Sony VPL-EW435 Business and Education Projector Review – Picture and Sound Quality

Sony VPL-EW435 Business and Education Projector Review – Picture and Sound Quality: Color Modes, Video Image Quality, Text and Presentation Quality, Audio Quality

There are seven color modes on the Sony VPL-EW435: Vivid, Dynamic, Standard, Presentation, Blackboard, Whiteboard, and Cinema. Four modes have really great color, while some of the others have a definite greenish yellow hue to them – I’ll talk about the good ones first, then the remaining three modes.

The best mode is Standard. Its colors are pretty true to color when it comes to projecting video. I did have one instance of strange color with it during my photo shoot of the Text and Presentation Quality images, but it was really minor. I talk about it in that section. It is the mode I used to shoot all of my photos, as it had a good level of brightness paired with great color.

The next best mode is Cinema, which seems to be a dimmer, warmer, and more saturated version of Standard. Standard definitely has a cooler color temperature than Cinema, which can be seen when toggling between the two images and looking at the whites, or the sample image of the woman. Whiteboard mode has similar color to Cinema, but it is much brighter in terms of lumens. There are some hot spots of overexposure on the woman’s face, but that may go away when projecting on the surface it was intended for – a whiteboard.

Dynamic, usually a name reserved for brightest modes, typically will have a green and yellow tint to it on other projectors. Neither is the case here with the EW435. This mode is actually more similar to Standard in terms of color, only it’s brighter. A very usable mode when you need more brightness than Standard can yield.

The final three modes are Blackboard, Vivid, and Presentation. Blackboard is a mode intended to be used on the archaic blackboard, but is super overexposed on the model so I would only recommend it to be used on such a surface, not your typical screen or whiteboard. It’s also super green, but that effect may be minimized when the projector is used on that blackboard.

Vivid is green and really overexposed on skin tones. This might be a usable mode on something like a presentation that doesn’t require great color. Although, it’s about as bright as Standard, so I wouldn’t really use it – ever. Presentation, also green, does a better job than the previous two in terms of overexposure on the woman’s skin in that there is very little. You can consider this your brightest usable mode, only to be used when there is a lot of ambient light present.

The video image quality on the Sony VPL-EW435 is quite good! I always notice the larger pixels characteristic of WXGA projectors (as opposed to the smaller ones provided by WUXGA resolution) on the PlayStation 4 menu and projector menus, but when fed video content, those pixels blend together nicely to create a crisp, clean image. Such is the case with the EW435.

I shot these photos in Standard mode, as it is the brightest mode with great color, and will likely be the top choice for all but those who require maximum brightness. The 3LCD technology, as mentioned previously, puts out as many color lumens as it does white ones, so the color is really vibrant. As always, the projector looks better in person, but if you like how the photos from Journey to Space and Bill Nye look, imagine how great the projections will look when right in front of you!

Here is where I was really impressed. Usually (but not always), 8-point text is impossible to read on a WXGA projector. When projecting our test image of varying font sizes and colors, I found I could read 8-point font from 12 feet back (that’s about as far back as I can get in my viewing room). Now, I wouldn’t suggest ever having 8-point font in your presentations (that’s just mean), but it’s nice to know this projector is sharp enough to not have the letters running together into a garbled mess.

12-point font looks so good. That’s where things get really readable. Of course, going up to 16-point, etc., is even better, but you should have no trouble projecting websites and documents that use 12-point font, and even infographics with varying font sizes will look great. The only thing I noticed is that when projecting the infographic of the effects of meditation on the brain, the color was off. It was definitely strange, because the original color is a navy blue, and the projector shifted the color to be more of a sea-green. Even stranger is that other presentation slides with navy blue were true to color.

In general, the projector performed pretty true to color, and will be fine for most all business and education applications. The only thing I wouldn’t suggest it for is perhaps a graphic design firm (or similar application), where they are showing clients branding, as that typically has very specific colors that need to be viewed as is. For the classroom, and most conference room applications, however, the Sony VPL-EW435 has great color and a sharp image that will bring lessons and presentations to life.