The Epson PowerLite 109W is a WXGA (1280 x 800) business and education projector claiming a wall melting 4,000 lumens. This brightness claim makes it suitable for classrooms and conference rooms where there is little control over the amount of ambient light that enters the space. Its 3LCD technology, coupled with the high brightness, means this projector will not only cut through the ambient light, but maintain excellent color while doing so. 3LCD projectors produce the same amount of color lumens as they do white ones, so you can expect the Epson PowerLite 109W to be vibrant whether the room is fully darkened or not.

Like always, I’ll begin this review of the Epson PowerLite 109W with a brief overview, followed by some highlights before moving on to a list of its special features. We will also tour the hardware, discuss picture quality, and talk about performance before summing it all up for you on the last page. By the end of this review, you should know if the Epson PowerLite 109W  is the right projector for your business or education applications. Let’s get started!

We wish to thank Epson America for sponsoring this year’s Best Classroom Projectors report.  

The Epson PowerLite 109W is a 4,000 lumen projector, and if past experience is anything to go by, you can expect this Epson to meet or exceed that brightness claim. The W in the “109W” model number stands for WXGA resolution (1280 x 800). Consider WXGA to be the business and education world’s 720p – so, expect a nicely sharp image, though not as good as 1080p (or WUXGA, in this case). For most business and education applications, WXGA will perform brilliantly. With a list price of just $749, this projector will be quite attractive to K-12 school districts, and offices requiring more than one projector.

It has an impressive lamp life of up to 12,000 hours in ECO Mode – remember, however, that ECO Modes tend to reduce the brightness of the projector by up to half. Still, even if you were running the projector at full power all the time, you can expect the lamp life to be around 6,000 hours. That’s quite a bit more than the average! That is substantial when you consider the projector will likely be used about 20 hours a week or less.

Running 20 hours a week, 10 months out of the year is only 870 hours per year, so it will be over 7 years before you’d have to replace that lamp running at full power. Good deal! And, when you do need to replace that lamp, Epson has an excellent education program that gives discounts to school districts on the projector and its accessories. So, if you’re looking for a projector for education applications, Epson is a brand to seriously consider.

The Epson PowerLite 109W weighs just over 6 lbs, making it a portable projector. This means it can easily be shared amongst conference rooms or classrooms if necessary. The projector has some features desirable amongst those looking for a business and education projector such as wireless capabilities and compatibility with the iProjection app by Epson, which we’ll get deeper into on our Special Features page! Let’s check out the projector’s highlights before taking a closer look at its features and performance.

The BenQ MH733 Projector is a compact, 5.5 pound full HD, DLP projector claiming 4000 lumens and potentially 15,000 hours of lamp life. Built with the traveling presenter in mind, the BenQ MH733 is sturdy all around but not too bulky making it perfectly portable for the road.  For the more stationary inclined, this projector is more than suitable for being ceiling mounted, placed on an AV cart, or just throwing it on the conference table when needed.

A 10 watt speaker provides a formidable audio option, but, when needed, the MH733 projector’s  audio out port is there to connect to a room sound system or supplemental powered speakers.  With a full 1080P HD picture, a 16,000:1 contrast ratio, and a 16:9 native aspect ratio, the BenQ MH733 boasts a sharp, crisp picture with easy to read text and clear images.

We wish to thank Epson America for sponsoring this year’s Best Classroom Projectors report.  

This BenQ is the top of the line in this M73 series, next to the MW732, and MX731, which are WXGA and XGA respectively.  The MH733 comes in at $799, while the MW732 is $699, and the MX731 appears be about $599 at most outlets.  As you would expect, each of the projectors in this series offer the same 10 Watt speaker mentioned above, and many other capabilities in common.

The series includes tons of presenting versatility thanks to wireless dongle capability (sold separately - $59) and BenQ’s QCast App.  Features like split screen, multiple screens from multiple devices, meeting control, seamless mobile device or computer display, and QCast can even can act as a remote for your projector if needed.

As an classroom, or business solution around the office, the M7 series is fully compatible with the most common projector control systems including Crestron, AMX, PJ-Link, and Extron.

