Acer S5201M Projector - Physical Tour-1

Acer S5201M Appearance

On top of the projector, toward the rear left corner, is a control panel with basic control functions.  There are indicator lights for Power, Temp and Lamp.  There are buttons for Power, Source selection, Menu and menu navigation (Up/Down/Left/Right buttons).  The Menu button also acts as a Select button once a menu item has been highlighted.  The Up/Down buttons also function for keystone correction adjustment.  There are also buttons for Resync (for syncing the projector to a new source) and an “e” key for accessing Acer empowering technology (see “Special Features” above).  In front of the control panel, the left half of the projector top is a removable cover to access the lamp.  This makes lamp replacement easy if the projector is ceiling mounted.

On the right and left sides of the projector are the two 5-watt stereo speakers, as well as additional intake and exhaust vents.  On the rear, bottom corner of the left side is a Kensington lock port.

Acer S5201M Setup and Menus

Click to enlarge. So close.

The S5201M (and short throw projectors in general) does not have any zoom capability (other than a digital zoom), so setup can be slow as the projector must to be positioned at both the correct height and distance from the screen.  Fortunately, in addition to the front height adjustable foot, the S5201M also has two rear adjustable feet.  So, setup can be achieved fairly quickly and without the use of keystone adjustment.  That being said, the S5201M’s keystone correction works quite well and, when judiciously used, does not cause noticeable distortion.  Also, there is an OSD (on-screen display) that displays a grid that can be used while positioning the projector and making adjustments with the manual keystone correction to properly align the displayed image.

 

Click Image to Enlarge

Once it’s in position, the user can select the desired display mode from the main menu and make the usual adjustments (contrast, brightness, color and tint) to the picture.  As we noted with other Acer projectors we’ve reviewed, Acer includes a wide range of available adjustments.  There are five picture modes (plus a User mode) and five wall color settings to choose from.  You also have a choice of different color temperatures and degamma settings, plus RGB levels.  While most projectors either don’t offer this level of adjustment in every mode, or require multiple menus, the Acer S5201M does it all in the main menu with any picture mode as the starting point.  Overall, this is an impressive array of control for any projector in this price range.