Casio XJ-A135 review

These are alternated at a high frequency to create the impression of a full colour image (in combination with a traditional DLP chip). Examining our usual test photos, greens were a little too fluorescent, while blues and reds weren’t quite as intense and saturated as we’d like. Contrast, too, wasn’t quite up to scratch and all these factors meant that photos looked a little washed out. Highlight and shadow detail was lacking, too, so shadows turned into blocks of grey while highlights became solid areas of off-white.

This may sound overly negative, so it’s important to clarify that, for the majority of presentations with text, charts and the odd graphic, the XJ-A135 is more than good enough. If the meeting room isn’t too brightly lit, you may even get away with using Eco2 mode, which is noticeably dimmer than Eco1, but the fan is almost inaudible.

Focus across the screen is very good, although the top-right corner was slightly fuzzy on our test unit. However, compared to Dell’s M109S, the XJ-A135 is in another league. Unfortunately, the classic DLP ‘rainbow effect’ was all too noticable on very high-contrast images and videos.

With auto keystone correction (for the adjustable flip-out front foot) and virtually instant start-up and shut-down times, the XJ-A135 is a very convenient presentation tool. £800 is a lot of money to spend on a projector whose image quality isn’t brilliant, but the wireless connection and built-in media player gain some ground back, especially if you’ll use these a lot. More importantly, the only running cost is electricity, since there’s no need to ever replace the lamp.

Overall, the XJ-A135 is a better than average projector, but we think the widescreen models in the Green Slim range will be more appealing. For example, the XJ-A245 is almost identical except that it has a 1,280x800 resolution and produces 2,500 lumens. It’s not yet on sale, but it's anticipated to cost under £1,400. If you can live without WiFi and the media player, the XJ-A240 will cost less than £1,200. These are undoubtedly expensive, but they’ll save you money in the long run compared to a traditional projector and are more portable than most.