Short-throw projectors are nothing new. In fact, short-throw projectors from Sony aren't either. Whatever the company's Portable Ultra Short Throw Projector lacks in innovation, though, it makes up for in design.
The tiny short-throw theater-maker showed up earlier this month at CES, but it finally also has a release date and price, at least in Japan, where it will be available February 13th for the equivalent of roughly $800. If that sounds like a lot, please do keep in mind that Sony's 4K theater projector, announced last year, costs a whopping $50,000.
It's not hard to see where Sony dropped a extra zeros from the price tag. While the latest model offers the same 1920 x 720 resolution, it creates an image with up to an 80-inch diagonal, rather than the 147-inches on the pricy model. And, most importantly, it lacks the futuristic laser-focus tricks of its predecessor.
All of which is OK! It outputs at a bright-ish, but not blinding, 100 lumens, includes an HDMI input, and can connect to your smartphone via Bluetooth Low Energy. Better still, it's tiny and adorable, like a white plump, old Apple TV. It gets up to two hours of battery life, so you can make it through at least one episode of Longmire, and because it's so small, you can adjust it to put the image on a desk, on the floor, on the ceiling, or wherever, go nuts, you paid good money for that projector so you should project wherever you want. You can even pair it with an equally adorable stand.
Short-throw projectors might be a bit of an indulgence. You can get more mileage and a better picture out of a gigantic TV. But it's rare to find one that looks as good as the picture it provides, that throws in plenty of versatility as well. Sony hasn't said exactly when it'll come to the US yet, but you can expect by this summer, just in time for a backyard, blanket-screen, short-throw movie night.
This post has been updated with the resolution of the new projector and the display size of last year's model.
