Here’s another custom Projector Reviews advertorial, where the manufacturer gives Art editorial control to “tell it like it is!”
Greetings Projector Fans! If you have been paying attention to projectors at all these past few years, you are certainly familiar with ViewSonic. They offer home entertainment and home theater projectors, as well as projectors for education, commercial applications, and many for portable use!
It’s time to briefly introduce you to ViewSonic’s newest, the M1 Mini. I will also tell you about some of my other favorite ViewSonic projectors for home business and education – we certainly have reviewed a lot of them over the years (2-3 a year for the past 8 years)!
Let’s get started with the M1 Mini, but we'll work our way up to their highly successful PX 4K series, and even their bigger laser projectors for home or commerical use!
$169 list price! It’s available on Amazon, etc. And just starting to ship (Nov. 2019)!
Few established companies make lightweight portable DLP projectors such as ViewSonic’s little M1 Mini pico projector, which weighs in at only 11 ounces. Yet, the Mini still claims a healthy 50 lumens for a projector that really does fit in a pocket! The Mini’s LED light engine should last 30,000 hours (that’s about 10 hours a week for a lifetime). Darken your room and enjoy 40”, 60”, or even a bit larger image, from this tiny package. (Magic?)
The M1 Mini’s internal battery lasts 2.5 hours – enough to watch a movie between charges. It’s very well equipped too: It has an HDMI input, a USB, and a small internal JBL speaker, which should serve up some respectable sound relative to the Mini’s small size! (Don’t expect miracles!)
Before I tell you more including why you’ll love owning a new M1 Mini, I must take a moment to respond to those of you going, “I’ve heard of ViewSonic, but never knew they were that big in projectors.”
Why review so many ViewSonic projectors, you ask? Easy answer – in two parts:
I didn’t make that up. I relied on the experts – PMA Research. PMA Research has been tracking projector sales in North America going back to the 1990s!
Note: Long ago – way back in 2000 – with my old company, before Projector Reviews, I would report all our projector sales by model, to PMA every month for these reports. That was before I sold that company – which was, briefly – the largest online projector seller in the US.
Data Source: The #2 sales ranking appeared in the just released PMA Research 2019-Q3 Americas Projector Census.
This is what PMA had to say:
“ViewSonic has been the #2 brand in the U.S. for the past four quarters – October 2018 through September 2019.” They further clarify: This statement is based on unit sales of all projectors, including pico and personal projectors, as well as “mainstream” projectors for business, education etc.
#2 in US sales! Impressive. That also makes ViewSonic, by my calculations, the top seller of DLP projectors in the US (in unit sales). Consider: In a decade they’ve grown from an almost unheard of – a “late entry” into the projector market, but now one of the most successful brands!
In fact, they are the US’s last major, US owned, high volume projector company. (And obviously doing great.)
ViewSonic starts their lineup on the affordable/small size with, of course, the pico (M1 Mini) and pocket projectors (M1, M1+) but go all the way up to serious home theater and auditorium class business/education models. (We’ll touch on a few of those others below.)
Many projector brands you know by name don’t even make home theater projectors. Panasonic, NEC, Casio, Ricoh, Hitachi/Maxell, are a few of the big names that only make “commercial projectors.”
Welcome to another in my series of “advertorials.” Don’t panic, these are different!
Companies including ViewSonic do pay me to write these, with the knowledge that I plan to write content contains less hype, more useful facts, and more insights, than you would get from manufacturer created content.
We’ll “cut to the chase” here as I’ve said before: I write these! ViewSonic doesn’t get to edit this. I maintain creative control.
In this case, ViewSonic got to pick the primary focus (the M1 Mini in this case), but otherwise only get to fact check me for errors. I chose the other projectors, to also include, based on what I consider to be their top performers. Poor ViewSonic, as they are pretty much “stuck” with the opinions I include below.
Back to business – or in this case – entertainment!
The obvious answer, is: Have Fun! Here are ways to have that fun:
The Mini supports resolutions of up to 1080p – full HD, even though it is WVGA resolution projector. That’s OK, as most pico and pocket projectors are lower resolution that today’s more serious home theater models. You won’t be filling a 100+ screen with this little guy, so you won’t need as much resolution, to enjoy the experience, but enjoy you will.
Pretty Cool, and at $169 list price – downright affordable!
Now we understand that many of you would like something almost as portable as the Mini, but want brighter for a bigger picture. For that reason, I’ll take a paragraph or two to tell you about the M1+ Pocket projector, as it is the logical step up with more features, more brightness, and still under 2 pounds!
We reviewed the older M1 version, so already knew many of the newer M1+’s capabilities and performance. The list street price of the M1+ is $299 (recently on Amazon).
For the extra dollars, the extra 1 pound in weight and a jump from 50 lumens to 300, the M1+ has the muscle and additional capabilities you would expect.
And some excellent extras – the pair of 3-watt Harmon Kardon speakers provide the Plus with some sound you would expect only from much larger projectors (most this size have a single 1-watt speaker!)
