Widescreen Projectors

Widescreen digital projectors for business

The growing shift to widescreen laptop displays and computer monitors is giving rise to an increasing number of widescreen business projectors, mostly with WXGA and SXGA+ resolutions. Experts such as Art Feierman at ProjectorReviews.com note that widescreen displays have lots of advantages for business applications. "The extra width means more words on a line (many bullet points on a presentation that would require two lines, now take only one)," Feierman writes. "Even better, widescreen is more ideal for displaying a combination of text and images side by side, or even video and text side by side."

Note that although business-oriented widescreen projectors are capable of showing every bit of a 1,280 pixels by 720 pixels high-definition image, they must scale the higher resolution of 1,920 pixels by 1,080 pixels for display. On the other hand, projectors designed for home theater can display 1,920-by-1,080-pixel images without scaling, and also have higher contrast ratios for deeper blacks. However, home theater projectors aren't the best choices for most business situations because they have lower brightness levels and tend to be bulkier and heavier. Some are notably better performers with video than they are with static images, such as a PowerPoint slide. They are also pricier. For more information about home theater projectors, see the separate ConsumerSearch report.

Among widescreen business projectors, reviews point to the Epson PowerLite 400W (*Est. $1,300) as the best option. This WXGA LCD projector has a native resolution of 1,280 pixels by 800 pixels, meaning it can display widescreen HD (1,280 pixels by 720 pixels) and computer XGA (1,024 pixels by 768 pixels) images without scaling or cropping, though the highest HD resolution (1,920 pixels by 1,080 pixels) will need to be scaled prior to display.

Reviews point to lots of pluses. One big one -- literally -- is the oversized wide-angle lens that allows users to place the projector much closer to the screen than is typical. "You can fill a moderate sized screen (say an 87 inches diagonal 16:10 image), from only 3.5 feet back, compared to the usual 7 feet or further for most projectors," notes Art Feierman of ProjectorReviews.com. While that's not as close as the ultra-short-throw projectors profiled earlier, it is still impressive and increases flexibility. Audio quality is a cut above most portable digital projectors, and the 10-watt audio system does a decent job of filling even medium-sized conference rooms with sound.

There are negatives, of course. One is that there is no optical zoom, and only a limited digital zoom, meaning you'll need to move the projector itself to accommodate screen sizes, etc. The large lens is also a bit of a fingerprint and dust magnet. At 7.9 pounds, the Epson PowerLite 400W is also on the heavy side.

The Optoma EP1691 (*Est. $1,000) is another widescreen projector worth considering. It replaces the discontinued Optoma EP1690, which was very well received. Feedback on the EP1691 is limited, but fairly positive. Laptop magazine awards it four out of five stars, and despite some flaws, calls it "easily one of the best projector values on the market."

The Optoma EP1691 is a WXGA projector with a native resolution of 1,280 pixels by 768 pixels. Brightness is rated at 2,500 lumens. Laptop magazine's tests measured a little less light output -- 1,968 lumens -- but reviewer Rich Malloy says that the projector is "still plenty bright for most typical business environments." The remote has a good feature set, but button arrangement isn't the best. The menu structure is on the complicated side as well. Fan noise is "noticeable but quite acceptable" in most instances, though it becomes distracting when the fan "kicks into high gear," as would happen if the projector became unacceptably warm. This happened occasionally during Laptop magazine's testing, regardless of the projector's brightness mode.