Casio XJ-A140 Projector - Physical Tour

Posted on April 30, 2010 by Art Feierman

Appearance

At first glance one might think they are looking at a laptop when viewing the Casio XJ-A140. But upon a closer look what you will notice is that is just about the width and depth of a piece of paper and has a height of less than 2 inches. Just an incredibly slick design in my opinion. It will easily fit in a laptop bag without a problem. I will start the tour of the XJ-A140 from the front. To the right is where the lens is located. Don't let the small size of the lens fool you. This projector puts out the power and with that 2X Power Zoom lens you have a lot of placement flexibility.

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On either side of the projector are the intake vents. In the front of the projector to the left of the lens is opening for hot air release. I must report that this projector gets hot. At one particular place that I will explain soon the unit gets hot off enough to allow it only be touched for a second or two. On the top of the projector you will find a very well labeled and full featured menu pad system. Makes cleaning the outside of the projector a snap if you want to make sure you don't show up to a presentation with a dirty looking machine.

The rear input panel of the projector has only a few inputs. The projector has one VGA input that will support a regular analog signal from your laptop and it will accept component with the use of a special cable purchased seperately. Although the projector can accept a lot of different kinds of sources, if you plan to input digital high definition, you will need to purchase a HDMI cable. There is one HDMI input next to the VGA input. The XJ-A140 supports high definition as high as 1080p.

The XJ-A140 really was designed to be a travel projector. It is missing one feature that a lot of travel projectors now adopt and that is PC free presentations using a USB thumb drive. This Casio does not support this technology. I should mention that it also does not support control of the projectors functions via a LAN or WiFi connection. However, you can, with an optional cable, control the projector using RS-232. Remember though, there are seven other Casio's in this series and those with model numbers ending in 5U, such as XJ-A235U, and XJ-A145U, offer USB and wireless. You can check out our chart of 60 education projectors for the feature differences of the many "Green Slim" Casio projectors.

With only a 1 Watt speaker I can't imagine one will be using the projector as their primary sound system, but the ability to input stereo sound is available through a 3.5 mm jack.

Casio XJ-A140 Lens Throw

With the 2X zooms lens you will have a lot of placement flexbility, but for the sake of example we will assume you want to achieve a 100 inch diagonal image. That equates to a 80 inch width and 60 inch height. To get that size image you have to place the projector somewhere between 9 feet 3 inches and 18 feet 5 inches. As you can see, a lot of room to work with. Use those distances to get a rough idea if the XJ-A140 will work for you. Now lets move on to the setup and menus.

Casio XJ-A140 Setup and Menu

The bottom of the projector gets heavy accolades for its well thought out system of legs and adjustments. The front foot has a very unique mult-level raising system that I have not seen used before. It really worked well and made positioning very simple. The most useful and convenient of the setup adjustments had to be the two rear feet that were adjustable by way of screwing and unscrewing. Nothing makes leveling out a projector easier than that of having two rear adjustable feet.

The XJ-A140 pretty much instantly turns on and is ready to project because of the Laser and LED technology. The projector is able to auto-detect signals so getting ready to present will be a snap.

on-screen menu system

Image Adjustment I

Image Adjustment II

Optional Settings

Casio XJ-A140 Remote Control

Click to Enlarge. So Close.

While unboxing the remote I could tell instantly that Casio put some real time into ergonomics and the needs of the traveling presenter. The buttons are clearly marked and most importantly they used different shapes to represent different button functions. This type of engineering I feel helps the presenter immensely and shows that the manufacturer has the presenter in mind during the engineering process. Line of sight angles were not too bad either. There is a sensor in the rear of the projector, and in the front. The front sensor seemed to work well even when bouncing the signal off the screen. All in all, a great remote that any presenter will find easy to use. I should also mention the remote comes with various pointer icons so you can easily guide the audiences eye to important parts of your presentation.