The Adventure Life with Steve Casimiro Gadget Review: 3M MPro110 Portable Projector

Can a tiny projector bring back the old-school slide show? Absolutely.

The incredible shrinking of gadgetry has enabled everyone to indulge his or her inner photographer/videographer/iReporter. But showing off your goods can get tricky—especially when it involves gathering a crowd around a screen the size of a postage stamp. Now comes the portable projector. In the past six months, a handful of these pocketable units have started trickling to market. My favorite is the 3M MPro110 ($359; 3mmpro.com): It’s about the size of a cell phone, weighs 5.6 ounces, plugs into both computers and devices with RCA video (MP3 players, compact cameras, etc; note that iPhone connection requires a separate, aftermarket cable), and projects their content in 640-by-480 res onto the nearest wall, screen, or sleeping golden retriever. On a recent cross-country flight, I plugged it into my phone and watched Iron Man on the tray table in front of me. When I got home, I staged a little show for my family to share pictures from my trip. The MPro won’t replace a swanky 15-pound professional unit that costs three grand, but in a darkened room it more than does the trick. Just keep the image size under three feet; beyond that, the picture starts to get fuzzy and dim—a lot like those slide shows of old, actually.