BenQ PB6110 DLP Projector

With an unbeatable combination of brightness and contrast, BenQ's PB6110 leaves other projectors wanting and does it at a bargain price. It's also easy to start up, delivers a brilliant image, and comes with a three-year warranty. On the downside, this business projector creates quite a ruckus and takes a while to cool down. Still, it's an impressive piece of presentation technology for $900.

At 4.1 by 10.2 by 8.4 inches the PB6110's size is comparable to other projectors in its class, but its distinctive blue, black, and silver design makes competing InFocus X2 look positively old-fashioned. For the business projector class, the PB6110 is lightweight--only the Hitachi CP-RS55 weighs less--with a travel weight of 7.3 pounds. Based on Texas Instruments' latest 0.55-inch DLP optical engine, the PB6110 has a 1.2X zoom lens and can fill a screen that's anywhere from 20 inches to 20 feet away.

The PB6110 works well with both traditional 4:3 and wide-screen 16:9 input and has a good assortment of connectors, including VGA in and out, audio, and composite and S-Video. Unlike its peers in the budget class, it comes with AC cords for use within the United States, the European Union, and the United Kingdom, in addition to all of the video and audio cables needed to connect to a laptop or a DVD player. The built-in 1-watt speaker is usable but isn't very loud and has poor sound quality, and you'll need to dig into the menu to adjust the volume.

To its credit, the PB6110 has one of the simplest control panels of any projector. There are four small buttons and one four-way switch; only the Dell MP110's controls are more basic. But adjusting the PB6110's picture can be difficult; the focus ring and the zoom control are awkwardly recessed half an inch. The business-card-size remote control is tiny but can move PowerPoint slides forward and back as well as blank the screen. On the downside, the remote lacks a laser pointer and a volume control, and the buttons feel stiff and unresponsive. From a cold start, the projector takes 36 seconds to get ready for business; despite its pair of noisy cooling fans, it takes nearly 2 minutes to cool down and shut off.

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