If you’re regularly making presentations in your line of work, then making sure you buy the best business projector that suits your needs will be essential.
Getting the right business projector can help transform your presentations and meetings, making them more engaging, interactive and professional.
In our list of the best business projectors of 2019, we’ve selected a large range of projectors, from compact devices that are easy to pack away and take with you on the road, to full-featured business projectors that feature a range of connectivity options and boast stunning image quality.
As well as listing the best business projectors, we also have our very own price comparison tool that will help you find the best prices as well.
Buying a projector for work means you’re looking for different features than if you were buying a projector for entertainment purposes, so super-high resolutions and millions of inputs aren’t going to be high on your ‘must have’ list.
Unfortunately, plenty of offices often cheap out in when buying business projectors, or not doing their research, and investing in headaches for years to come. So now is a good excuse as any to review our favorite options for your office’s projector unit.
1. Epson EB-1795F
Portable yet perfectly formed
Projection system: 3LCD | Resolutions: 1920 x 1080 | Brightness: 3200 lumens | Contrast ratio: 10000:1 | Projection distance: 0.7 m – 6.8 m | Video inputs: Composite, HDMI, VGA | Dimensions: 292 x 213 x 44 mm
Wireless projection
Variety of projection modes
Portable
Gesture mode is a gimmick
Requires app for connectivity
Poor audio
The Epson EB-1795F is a great business projector that’s ultra-portable with great image quality. It offers a variety of different connectivity options to avoid fumbling for cables, and with a bit of prep in an office, almost any device can connect to it within seconds of it being turned on.
The Gesture mode is a thoughtful idea, but doesn’t quite play out as effectively in real life. Aside from this, the EB-1795F is a reliable business projector that can easily travel wherever you go, and is up and ready to use in mere minutes.
2. Epson EB-S04
Another great Epson business projector
Projection system: LCD | Resolutions: 800 x 600 | Brightness: 3000 lumens | Contrast ratio: 15000:1 | Video inputs: Component Composite HDMI S-Video USB | Dimensions: 297 x 234 x 77mm
Well priced
Carry case included
Blacks not as dark as could be
Can run loudly
If your meetings are never in the same location often, you’re going to want a no-nonsense projector that’s easy to carry. For that, we can recommend the Epson EB-S04. Weighing in at 2g pounds, and measuring 297 x 234 x 77mm, it also comes with a carry case included, which makes this a great business projector for people often out on the road. It supports connecting via USB, WiFi, VGA, HDMI, or the mobile MHL. Not only is it easy to move around with, it’s extremely easy to use, so much so that booting and choosing your input source only took a mere 34 seconds in our testing. This is all with an intensely strong lamp, which maxes out at 3000 lumens.
It is ideal for those who need a simple, portable projector for anything except for streaming video, as we experienced quality issues there, with output being either grainy or stuttering. So it’s not the best projector for watching films on, but as a business projector, it’s excellent.
3. ViewSonic Pro8520HD
Bright images, loud noises, good projector
Projection system: DLP | Resolutions: 1920 x 1080 | Brightness: 5000 lumens | Contrast ratio: 15000:1 | Video inputs: HDMI, VGA, S-Video, Composite
Very bright
Full HD
Very loud
Optional WiFi dongle
If you’re looking to present in a bright room, or shopping with no worry about price, ViewSonic’s Pro8600, weighing 8.5 pounds and measuring 13.1″ x 10.4″ x 4.3″ (W x D x H), and Pro8520HD, also 8.5 pounds and a very similar 13.1″ x 10.4″ x 4.8″ (W x D x H) are especially relevant. The Pro8600 retails for about $1700 (around £1125, AU$2068) online, and the Pro8520HD can be found online at a bump up to around $1799 (around £1190, AU$2188).
Both machines run very loud and very bright, thanks to the Pro8600’s 6000 lumen and the Pro8520HD’s 5000 lumen capable lamps. So if you’re looking to make presentations to people who drift off when the lights go out, make sure you consider these options. Neither are great with USB, but if you’re looking to present video, both have HDMI slots – the Pro8520HD actually offers two, if that’s something you would need.