For the presenter on the go, BenQ’s seamless USB Reader makes presenting without a computer incredibly easy, saving you extra cords, space, and time.

All in all, the BenQ MH733 is a versatile, high brightness projector, with lots of features that make a solid solution for any business or school looking for a quality, powerful, and 1080p sharp projector in the  sub-$800 range.

The InFocus IN2128hdx is a Full HD (1920 x 1080) native resolution, compact portable projector that is built for easy connectivity whether on the go or mounted permanently for your school or business.  It comes in priced at $999 and weighing in at 5 lbs, with a 10 watt speaker to satisfy your audio needs.  The IN2128HDx claims a 4000 lumens output of brightness, a 15,000:1 contrast ratio, and 3D Blu-ray capability.  The projector also comes with a 2 year product warranty and 6 month lamp warranty included.

The IN2120x series from InFocus includes 3 projectors in total, the IN2128HDx, the IN2126x, and the IN2124x, listed at $999, $899, and $849 respectively.  InFocus claims each projector to have 4000+ lumens of brightness, the IN2128HDx is lowest at 4000, while the other two projectors are claimed to both have 4200 lumens.  While it has the lowest lumens output, the 2128 does boast the best full HD (1920 x 1080) resolution as compared to native XGA and WXGA for the 2124 and 2126 respectively.  Each projector claims to get about 5,000 hours of lamp life in Eco mode and about 2,000 hours in Normal mode.  Lastly, each of these projectors comes with the same, strong 10 watt speaker mentioned before, and they are all Lightcast ready to take fully advantage of all the connectivity features of this series.

Back to just the IN2128HDx, the projector is 3.9 inches tall and 11.5 inches wide by 8.7 inches long. It is ceiling mountable, yet also clearly portable based on its size.  There is a single HDMI input, a composite video, an S-Video, two VGA inputs, two audio stereo inputs, one audio out, and one monitor (VGA) out.  There is no lens cover but the lens is recessed on the projector.

The IN2128HDx includes a full Color Management System, used to customize your image in order to ensure you get the colors you want on the screen.  In addition, InFocus boasts about the connectivity abilities for this projector.  You have the ability to utilize the on-board file viewer to present photos, PowerPoint presentations, spreadsheets, PDFs, audio, video, and more; or present directly from a USB thumb drive.  As well, you can make your IT team’s job easier and connect your projectors to your internal school or business network for easy remote management.

Finally, in addition to the strong 10 watt speaker, InFocus gives you the ability to not only utilize an external speaker source, but you can, using any external speaker whether subwoofer or regular speaker, and combine that speaker with the projector’s internal speaker.

All in all, the IN2128HDx is a strong, compact portable projector that gives you a sharp, full HD picture, powerful sound, and everything you need in terms of connectivity to make your presentation a success with regularity.

The Epson BrightLink 710Ui is a WUXGA (1920 x 1200) laser projector with interactive capabilities. This $3,499 3LCD projector boasts a wall-melting 4,000 lumens and comes complete with the interactive module, two interactive pens and batteries, a wall mount, and SMART Learning Suite for creating interactive lessons. At this higher (but reasonable) price point, the BrightLink 710Ui may be most suitable for higher education and high schools, though Epson does have a fantastic education program that makes this projector more attainable for school districts.

I am a big fan of interactive projectors for education. There are three learning styles typical of students today: Visual, Auditory, and Kinesthetic. A visual learner will respond well to seeing the content, while an auditory learner absorbs information by hearing the lesson, and kinesthetic learners respond best to touch – they are the more hands-on learners. As a teacher, it can be difficult to appeal to each of the learning styles, and so some students will struggle with the content more than others. By integrating interactivity into their lessons, teachers can reach more students and help them retain the lessons with ease.

We’ll start this review with a brief overview, followed by some highlights before moving on to the extensive list of special features. We will also tour the hardware, as well as discuss picture quality and performance before summing it all up for you on the last page. By the end of this review, you should have a pretty good idea about whether or not the Epson BrightLink 710Ui is right for your education applications. So let’s get started!

We wish to thank Epson America for sponsoring this year’s Best Classroom Projectors Report. 

