The $359 AAXA P6X is called a pico projector on AAXA’s website, but if you think that “pico” describes something that fits in a shirt pocket and isn’t very bright, that can be misleading. The P6X is small enough to slip into a briefcase or backpack, but it’s more of an oversized palmtop, effectively a bigger, brighter version of the Kodak Luma 350 or the ViewSonic M1 mini. Though AAXA calls it a business projector, it can also serve nicely at home for casual movie and video watching and even gaming.
Resolving the Resolution
The P6X combines an LED light source rated at 1,100 LED lumens (more on that shortly) with a 1,280-by-800 DLP chip. It automatically negotiates a 1080p (1,920-by-1,080) connection with PCs and video sources, so it behaves for all practical purposes like a 1080p projector, but with the softer focus you would expect from 720p.
By definition, the LED lumen rating for an LED projector is higher than its ANSI lumens. The difference comes from the observation that more saturated color is perceived as brighter than less saturated color, and LEDs produce more saturated color than lamp-based projectors. However, there’s no standard for determining LED lumens, so it’s not useful for comparing with other projectors. In my tests, the Bright power setting was close to what I expect from 800 ANSI lumens. But the Bright setting isn’t available when using the built-in rechargeable battery, which limits the power settings to Standard, rated at 1,000 LED lumens with a 90-minute life, and Eco, rated at 400 LED lumens and 4 hours.
Portability is a strong point. The P6X is only 1.85 by 6.25 by 6.2 inches (HWD) and weighs 1.8 pounds not counting the AC adapter, making it easy to slip into a briefcase or backpack. However, it doesn’t come with a protective case. You might want to get one to avoid scratches.
A memory card slot on the front supports microSD and TF cards; HDMI and USB Type A 2.0 ports are on the back. There’s no Wi-Fi capability. The included remote control is about the size of the credit card, but if you lose it, a full set of controls is on top of the projector.
Setup consists of little more than pointing the P6X at a screen, connecting an image source, and manually focusing. There’s no zoom, but it’s easy enough to move the projector to adjust image size. AAXA includes a little tabletop tripod that you can tilt for additional adjustment.
I ran into two minor annoyances. The first is that the focus wheel is located close to and just below the HDMI port. The positioning doesn’t matter when reading files from a USB memory key or from a microSD or TF card, but it makes it hard to get to the focus wheel when an HDMI cable is connected. Focusing is still possible, however, just a little inconvenient.
I found the second issue more annoying, but it’s fixable in a firmware update. The setting for the projector position—in front of or in back of the screen, and right side up or inverted—don’t always survive turning the projector off and on again. Several times in my testing, I had to fumble through mirror-image and sometimes upside-down menus to reset it. AAXA says it’s aware of the problem and expects to have a firmware fix available for downloading shortly.
You can charge your phone from the internal battery using the USB port, an unexpected convenience that helps balance out the inconveniences.
The audio system is a strong point. The onboard 4-watt speaker delivers surprisingly high-quality sound for this size projector and enough volume to easily fill a small conference room or midsize family room. There’s also a 3.5mm stereo audio out port.
Plenty of Black, Almost Too Much Color
The P6X menus offer three predefined picture modes that you can’t modify—Soft, Standard, and Vivid—plus a User mode that lets you adjust brightness, color saturation, contrast, and sharpness.
For text and business graphics, the P6X delivers vibrant, eye-catching color in all modes except Vivid, which tends to desaturate pastel colors, sometimes to the point of making them white in my tests. The three other modes are all suitable for presentations with graphics and text. For those that include photos, film clips, or video, Standard and User showed the most natural-looking skin tones. Some colors in each mode were oversaturated and overly bright to the point of bordering on Day-Glo vibrancy, but that was more obvious with graphics than with photorealistic images.
For video and movies, most people will consider color accuracy in Standard, Soft, and User acceptable, despite a need to occasionally forgive a memory color, like green grass, from wandering just outside the realm of realism. Skin tone accuracy is variable in all the modes, so you’ll have to choose the one that bothers you the least for the particular movie you’re watching.
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All four modes delivered a notably dark black level, along with good contrast and shadow detail for the price. However, User mode came in first on this score, rendering a particularly demanding dark scene with more visual impact than most home theater projectors in the $500–$1,000 range. There is no support for HDR or 3D.
For gaming, I measured the input lag at 33.4ms, which is fast enough for all but the most serious gamers.
Rainbow artifacts were few and fleeting. As with any single-chip projector, if you find these red-green-blue flashes bothersome, be sure to buy from a dealer who allows returns without a restocking fee, so you can test it out for yourself.
As already mentioned, the P6X’s image at its top brightness was roughly as bright as I expect for a lamp-based projector rated at 800 ANSI lumens. In a dark room, it threw a 16:9 image that was easily bright enough on my 90-inch diagonal, 1.0-gain screen for extended viewing, including watching a full-length movie. It was also bright enough to light up an 80-inch screen at night in a family room with lights on. With daylight streaming though the windows, the image was visible but not much more than that. Using Eco mode for its four-hour battery life, an 80-inch image was watchable with lights off or on at night for short periods, but a little too dim for extended viewing even with lights off.
Not Perfect, But a Lot to Like
The AAXA P6X is an impressive little projector. It’s bigger, heavier, and more expensive than the ViewSonic M1 mini or the Kodak Luma 350, but it’s also a lot brighter. It also has far more robust audio with better sound quality and higher volume than any number of projectors that are bigger and more expensive. Few projectors as portable and inexpensive as the P6X can deliver an image this bright or watchable. As long as you don’t need a Wi-Fi connection to mirror your phone or tablet screen and you can tolerate the minor issues with focusing and retaining the projector positioning setting, the P6X is an excellent choice for presentations on the road and media viewing at home.
