Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

UPDATE, Sep. 19, 2013: Nearly a year after this review, the iPad streaming still works, but has become a bit glitchy. I'm chalking it up to iOS 7 (I'm now getting warnings that the Apple HDMI adapter is not compatible). See the comments thread for some information about how I still manage to get iPad streaming to work with this projector. It's not as simple as it once was, but it still works. UPDATE: Thanks to commenters for clarifying...this ACCEPTS 720p input. This does not PROJECT in 720p. Take the time to read the comments attached to this review. Before I got this, I read a lot of forums where people speculated about the quality to expect. They said things like "don't expect better than 480p resolution" and "at best, this will only work in a very dark room". Well I am happy to say that "they" were wrong. This is not an awesome projector, but it is awesome FOR THE PRICE. There are 4 reasons for me to recommend this: 1) It's bright enough to use during the day. Right now, it's 4:30pm, on an overcast day, and daylight is entering my two south-facing living room windows. With the projector 9 feet from a wall directly opposite the windows (giving me an image that is roughly 6 feet across), the image is acceptable. Pull the curtains, and the image is better. Wait until night time? Better still. The point is, although this is not a high-powered projector (it couldn't possibly be, for the price), it's quite acceptable. Are the kids having a sleepover? This would be a great way to entertain them. 2) The Roku Streaming Stick setup was as smooth as could be. In fact, I did all the setup without even opening the manual. Since I already have a Roku box, setting this up was even easier. Once I logged in with my Roku account, the setup included putting all the same channels on the stick that were already on the box. I also have the iPhone app that lets me control my Roku box. I tried the app with the Roku stick, and it worked flawlessly. Really, this could not have been an easier process. (Side note: Even though it put the Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu channels on there for me, I still need to go through the one-time "linking" of each account with the stick.) 3) The output is 720p. At first, I doubted this...the projector started up in 480p mode. But as soon as I connected the streaming stick, it automatically switched to the higher-resolution 720p mode. [UPDATE...this accepts inputs up to 720p...but output is NOT 720p. Be sure to read the comment thread after this review.] 4) It works with my iPad! This was a pleasant surprise. Knowing nothing about the Roku streaming stick, I had expected that the stick had a USB interface. I was wrong. It has an HDMI interface. So, I wondered, since I have an HDMI connector for my iPad: Could I connect the iPad to the projector? The answer: YES! I was able to mirror my iPad on the 3M projector. In fact, I tried the Netflix iPad app, and it worked perfectly (including pushing the audio through to the projector). My ONLY complaint is that the sound from the projector is too quiet. For something that is supposed to be able to project a large image, one might expect that the sound would be comparable. It is not. In fact, the projector has a cooling fan that runs all the time, and I can actually hear the fan over the audio. Fortunately, there is a 3.5mm jack that can be used for external speakers or for headphones. Don't expect to be blown away, and you won't be disappointed. This is a handy little projector, with better than expected versatility and image quality. Definitely good for the price!