Microvision Showwx+ HDMI review

The 848×480 resolution matches that of some smartphones, but when using a laptop you’ll have to reduce your desktop resolution to match. With only 15 lumens brightness, you’ll either have to turn the lights out or move closer to your projection surface to get a decent image. With office lights on, we found we couldn’t get a clear enough image beyond about three feet, which resulted in a 27in-diagonal image – not bad, considering it could be magnifying your smartphone’s 3-4in screen.

With the lights off, it’ll project much further, depending on your subject matter – we tested a presentation and got a decent-enough 62in-diagonal image at seven feet. It’s not perfect, though – the further away the surface is, the more you start to notice horizontal, flickering lines, and at large distances these can be distracting. These artefacts don’t show up at short distances, but you do get a speckle effect at close range.

Provided you get the projector’s distance from the screen right, image quality is great. Charts and text in our presentation tests were sharp and clear, although the low brightness meant detail was lost in some pictures. With the lights off and the screen close, colours and contrast in films were great, although slightly marred by the speckle effect. There’s also an Inverted option, which is useful if your presentation has black text on a white background – you can make it more readable by changing it to white on black.

If you have a smartphone with an HDMI output (or an Apple device) and the ability to run presentations, the Showwx+ HDMI could be the ideal travelling business tool, although it’s on the expensive side. The 3M PocketProjector MP180 offers similar mobility with memory card support and a built-in media player, so is more versatile, but at close distances the Showwx+’s vibrant colours give it the edge in picture quality.