What's missing is a VGA port for connecting laptops. I used a scan converter, which weighed at least as much as the projector, to transform the computer's output for the projector.

The Pico is the only projector of the three with a speaker, but that's on a par with a cheap AM radio. The black and silver frame holds a 480-by-320 resolution 0.17-in. DLP imaging chip that delivers one-third the number of imaging pixels as the M109S. Optoma specs the Pico Projector with a 1000:1 contrast ratio.

Like 3M's MPro110, the Pico can create an image of between 6 and 60 inches (diagonally) at a distance of around 1 to 7.5 feet. There's no keystone correction, remote control or zoom lens. Its LED light source is rated at 20,000 hours of use (double the others), which translates into 25 years of Monday-through-Friday use for four hours a day -- something I was obviously unable to test for this article.

A fast starter, the Pico PK-101 was up and running in 3.9 seconds. It offers two brightness settings: dim and dimmer. At full power, the Pico put out 7.9 lumens of light and consumes 4 watts of power, one-eighth that of the M109S and just below the MPro110. This drops to a paltry 5.2 lumens in low mode, which requires 2 watts -- about the power drain of a television when it's turned off.

Overall, the projector's focus was sharp and showed surprisingly good color balance, but at a much lower resolution than the others. Its whites were blue and the upper-right corner of the screen was very dim. Viewers could easily read 14-point type from 5 feet away.