March 04, 2010, 2:40 PM — Acer is showing its K11 Pico Projector in the Planet Reseller section of the Cebit trade show, where staff say it will go on sale by late April.
The projector measures 122 millimeters by 116 mm and can project images up to 2.54 m across the diagonal, with a contrast ratio of 2,000 to 1, Acer said. The projector has an SD Card slot and USB, composite video, VGA and HDMI inputs.
Users won't get the full HDTV benefit of that HDMI port, though, as the projector has a native resolution of only 858 by 600 pixels.
At 610 grams, the K11 is a little heavier than its predecessor, the K10, and Acer representatives said it will weigh a little heavier on the wallet too, costing more than the K10's €399 (US$550).
The projector uses Texas Instruments' DLP system to form the image by bouncing light off thousands of tiny mirrors.
The light source is an LED, which Acer said means the projector can be unplugged and packed up without needing time to cool off, a problem with larger projectors that contain incandescent lamps. The LED throws off 200 lumens and should last for 20,000 hours, Acer said.
The K11 switches automatically between 4:3 and 16:9 image formats, and has controls for correcting the shape of the image when it is projected diagonally onto a wall.
