Toshiba TDP-FF1AU

By Rich Malloy
Current Price: $936.18 - $946.19

Mind you, we are still pretty much in the prehistoric era of battery-powered projector evolution, but our favorite among the current crop is the Toshiba TDP-FF1AU. Although it is markedly dimmer than the other models and hard to focus, we highly value its compact size, its superior remote control, and its USB input port. And who wouldn’t love its attractively low price?

This tiny projector is about the size of the Boxlight and Mitsubishi models, but its battery has a better design. Instead of sitting below the projector, it attaches to the unit’s rear panel, barely increasing the overall footprint. The battery is thus an integral yet detachable part of the device. More important, it is included in the projector’s already low price.

Besides the battery, the TDP-FF1AU comes with a number of other interesting features. It is, for example, the only battery-powered projector to have a lens cap, albeit an easily misplaced one owing to its lack of a tether. Also, it has a USB port rather than an SD Card slot. A VGA cable is included, enabling you to advance slides on your laptop via the remote control. Toshiba even throws in a foldable 23-inch diagonal projection screen.

The key strength of a battery-powered projector is the ability to use it alone, without a laptop. To make this possible, the TDP-FF1AU includes a USB Type A connector, which means you can run a presentation off a USB flash memory drive, or even from certain MP3 players. As with the other pint-size projectors, you must first save your presentation as a series of JPEG files.