HWM+HardwareZone.com Tech Awards 2016: Editor's Choice - Part 2

Best Business Projector

Best Business Projector

Getting a bright projector is important if you’re buying it as a presentation tool. So for this business projector category, we requested for projectors with a minimum brightness of 3,200 lumens. We also narrowed down to those designed for conference room and classroom use, and which are priced around S$1,200. While they can either be using 3LCD or DLP tech, they all must have at least a WXGA native resolution (that is, 1,280 x 800 pixels).

Nominees:

• Canon LV-WX320
• Epson EB-W31
• NEC M323W
• Panasonic PT-LW362

And the winner is...

One advantage of DLP projectors is that you don't need to change their filter as often as 3LCD projectors. While the Panasonic PT-LW362 is a 3LCD projector, the good thing is Panasonic has designed it in such a way that you only need to do it when you replace the lamp. If you were to use the most energy-saving Eco 2 mode, that's a long 10,000 hours.

Equipped with one HDMI, two D-sub, and one composite video inputs, the PT-LW362 has you pretty much covered video-wise. For more bang for the buck, Panasonic even manages to squeeze in a LAN jack, two USB ports (for functions like USB Display and USB memory viewer), and a monitor output. For admins, the LAN jack is compatible with PJLink control, which is useful if you need to manage different brands of projectors.

In our tests, the PT-LW362 was a very bright projector, not a surprise since this is a 3,600-lumen-rated projector (when Dynamic mode is used). Arial at 7.5 points looked really crisp and colors punchy. Video performance wasn’t too shabby either, with sufficient details and a high-enough contrast. The Epson EB-W31, another 3LCD model, also showed high brightness and vivid colors, but it had a weak speaker. If you prefer a more flexible lens, the DLP-based NEC M323W stands out with its 1.7x zoom lens; the others are either 1.1x or 1.2x.

Ultimately though, the PT-LW362 gets our nod for its good overall balance of data/video performance and features. The attractive price tag makes recommending it all the more easier.

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