Maxell MP-TW4011 UST Interactive Laser Projector Review – Summary

Maxell MP-TW4011 UST Interactive Laser Projector – Summary: Summary, The Competition, Pros, Cons

The Maxell MP-TW4011 is a WXGA (1280x800) 3LCD projector claiming 4,200 lumens. I am happy to report that his projector beat its claim, coming in at 5,505 lumens in its brightest mode, Dynamic. Normally, we would measure projectors at mid-zoom and wide angle, but as this is an ultra short throw projector, the lens is fixed and there’s only one way to measure.

Though this $4,239 list price – $2,829 street price – projector is primarily positioned as one for K-12 classrooms, it would also be at home in business environments such as conference rooms, meeting rooms, and boardrooms. Being positioned as a classroom projector, Maxell does have education pricing for the MP-TW4011, but these numbers are not posted online. Its built-in 16-watt speaker will easily fill any of the room types listed above.

The MP-TW4011 has Powered Focus and Digital Zoom that can be controlled via its remote. The projector is nicely sharp, thanks in part to that WXGA resolution, which is the business and education world’s 720p, and the laser light engine. That laser light engine has an impressive lifespan of up to 50,000 hours!

This Maxell has a 5 year warranty, and up to 20,000 hours on the light engine. A 20,000 light engine life translates to about 18 years of use when running the projector for six hours a day in a typical 180-day school year. If using the projector in one of its ECO modes, you can get up to 50,000, which will bring you well into the days of 8K (and beyond) being commonplace.

Maxell created the MP-TW4011 with the future of education in mind by integrating many amazing interactive features. These types of projectors provide for highly effective lessons that engage all learning styles – visual, auditory, and kinesthetic. Interactive lessons range from taking a regular, static presentation, graphic, or video and using the finger touch or pens to annotate, to using interactive software such as the Starboard Interactive Software (included) or third party software. You can have up to six pens or fingers working with the content simultaneously.

Lessons can be saved so that teachers can go back and see what they previously taught, or send the lessons to students who missed class. The Maxell MP-TW4011 has some sophisticated tools when it comes to interactivity, such as automatically converting freehand into geometric objects, handwriting into text, and using the interactive pens to operate a compass, ruler, protractor, stopwatch, and other tools that will help with student learning. The projector supports Windows 8.1-10, Mac OS and Chromebook.

The Maxell MP-TW4011 has excellent connectivity – all of the inputs and connectors you’ll need for your education or business applications. It has an RS232c connector, two VGAs, ports for Component Video, two HDMIs, a USB Type-B input, a Sync In and a Sync Out port, a LAN connector, a USB Type-A, a DC5V 0.5A port, two Audio In jacks, and one Audio Out for connecting external speakers.

The Maxell MP-TW4011 has nine color modes, three of which are adjustable User Modes, which can be used to achieve rather excellent color. The out-of-the-box color modes are Dynamic (5,505 lumens), Whiteboard (2,387 lumens), DICOM SIM. (3,589 lumens), Standard (3,984 lumens), Natural (2,343 lumens), and Cinema (3,903 lumens). Of all of these modes, there are two “best modes” – Standard for presentations, infographics, documents, and websites, and Natural for viewing education films and videos.

As mentioned the Maxell beat its 4,200 lumen claim, coming in at 5,505 lumens in its brightest mode, and all others measuring close to the actual claim, save for Natural. All of these modes are fully capable of combatting the ambient light of typical classroom or conference room, even Natural, which is the least bright. I shot the first two photos above in Standard Mode, which is the brightest best mode. I used an image with a black background, as black is the first color to go when faced with ambient light. The second two photos were shot in Natural Mode of a scene from Journey to Space, and it was quite capable, as you can see from these last images.

Immediately, two interactive projectors come to mind as competition for the Maxell MP-TW4011: The ViewSonic PS750W, and the Epson BrightLink 710Ui.

The ViewSonic PS750W is another WXGA (1280x800) resolution, interactive projector with an ultra short throw design. It has a significantly lower list price than the MPTW4011, at $1,629, with Education Pricing bringing things down to a low $1,499. There is a reason for this lower price – the ViewSonic is a lamp based projector with a lamp life of 3,000 hours. That means, over the entire lifespan of the Maxell, you would have to replace the lamp of this ViewSonic between six and sixteen times.

Now, lamps don’t cost much these days, but when you factor in the cost of getting someone in to replace these lamps, across a whole fleet of projectors, those little figures can add up fast. With the Maxell, you will likely never have to deal with replacing the light engine before you are ready to upgrade to a newer projector. That’s why laser projectors have a higher upfront cost than lamp based ones.

The ViewSonic PS750W has an interactive module, two pens, digital whiteboard software, and a wall mount included – ViewSonic designed this as a total solution for schools. It is a 3,300 lumen projector, and it, too, exceeded its claim, coming in at 4,463 lumens in its brightest mode, and 3,709 in its best mode, Standard. That makes its brightness comparable to what you get on the Maxell, but the Maxell does have better color. As we say, there are always trade-offs.

The Epson BrightLink 710Ui is a personal favorite of mine, as I found it to be quite an impressive interactive projector. This projector has WUXGA (1920x1200) resolution, and a laser light engine with a lifespan of up to 20,000 hours. This $3,499 list price projector comes down to $2,699 with Epson’s Brighter Futures Education Pricing, and it has a 3 year warranty with Epson’s Extra Care Road Service, which quickly ships you out a new, refurbished projector should this one fail under warranty.

This 3LCD projector can connect up to 50 devices simultaneously via the optional wireless module. It beat its 4,000 lumen claim, coming in at 5,904 in its brightest mode, Dynamic, 5,516 in its best mode for presentations, aptly named Presentation, and 4,366 in its best mode for video, Cinema. The color of these two modes is outstanding – something Epson habitually does extremely well.

It comes with an interactive module, two interactive pens and batteries, a wall mount, and SMART Learning Suite for creating interactive lessons. This interactive software is quite advanced, so if your teachers’ lessons require a bit more than what StarBoard can provide, consider this software. The projector also has a feature called DuoLink, which allows two 710Ui projectors to be set up side by side to create an extra-wide interactive image – this is a great feature for higher education environments.

• Remote Control is Dark with No Backlighting – Would Have Been Nice
• Slight Blurring at Top Corners of Projected Image – Common with USTs