The Twenty Smallest Portable SVGA Projectors

Toshiba TLP-450 

At a very bright 1000 ANSI lumens and a street price of about $3,700, the Toshiba TLP-450 is currently one of the strong performers in the category. The only formidable challenger to Toshiba's aggressively priced high performance TLP-450 is the newly announced Mitsubishi S50.

As these two machines stack up, the Mitsubishi has a slight edge in several categories. It is about a pound lighter, 20% smaller in volume, and has a slightly higher lumen rating at 1100 to the Toshiba's 1000. This lumen difference is not an issue, as the human eye cannot detect the difference between 1000 and 1100 lumens when displayed side by side.

Both of these projectors can accept an SXGA signal. However, the Toshiba can also take a UXGA (1600 x 1200). For a consumer that would want to use a native SVGA projector to display UXGA images, the Toshiba is the only answer. For the vast majority of buyers, UXGA compatibility is an unnecessary feature.

So the Mitsubishi will have a competitive advantage in that it is slightly brighter, slightly smaller, and a little lighter. However, the Toshiba has two very important advantages. First, it is shipping today, whereas the Mitsubishi will not be out until February or March.

Second, the Toshiba sells on the street for about $3,700, or about 25% off its list of $4,995. The Mitsubishi's announced retail price is $5,995. Once it begins to ship, we expect the street price will come in at around $4,000. The Mitsubishi should sell at a premium of about 10% over the Toshiba, which is about where they will be. Both of these projectors will be excellent values relative to each other, and relative to the other competitors in the category.

Meanwhile, if you are buying today, if you need a high-brightness portable and you are willing to pay for the extra lumens, the Toshiba TLP-450 is the strongest performer currently available in the group of lightweight 900 to 1100 ANSI lumen machines.