honestly tell you that they aren’t that great.  Foxconn was showing off two Pico Projectors at its booth, a rectangular one about the size of your hand and a squarish, palm-sized projector.  The small size is impressive, but the laws of physics (or more accurately optics) means the picture quality and throw distance are pitiful.

Foxconn’s specification card said the projector has a 480 by 320 pixel resolution and outputs 20 lumens worth of light.  This output is much lower than regular-sized projectors which usually have lumen ratings in the hundreds and thousands.  As you can see from our pictures, the demo units were projecting a picture approximately (15-inch diagonally in size) on a screen approximately two feet away.

But you’ll also notice the black cloth shielding that blocked out the bright overhead lights from the convention center.  The picture brightness was just barely acceptable, but you’ll probably go blind from eyestrain after watching this projector for a while.  We figured that without the black cloth, the picture would probably be too washed out to be useful, however we couldn’t prove this point as Foxconn employees were keeping a very close eye on the demo unit.

No doubt Foxconn will improve these units.  Hopefully future versions will have higher light output and greater resolution.

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