The Mitsubishi WD620U is an extremely bright projector that is ideally suited to the conference room or classroom that needs a high impact image on a large format screen. The WD620U's WXGA 1280x800 native resolution, driven by a .65" single DLP chip, is combined with a high quality lens and results in a very sharp and vivid projected image. The Mitsubishi WD620U also provides a lot of value for the dollar thanks to a 5,000-hour lamp life, a filter free design, and an exceptional 3-year warranty with prompt replacement assistance.

Advantages

Brightness: The Mitsubishi WD620U is specified at a peak brightness value of 4,000 ANSI-lumens. The review sample performed very close to this specification, measuring 3,743 ANSI-lumens or 93% of the published specification. The WD620Us brightest output was found with BrilliantColor at the highest setting, standard lamp mode and the Presentation image preset. Switching the lamp mode to low reduced the light output by 19% resulting in 3,019 ANSI-Lumens (Presentation preset with BrilliantColor at maximum).

This amount of light-horsepower gives the Mitsubishi WD620U flexibility in supporting many different viewing environments and screen sizes. On a screen size of 10 feet wide (138 inches in diagonal at a 1.78 aspect ratio) with a gain of one, the WD620U will produce screen brightness of 59.9 ft-lamberts. This degree of brightness was more that sufficient to overcome ambient light when the WD620U was tested in a 'worst case' conference room scenario that consisted of testing mid-day in a corner room with windows on two sides.

Lens Quality and Sharpness: The Mitsubishi WD620U produces a very sharp and clearly defined image across the entire screen width. No noticeable chromatic aberration was identified throughout the zoom range. The WD620U contains a zoom lens with a 1.5 zoom ratio that allows for flexibility in mounting position. For example, the WD620U can throw a 100" diagonal image anywhere between 10.4 to 15.6 feet of throw distance, making this projector suitable for tabletop, mobile classroom cart use or ceiling mounting. The zoom lens at the extremes did not have a significant impact on image brightness. The max brightness value of 3,743 ANSI-lumens was measured with the zoom lens at maximum position (i.e., the largest image possible). Reducing the zoom to the low end reduced max brightness to 3,417 ANSI-lumens or about 90% of brightness at max zoom. The WD620U's image offset is 29% to 32% of the image height depending on the zoom setting. This translates to the projected image starting 16.8 inches from the projector's lens center for a 100" image at the projector's native aspect ratio.

Internal Audio Capability: The Mitsubishi WD620U contains a single 10W speaker that will reproduce sound input over the analog or digital audio inputs. The sound quality of the single speaker is clear, but has a tinny and slightly hollow sound at volume levels near the upper limit. Sound quality at mid volume level should be sufficient for smaller conference rooms or standard classrooms. The Mitsubishi WD620U contains a unique feature that allows a wireless microphone to be connected directly to the projector and audio output via the projector's internal speaker.

Setup Flexibility: The WD620U contains multiple features that allow the image to be optimized for a variety of different viewing situations. In addition to the standard image modes such as presentation and video, the WD620U contains multiple color presets for use when projecting on a non-standard screen surface. Six different presets are included and feature white and black board presets along with four different wall colors. The Mitsubishi WD620U contains a keystone function that can be adjusted manually or automatically when the projector is powered up. The keystone function works well through the majority of the range, although some noticeable (but not overly distracting) distortion on small font text was noticed at extreme settings. The WD620U features both soft and hard security options: a password lockout function that prevents any image to be displayed before the projector's password is entered and a Kensington lock input for physically securing the projector. The WD620U also comes with a high quality nylon carrying case that will be appreciated if this projector is used in a mobile environment.

Low Operating Cost: The Mitsubishi WD620U is specified to a 5,000-hour lamp life in low and 3,000 hours in normal. Mitsubishi rates lamp hours in terms of time to half brightness; with the plus 3,700 ANSI-lumens starting brightness level, users can expect to have a very bright image even after thousands of hours of bulb run time. The top loading lamp design allows lamp replacements to be completed without having to remove the projector from a ceiling mount. Additionally, the Mitsubishi WD620U has a filter free design that eliminates the need for filter maintenance further reducing maintenance costs.

Input panel: The WD620U's input panel includes three D-Sub VGA connectors - two function as inputs with the third functioning as a dedicated monitor output. The WD620U has a digital HDMI input that is HDCP enabled. Video inputs include composite, s-video and component video over the D-sub connector. The WD620U provides dual 3.5mm audio input jacks, a 3.5mm audio output jack and a set of stereo RCA input jacks. The WD620U can also be controlled externally using the RS-232 or LAN connector using either the standard PJ-Link protocol and third party software or the included Mitsubishi 'ProjectorView Global+' software.

3-Year Warranty with Rapid Replacement: Mitsubishi offers a unique 3-year warranty program that includes Express Replacement Assistance, which means you'll have a replacement unit very quickly in the event your unit fails. The warranty also covers the lamp for 1 year or 500 hours, whichever comes first.

Limitations

Menu structure: I found the menu structure of the WD620U to be cumbersome. The WD620U defaults to a 'simple' menu that contains commonly adjusted functions such as picture mode, brightness, contrast, etc. Unfortunately, users need to navigate through all simple menu options to get to the advanced menu. Additionally, the advanced menu requires a 'down' click or press of the center button on the remote to view the different sub-category options. A corresponding 'up click' is required to get back to the menu category selector. I frequently would inadvertently modify a menu setting with a right click that was intended to select the next advanced menu category. Many menu options are up to five levels deep in the menu structure, requiring a substantial amount of navigation between different menu screens. While the menu structure is not the most user-friendly design, this should not present a significant issue for normal conference or classroom use once the initial setup and installation of the projector is complete.

Video performance: The video performance of the WD620U is adequate for use in the conference or classroom, but it is not made for serious theater viewing. The strengths of this projector are slanted to projection material in ambient light, not video display in a dark room. While I did not take specific measurements, it appears that Mitsubishi uses a modified or non-standard gamma curve that made it difficult to obtain a good image balance at the high IRE levels. I had to choose between muddy mid-level detail or blown out details at the top end. The best video performance was found with setting the WD620U to theater mode, reducing the Brilliant Color setting to a low value and selecting the natural gamma mode. This setting produced 972 ANSI lumens, which is more than enough brightness for a light controlled environment.

Brightness Uniformity: The Mitsubishi WD620U's measured brightness uniformity was 67%. The variation across the screen was consistent across the different lamp modes or image presets. In a tabletop setting, the upper right hand corner was the least bright and the lower left hand corner was the brightest. Viewing on a unity gain screen, this level of variation was not noticeable to the eye.

Rainbow Effect: I noticed an above average amount of the rainbow effect on the Mitsubishi WD620U when the projector was set to maximum brightness and tested using PowerPoint presentation material with a significant amount of slide transition effects. Rainbows were also noticed during viewing of video-based material, but to a lower degree and they were not overly distracting. While color wheel speed is a major factor in rainbow artifacts, the high brightness and rapid motion of the slide transitions were also significant factors.

Conclusion

The Mitsubishi WD620U is a very bright widescreen projector that targets the classroom or business presentation environments. It excels at producing a high impact, large format image due to the 3,743 ANSI-lumen output. Additionally, the rather long zoom range, 10-watt onboard audio, a variety of image pre-sets and configuration features give you the ability to adapt it to many different use environments. The exceptional warranty adds even more value. The Mitsubishi WD620U would be an ideal fit for a semi-mobile or fixed installation in which you want to light up a very large screen with a bright, high impact image.

For more detailed specifications and connections, check out our Mitsubishi WD620U projector page.