Epson - EpiqVision™ Mini EF11 Laser Projector - Black

This is going to be a review that should be for the masses - not just cinemaphiles or anyone with an advanced knowledge of projectors. Also note that the photo I included won't do it justice, because this is one of those things you actually have to see to really appreciate it. Having previously purchased a cheap sub-$200.00 projector from Amazon, I decided that the one I had just wasn't good enough. It was perfectly fine for the impromptu movie night, but I was never truly satisfied with the picture. This led me to look into new projectors, and I came across this laser projector. I'll give a very simplified explanation as to the three different types of lights used in projectors. Lamp: These have been around for years. Usually middle of the road price, but you make up for that with very expensive bulb replacements that only get you about 1/8th of the life of the other options. LED: Very light, very cheap, and the light pretty much lasts forever. Caveats are that they are *never* as bright as any other option, and usually the brightness is very poor. Laser: The new hotness. Uses literal pew-pew lasers to draw the image on screen. All the life of an LED, with *most* of the brightness of a lamp. They also run cool and pretty quiet. That brings me to this projector. As mentioned, I was tired of a washed out picture from my cheapo LED projector. I bought this because "LaseRS ArE COoL" and I've heard great things about them. These claims are NOT unsubstantiated. Let's talk about the cons first. This projector is expensive, and it only does 1080p. It does not have built in Wi-Fi, nor does it have any sort of media controls (like Netflix or anything). You'll need an Apple TV, or better yet, a Roku Stick/Chromecast which can be powered off the lone USB port. No auto focus. That's ok, as the focus knob is quite sensitive, and I doubt you'll be running around with this thing while you're using it. No Bluetooth. Does auto *vertical* keystone correction - but not horizontal. That's kind of about it for the cons. Pros - there's a lot of 'em. First off, for you gamer types out there, yes - there is lag. BUT I will say that my very scientific test of launching Sonic Mania and just having Sonic jump presents itself with an almost imperceptible amount of lag. If there's lag there, my old eyes can't see it, and I can't feel it either. You can very easily game on this. Picture quality: This projector may only be 1080p, but you'd be hard pressed to find a TV that is as sharp as this. There are some software enhancements that can be enabled (and are by default), but these are shockingly good enhancements that don't go crazy. It's a very sharp, very bright, and very vivid picture. Audio: I'll be honest - I didn't bother testing this, as I have this hooked up to an A/V system. I'm not looking to use this portably, although you very easily could. Noise: This thing is *silent*. It's not perfectly silent, and you'll notice it if there's no other audio, but if you have any modicum of dialog happening, or music playing - you'll quickly forget this thing even has a fan. Fun fact: If you hold the power button and plug in the power, you can hear the fans ramp up to 100%. Let's just say that this is probably running at about 5% of their full speed, because if they go 100%, it's like a jet engine. (Anyone with a PS4 knows the sound.) Other: This is just other stuff I love about this thing. First off - it's TINY. For scale, it's one Monster Energy can by one Monster Energy can. It's quite lightweight, but packed. This is mostly because the power supply is external (meaning there's a power brick). This is great for keeping thermals low, and fan noise to a minimum. The device only allows for a 1080p signal or lower. It does NOT accept a 4k signal and downsample it. Again, with the image processing it does, it looks extremely crisp. One last thing of note - if you are mounting, be sure you can either use a plate that works with the 3 hole mounting setup it has, or buy the mounting plate - this doesn't come with it. I truly can not say enough wonderful things about this projector. As someone who really doesn't understand things like Contrast Ratios, Lumens, etc, I just think this looks nice. With that being said - this is NOT a good projector for bright areas. You can still see the picture, but it will absolutely be washed out. Dim, indirect lighting is great, so something like a lower wattage table lamp should be fine. It may be pricier, but it's WELL worth it, especially if you're not looking for the most fancy pants models out there. Absurdly highly recommended.

