Review: Epson EB-1860 projector

The Epson EB-1860 projector can project images in a variety of colour modes, making it suitable for use in brightly-lit boardrooms as well as home theatres.

The projector is fairly easy to use and comes with a remote control. It can be installed just under a ceiling, or mounted on a desk.

The Epson projector has a white plastic exterior with smooth surfaces and rounded corners. Inputs are neatly placed at the back of the machine, with control buttons on top and the power button lights up when the machine is in use. The design is simple and functional, resulting in a device that blends into the ceiling, and won't be an eye-sore on a table top.

Weighing just less than 3.5kg, the projector can easily be set up. It is also fairly easy to adjust the projection angle by rotating the projector's back feet or moving the front stand up and down. The feet are also rubberised, preventing the projector from sliding on smooth surfaces.

The projector is incredibly easy to use. It ships with a standard VGA cable and also has a USB input, so users can connect with a USB cable.

Setting up the machine only requires the user to connect the projector to a power source and a relevant device to play media. The projector also automatically detects a video source, helping users avoid IT fails ahead of important presentations.

The EB-1860 projector gives users an option of play out modes, including boardroom and theatre. The boardroom mode plays out a very bright image, which works well in a brightly-lit environment, while the theatre mode plays out with saturated colours, which enhances the images and works well for movies.

The projector also has preconfigured settings to play out on white boards and black boards. If users want, they can even play out lined or graphed templates to make it easier to draw diagrams and write on their white boards or black boards. (I have to interject here that I think that would be a waste of electricity.)

The display has a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels and has a contrast ratio of 2 500:1. The result is bright colours with well-defined edges. There is no pixilation, even when playing out at large sizes, in excess of 200 inches.

The resolution is more than adequate for boardroom presentations, and many home users will be happy to watch movies at this resolution because of the bigger viewing platform that the projector offers. Of course, viewers that are accustomed to HD may pull their noses at the image, which is not even half HD. But then, full HD projectors come with a hefty price tag.

I found that when playing HD, I got the best picture at just less than 100 inches wide. However, the projector plays out an image between 30 and 300 inches. The larger size is perfect for low resolution boardroom presentations.

One of the greatest features of the projector is vertical keystone correction. This is a feature that automatically corrects the image. Often, the angle at which the image is projected causes the image to stretch. This results in an image that can be larger on the top than the bottom, for example. However, the EB-1860 projector is able to correct this within seconds.

The projector also comes with a built-in speaker, which plays good audio that is loud enough to fill a large lounge, or a sizeable boardroom.

At R9 289.60, the Epson EB-1860 is well-priced for even small businesses and it is also cheaper than many flat screen TVs. Personally, I'd take the projector over a TV any day, especially with projecting 1950s movies on the wall being so fashionable these days.