As a seasoned road warrior, I can tell you that one of the worst things about being on the road is lugging extra pounds of equipment. Every opportunity to lighten the load is an opportunity worth taking. So devices that push the envelope on light weight are always welcome.

The Joybee GP1 Mini Projector from BenQ (pronounced ben-kew) is one of those welcome devices. Like other projectors, you can plug the Joybee GP1 into the video output of your laptop and project your monitor on an external screen or wall. But most business class projectors are heavy -- usually weighing in at 3 to 7 pounds. The Joybee GP1 weighs only 1.4 pounds, making it much easier to carry. It's small size, about 6 inches square and 2 inches deep, makes it easy to tuck away in a briefcase or travel bag.

Despite its small size and weight, the Joybee GP1 is business worthy, which to me means it projects a good enough picture to be used in most business situations. That doesn't mean that it can power a screen big enough to be seen by hundreds of people, because it simply doesn't pack the brightness that will project on a screen big enough to be high quality at that size. But it will give you enough screen brightness for offices and standard meeting rooms. It includes on-board speakers that get pretty loud in those close confines too.

If you really want to lose some weight as you travel, you can set up the Joybee GP1 so you can do without your computer. Simply put your presentation on a USB drive and plug it directly into the USB jack on the projector. The Joybee lets you play your own slide show or project a movie in various formats.

But you'll have to do it Joybee's way -- and that means not in PowerPoint. Remember, this is not a Windows computer, so PowerPoint doesn't run on it. I experimented with PowerPoint and other formats, and found that if I set up the GP1 in advance to show a slide show using jpeg or tiff files, it works pretty well. So if you create your presentation in PowerPoint format, you'll need to output in one of these or another format accepted by the GP1.

While the weight of the Joybee GP1 is a delight, the way BenQ engineers got there is not perfect. They put the power adapter in a separate block, much like they do with laptops. So you still have to carry around some bulk beyond the 1.4 pounds. The case that comes with the GP1 holds only the projector and isn't big enough for the cords or power brick.

The hardware controls are touch-sensitive, brightly back-lit buttons on the top of the projector, which take some time to get used to but work fine.

If you can deal with these idiosyncrasies, the Joybee is quite useful.

Among the advanced features are the ability to project from a tabletop or hang from a ceiling and a nice range of adjustments for picture, sound and even for high altitudes. The Joybee's software also can adjust your projected picture to compensate for the so-called keystone effect that happens when you project on an upward angle, which normally causes the picture to be wider on top than on the bottom.

I found only two GP1 shopping listings on the Web -- from a distributor at $719 or direct from BenQ for $499. A carrying case that holds the cables along with the projector will set you back around $70.