ViewSonic PJD5553LWS Short Throw Projector Review

viewsonic pjd5553lws review

Great office Projectors are difficult to find. Partly because they stand or fall on your ability to read the often small text at the same time as seeing detailed images. And, partly because there are so many Projectors out there purporting to be just what you’re looking for when actually they’re not. It can be like looking for a needle in a haystack, whereas finding a great movie or gaming Projector is much easier. As a projection expert, I have a significant advantage over buyers, because I know roughly where to look. I also know what other experts online are saying. So after some time considering my options I came up with this; The ViewSonic PJD5553LWS 3200 Lumens WXGA HDMI Short Throw Projector Review. Taking into account everything you might need for terrific presentations, this Projector seems to be the best on offer.

PROS

  • Enhanced Sound
  • 3200 Lumens
  • 20,000-1 Contrast Ratio
  • SuperColor Technology
  • Excellent Short-throw
  • Nice Design
  • Easy Set-Up

 

CONS

  • WXGA Resolution

Size/Design

This is quite chunky. The measurements are 12.44 by 8.98 by 4.08. So it’s by no means one of the smaller Projectors on the market. But at a weight of 5.51 pounds, it isn’t heavy and can be easily carried around. Despite the size, I’d label it portable because of the weight. The design is standard in ViewSonic PJD5553LWS. It’s Minimalist, with curved edges, large Vents and basic controls on the top. It looks good for those who like that sort of thing, but most importantly and like all ViewSonic devices, it’s durable. You’ll be able to tell from the feel of this thing that it’s made out of strong stuff. So don’t worry if you drop it, although I wouldn’t make a habit of dropping Projectors.

Performance

Set-Up

There’s no manual Lens Shift so you’ve got to use Keystone. Be careful using this because you can import distortions. Other than it’s a pretty standard set-up that takes around about 15 minutes. Not exactly plug in and throw up images, but no real hardships either. You’ll generally get clear images quickly.

Enhanced Sound

What does this mean? Well, the PJD5553 contains a pair of 2 Watt Speakers. This would usually produce moderately good sound. Not the outstanding sound you’d get from 10 Watt Speakers, but something that sounds good when you hear it. 10 Watt Speakers cost a lot more so to keep down the price ViewSonic PJD5553LWS has cleverly expanded the Speaker Chambers so that the sound flows out better. They’ve also provided a powerful Amplifier putting out 20KHZ. As a result of this superb design, you get enhanced sound delivery from the 2 Watt Speakers, which equals that of 10 Watts of power. With expanded Speaker Chambers, you don’t get that muffled sound you hear when sound waves hit Chamber walls. And with the power Amplifier you can go louder without distortions Everything is clear and smooth. It really is a phenomenal triumph of design overpower.

Having cleverly saved money of the Wattage, ViewSonic could provide the following features:

20,000:1 Contrast Ratio

For blacks and whites, this is more important than Native Resolution. The contrast Ratio determines how blacks and whites will look. The larger the Contrast Ratio the more detailed and clear they’ll be. How does this help with presentations? Well, the text is often in black and backgrounds are often in white. So, at 20,000-1, you can see very small font sizes in supreme clarity. This really matters when you’re showing bar charts and pie charts. The text next to them showing values is always visible. Not only visible; it leaps off the page.

3200 Lumens

Lumens add to portability and increase the user-friendly nature of a Projector. Once you go over 3000 Lumens, you don’t need to wait for all the light to leave the room once you close the office blinds or curtains. You can get started right away. On grey days you might even be able to view in natural light. Lumens in this range just make everything easier. and clearer. Try viewing a 1080p Projector with 2000 Lumens on a dull afternoon in natural light. You’ll barely get an 800×480 resolution because the brightness isn’t there. On this, you’ll get your maximum resolution all of the time.

SuperColor Technology

Sounds like a bunch of sales-speak right? It is, but beneath all that you actually get a great feature. SuperColor is the name of a brand of color technology ViewSonic has used in ViewSonic PJD5553LWS to project images from this model onto the screen. SuperColor has over 1 billion colors so you get a more advanced and wider pallet than on most Projectors. They’ve also designed a 6 Segment Color Wheel that uses all of those colors in the best most efficient way possible. The result is excellent images especially when you get into your more detailed presentations that require large groups of complex charts and visual effects.

There is one downside though:

Native Resolution

This is not 1080p. It’s 1280×800 so you won’t get straight out of the box 1080p. Although you can upscale, so you do get something approaching 1080p if you connect your Laptop, Tablet, Phone, or Pad using an HDMI cable. And with SuperColor Technology the images are always clear even without HDMI. I never had a problem with any of the pictures and there’s an added bonus. You can get 100 inches from just a few feet back so offices don’t need to be all that big for you to go to a big screen.

Final Thoughts

There really aren’t many imperfections here. You could point to the resolution, but I was happy with the images. They turn out great because of the Contrast Ratio and the color technology. There are more to great images than resolution and at a 20,000-1 Contrast Ratio, blacks, and whites appear to be vivid and clear. You can see even the smallest fonts. With over 1 billion colors, you get the kind of detail you’d expect from a ViewSonic PJD5553LWS. And, the 6 Segment Color Wheel assists the color technology in bringing images to the big screen in fantastic crispness. So this is a design triumph. They put in 2 Watt speakers, but boosted the Amplifier and put in larger Speaker Chambers, proving there’s more to sound than Wattage. The sound is the best on the market actually, and this is an area where even the best Projectors often fall down. The real bonus was the Short-Throw. 100 inches from a few feet back means this is fit for even the smallest offices. You can take it into any office or classroom and have one hell of a Projector, fit for text, charts, and images. Thank you for reading.

ViewSonic PJD5553LWS

Andrew Wyatt

Andrew Wyatt

Andrew Wyatt has been a tech geek for as long as he can remember. Whether it's laptops, cameras, or projects, he's obsessed with it all. When he's not researching the latest tech products, he likes to go on long hikes with his dogs.

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