Epson Powerlite Pro G6900WU Projector – Summary

Posted on January 20, 2014 By Art Feierman

POWERLITE PRO G6900WU SUMMARY

We awarded the Epson G6900WU one of our Hot Product Awards. In the paragraphs below I summarize what impressed (and missed) in the Powerlite Pro G6900WU projector.

A Hot Product Award for Epson's Powerlite Pro G6900WU

We see a lot of projectors around here, and as such we don’t expect to find a single projector, that in its class of projectors, is the best at everything, or even almost everything. The G6900WU isn’t an exception. It has a number of key strengths, but also a few relative weaknesses. Overall, though, this Epson is an extremely capable, “serious” projector.

The Powerlite Pro G6900WU is a small “large venue” projector. It’s built to tackle a whole lot of different uses, with a variety of special features. Weighing in, in the low 20 pound range (depending on which lens you use), it’s also compact, which makes it ideal for many rental and staging settings due to its portability.

Not only does it produce well over 5000 lumens at brightest, and mid 4000 lumens with really good color, but it has specialty features like Edge Blending, the ability to operate with the vertically, horizontally, and many ways in between. Add to that advanced networking with all the usual – push notifications, scheduling, monitoring, also add Wifi capabilities and peer to peer, closed captioning, also the ability to split the screen between four computer images, or use split screen to show two sources of info at once. The list goes on, and many are discussed in our Special Features pages.

Other than dual lamp applications, and applications when you need flawless reproduction quality instead of just great, I’m pretty hard pressed to come up with uses for a projector like this Epson, that this projector can’t do well.

The G6900WU and WUNL are well designed for small, even medium sized auditoriums, large university classrooms, hotel ballroom presentations, house of worship and rock concerts, plus, of course, all kinds of digital signage.

The full WUXGA HD resolution, lens options and placement flexibility, the capable feature set, brightness, picture quality, plus the warranty and support programs, all combine to make the G6900WU an exceptional value at its price point.

When viewing these images, especially the browser images, you will note softness in the small type. Remember, even when you enlarge it, you are looking at a much lower resolution image on our site, than the 1920×1200 image that the Powerlite Pro G6900WU projects. That Politico page looks far sharper in real life!

Commercial Grade Picture Quality

With the exception of black level performance, the picture is extremely good for a commercial projector. There are high end 3 chip DLP projectors costing several times the price, that will, ultimately, put a more amazing picture up on the screen, if that’s what you need. But for most applications including some straightforward, some really demanding ones – digital signage, presenting, teaching, engineering, architecture, art displays…

What’s missing? Perhaps the key feature that this projector could have, but doesn’t, for many possible commercial installations, is dual lamp design. When you need maximum uptime, and being down is a major problem, that’s where dual lamp projectors come in. One dies, your still in business, if not quite so brightly.

Sharpness is very good, but not exceptional, you can find single chip DLP projectors which have an inherent advantage in that regard. For starters remember, this is a WUXGA projector, which at the moment is as high as resolution gets without spending money that makes the cost of the G6900WU seem like loose change.

Of course, you will be hard pressed to find a similarly equipped projectors with dual lamp for the same price. Hey, Epson too has a dual lamp line-up their Z series projectors. If that’s your need, check those out.

This Epson G6900WU is simply highly competitive. It pretty much can tackle most situations. The collection of six lenses allows placement for almost every situation, from a short wide angle fixed lens for rear projector, to short, medium (2), and long throw zoom lenses, so this projector can be placed as close as a few feet and as far back as a couple of hundred feet. There’s a healthy amount of lens shift to deal with other placement issues.

Most won’t need features like the 360 degree operation, or the edge blending, but those features are there for signage, art and other uses.

Picture quality, I repeat, overall is really very good. Only in the area of black level performance, is the Epson lacking. That mostly comes into significance when presenting in a very darkened environment. Dark shadow detail was very good, but might be a touch better if Epson’s Brightness control was a little less coarse.

Where’s you find the kind of ambient light that normally calls for using a 6000 lumen projector, blacks are typically already taking a serious hit. And that tends to negate a good chunk of the difference between projectors with impressive black level performance and those without. We have demonstrated that in our videos, previously.

Powerlite Pro G6900WU Projector: Competition, and The Bottom LIne

You can opt for the standard WU version with the standard zoom lens (MSRP is $6499), or go for the WUNL without that lens ($6199) and opt for one of the other five quick release available lenses, to position the G6900WU where you need it.

How does the competition stack up? True, you can buy some high brightness DLP projectors for less money, (with the same resolution). From a practical standpoint, though, if you need at least “good” color, most of those single chip DLP projectors need to drop down in brightness a good bit (up to half) before their color approaches that of the Epson in, say, it’s Presentation mode. As a result, you really don’t end up with an as bright projector for less, just a less bright projector for less. The stiffest competition will likely come from other companies using 3LCD or LCoS technology. Competing LCoS projectors are rare, although Canon’s top of the line is definitely competition if more money. We reviewed the one step down in resolution, WX6000+ this past summer, and were most impressed. It too offers DICOM and a number of other features that this Epson shares.

I haven’t yet really discussed Sony’s FHZ55 laser projector with Mike who’s just finishing his review, but it’s a competitor as well, but one with a solid state light source. It’s got a pretty great feature set, although not as capable as the Epson’s. For similar or a more money in the long run, the Sony is likely another excellent choice, but it won’t deliver as much brightness in full power as the Epson in Eco, nor offer interchangeable lenses. BTW, typically 3LCD projectors draw a lot less power than DLP competitors, for those of you who are energy conscious.

One company I normally would be looking for to find a very directly competing projector to take on this Epson would have been Mitsubishi, as they made lots of 3LCD projectors, including those with interchangeable lenses. There would have been some serious competition there, but Mitsubishi packed up its marbles and called it quits in the projector business, just about 3 months ago (fall 2013).

The bottom line, is the math on the Epson is really good. If Epson’s Powerlite Pro G6900WU has what you need in features or performance, be it brightness, networking, edge blending, energy efficiency or warranty / support, you’ll probably be pleased to find that it’s also more affordable than just about any of the competition. If you need 4000+ lumens with at least very respectable color, and commercial features, this very serious WUXGA Epson projector belongs on your short list.

What’s left? The next page has our list of Pros and Cons, and that’s followed by specs and a link to the brochure. We hope we were able to answer your questions about this Epson projector, and “liked” the review overall!