The Epson BrightLink 710Ui is a 4,000 lumen projector with WUXGA resolution (1920 x 1200) and a laser light engine. I always appreciate a good laser projector – I find that the quality of the projection tends to be quite high, and the light engine life is several times longer than your standard lamp-based projector. Those tend to run for about 3,000 to 8,000 hours on average (this is much better than it used to be), while lasers like this BrightLink 710Ui claims a light engine life of up to 20,000 hours. That means one could, theoretically, run the 710Ui forty hours a week for approximately twelve school years before having to replace the light engine. That’s an approximation, of course, but you can see the value in choosing a projector with a laser light engine over a lamp based one for schools.

That 4,000 lumen claim will come in handy in classroom settings, where there is typically an issue of ambient light. Not all classrooms come equipped with blinds or window covers of any sort, so even with the overhead lights off, there’s still the light leakage from the windows to contend with. That washes out the image, and on a lower lumen projector, that can pose an issue for students and teachers when viewing content. 4,000 lumens on its own is incredibly bright, but paired with the Epson BrightLink 710Ui’s 3LCD technology, those lumens go a long way. That is due to 3LCD projectors having as many color lumens as they do white ones, which means the colors will be vibrant and the projector will have a much better time dealing with that ambient light.

The Epson BrightLink 710Ui has a host of features geared specifically toward schools, making it a great choice for educators. The included subscription to SMART Learning Suite is a real bonus, as it is an intuitive software with a lot of tools for teachers to create their interactive lessons. Though primarily marketed for schools, the BrightLink 710Ui is also suitable for a boardroom or conference room where creating engaging presentations is of the utmost importance. An interactive presentation could, in some cases, mean the difference between landing that client and walking away empty handed. For the purposes of this review, however, I will be focusing on education, but feel free to draw conclusions about its business uses as you read.

The Epson BrightLink 710Ui does come with two interactive pens, though they are not necessary to use the interactive features. Something we are seeing a lot of in these types of projectors is the ability to use finger tips to control the content on the screen surface, with multiple users being able to use the projector simultaneously. In the case of the 710Ui, eight users can be up at the screen at one time – two pens and six fingers. That’s quite useful for situations where several students are assigned to a single presentation, and for teacher/student collaboration on lessons.

This interactive projector comes with more than enough inputs and connectors for your education applications, and even comes with some old-school technology for those school districts still running computers with VGA outputs. The projector is Crestron compatible, so if using Crestron for command and control purposes, the BrightLink 710Ui has got you covered. Speaking of being covered, this Epson comes with a cable cover to keep those cables and inputs out of sight for a more attractive aesthetic. It has an ultra short throw lens, meaning the projector will be within a couple feet or less in relation to the screen surface – a desirable trait in education projectors. It also comes with the interactive camera embedded near the lens, but more on that when we get to the Hardware pages.

The Epson LS100 Home Theater projector, is really  less of a theater projector, than one for your media room, living room, basement, or even summer outdoor party (at night). This Epson is a UST projector - Ultra Short Throw.

The Home Cinema LS100, works great pretty much any room, as long as you pair it with a proper screen designed for working with ultra short throw projectors.  There are some near impossible rooms they are so bright - I know, that describes my living room some of the time.

We’re talking 1080p, laser, and impressively bright – claiming a “mere” 4000 lumens. Talk about a light cannon! Price tag - $2999 list price.   This makes for a very interesting review! The Home Cinema LS100 – is available from local installing dealers, big box houses, and online.

Thanks to the wide distribution, you want one of these LS100s , you sure won’t have a problem finding a dealer, although as I assemble the review (Oct 2017),  the HC LS100 will be "shipping shortly", per Epson.

For those of you not familiar with the term ultra short throw, aka UST, projectors like the LS100 are placed, typically only inches from the screen. They can be positioned just below or mounted just above it. These UST projectors are a bit limited in the range of screens they will work with, but that’s rarely an issue.

In the case of the Epson LS100, for example, it can work with the sizes of screens most people use – up to 130” diagonal. That should be large enough to keep almost all of you happy.

