In Living Color Clear ways to project an even more professional image
By Amanda C. Kooser •
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Business projectors haven't been resting on their laurels in recent years. They're getting brighter, showing truer colors and tackling HD video. From $5,000 high-end installation projectors to affordable portables, now is a good time to update your old, low-resolution projector or outfit your sales team with the latest technology.
Two notable projector innovations are short throwing distances and widescreen support. You can find both of these in the $1,399 Epson PowerLite 400W, which can project an 87-inch 16:10 widescreen image from 3.4 feet away. The Toshiba TDP-EW25U, which costs $2,059, also blends these two features. Both projectors have a WXGA native resolution, making them a good fit for use with widescreen laptops. Neither projector is a featherweight, but at under 10 pounds each, you can still take them on the occasional road trip. The somewhat less-weighty, $1,410 Sony VPL-EW5 is a widescreen WXGA projector that uses 3LCD technology and weighs in at 6.6 pounds. It's an affordable entry-level solution that still packs in some desirable features. Another portable candidate is the $1,195, 6-pound XGA Sharp XR-32X. An SVGA version (the XR-32S) is also available, priced at $1,095.
For a budget-friendly conference room solution, look to the $749 InFocus Work Big IN2104. This XGA native resolution projector weighs just under 7 pounds, and a lamp life of 3,000 hours means you won't have to deal with lamp replacement for a while. SVGA and WXGA versions are also available in this series.
