Customer Reviews
Excellent projector 
2008-02-29
I will be entering the presentation circuit soon, so I decided to pick up a projector. After some research, I found that a projector with the same native resolution as your laptop will produce the best picture quality, so I narrowed my search to projectors with 1280x800 resolution, the same as my Macbook. The InFocus IN35W was one of the few that came up.
After reading favorable reviews of InFocus projectors online, I decided to make the buy. I ordered from Amazon a few days ago, and I picked it up last night after a near-UPS nightmare (Note to Amazon: STOP using UPS as a shipper, they suck!). I gave it several hours of usage, and here's my feedback:
Pros:
- Very easy to set up. Just plug in the power, the M1 video cable to the projector, and the USB and VGA to your laptop (those of us with Macbooks will need the Apple mini-DVI-to-VGA adapter)
- As noted above, the IN35W's bundled video cable also has a USB connector, so you can flip slides in your presentation using the included remote.
- Warms up and turns on fast, in about 10 seconds
- Cools down quickly, in about 15-20 seconds
- The picture quality is absolutely stunning. I've never seen a projector in my life that looks like this. Especially when running at native 1280x800, it's beautiful. Connected to my Macbook, I ran through my Keynote presentation, did various desktop tasks such as Mail and Firefox, and it looks great. I also connected the IN35W to my brand new Nintendo Wii, and it looked great as well. Not as good as the Macbook, since the Wii is only 480p and not at the native resolution of the projector, but still great.
- Has a "Power Mode", which will reduce brightness by about 20%, and make the projector run significantly quieter. (By my estimations, about 50-60% quieter)
- Comes with a nice carrying case.
- Comes with a nice-looking remote, though I haven't tried to use it yet.
Cons:
- The rainbow effect. Yes, it is there, however slight. You can *just* notice it when watching a movie, but it's not too obvious or apparent. In my judgement it was not enough to make me return the projector, considering everything else it has going for it. When playing the Nintendo Wii, you can't notice it at all, nor could I notice it under regular desktop usage. Only on some scenes in movies, and a few other edge cases. In all cases it is a minor effect, and not everyone will be able to notice it.
- In the default operation mode, it is loud, though probably not louder than any standard projector. Thankfully there is the "Power Mode" which reduces fan noise by a significant amount
- Like all projectors, it runs warm. The fan sucks in cool air from the left side, and shoots out hot air from the right side. Woe onto those presentees who are seated at the right side of the IN35W! They are going to have their own personal heater, whether they like it or not. Again, this is probably true of any projector.
- There is no optical keystone adjustment, rather just an electronic one. From what I've read, this will degrade picture quality, though through my own visual inspection, it seemed perfectly fine.
- The projector sometimes seems to produce a crooked picture on some seemingly even surfaces, causing me to use a DVD case to prop up one of the corners. So far I haven't found any setting that can compensate for this.
- The included carrying case does not have a shoulder strap, rather only a small hand strap.
Verdict:
This is an excellent projector. All of the "Cons" above would probably apply to 90% of projectors out there. The best thing this has going for it is the picture quality, which is stunning and in a completely different class based on what I've seen of projectors (if you are using a 1280x800 laptop especially). It is not in the cheapest class of projectors (sub $1000), but with it's picture quality level, it seems worth the money to me. You will love your Wii's huge picture being projected on your wall, I promise.
For those of you with hangups about the rainbow effect, you will want to see this in person to see if it's a dealbreaker for you.
