Acer K11 Projector - Image Quality
7-22-2011 - Mike Rollet
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Acer K11 Color & Picture Quality
To begin, I started with my laptop connected via HDMI and fed the K11 its native resolution (858 x 600). With this input and using the Bright mode, the K11 provided a very nice, sharp image. Somewhat surprisingly for a Bright mode, colors were well saturated and quite accurate. Switching to Presentation mode, I felt the colors appeared washed out and lost accuracy. Video and Picture modes also displayed well balanced color, albeit at a drastic reduction in lumen output as compared to Bright mode. Game and Standard mode were just okay. As the colors can be improved through the use of some of the controls mentioned in the Setup and Menu section of this review, you can pretty much tune the projector to your liking, although with a maximum of only 200 lumens available, I don’t see any reason to use anything but Bright mode in anything but a pitch black room.
Photo presentations look very nice with the K11, again in either Bright or Picture modes. Switching over to the K11’s VGA input provided no noticeable changes in color reproduction.
Typically, mini projectors have an issue with brightness uniformity, as there can be a noticeable drop in brightness from the center of the displayed image to the edges. The K11 did quite well in this regard, with less than a 20% drop along the edges of the displayed image.
Below, the Acer K11 projector in bright mode.
Below, Presentation mode.
Below, Video mode.
Acer K11 Projector: Readability
The K11 provided a very sharp, clean image with any of our text-based source material. Our usual spreadsheet, which has a range of text sizes and colors, was easily readable for all color and size combinations (from 8 pt. to 36 pt. text and white text-on-black or yellow text-on-dark blue backgrounds). Of course, our projected image was only 50” diagonal, so we would expect better sharpness from such a small image.
Switching to higher resolutions and aspect ratios than its default 858 x 600, the K11 performed very well. Moving up to 1280 x 800 (higher resolution and different aspect ratio) resolution, the K11 continued to display a sharp, clean image. Small (8 pt.) text remained quite readable and there was no color separation or overlap. As we’ve noted in the past, compression and scaling technology has gotten to the point where the display quality of non-standard resolutions and aspect ratios is nearly indistinguishable from the projector’s standard resolution. Nonetheless, such ability is not expected in such a small, low priced projector like the K11.
Below, the Acer K11 projector in native resolution.
Below, in 1280x800 (WXGA) resolution.
Acer K11 Projector: Video Quality
While the K11 is more likely to be used for still presentations rather than video, it accounted for itself quite nicely. I used the DVD playback from my laptop computer, connected via HDMI, to check out the video quality. The low lumen output requires a light-controlled environment, but the good color reproduction in Bright mode provides a very good video experience. With no color wheel, the typical DLP rainbow effect (most often noticeable in lower cost projectors) is eliminated. While the K11 will not likely be anyone’s preferred video display device, it is very watchable for short to medium length video presentations.
When it comes to audio, the K11’s tiny, one-watt speaker is only suitable for very small groups or for sound effects more than speech. Unfortunately, there is no audio output, so you’ll have to split off the audio at the source.
Overall, with the proper light controlled environment, the K11 is able to provide solid video reproduction, while maintaining good color balance and contrast.