The laser engine's 20,000 rated life (at full power) means that this projector's "engine" should easily outlive this projector's practical life.  We're talking 15 years of 40 hours a week viewing in Eco mode (the mode that most will use).  15 years ago we barely had HDTV and we didn't have Blu-ray disc, just the '90's left over DVD which isn't even close to high definition.

Ultimately though, the picture itself is what we all care about, so we'll be sure to cover that in great detail in this review.

We've provided plenty of photos in this review of the LS100 in action.  None were taken in a full dark room with no lights.  The photos cover a range of brightness of the rooms from near impossible sunlight pouring into my overly bright living room, to the same room at other times of day, and at night with lights almost directly on the screen, and night with only back room lights on.  I also shot photos in my home theater with its all dark surfaces, but even there, I either had all my rear lights on, or in the day time, shot with the shutters on the side and back window at least half open on sunny days.  I never shot pictures in the theater in full darkness, because, strange as it sounds, the LS100 is really too bright for that.  OK, with those notes on photos, let's get this review moving along.

Let’s talk background for a second. Epson, as regulars know, dominates home theater projectors with over 50% of the North America home theater projector market, (per Pacific Media Associates which has been tracking projector sales for more than 20 years). They have a ton of models, and they are in pretty much every segment except the very small pico and pocket LED projectors.

I would attribute the pedigree of this projector, to (like a number of other Epson home projectors), to their Education (and Business segments). Epson has been offering UST projectors in those markets for more than 5 years, but this is the first time they’ve brought one to the home.

The force is strong in this projector - in case you have the need, remember that it is a highly capable business or classroom projector as well.

No matter the background, we try to judge each projector on its merits - and shortcomings.  When it is all considered, it comes down to one question, and it is not:  I's this the best projector out there?  The only question that really counts is:

Is this projector the best one for me/my family, in terms of budget, picture quality, compatibility with the room it will be going in, and best suited for the types of content we'll be watching on it (and that, includes video games too)!

Also of note, although Epson has been offering laser projectors in their home theater line-up for 3+ years, this is the first one that combines laser and UST technology.

So what we have here, is a pretty unique projector in the Epson home theater / home entertainment line-up.

I had a pre-production LS100 unit here to work with, that Eric calibrated. Because it was a pre-production unit, I had it in my hands – no, make that in my home theater, and in my living room, for a little over a week.

I’ll summarize the highlights here, and then get into the details of the review, starting with the Special Features section next.

Optoma describes the EH320USTi as:

"Optoma’s 1080p ultra short throw interactive projector, the EH320USTi, is perfect for businesses, schools and colleges. It is bright (4,000 lumens) and uses a new generation of TouchBeam finger-touch interactive technology, enabling several people to work simultaneously on the screen without using a pen. The throw ratio of 0.25:1 means that it can project a 100” image from just 55cm away. And having the projector installed so close to the screen avoids any shadows being cast across the screen from the presenter(s)."

"It provides a complete package for engaging learning with many new features, including two HDMI inputs, powered USB port, powerful 16W built-in speaker, improved lamp life, compact chassis and a completely new mounting system for a fast and simple set-up."

Optoma bills the EH320USTi as the industry's first 1080p Ultra Short Throw projector. Ultra short throw projectors are becoming more popular as white board projectors for use in the classroom or conference room.  Also stylus pens and finger touch sensors are becoming more common on the higher-end ultra short projectors.  The EH320USTi includes a pair of passive interactive pens, whose position on the white board is tracked by the projector's built-in camera along with the included IR laser touch module.  This setup, using the touch module supplying the IR light source along with the projector's IR camera, is used to determine the position of the pen or the presenter's finger position on the white board.  Unlike the active pens found with most other interactive projectors, the pens supplied with the EH320USTi are truly passive (just a piece of molded plastic) so the sensing of the pen's position or the position of a finger on the white board use the same technology.

With a price of $1799 the EH320USTi is very competitive, in terms of both features and price, for this class of interactive projector. The EH320USTi is Optoma's top model in this series of ultra short throw models.  Optoma also offers the lower priced model EH320UST (for $200 - $250 less - street price),  which is essentially the same projector without the interactive features.