Maxell MP-TW4011 Ultra Short Throw Interactive Laser Projector Review

The Maxell MP-TW4011 is an ultra short throw, 3LCD projector with WXGA (1280 x 800) resolution. This 4,200 lumen projector has a laser light engine, making it low maintenance, and it has a rather special feature: interactivity! Interactivity is a trend that’s been gaining popularity in the education space, as well as for business applications. While not all classrooms or businesses will require interactivity, it can provide deeper integration of concepts from lessons or presentations in either environment.

April 1, 2019 marked the day that Hitachi-branded projectors became the Maxell brand. Maxell was originally part of Hitachi, but spun off a few years back – now, Hitachi has merged into Maxell. Pretty cool bit of backstory, if you ask me. Hitachi’s focus – and Maxell’s – has long been on the education market. For this reason, I will primarily be discussing the MP-TW4011 in terms of education, but will sprinkle in some business-y tidbits here and there. Maxell has education pricing, although their numbers are not published online.

I’ll start this review off with a brief overview of the projector and a glimpse into its highlights, before diving deeper into its special features. Next up will be a detailed discussion of the hardware before taking a look at the projector’s picture quality and performance. I’ll summarize everything for you on our last page, as well as provide some insights into the competition and its pros and cons.

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

The Maxell MP-TW4011 is a laser projector with a highly impressive lifespan. Maxell claims up to 50,000 hours of use when operating in Long Life 2 Mode – that’s the most I’ve ever seen on a projector. Even with heavy use – say, 6 hours a day in a typical 180-day school year – you’re looking at a projector that is slated to last up to 46 years.

Now, this is a WXGA projector (1280 x 800), which is the business and education world’s 720p. With the speed at which technology is advancing (Apple is coming out with a 6K monitor this fall, and there are already 8K capable projectors on the market – though totally expensive), the Maxell MP-TW4011 will still be working well past the time when you’d want to upgrade to a higher resolution.

K-12 classrooms don’t often require anything about WXGA resolution. Presentations, education films and videos, and other lessons will look clear and sharp with a WXGA projector. Some high school classrooms might prefer WUXGA (1920 x 1200), which is the business and education world’s 1080p, but they can also get by with WXGA. I imagine the only types of classes that would benefit from the higher resolution as film classes, graphic design or CAD related classes.

4K is completely unnecessary at this point in the classroom environment, save for perhaps college and university classes. The classes that would benefit from 4K resolution are limited to scientific or engineering classes, as well as design-related classes. Maybe a film class if the professor is adamant about showing films to their students using the industry standard for resolution, or if those students will be filming 4K videos themselves.

Back to the Maxell MP-TW4011. This projector claims a wall-melting 4,200 lumens, giving it enough power to cut through the ambient light seen in most classrooms. It features an ultra short throw design, which is highly desirable for classroom environments. With the projector being wall mounted just inches away from the screen or whiteboard surface, there will be limited shadows casting on the projected image, and no light blinding the teacher or students when presenting.

The MP-TW4011 has an MSRP of $4,239 and a street price of $2,829. Due to its higher price point, I see this projector being used in high school classrooms more than the lower grade levels. It is loaded with features, not the least of which being its interactive ones, and it’s those features in addition to the laser light engine and UST design that gives it that higher price point. That is to say – I find this pricing fair for what you get.

The MP-TW4011 comes with a lot of extras that we’ll get into on the next page of this review. It has plenty of inputs and connectors for education applications, including one of its HDMI ports supporting MHL for streaming. If your school allows, you can use a streaming stick like the Roku or Amazon Fire Stick to project educational films and TV shows.

Before we get further into this review, I’d like to note that if you’re seeing some creases in the projected image – that’s because my screen was recently unfurled after moving and has a few creases after we stretched it over the frame. It needs to be adjusted on the frame, but we didn’t have time to do so before I had to get these photos done for this review. Now, let’s take a look at the projector’s highlights.