Toshiba's sub-3 lb. projector is a road warrior's dream; a pricey dream, but still a dream
Earlier this year, I headlined a post "If it consumes consumables (ie: ink, bulbs, etc), check their cost too before buying it." That's why, while at the Digital Life show in New York City last week, one of the question you'll see me asking during my video interview of Toshiba's projector product marketing manager Jane Poon how much it costs to replace the lamp on the company's latest ultraportable projector -- the TDP-PX10. Answer? $249. The projector itself has an MSRP of $999. Personally speaking, I'm always a bit outraged when I find out how the consumables for some device cost 25 percent or more of the original price of the device. The worst case scenario is my HP 2600n Color LaserJet. My local Sam's Club stocked the printer at a discount price but not the color cartridges. Staples has the color cartridges. Their total cost actually exceeds the cost of the printer itself (which comes new with a full complement of cartridges). Every time I run out of ink, it's cheaper just to buy a new printer. Go figure.
Poon points out that there are ways to get more mileage out of the lamps. In other words, with fewer pitstops over time, the total cost of ownership is reduced. But it involves dropping the projector down into what she called its economy mode. One of the highlights of the projector (for one so small) is that it drives a whopping 2200 lumens which means you don't need a dark room for the projector to cast a decent image onto a wall or screen. And, when you think about it, the way its light weight positions it for someone like a traveling salesperson, it's not like someone is going to be relying on it to light up a giant wall from 40 feet away in a conference room. That said, to make the lamp last longer, users will have to sacrifice brightness (in other words, some number of lumens) when setting the PX10 for its economy mode.
On a positive note, the projector also has a USB port on its rear panel that's designed to accomodate a USB-key that has one or more PowerPoint presentations on it. The idea is that instead of hauling both the projector and a PC around, you can just bring a projector and a USB key. In addition to supporting PowerPoint, the PX10 can work with JPG images as well.
Near the end of the video, I also caught one of Toshiba's "short-throw" projectors in action. A short-throw projector is one that can be placed close to a wall, but still cast a very large image onto the wall. That projector is also WiFi-enabled which means that a PC can transmit its presentation to the projector via wireless.