And, yes, the M1+ doubles as a Boom Box! You can use the M1+ as a portable Bluetooth speaker system for playing music right from your phone or other Bluetooth device, or you can load tons of songs onto a micro SD card and play all day without the battery having to power the projector light engine. The M1+ is definitely a cool projector. Folks, this is home entertainment – also affordable and lots of fun! Let’s not confuse the M1 series, though, with serious home theater, or “higher end” home entertainment, areas which ViewSonic has many offerings.
That’s plenty on ViewSonic’s lightweight M1 series. I know many of you are going to be more interested in some “serious home theater” or higher power, higher resolution home entertainment to fill 100” and larger screens. Consider:
ViewSonic’s insanely popular 4K UHD projectors start at around $1,000. There’s their popular PX series, the new LED X10-4K (which we can’t wait to review), and laser projectors!
We’ve heaped awards on both the 3,000 lumen PX747-HD and their 2,200 lumen PX727-HD projectors. Both have won our Hot Product Award, while the 3,000 lumen “bright room” PX747-4K, also won a major Best In Class Award in our 2019-2020 Best Home Theater Projectors Report.
These are 4K UHD DLP projectors that are lamp based (pretty long life for their lamps, btw). Other than the color of the unit, these are essentially the same projector, but with two different color wheels, a “serious” home theater wheel in the PX727-4K, while the PX747-4K uses what we can call a commercial color wheel. More brightness, but a bit less contrast, better for brighter room. You buy the one that’s right for your room or rooms!
This is a solid-state LED projector for far less money than a laser projector!
Their brand new, 2,400 lumen X10-4K has a long-life LED light engine, a handle for portability, and a short throw lens, (great for gaming, btw). It’s priced at $1,499 list and has very similar 4K UHD abilities as the PX projectors, but no lamps to change. I have very high expectations, so we will definitely be reviewing soon as available!
ViewSonic offers many – or, more accurately, 11 – different laser models at the moment!
Perhaps you need a great laser projector designed for commercial and higher education use such as the LS850WU, a 5,000 lumen WUXGA model, designed for those commercial installations.
Or perhaps a short throw laser projector – the kind educators love to have in the classroom – is needed. Look no further than the LS625W:
The LS700HD and LS700-4K both offer value propositions that look, in my opinion to be rather excellent. At its street price of about $1,600 you are getting a full HD – 1080p laser projector claiming 3,500 lumens. I cannot think of a single other name brand home laser projector with 1080p resolution under $2,000 street price at this time. Hey, it’s not easy to find one significantly below $2,500 for that matter!
If you want the LS700-4K version, that sells for just under $2,500 on ViewSonic’s site! The shocking thing is you’ll find plenty of lower res 1080p/WUXGA projectors selling for as much or more. And most 4K capable “affordable lasers” start at $3,000 and go up from there.
I think it’s going to be tough to find a better value out there than these two laser projectors.
One more series of projectors worth a mention – especially for you educators out there:
When it comes to the classroom, the big trend is interactive Ultra Short Throw projectors. ViewSonic’s got you covered there, with four UST models, two of which are full interactive projectors!
Once again, our primary focus today – with the holidays upon us, has been the M1 Mini (and its big brother)! So, let me tell you why it is one of the most impressive small projectors around. It’s a great family gift, stocking stuffer, or a treat for yourself. Remember, this is a fun product. It should work extremely well, but it represents an excellent entry point into the least expensive class of projectors today.
Hope you also found some useful info on other ViewSonic projectors that could be highly suitable for your requirements – home, portable or commercial. Below, you’ll find links to reviews of projectors mentioned, as well as a link back to the M1+ product page and the LS700 product pages on the ViewSonic site, since we haven’t yet reviewed those.
When you are considering your next projector, you might want to remember ViewSonic’s standard warranty – 3-years with first year replacement – is pretty much unbeatable. That’s three years, when most of the competition offers 1 year (most common). The low-cost M1 Mini is the only exception. Not surprisingly, the Mini comes with a one year warranty, but that’s on the long side for a pico projector, many of which come with only 90 day warranties. Most larger projectors on the market have 1 or 2 year warranties. Essentially, ViewSonic not only offers you some excellent, and often cool projectors, but their great warranty.
ViewSonic’s got some great projectors. They are well known to be price performance oriented, as they tend to set their prices at least slightly below the competition, when there are similar models out there. And, again, you can’t beat the warranty.
The question – once you figure out which ViewSonic is the one that fits your needs and your budget – what are you still waiting for?
Got kids? Give them a treat, stuff an M1 Mini in a stocking for the holidays. Or, just maybe, you’d like one for yourself?
M1 Pocket Projector Review here at Projector Reviews
PX727-4K Review – Their excellent low cost 4K UHD home theater projector for “dark rooms”
PX747-4K First Look Review – The 747 is a brighter version that’s geared for living and family rooms
M1 Mini Page on ViewSonic’s Site
X10-4K Page at ViewSonic
ViewSonic’s Main Projectors Page (over 50 different models!)
Good stuff! “Thanks for Listening” -art
