Since I've tested the the Margi Presenter-to-Go card I'm really impressed of its possibilities. Therefore I did some deeper investigations how it works in real life environments. Specially I'm fascinated to use it with a video projector instead using a more expensive Notebook.

Thanks to Compaq I got one of its fantastic iPAQ projectors - the iPAQ MP2810. The most important for me was to see how presentations looks with this high-end projector using a Notebook versus an iPAQ. So I made some sample presentations to compare it by myself and also my Girlfriend had a look which presentation is running on which device. She uses projectors in her job near daily, so she was the perfect test candidate. Here are the results.

The 2 pictures below are real photos I made while I used the iPAQ MP2810 video projector. Can you spot any differences? I'm sure you can't.

The original PowerPoint presentation
Can you spot the difference? Which is the Notebook, which is the iPAQ with Presenter-to-Go?

 

This result really persuaded me that a Notebook isn't necessary anymore, if you plan to hold PowerPoint presentations only in the future. For you as the user, a Pocket PC, Margi Presenter-to-Go, Video Projector solution has some real advantages, specially if you take such a small and light weighted projector like the Compaq iPAQ MP2810:

Beside the weight reduction you can reduce the luggage you have to carry with you as the iPAQ fits into the bag of the video projector very easy, no hassle to carry a Notebook and a projector bag with you. Also you have no more hassle at the security checks on the airports of the world where you have to put the Notebook separate now on the X-Ray machine and have to boot it anyhow later. Your iPAQ can be switched on/off with a fingertip.

But on the cost side you can also save some bugs as Margi explain on its site:

For a 30 minute presentation, 15 minutes are wasted in setup tasks such as booting up, resolution settings, application setup, projection setup, troubleshooting etc. Similarly, wrapping up can take 5 minutes.

A typical presentation with

Laptop: 15 + 30 + 5 = 50 minutes (setup + presentation length + wrap-up time)
Presenter-to-Go/Pocket PC: 1 + 30 + 1 = 32 minutes = 18 minutes saved per presentation

And with an average billing rate of $60/hour,
10 presentations a month can save you 60*10*0.3 = $180 monthly or $2,160 yearly
20 presentations a month can save you 60*20*0.3 = $360 monthly or $4,320 yearly

Plus the money you can save if you buy a Pocket PC/Margi Presenter-to-Go combination only and not a Notebook. This is more than interesting for companies where a lot of people has Notebooks because this staff held presentation from time to time.

Final Conclusion

This combination still kicks me! Specially when I was playing with the Compaq projector it was so easy to setup the presentation. It took seconds only, the longest was switching on the projector and the results was fabulous. Your audience will not see any differences in the presentation quality if you are using a Pocket PC with Margi Presenter-to-Go only!

Cheers ~ Arne