The Twenty Smallest Portable SVGA Projectors

Buying Issues: Maximum Resolution, Weight & Size, Audio, and Street Prices

Maximum Resolution

Although these products all have displays which are native SVGA, or 800 x 600 resolution, all twenty of them can also accept a signal of at least one-step up in resolution, which is XGA (1024 x 768). So if you upgrade your computer source from SVGA to XGA, the projector will still function. The on-board electronics will compress the XGA signal into the SVGA display.

If you have an XGA computer already, you may still want to go with an SVGA projector to save money. Be aware that a compressed image will usually not look quite has sharp as a native signal. However, manufacturers have recently made great strides in compression techniques, and the latest SVGA products will display compressed XGA images that are quite acceptable for many users.  Many buyers will be delighted to save a couple thousand dollars in exchange for a slight softness in the image and the loss of some detail.

Almost all of the products in this category will deliver a clean, crisp data image from an SVGA source. With a few exceptions, image quality from an SVGA source is not a determining factor in choosing a projector.

The same is not true of the compressed images from an XGA source. You will see differences in the quality of the compressed images if you look at them side by side. Whether these differences are significant is a subjective judgment. Each user will have his or her own circumstances to consider in this decision. How often is detailed XGA material being presented? Is there an SVGA product that works well for the application, or is it necessary to spend more money to get a native resolution XGA machine? These are questions that only you can answer by actually seeing the projector in action with the presentation material that needs to be displayed.

We should note that there are three projectors among our twenty that will take resolutions even higher than XGA. The Epson PowerLite 500c, the Sony VPL-CS1, and the Toshiba TLP-450 will accept SXGA signals (1280 x 1024). Furthermore, the Toshiba will also take UXGA (1600 x 1200). If you anticipate the use of an SXGA source, the same recommendations apply: make sure to see the results of the compressed image using your typical presentation material so that you can determine if the displayed image will be clean and crisp enough for your use.

Weight and Size

The lightest of the products in this category is the 4.8 lb. Lightware Scout 2000. The heaviest are the Sanyo products at 8.6 lbs. To date the industry has focused on the weight of the projector as being a vital key to the mobile presentation market.

However, to the mobile presenter, weight is not everything. The size of the projector measured in cubic inches is a major factor in mobile convenience. Size varies considerably in this category. For example, the smallest product is the Epson 500c at 247 cubic inches. At the other end of the spectrum is the Proxima SV1 at 504 cu. in., or double the size of the Epson. We will consider both size and weight in this evaluation.

The industry has tended to concentrate on weight as an important buying criterion. However, by the time you pack up a 6-pound projector with the notebook computer, cables, carrying case, hard-copies of the presentation, etc., you end up with a bundle that's a lot more than 6 pounds. So if the weight of the projector itself were to vary by a pound or so either way, it's not going to make much difference in the carrying weight of the whole outfit. Certainly, the lighter the better. But there are very significant cost and performance factors in these products that are more important than whether the projector weighs in at five, six, or seven pounds.

On-board audio

On-board audio speakers are not much of a distinguishing consideration in this category of products. Most of them have a built-in speaker at minimal wattage. The audio is sufficient to reproduce sound, but none of them are high-fidelity systems. Among the twenty projectors in this category, the only models which diverge from the one-speaker configuration are the Lightware Scout/Dukane 7700 which has two speakers, and the Lightware Scout 2000, which has no audio on-board.

MSRP and Street Prices

At this writing, the Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Prices in this category currently ranges from a low of $2,495 for the Lightware Scout 2000 to $6,995 for the Sanyo PLC-SU10N.

Many manufacturers set suggested retail prices so that there is enough margin for dealers to make money selling and supporting their products. Due to the highly competitive nature of the industry, dealers often discount substantially off the MSRP. So you can often find many current models selling for as much as 20% to 35% off list price.

However, not all projectors can be acquired at such discounts. Some manufacturers such as Proxima, Kodak, and Lightware, have started selling certain models direct to the consumer either via 800 numbers or on the Internet. The prices quoted on these vendors' websites are often discounted from original MSRPs, and as such, further steep discounting is not to be expected.

You can find current street prices on most of the twenty models in this study being quoted by dealers on this website. Just click to the Current Prices section and search on the vendor and model that you are interested in.

You can also get price quotes directly from dealers for the projector you are interested in. Just post a Request for Quote on this site. The service is free. Click to Get Bids! for further information.