The Casio XJ-S400UN is part of Casio’s new Superior series, which features the next generation of their mercury-free, hybrid laser and LED light engine. The series was announced in January, and also includes Casio’s new dust-resistant design, enhancing the effectiveness of cooling the light source and power supply, and protecting against dust settling inside the unit, even in dusty environments.

This DLP projector is intended for business and education environments, as are all of Casio’s projectors. It has WUXGA (1920x1200) resolution, and is compact enough to be considered a portable projector, so it can be transferred from conference room to conference room, classroom to classroom. Its 4,000 lumen claim makes it nicely bright, with enough power to combat the ambient light commonly found in K-12 classrooms, conference rooms, boardrooms, retail spaces, and museum exhibitions.

As always, I’ll start this review with an overview of the projector and a look into its highlights, before diving into its special features. Following that, we’ll have a detailed discussion of the hardware. Then, we’ll take a closer look into the projector’s capabilities, discussing picture quality and performance, before wrapping it all up for you and providing some insights into competition and its pros and cons.

The Casio XJ-S400UN is a business and education projector with WUXGA (1920x1200) resolution and DLP technology. As mentioned, it features Casio’s upgraded light engine, which they call their R-Laser & LED Hybrid Light Source. This light engine has a lifespan of up to 20,000 hours, and though that is typical of all Casio projectors and most projectors with laser or LED light engines, it is still quite impressive.

In a typical 180-day school year, 20,000 hours translates to 18 years of use when running the projector for six hours a day. And, with 4K not yet being seen as a necessity in schools or many business applications, the WUXGA resolution will do just fine for most applications, for many years to come.

The 4,000 lumen XJ-S400UN should have no problem combatting some pretty serious ambient light, such as what is seen in many business and education environments. It has plenty of inputs and connectors for such environments as well, and features a 1.70:1 zoom lens, giving the projector quite a lot of placement flexibility.

It has no lamps or filters, which makes this projector virtually maintenance free. Though it has a higher price point than many business and education projectors that feature a lamp-based design – $1,949.99 – the cost will be made up for during the projector’s lifetime. This is due to there being no maintenance cost on replacing the lamp (lamps tend to last from around 3,000 to 8,000 hours), and cost of replacing filters. It’s a pretty plug-and-play, then leave alone forever device.

The XJ-S400UN is set up for command and control via Crestron Roomview, which allows for command and control of a projector fleet, even if the projectors included are of different manufacturer makes. It has both wired and wireless LAN (via an optional wireless dongle), as well as many features geared specifically toward education applications – but we’ll get into that on the next page of this review. For now, let’s take a look at the projector’s highlights.

The Optoma EH330UST is a 3,600 lumen projector with DLP technology for business and education applications. This ultra short throw projector can project a beautiful 100” image from just inches away! I like UST projectors for presenting, as their close proximity to the screen eliminates the worst of the shadows of the person presenting – if the presenter isn’t pointing on the screen itself, then you’re unlike to get any shadows at all. The EH330UST has a native resolution of 1080p (1920 x 1080), and a maximum resolution of WUXGA (1920 x 1200).

As always, I’ll start this review of the Optoma EH330UST with a brief overview, followed by some highlights before moving on to its special features. After that, we will take a 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’ll know if the EH330UST ultra short throw projector will suit your business and education needs. Let’s get started!

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

The Optoma EH330UST is a 3,600 lumen, 1080p resolution (1920 x 1080) projector, with a list price of $1,599. It features DLP technology, so it produces its color using a color wheel – in this case, not your typical RGBW, but instead the EH330UST uses a 6-segment RGBWYC color wheel. That’s red, green, blue, white, yellow, and cyan, giving the projector more depth of color. Having the white, or rather, clear slice on the wheel, makes it so the projector has more brightness on whites than if it had no clear slice. This is particularly useful when viewing documents with white backgrounds, such as Word documents or spreadsheets.

Generally speaking, the more slices on a color wheel, the less lumens per slice. We’ll discuss this more on the Picture and Sound Quality Page, but what we’re looking for here is this: Does the projector have good color, and how well does it perform in various lighting conditions, such as when there is ambient light present. With a brightness claim of 3,600 lumens, there should be no issues when viewing presentations, documents, spreadsheets, and websites. On the Performance Page, you can expect to see a comparison photo of the same image being projected in ambient light versus in a fully darkened room.

A quick note on the benefits of DLP projectors: DLP technology allows manufacturers to make smaller, more portable projectors. DLP projectors give more white lumens dollar-for-dollar than projectors with 3LCD technology, so you can expect to get a brighter overall image in the face of ambient light – for things with light backgrounds like those documents and spreadsheets. 3LCD projectors, however, have as many color lumens as they do white ones, so your colors will be more vibrant than with a DLP. 3LCDs tend to cost more than DLPs, however, so if you don’t need accurate color in ambient light situations, DLP may win your purchase.

DLP projectors also have sealed light paths, so there’s no worry of dust particles getting inside of the optics. Dust can cause huge issues with your projected image, in that the “dust blob” blocks the light and results in a dark spot on the screen. To clean that our would be a major maintenance call, resulting in a loss in time and money. 3LCD manufacturers are starting to seal their light paths as well, though they do so in a different way.

