IBM ILM300

The ILM300 projector displays all the right qualities.

Price: £2902.25

Manufacturer: IBM

Ratings

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Verdict

Pros:
Small; light; bright and quiet.

Cons:
Remote reception patchy.

Overall:
You'd be hard pushed to find a better option for on-the-road presentation than the ILM300. It's easy to carry and set up, can be connected to a variety of sources and boasts excellent picture quality.

Ken McMahon, Personal Computer World 01 Apr 2003

With the ILM300, IBM joins the ranks of PC manufacturers to have released a microportable DLP projector in recent months.

At 1.1kg, the ILM300 weighs a fraction more than a bag of sugar, and is small enough to fit in a carry case along with your notebook PC.

Native resolution is XGA and other resolutions up to a maximum of 1,280 x 1,024 can be scaled, but image quality will suffer, particularly with text.

It's finished in IBM's trademark matt black, as is the remote, which has a trackball instead of a pad for operating the on-screen menu as well as functioning as a remote mouse controller.

A small rear panel houses an M1-DA connector, an increasingly popular choice on projectors - and the best option, as it provides both analogue and digital connections in one port.

The supplied M1-DA to VGA cable includes an integral USB connector for the remote mouse function.

Additionally there are S-Video, composite video and audio-in ports, though you're probably better off with external speakers.

The 1.25:1 zoom lens makes fitting the projected image to the screen a simple task and the auto input sensing worked without problems.

Picture quality was excellent both with text and graphics-based presentation material and digital video.

The image was sharp across the entire screen, colours were bright and saturated, blacks were solid and yet there was good detail in the shadows.

The ILM300 performs very well in a partially lit environment and you could be forgiven for supposing that the light output rating was higher than the quoted 1,100 Ansi lumens.

It's not only bright, it's very quiet. With a noise rating of 32dB you don't feel like you're competing for attention with a vacuum cleaner.

Specifications