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HWM+HardwareZone.com Tech Awards 2012: Editor's Choice - Part 1

By Team HardwareZone - 29 Feb 2012

Best DLP Portable Business Projector

Best DLP Portable Business Projector

DLP projectors continue to find favor in businesses and schools thanks to their advantages in size and weight compared to 3LCD projectors. Administrators also love their low maintenance cost. Apart from changing the lamp, DLP projectors typically don’t require you to change their filters as frequently as their LCD counterparts, if at all. And if you need a projector that can project 3D data from the PC, there’s no easier way than getting a 3D-ready DLP projector that uses DLP Link.

Here, we look at three single-chip DLP projectors that are suitable for businesses and schools. They are all priced no more than S$1,200, have a native resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels (XGA), and brightness of at least 2,700 ANSI lumens. At well under 3kg, these beamers are suitable for the mobile professionals too. 

Nominees:

  • InFocus IN114
  • NEC V300X
  • ViewSonic PJD5233

And the Winner Is...

The NEC V300X is our best-performing single-chip DLP business projector. 

In addition to two VGA inputs (great for switching between presentations), and one each for S-Video and composite, the 3,000-lumen V300X is equipped with an HDMI port for digital signals. An RJ45 port is also present for wired LAN connectivity. As the V300X supports DLP Link, it makes for an inexpensive 3D projector. This is particularly useful in schools, as they only need to prepare 3D content and active shutter eyeglasses to create an immersive learning experience for the students. Despite having a single-chip DLP engine, the V300XG shines when displaying data, such as PowerPoint slides: colors look vibrant, and text is impeccably sharp, even at very small font sizes. Videos look smooth and have good contrast. Rainbow artifacts, while present, are few and far between. While its 7W monaural speaker is the most powerful of the trio, and the sound is capable of filling up a conference room, it lacks clarity at the highest volume. All in all, from portability, connectivity, and image quality points of view, it's clear to us that the NEC V300X ticks the most number of right boxes.

Scoring Breakdown
  InFocus IN114 NEC V300X ViewSonic PJD5233
Physique 8.5 8.0 8.0
Features 7.5 8.0 7.5
User-friendliness 8.0 8.0 8.0
Performance 7.5 8.0 7.5
Value 8.0 9.0 9.5
Overall 7.5 8.0 8.0
Price S$899 S$1,199 S$999

For more details on how we selected our winners, check out the full reviews and articles listed at the References section at the end.

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