Dell M109S pocket projector – very small, very strong, very expensive and very only available in the US

Dell has today added a new product to its expanding waistline of reasonably priced techie treats in the tasty shape of the of the Dell M109S pocket projector.

We’ve discussed the merits of these devices before. Dell must really feel that there is indeed a market for them and it looks as if their 350g offering is aimed at the business traveller side of their operation or Digital Nomads as they like to call them.

Thinking about it, I had a conversation with Vanessa, one of Shiny’s more business minded operatives and she was talking about how much she wanted a netbook apart from the fact that they were no good for business meetings. I shall omit the comments about having to huddle around small screens with certain less savoury individuals but I reckon if I asked her whether she’d like a pico-projector for business presentations she’d think it was a splendid idea. Just give me a second…

…yep, she’s bang up for that. Some of you may experience this yourselves but apparently there’s a good degree of uncertainty when turning up at other companies for meetings. One never knows whether their boardrooms are set up for presenting and one often finds oneself, and the selves one has come to see, out on one’s collective bottom after finding out that the proposed room has been double booked. But, of course, with a pico projector, all you need is a square of plain plaster and you’re off.

The only drawback to projecting your Powepoint plans for global domination onto the wall of Starbucks is the issue of privacy. Industrial espionage is rife and you could be plastering your secrets over very public walls with very many ears.

So now that Vanessa and I have talked all of us into the idea, I suppose we’ll be needing some specs.

First up, the M109S measures a staggeringly teeny 3.64″ x 4.12″ x 1.46″ or approximately 9.25cm x 10.5cm x 3.75cm in real money and that’s not a lot bigger than your palm and the first sections of finger. That’s comparable to other pico-projectors we’ve seen but at 50 lumens of projecting power, it’s a lot more impressive.

It uses a mercury-free LED lamp, said to last four years, and you’ll get 858 x 600 of SVGA widescreen resolution at distances of up to 240cm. That all amounts to a maximum viewing size of 60″. Very nice indeed.

However, and the however is two-fold, not only is it solely available in the US for now but worse still it cost $499 and that, my friends, ain’t cheap.

Still, if it makes you feel any better, you’d be investing in one of the most eco-conscious technology companies out there. Dell has also announced that it’ll be changing all of its screens over to LEDs rather than cold cathode fluorescent lamps (CCFLs) over the next 12 months and on a 15″ screen, that’s a power reduction of around 43%, assuming you don’t jack the brightness control up to maximum to compensate.

Dell US

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