Both projectors render HD color video beautifully, although Pro8520HD arguably over-saturates the colors. While the video on the Pro8520HD is of great quality, you’re going to need to have any audio pretty loud, thanks to a whirring fan that hovered around 79 decibels in our testing. While the Pro8600 suffers the same noise pollution – its fan reaches 65 decibels – it does feature a useful ECO mode that can dampen the noise. As you would expect from projectors marketed on their HD quality, these units can get an image large enough for native HD proportions.
4. Epson EB-S31
Small projector, large projection
Projection system: LCD | Resolutions: 800 x 600 | Brightness: 3200 lumens | Contrast ratio: 15000:1 | Video inputs: USB 2.0, Wi-Fi, VGA, HDMI, Composite, S-Video | Dimensions: 234 x 297 x 77mm
Small and portable
Very large projection size
Not high definition
4:3 aspect ratio
Usually when you choose a portable business projector you have to make a few sacrifices in order to have such as small device – but that’s not true with the Epson EB-S31.
Epson has an excellent reputation with business projectors, and it has brought much of its expertise to the EB-S31. Its 3,500 lumen brightness is much brighter than many other portable projectors, and means you have more flexibility when setting up the EB-S31 in environments where there is still ambient light.
The EB-S31 is small and light enough to carry around with you on business trips – but it also has a very large projection size – up to 300 inches – which makes this an incredibly versatile portable business projector.
5. Sony VPL-FHZ55
The first blue laser 3LCD hybrid data projector
Projection system: 3 LCD | Resolutions: 1920 x 1200 | Brightness: 4000 lumens | Contrast ratio: 8000:1 | Video inputs: HDMI, VGA, D-SUB, Ethernet | Dimensions: 390 x 134 x 487mm
Brightness and clarity
Contrast and detail
Very large and heavy
No automatic keystone
The Sony VPL-FHZ55 is designed to be installed once and not moved for a long time. At 26.5 pounds nobody will be volunteering to move it between floors, or even carting it between rooms. It measures 15.3″ x 19.8″ x 5.8″ (W x D x H) and we believe it best positioned on a ceiling, even though that will make it even harder to ever move. With all that size, there is a lot to say about it.
Noteworthy for being the first 3LCD projector – a projection chip technology popularized by Epson and Panasonic – with a lamp-less treatment, thanks to a blue laser light source deployed by Sony. For all that above hype and hubbub, the enormous price should not shock you.
It’s seriousness isn’t just from a top-out of 4,000 lumens, but the fact that it can go for 20,000 hours, reducing the routine expense of replacing burnt out lamps that projectors generally include.
It is connector heavy, as it should be with that price-tag. The right-hand side is a full set of BNC/component inputs, an RGB D-sub 15-pin slot, DVI-D, monitor output and an HDMI input. On the opposite side is S-video, composite video, various analogue audio ins and outs, an RS-232C control jack (beloved of Crestron control systems, among others), the DC inlet, and wired LAN.
Unfortunately, as we notice all too frequently even with the best reviewed units, there is no built in WiFi for the VPL-FHZ55, though it can be networked. And the last thing we’ll note is that the VPL-FHZ55 needs some room. To fill our 80-inch test screen we had to place the VPL-FHZ55 about 11.5 feet away!
6. Asus ZenBeam E1
Projection system: DLP | Resolutions: 854 x 480 | Brightness: 150 lumens | Contrast ratio: 3500:1 | Video inputs: HDMI, MHL | Dimensions: 110 x 29 x 83mm
Gorgeous design
Small
Low resolution
Low light output
The Asus ZenBeam E1 is a beautifully designed pocket projector that’s small and light enough to carry around with you if you often make presentations on the road.
Despite its small size, it can project images up to 120 inches in size, and it has a built-in 6,000mAh battery that can power the projector for up to 5 hours, which makes it rather flexible, as you don’t have to worry about finding a plug socket to power the device. In a rather nice touch, the projector can also double as a power bank for other mobile devices.
The Asus ZenBeam E1 isn’t the most powerful portable projector, but its versatility, ease of setup and eye catching design gives it a place on our list of best business projectors.
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