Business projectors are typically used in conference room presentations, interactive advertising, sales, and market analysis.
The projectors listed here will span the range from sub-five pound portable business projectors to large venue projectors with 10,000 lumens or more.
Some of the top selling brands of business projectors include Epson, Optoma, Sony, Panasonic, BenQ, Christie, and Sharp, but there are over 60 different manufacturers.
Most business projectors are on the market for at least two years, many even longer. Yet with all the brands there are still hundreds of new models released each year.
When it comes to business projectors, we typically review between 20 and 25 new models a year. It is important to note, though that manufacturers normally don’t release a new model, but a new family of models. Thus, our single review serves to inform on as many as 6-8 new models. Those models in a family of projectors are usually almost identical in most ways, but often differ in resolution and various networking abilities.
There are mobile projectors and projectors mostly stationary, or mounted to wall or ceilings. A typical office projector for small presentation rooms, conference rooms and training rooms these days offers up 2000 to 3500 lumens with entry level performance and resolution, starting at $299.
That said, most of you are looking for a high-performance, high brightness business projector for your lecture hall, board room, hotel ballroom or auditorium, or even an interactive advertising display. A good business projector meets the criteria of the applications it will be used for, as well as the ambient lighting conditions of the room. Recently WUXGA and 1080p business projectors have gained significant market share now that they are far more affordable, starting as low as $600.
XGA projectors, once the dominant business resolution no longer rule, with widescreen projectors being more in favor, and costing only slightly more. Quickly gaining marketshare in this sector are interactive projectors, including ultra short throw designs that sit only inches from the screen. The best of these command a real premium, with most costing $1000 to $3000. (The Ultra short throw interactive are the most expensive of the group.) They have the advantage of being wall mounted, and can use a whiteboard rather than a screen There are three technologies used in business projectors: LCD projectors, DLP projectors and LCoS projectors. Pocket projectors – rather than the even smaller pico projectors, are now bright enough to be considered viable business projector solutions, with many now offering 500 lumens.
Some of the Most Popular Business Projector Brands: NEC Sony, Optoma, Epson, InFocus and Viewsonic, in no particular order.
There are many brands out there, although not all build their own product, in fact many simply relabel their product from other original manufacturers or make very minor changes, and sell the products under their own names. Here is a short list of the top selling brands that actually design and build their projectors, it is not a complete list. Who is number one varies depending on the questions asked, although Epson currently claims the largest market share worldwide. These are some of the leaders:
2013 was a year that new shifts in resolution and pricing saw major shifts. Entry level is from $299 to perhaps $599, but 1080p (1920×1080) and WUXGA (1920×1200) projectors started shipping for under $2000 (and even a lot less)!
Lowest resolution projectors today (2017) would still be SVGA resolution (800×600) models can now be found for as little at $299, but most entry level projectors sell from between $399 and $699.
Quicktip: Almost all computers out there are now at least XGA resolution, as are tablets most can work with tablets like the iPads from Apple, and also Android, so for clean, clear, crisp small text and graphics you should be looking to get a projector with XGA resolution or higher.
Lower resolution SVGA projectors comprise a small fraction of US projector sales, and the bulk of those are purchased by schools. In the few years, though, the cost of higher resolution projectors has come down enough ($50 more) that SVGA (other than schools), may finally fade away. Unless you have a compelling specific need, go higher resolution.
Today your business would benefit from XGA resolution model or widescreen WXGA projector. Today the trend is mostly higher resolution and widescreen with WXGA slugging it out with the even higher res WUXGA, for domination.
Most 4:3 aspect ratio computers are sold into “legacy” situations, replacing an existing 4:3 projector, where there’s already a 4:3 screen in place. Switching to a wide screen projector would often require a new screen, and moving the ceiling mount, a lot of extra expense. If you have a budget of more than $600 a unit, it would be more beneficial to go with WXGA or higher, unless you are “trapped” in a 4:3 world, , with higher brightness, (more lumens). If you have budget and need, you could consider the new crop of affordable 1080p and WUXGA projectors.
In fact, you may seriously want to consider a specialist – mostly A/V dealers whether local or online have sales people who are knowledgeable about what works best, thanks to strong backgrounds in the “projector, plasma display and LCD display” industry. They are far more likely to be able to speak intelligently, and get you where you need to be. Even if you don’t want to know the details, there’s a real advantage to buying from someone who knows the products and issues. BTW, onlineA/V resellers are generally known to charge about 5-7% more than the least expensive PC resellers, Spending an extra $30 to $100 is not a great price to pay, if it gets you into the right product, instead of one that is a poor choice for your specific needs. Choose Wisely!
Most weigh at least 5 or 6 pounds, and up to 10 pounds, except for the one to three pound pocket projectors which are now just becoming bright enough for projecting to small groups, and in some cases medium sized, as almost all pocket projectors are 500 to 1000 lumens.
What you’ll find with entry level business projectors:
Consider the technology while choosing an entry level business projector. Especially, if color accuracy is important, you will need more lumens on a DLP projector to overcome ambient lighting, than would be required of an LCD projector, Why? Color lumens vs. white lumens. Our Color Brightness video explains.
Priced typically from $1500 – to $4000+ Most of these weigh in over 10 lbs (but not all), they start at 4000 lumens but mostly ar 5000 lumens or more, and many offer interchangeable lenses. There are a huge variety interesting features found on some of these projectors that just don’t show up on less expensive projectors. These are definitely not portable projectors unless your idea of portable is perhaps 20 to 50 pounds.
Do you need the features – and the “horsepower”?
Key features found in many High Performance Projectors:
Some widely differing examples of projectors in this group of Mid to High Performance projectors:
The hot segment for business projectors is the in the $600 – $1500 range. Resolutions run from XGA up to 1080p/WUXGA! (and higher resolution) projectors, providing between 2500 and 4000 lumens.. The standard today is about 3500 lumens, but remember that a 20 or 30% increase in lumens helps, but really isn’t a dramatic increase in brightness.
In this day and age, you can now find a goodly number of business projectors up to WUXGA and 1080p for $1000 or less. Many business users don’t need that resolution (or even more expensive 4K).
Some examples of good business projectors at different price points, with some core features:
Under $600 street price:
Moderately priced Business Projectors: $600 – $1500
Most of these projectors sell for over $4000 (up to $100,000), offer at least 5000 lumens, most have interchangeable lenses, etc. Many offer laser engine (or dual lamp for redundancy) and reliability. Almost all will have optical lens shift, which will also allow two projectors to be “stacked” together to virtually double the brightness. All of these higher performance projectors below offer interchangeable lenses, networking and more:
That should give you a good idea of what your investment dollars will buy, in terms of portability, power, and features. Our best advice – talk with a dealer who knows what they are talking about.
I like to use an analogy to buying a car. If you have $25K for a car, you don’t want to randomly have someone, who knows nothing about your needs, pick out your vehicle. Think about it – that $25K in a car – could mean:
Now one of those is definitely going to work better for you than most of the others. While projectors may not vary as much, there are still significant differences and combinations of features, such as ultra short throw projectors, interactive ones, 3D capable ones, and those with networking and advanced networking projectors. A good sales consultant can spend 5 minutes asking you the “right questions” and guide you into a “better choice”. For those “sales adverse”, review sites like ours help you make your own choices. Good ones, we hope.
