Best Color Matching Ultraportable Projector: Mitsubishi ColorView LVPX80U

You spend weeks preparing the perfect Power Point Presentation. It looks great on your computer, but plug it in to any number of today’s projectors and your masterpiece melts like a Warhol on the boardroom wall. In order to deliver vivid and compelling Power Point presentations you need a data projector capable of projecting all the digital bells and whistles you create on your computer. Mitsubishi’s new XGA LCD Ultraportable ColorView Projector (Model no. LVPX80U) is just the ticket. Not only is it the first LCD-based projector I’ve seen that can accurately recreate the brightness and natural color on your computer screen to the big screen, it’s portable too.

Mitsubishi co-developed the testing methods to allow its projectors to comply with the same industry color spectrum standards (called sRGB) as other digital devices such as scanners, digital cameras, monitors and printers. sRGB is a system of color spaces that determines tone, saturation and brightness. It ensures ease of use by computer operating systems to decode and translate these expressions into actual color.

Add sRGB compliance to Mitsubishi’s exclusive color matching algorithm called ColorView Color Matrix, and a Color Uniformity Corrector, and you finally have a portable LCD projector that can deliver the goods. While all multimedia projectors can adjust color in video mode, the X80 manages the color spectrum of all your data, be it charts and graphs or photographs.

In other words, the greens are green, and reds are red. Colors do not wash or fade. It’s truly WSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) in a 7.7-pound ultra portable form factor.

I compared the Mitsubishi’s color output (rather unfairly) to that of an older CRT projector that cost twice as much in its day and found that the graphics I had on my laptop screen were many times more brighter and accurate when displayed on the X80 than on the aging CRT unit. The unit also has built in picture in picture if you want to get fancy and connect another source. It stays remarkably cool after long periods of usage. Plus, unlike many projectors, the X80 puts all its controls, including computer controls, on top of the unit. It comes with a remote control. It can be front, rear or ceiling mounted and works with PCs and Macs.

For road warriors, Mitsubishi has the best warranty in the business. If you spill your Stoli from the mini bar in the projector or just bust it up real good Keith Moon style in your hotel room, Mitsubishi’s Emergency Roadside Assistance (ERA) program guarantees free replacement product shipped overnight for next business-day delivery almost anywhere.

Best of all, I carried the Mitsubishi home and with its built –in line doubler, Native XGA (1024 by768) resolution, super bright 1500 ANSI lumens, connected it to my DVD player via its S-video port and watched beautiful cinema style movies on my wall all night long. It was here that I also found the 300:1 contrast ratio of the X80 to deliver terrific color depth and crisp, clear pictures.

After all, who says projectors can’t be fun?

It sells for $ 5,200 www.avstore.com