Plug your smartphone into a portable pico projector and use any wall for movies, presentations, or life-sized Angry Birds. When these pocket-sized movie machines first started popping up a few years ago, the earliest models were dim, chunky-looking, and had poor color balance. Not only have the optics and the display technologies improved significantly since then, but our source files have gotten a bump as well. We're carrying around hours and hours of HD video in our pockets or on our iPads, and pico projectors have stepped up their game accordingly. The newest generation of projector tech affords better color control, contrast, and focus. The latest crop is also brighter. Most picos pump out between 15 and 50 lumens—you'll still need a dark room, but that's a big improvement. Some models will also dress up your visuals with additional processing like white balance correction and auto keystone correction. And what fun is Office Space on your cubicle wall without great sound to match? Some of the units we tested glossed over that part of the equation, but some of them crank out the decibels at a level that rivals the best speaker docks.

Photo: Jens Mortensen