The Optoma EH330UST has a lamp life of up to 15,000 hours – in Dynamic Mode. In ECO, it’s rated to last up to 10,000 hours, and 4,000 hours at full power. It is important to keep in mind that using ECO modes significantly lowers the brightness output, so in situations with high ambient light, using these modes will not be practical. However, in rooms with good control over lighting conditions, you should be able to use one of the two ECO modes and extend the lamp life of the projector. Even if you have to run the projector at full power all the time, lamps are a small expense these days, and at 4,000 hours with heavy use, you can expect the lamp to last a few years.

The Acer S1386WHN is a WXGA (1280x800) short throw projector intended for business and education environments such as conference rooms, K-12 classrooms, and retail settings. With a 3,600 lumen claim, this Acer has plenty of brightness for most applications with moderate ambient light. This short throw projector sits just a matter of one or two feet from most screens, producing a bright, clear image suitable for most business and education applications.

This projector has a nice complement of special features for image enhancement. The Acer S1386WHN also allows for PC-Free Presentations, has an onboard media player and powerful built-in 16W speaker. Coupled with a healthy amount of inputs and connectors, optional wireless connectivity and wired networking (LAN), it is a versatile addition to Acer’s lineup of projectors geared toward the business and education markets.

This review of the Acer S1386WHN will start with a brief overview, followed by some highlights before we explore its special features. Then, we’ll take a look at this Acer’s hardware, followed by a discussion on picture quality and performance before we wrap it up on the summary page. By the time we conclude this review, you should have a good idea whether or not the Acer S1386WHN meets the specific needs of your business or education applications. Here we go!

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

The Acer S1386WHN is a 3,600 lumen projector with a resolution of WXGA (1280 x 800). The list price for this model is $649. The S1386WHN is part of a small series of two business and education projectors, Acer’s S1 Series. Its sibling is the S1286HN, an XGA model with a list price of $599. The rated lamp life at full power is 5,000 hours, and in ExtremeEco mode, Acer claims you can squeeze 10,000 hours out of the OSRAM lamp.

The S1386WHN is a DLP projector with a RGBRGB color wheel. DLP technology allows for a reduction in overall projector size for lighter-weight, portability and ease of installation.  A sealed light engine protects the internals of the unit, prolonging brightness and maintaining image quality over a longer period of time than a traditional projector where the light engine is not sealed.

DLP projectors tend to be more cost effective in rooms with more ambient light, performing better than 3LCD projectors at a similar price point, with better white lumens. On the flip side, a 3LCD projector maintains better brightness across the color spectrum than DLPs, but the cost per lumen is significantly higher. Basically, if you want really good color in ambient light, go with a 3LCD; if color isn’t important but the readability of text is, then DLP is the way to go, generally speaking – but, of course, the projector you choose will have to fit your needs in more ways than just brightness and color.

The sealed light path that is a hallmark of DLP projectors offers savings ($$$) for school districts who likely operate hundreds, if not thousands of projectors. You know how your computer gets a nice, thick layer of dust inside, often an inch thick or more, over the period of a few years? The exact same thing happens to projectors! Except, in a projector, that glob of dust can interfere with the projected image. Dust removal is a time-consuming, money-sucking hassle; multiply that by the number of projectors in your operation and we’re talking big money. Manufactures of 3LCD projectors are starting to seal their light paths too, but in a different way than those of DLPs.

Another money saving claim is that extended lamp life of 5,000 hours at full power and 10,000 using Extended Eco mode. Think not only the cost of lamps, but the cost of labor across a large fleet of projectors. The longer the lamp life, the less often it needs to be replaced, potentially saving hundreds of labor hours over the lifetime of the projector.

As mentioned, the Acer S1386WHN is a short throw projector, and produces an image that measures 87 inches diagonally with a throw distance of just 38.5 inches. It can be mounted on a table top using front projection, ceiling mounted with front projection, and rear projection both table top and ceiling mounted, though ceiling or wall mounting is the most likely installation setup for the S1386WHN.

PC-Free presentations, the onboard media player and file browser, Acer eDisplayPro, Optional Wireless and Crestron control add to the suit of special features found on this projector. This Acer offers all the inputs and connectors needed for the vast majority of business and classroom applications, including multiple HDMI, USB and VGA ports – but, we’ll save that for our Hardware Tour.

The Optoma W460 is an $849, WXGA (1280 x 800) resolution projector with a wall-melting 4,600 lumens. This is exceptionally bright! The W460 is a business and education projector, though I will focus more on its uses in the classroom during this review, touching on its practicality in conferences rooms here and there. We’re gearing up for our annual Classroom Projectors Report, and this Optoma is my final review in the queue. With such a bright lumen output, I was interested to see how the projector performs in terms of color and ability to combat harsh ambient light.

Classrooms are known among teachers to have some of the worst conditions for ambient light, with some rooms being unable to turn off all of the lights. Windows are generally wide and unshaded, and in some cases, may even give a full blast of light directly onto the screen surface, washing out the image. Bright projectors such as the Optoma W460 are generally the cure, so let’s get into the projector’s specs and other features to see what else it has to offer.

