Over the past couple of months, quite a few pico projectors have hit the consumer electronics market, this trend becoming more and more important among the various projection solutions' manufacturers. In fact, as some of you might remember, we saw quite a few devices of this type on display at CeBIT 2009 as well, but not Castrade's models, which will only be available on the Japanese market.

And that's also the case with the company's latest announcement, the CV-MP02, introduced only a short while ago. This pico projector takes a lot after one of its competitors, the 3M Mpro110, providing pretty much the same features, with only a couple of more or less minor differences.

Hence, the CV-MP02 uses LCoS technology for creating the images, as well as an LED light system that provides a 10-lumen brightness level, besides requiring a lot less power than a usual lamp system and being a lot cooler and generating a lot less noise. And since we're on the subject of power consumption, it's also interesting to note that the CV-MP02 is equipped with a Li-Ion battery that provides an estimated functioning autonomy time of around one hour.

From the point of view of connectivity options, the pico projector from Castrade is rather standard, featuring just a composite and a VGA port. Hence, the weight of the projector is kept at a minimum, while the level of versatility is not particularly bad (not great, either, though).  

As for availability, things aren't looking too great for Castrade's pico projector. Hence, the device will only arrive on the Japanese market in the near future and will sell for somewhere in the vicinity of 35,000 Yen (or around 400 US dollars), which makes it more expensive than the similar offering from 3M, which, after all, was the first to develop such a miniature projecting system.


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