Sony VPL-EW435 Business and Education Projector Review

The Sony VPL-EW435 is a $749, WXGA (1280 x 800) resolution projector claiming 3,100 lumens. This business and education projector could find its home in either a conference room or classroom, though for the purpose of this review, I will focus mainly on education. I’m in high gear review-wise to get these projectors ready for this year’s Classroom Projectors Report, where we discuss all of the projectors we’ve reviewed over the year and how each performs, which ones won awards, and even providing insight into the siblings of each projector model.

I’ve reviewed just about all the current big names in the business and education market, save for one. A Sony at last! I’ve been a fan of Sony since the first PlayStation came out, and will generally reach for a Sony-anything over any other brand when given the choice. I had the pleasure of working with Sony’s $15,000 true 4K home theater projector, the VPL-VW665ES, last year while reviewing Elite Screens’ CineGrey 3D screen material, and ever since then, I’ve wanted to get my hands on another projector of theirs.

Looking at the specs and price, right of the bat, the Sony VPL-EW435 seems to be a really good value, comparable to a few of the other similarly-spec’d projectors I’ve reviewed this year. So far, it has the best price of them all, so let’s see how it performs, and whether it lives up to my expectations! In the section below, I’ll go more into detail about the projector, then provide some highlights before moving onto the special features on the following page. Let’s get started!

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

The Sony VPL-EW435 uses 3LCD panels, a technology that provides the same amount of color lumens as it does white ones. This usually leads to 3LCD projectors having more vivid color that is more capable, in my opinion, than some of the other technologies at handling ambient light. Having all that power behind the color lumens can really make the difference between a faded image and one that still holds up when there is uncontrollable light present. That it claims 3,100 lumens is even better – that’s quite a lot of brightness, useful in classrooms and conference rooms where perhaps not all of the lights can be dimmed, nor the room fully darkened.

This is a WXGA (1280 x 800) resolution projector, which you can consider to be the business and education worlds’ 720p – still HD, but not the sharpest of the two options. WUXGA (1920 x 1200), would be the equivalent of 1080p, and has slightly smaller pixels than WXGA, leading to a sharper image. Still, for typical classroom room and conference room applications, WXGA will do just fine. It’s really only when you get into higher education areas such as engineering, science, and graphic applications where top notch resolution makes a real difference.

The Sony VPL-EW435 is lamp based projector with a rated lamp life of up to 10,000 hours – that’s in ECO mode, which tends to be the dimmest mode. At full power, you can expect 4,000 hours, and 6,000 hours at Standard power. This is pretty typical of lamp based projectors these days. Lamps have gone up in rated hours and down in price over the years, so even if you’re running the projector at full power, 20 hours a week for 10 months out of the year, you’re looking at replacing the lamp every five years or so, and even less in the lower power modes – that’s a couple hundred every half a decade or more. Not bad at all.

This is a highly portable projector, making it useful for situations where the projector is to be shared among classrooms and conference rooms. At just 8.6 pounds, the VPL-EW435 can be easily passed around with no hassle. This is a normal throw projector, meaning it will need to be positioned on a table or podium a ways back from the screen. It can also be ceiling mounted, though this may not be an option for classrooms or conference rooms that have those removable tile ceilings.