Sanyo PLC-XW55 review

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Verdict:

Review Date: 5 Dec 2007

Price when reviewed: £465

Supplier: http://www.lambda-tek.com/componentshop

Reviewed By: Seth Barton

Our Rating 3 stars out of 5

Sanyo's PLC-XW55 has a cream-coloured case with a dark grey underside. We felt this looked unappealing and plasticky, which is a shame as the projector feels well built. It is the second-cheapest projector in this group.

Sanyo quotes a noise level of 30dB(A) for this projector, but we found it to be one of the quietest in this category. Hot air is expelled through vents in the back and left-hand side. Along with Panasonic's PT-LB51NTEA, the PLC-XW55 has the lowest contrast ratio in the group at 400:1. Its 2,000 ANSI lumens is bright enough for use under typical office lighting. At 8p an hour, this is one of the most expensive projectors to run.

The single VGA input can be used for component and S-video connections with a suitable adaptor. The PLC-XW55 supports 720p and 1080i video, but doesn't have HDCP compatibility so you can't watch Blu-ray or HD DVD movies. This projector is much better at displaying moving images than Panasonic's. Colours were good, and details sharp. It does particularly well at anti-aliasing, with no jagged edges visible. Image noise is a problem, though, with a lot of speckling in areas of solid colour.

The Windows desktop was not as crisply focused as we'd have liked, and Panasonic's projector did a better job. Our dark screen test was grey rather than black, and small text on our test PowerPoint slide was hard to read.

The PLC-XW55 is reasonably priced and doesn't do a bad job at displaying video. However, its ability to perform office tasks was below par. Optoma's EP727 is cheaper and has better image quality.

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