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Bill Machrone
Ultraportable projectors: Bright, light...but priced right?

Bill Machrone
Contributing Editor PC Magazine
Tuesday, March 13, 2001
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I'm addicted to digital projectors. They're so good at creating shared understanding and experiences that beyond being in every office or conference room, they should be in every home and classroom.

There's just this little issue of price. Since you can't find one in every conference room, you may have to carry your own, and that's why you want it to weigh 5 pounds or less.

PC Magazine has looked at four of the newest lightweights, all rated at 1,000 lumens or more. They're all bright enough that you don't even have to dim the lights to get a decent image (in a room of normal brightness).

TWO ARE LCD and two are DLP, and they're all good: You wouldn't throw rocks at any of them. You will, however, have to throw mucho dinero at them--the least expensive go for $4,500, and prices get right up to $6,000.

But the latest, lightest thing always costs the most, because it uses the newest technology and the volume/manufacturability curves haven't kicked in yet.

I also suspect that it's very much a seller's market, and that the manufacturers are under very little price pressure, despite the number of competitors. In time, however, these machines will come down in price, and that's when they'll really take off. Every time they break through a price "barrier," there'll be a concomitant leap in volume: $4,000, $3,000, $2,500....interested yet?

IT'S TIME FOR THIS to happen, because although a couple of manufacturers are introducing 3-pound machines, the existing 5- and 6-pound machines are small enough, bright enough, and have sufficient image quality that they can freeze the form factor and start taking cost out.

In the meantime, take a look at the PC Magazine review, and choose among these tasty morsels.

Do you use portable projectors? Would you pay a premium for a top-of-the-line model? TalkBack to me.

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