The Optoma W460 has DLP technology, which uses a color wheel rather than panels to produce its colors. Unlike 3LCD projectors, DLPs do not have as many color lumens as white ones, which can, in some cases, lead to a more washed out image when in the presence of ambient light. With that 4,600 lumen claim, however, this shouldn’t be much of an issue, but we’ll get more into color on our Picture and Sound Quality page.

The W460 is a WXGA (1280 x 800) resolution projector. WXGA is the business and education worlds’ 720p, with WUXGA (1920 x 1200) being akin to 1080p. The Optoma W460’s resolution should be plenty sharp for most classroom and conference room applications – WUXGA would really only be necessary for presentations in the engineering, medical, and graphic fields where an incredible sharp image may be required. The difference between these resolutions, aside from the amount of pixels, is the size of those pixels – WUXGA is sharper because it has smaller pixels.

This is a lamp based projector with a manufacturer claim of 2,500 hours in Bright mode, 3,500 in ECO and 4,500 in Education Cycle, another power saving mode. This kind of sucks when compared to my recent reviews of the Epson PowerLite 675W and the Sony VPL-EW435 projectors, which both have a rated lamp life of up to 10,000 hours in ECO, and 5,000/4,000 at full power respectively. Granted, if running the Optoma W460 at full power, 20 hours a week for 10 months out of the year, the lamp should last just over three years at the 2,500-hour claim.

Lamp based projectors usually clock in between 3,000 to 8,000 hours, so this lower rating was a bit disappointing to me. Still, with such a high lumen count, I may be willing to forgive this – we’ll see. Keep in mind that projectors’ lamps dim over time, losing brightness over the first few years of operation, so even though the bulb may last three years, it won’t hold the brightness that long. Lamps are hardly expensive things these days, however, so replacing them won’t put a real dent in the budget anyway – just something to be aware of as you shop for projectors!

The Optoma W460 is exceptionally portable, weighing in at 6.75 pounds. This makes it an excellent choice for schools where the projector may be passed around from classroom to classroom, or businesses that will be sharing the W460 among conference rooms. At this weight, I’d consider it a serious contender for the road warrior who needs high brightness and high portability. It is a short throw projector – it can be ceiling or table mounted, resting on a table or podium between 3.36’ and 22.05’ back from the screen to produce a large image.

While most business and education projectors in the $1000 price range still use conventional lamp light sources, Casio uses a hybrid LED/Laser light source instead.  Although the XJ-F210WN may have an initial cost of $200 to $400 more than some competing lamp-based projectors, the life cycle cost for the Casio is very competitive.  This is because the rated life of this hybrid light source is "up to" 20,000 hours, which is about 4 to 6 times as long as a typical lamp.  Thus, the costs associated with multiple lamp replacements are eliminated.

Overall the XJ-F210WN produces a better picture than many other DLP projectors of this class that I have reviewed recently.  The XJ-F210WN received our Hot Product award for the combination of very good picture quality, low maintenance, good networking support, a good feature set and a built-in speaker that can play fairly loud.

Casio's V series is all about bright, affordable solid state projectors.  The Ecolite XJ-V110W is WXGA and offers 3500 lumens for $799, with a 20,000 LED/Laser light engine.

Although the flagship of the five Casio projectors in this series, the XJ-V110W still has to be considered a no-frills projector.  It's all about delivering a bright image, with a long life LED/Laser engine at a low cost.  Seriously, if you want solid state, and under $1000 other than Casio, you are looking at those "pico" projectors - really pocket and large pocket projectors, where under $1000 you aren't likely to find one with more than 800 lumens.  That makes this Casio at least four times as bright, and with comparable brightness to competing lamp based projectors.  Delivering a no-lamp, long life solution at a bargain price does have it's costs, however, in terms of features.

Editor's note:  Although this review is listed as one of mine (Art), I had help.  The review was started by Bill Livosi, who provided a major assist.  Bill started with the projector, and handled doing all the Casio measurements.  He  also provided about 1/3 of the content within, although I have done some editing and rearranging of his work.

The Viewsonic PJD6350 Projector is bright, offers networking, big sound, and XGA resolution.

It's PortAll feature lets you project from any wireless MHL compatible dongle.

The Casio XJ-V1 is a new model (release date May 2015) for which the manufacturer uses the name EcoLite(tm).  The unit reviewed was a pre-production unit and it's possible the production units will differ a little in features and/or performance.

This model uses a long life hybrid laser/LED light source, which is  unusual to for a projector in this price range, and that combined with no air filter to clear or replace means this is a very low maintenance projector.  Casio markets this model as a classroom projector that is also suitable for business applications.  The XJ-V1 has 1024 x 768 (XGA) resolution and combined with its very low maintenance requirements make this a great choice for replacing an older, lamp-based, classroom projector, most of which will use the same 4 x 3 image format as the XJ-V1.

The EcoLite XJ-V1 receives our Special Interest award for being a great choice for a classroom projector, as long as network support and an internal speaker are not needed, and when very low maintenance is a top priority.