Menu, operating a projection and facilities
The menu of the device is, as the saying goes, has an user friendly interface and consequently it’s easy to operate it. Apart from that, there is a high-quality translation of all the menu items into Russian. After switching on the device, the user is to choose a necessary input (PC or AV) or pass on to operating the embedded memory.
There are four menu items for accessing files: documents, video recordings, photos and music. Once any of these is activated, you see a directory tree and the number of files found, depending on the type of chosen functions. Among the supported types of documents there are the following:
- documents: Adobe PDF 1.2~1.7 (pdf), MS PowerPoint 97-2007 (ppt, pptx), MS Excel (xls, xlsx), MS Word (doc, docx), text (txt)
- video: AVI, MP4, ASF, MPG, RM, FLV, WMV, M2TS/TS (codecs: MPEG4, VC-1, H.264, MPEG1/2, RV, H.263, WMV7/8)
- audio: àóäèî: MP3, MP2, WAV, WMA, FLAC, APE, HE-AAC, RA
As you have already noticed, SP-H03 displays any up-to-date content without any difficulty and the facility of looking through Microsoft Office documents is a unique function in fact.
The range of the functions included is enough for carrying out any kind of standard operations easily. Video and audio recordings can be switched, rewound, paused, etc. Photos can be viewed as slide-show.
The manufacturer has designed it so that it can be used in level position. The distance from a pico-projector to a screen can range from 0.3 to 3.0 metres. At the maximum distance the diagonal of the image is about 2.5 metres (100 inches), but taking into consideration that the resolution is rather low we can figure out that the image is not that impressive in this case. In our opinion, the optimal distance should not be more than 1.0 – 1.5 metres. In this case the image is not that big but crisp and saturated.
If the background is white, the color transfer is good. But it has become evident to us that it is good as long as you use the device in rooms with subdued light. Even natural lighting makes using SP-H03 pretty uncomfortable. Its contrast ratio is barely enough to make out image. If the text is in small print, you can hardly see anything even in a dark room. Therefore you should take it into account when preparing a presentation.
The brightness of the illumination drops a bit when it is operated off the line but not critically. Battery life is about an hour and a half, which is enough for having a regular presentation. The cooling system does not make much noise but if it is quiet in the room, you can hear air rustling. As you can assume, the projector case gets warmer but it doesn’t cause any discomfort, SP-H03 just becomes warm.
On the whole the impression of using the device is positive. The pico-projector reads files of the declared formats without any difficulty and drags, displays video and audio, as well as pictures. It is easy to operate it. Even inexperienced users don’t have difficulty. However while testing the device we caught ourselves at feeling the lack of a remote control a lot and had to come up to the device each time we needed to switch over to another image, for instance.
Delivery set
The device is sold in a lovely box made of color cardboard.
The set contents are quite satisfying as inside you can find the following:
- a pico-projector Samsung SP-H03
- a network adapter
- an adapter connector for connecting to a PC
- an adapter connector for AV-connection
- an adapter connector for the USB flash drive
- a case bag
- a disk with a user manual
- a warranty service coupon and a quick setup manual
As you can see there are all the necessary things in the box and the set of cables and adapter connectors is more than enough for the pico-projector functioning smoothly. We would also like to point out that the network adapter can be used in any country as its ac voltage amplitude is from 100 to 240 V.
Conclusion
The result of testing the pico-projector Samsung SP-H03 has turned out to be both expectable and surprising at the same time. We haven’t found any considerable drawbacks and we believe that devices of the kind became high-quality ones long ago. The range of functions is not that big but the performance capabilities that are available are pleasing. The manufacturer has decided to turn down a number of excessive menu items and having put effort into making it easy-to-use.
As a result, the device can successfully cope with all the common file types: from audio and video to Microsoft Office documents. Even an inexperienced user can operate it. Files can be kept in the embedded memory, on a microSD card or any USB flash drive. The SP-H03 battery life time is about 1.5 hours. It couldn’t be better. By the way, if there was a remote control, operating the pico-projector would be even more enjoyable and it would be great if it supported HDMI as well.
However the brightness of the luminous flux is beneath criticism. It’s clear that the manufacturer paid most of their attention to the battery life time, yet 30 lm is a very bad characteristic at present, even among pico-projectors. As a result the make can be used only in considerably blackout rooms and with a white screen only. We are not sure about the future of Samsung SP-H03 taking into consideration its price of $450. It copes with the role of a showy and trendy device but we doubt whether we should regard it as an instrument useful for monotonous routine work.
