AAXA M5 Pocket Projector Review - 720p and LED!

Posted on November 29, 2017 by Nikki Zelinger

The AAXA M5 is a $499 pocket-class projector with LED technology, featuring a “lamp” with three RGB LED lights. The combination of these LEDs recreates the entire color spectrum for a picture with a lot saturation. This is a single chip DLP projector with WXGA resolution (1280x800) and 900 lumens when plugged in, 500 when operating using the built-in battery. That’s respectable for a projector this size.

The M5 is the little brother to the AAXA M6, which has 1080p resolution, a 1200 lumen output, and a slightly longer battery life when operating on battery power. That one won an award in this year’s Best Home Theater Projectors Report for Best in Class: Pocket LED Projector. The M6 is $599 and does have a better picture due to the higher resolution, but if you really can’t swing that extra $100, the M5 will get the job done.

The M5 could be useful in several applications besides home entertainment (i.e. streaming Netflix/Hulu/HBO Go, etc., watching movies and casual gaming). The portability of the M5 will make it useful for “road warriors” who need a powerful little projector for presentations on the go, but it would also have its place in business and education environments. In those cases, the projector is suitable for classrooms or conference rooms that do not have a permanently installed projector, or when the projector will be passed from room to room.

AAXA Specs
Price
Technology	DLP
Native Resolution	1280x800
Brightness (Manufacturer Claim)	900
Contrast	2,000:1
Zoom Lens Ratio
Lens Shift	No
Lamp Life
Weight
Warranty

Overview

The AAXA M5 is on the larger end of pocket projectors, but it is still quite small. At 6 inches wide, 6 inches tall, 1.8 inches tall, and just under 2 lbs, it’s quite portable. The projector’s black carrying case (complete with handles) makes the M5 easy to tote around, whether it’s packed in a briefcase or held in the hand.

That portability can come in handy in a number of situations. I wrote in my review of the M6 that I could see this projector as being a good first projector for a young millennial or college student. Having a projector such as the M5 (or M6) would really give the freedom of being able to bring it around to friends’ apartments or dorms for movie night, or to play video games while having a large image size for a fraction of the cost of the larger LCD TVs. Not to mention, serious social points for your kid.

As mentioned in the section above, the M5 would be useful for the road warrior or school teacher on a budget. The AAXA M5 claims 900 lumens, which doesn’t sound like much, but it was enough to handle a modest amount of ambient light, and the image could even be seen when faced with a moderate amount of ambient light.

AAXA M5 The Hunger Games Katniss — The AAXA M5 can produce some good color and a sharp image.

Now, in the case of the latter, there was quite a bit of diluting, but I could still see what was going on in the image. That said, the M5 should be able to handle the amount of ambient light seen in most conference rooms or classrooms, and be able to project presentations, trainings, videos, and other business/education applications quite nicely.

Thanks to the LED light engine, the rated lamp life of the AAXA M5 is 20,000 hours – that’s rather excellent considering you can expect many lamp-based projectors to get about 3,000 to 8,000 hours at full power. What does that mean? You’ll be replacing this projector for being outdated long before the “lamp” ever goes out.

There’s a built-in media player for PC-free presenting, which will be useful in business and education applications, of course, but also for the home entertainment user who wants to show off the photos from their recent vacation. The media player allows for the playback of video, audio, text and photo files from a USB or mini TF-card (Micro SD). As for the other inputs, the M5 is basic, but has all the regular stuff you need for connecting video game consoles, BluRay players, streaming devices, computers, and external speakers.