Epson - EpiqVision™ Mini EF11 Laser Projector - Black Summary: A wonderfully portable powerhouse of a projector. Pros: * Surprisingly bright even under brightly lit room conditions. Surprisingly so. * Up to a 150" projected image with stunning quality. * Native 1080p "HD" resolution. Not upscaled 720p. * Picture correction actually works pretty well on its own. Sometimes you need to make some manual adjustments. But on the whole, it adjusts the picture correctly accounting for orientation, skew, tilt. Not focus. * Price point seems fair for true native HD support and overall quality. Cons: * Must use remove for everything. There is a single button on the projector. There is a rotating slider that allows you to adjust the focus. But the remote must be used for every other setting. Don't lose it! * A retractable lens cover/protector would have been nice. * This unit only supports MiraCast. This means no AirPlay which means no instant-sharing stuff from an iOS device. It's pretty annoying and I'm not sure just how big of a con this is. Still, the unit is small enough that you can easily colocate an AppleTV or something next to it without much fuss. I just really think projectors should be able to natively stream stuff or wireless connect to sources other than Miracast. Huge ask, I know and I understand the implications, but no less a bummer. Use: The principal use for this projector was to watch movies outdoors. However, all of my testings had to happen indoors since it is snowing outside. The indoor tests involved me projecting against a flat textured wall. The image was unbelievably surprising. I wanted to rearrange all of the furniture to possibly make it a permanent fixture in the living room. But I will have to wait and plan that out since my main living display is a 75" LG 4K television. With a project this large, I'm not sure I would "lose" much. I am still impressed. Practically, however, since my original use for this is outdoor or spontaneous wall projection, I have to say that the throw distance is pretty large. This means that you do need a substantial distance to get the large display of 100" or more. I just don't have an indoor space that large. I tried cartoons, 3D rendered animations and movies. They all looked amazing, even when I projected against brown texture sliding door panels! I also tested the projector without closing the shades or turning off all of the lights. The unit is definitely usable in a brightly natural/ artificially lit room. Unfortunately, I can't submit videos or I would show the different lighting conditions, textures, throw, and general performance of the projector. I think this is going to be a fine addition to my entertainment arsenal. Note: For 200$ more you can get HDR support, Auto-Focus, built-in AndroidTV, YAMAHA virtual surround sound, built-in Bluetooth, better skew correction, and up to 4K INPUT resolution. I would recommend spending the extra money on the more expensive model if you can. Technical specifications: You can find these on the product support site, however, for your convenience, I've listed them below: Specifications Projection System Epson 3LCD Laser Chip Design (Architecture) 3-Chip Projection Method Front/Rear/Upside Down Product Color Black Driving Method Poly-silicon TFT active matrix, 0.62" Aspect Ratio 16:9 Native Resolution 1,920 x 1,080 Compatible with 4:3 Yes Color Brightness3 Color Light Output: 1,000 lumens White Brightness3 White Light Output: 1,000 lumens Contrast Ratio 200,000:1 Color Reproduction Full-color (up to 16.77 million colors) Image Size 30" - 150" (Zoom: Wide) Keystone Correction Auto/Manual Vertical: +/- 34 degrees (Auto) Horizontal: +/- 40 degrees (Manual) Color Processing Full 10-bit Light Source Type Laser Diode Light Source Life 20,000 hours (normal/quiet mode) Built-in Speakers 1.5 W (2-way mono) Projector Lens Type No Optical Zoom/Focus (Manual) F-number 2.0 Focal Length 13.9 mm Throw Ratio 1:1 Other Features Color Modes Dynamic, Vivid, Bright Cinema, Natural, Cinema Input Signal 1x HDMI (HDCP 1.4) Audio Output Signal 1x Stereo Mini Operating Temperature 41°- 86°F (5° - 30°C) Power Supply Voltage 100 - 240 V AC +/- 10%, 50/60 Hz Power Consumption ECO Mode: 73 W Normal Mode: 102 W Fan Noise 22 - 27 dB USB Type-A 1x (5 V/2 A power supply, PC Free and firmware update) USB Type-B 1x mini (for service) Security Kensington Lock Country of Origin Philippines Dimensions (W x D x H) Including feet: 6.9" x 6.9" x 2.6" Weight: 2.7 lb Remote Control Features Front directional Operating Distance 16.4 ft (5 m) Operating Angle Right/Left: -30 to +30 degrees Upper/Lower: +15 to -15 degrees What's in the Box EF11 projector, power supply, 1x remote control, 2x AAA batteries, Quick Setup Guide

Love it! Works great and can hook up better speakers to it for better sound quality.

>> Summary We have been using the Epson EF11 projector for the past few days, moving it around the house with one of our Roku sticks connected to it, and (with some caveats) the overall experience has been very good. - Favorable: Small, easy to carry around, great video quality overall. - Not-favorable: audio mono, still needs a power cable to run (not truly portable), lacks Bluetooth connectivity, manual focus. >> Setup/Configuration I unpacked the device, connected the power cable, attached my Microsoft Miracast adapter to it (later on I found out the EF11 already had the screen mirroring capability), put the batteries in the remote, turn the projector on and I was ready to project from my computer and phone. Once your device is connected and projecting, you would need to adjust the focus, tilt and Vertical/Horizontal Lens shift. Focus and tilt settings are manual, while Vertical/Horizontal Lens shift is achieved by using the remote. >> Connections - Wired: 1 HDMI input, 1 USB input and 1 stereo minijack output. - Wireless: Screen Mirroring via Miracast. I use the USB/HDMI combo to power my Roku stick and project from it. It would have been great that this device included a Roku player in it (I guess its bigger brother EF12 has Android TV in it already). It looks like this is the best configuration to use as it gives smart capabilities to the projector. I was not aware of the Screen Mirroring capability and I had my Microsoft Miracast stick connected to it at first, well not anymore, I can project from my laptop as well as from my phone with the built-in Miracast, this is very handy. When connecting to it, though, make sure you use the remote to change the Input to Screen Share as it doesn’t automatically switch to that input. >> Video I would say that in general the video quality is great; however, I still have mixed feelings with respect its resolution. This device resolution is HD, so projecting with my HD Roku Stick and the bigger Roku 4K player (it seems to do a good job at downgrading to HD from 4K), I can start discerning the pixels when the screen size goes beyond about 60” at a distance of 10’ or so. So be mindful if you are one person who likes high video quality at high refresh rates. Colors are vibrant though, and it looks like the projector does a good job at presenting/adjusting the myriad of colors. Projector is usable at close distance even with a fully lit room. I attached some pictures to the review, but they don’t really pay respect to how vibrant the colors are (fail on my camera taking the pictures). We usually watch nature/science shows and we like to see the finer details in color and texture, no major complaints so far with the Epson EF11. >> Sound This is one area that I think needs improvement, the audio seems fine for a whole room, but soon one gets tired of the mono audio that comes out of the device. I connected a pair of stereo speakers that make the experience much better. I wish it had Bluetooth capabilities to connect to external speakers, that way I could hook up to any of my good sounding Bluetooth speakers I have and experience a blast of a movie night anywhere in the house (or even outside). >> Portability If you are looking for a truly portable device, perhaps this is not the one you want. This does not run on rechargeable batteries, so you need to have an outlet or extension to connect the power cable to and make it work. Otherwise, it is a very good device for its size. The other thing is that no matter how portable your device is, you still need a place to put it on, this has been some kind of an issue for us when moving the device around the house, since if there is not already a table or stand near-by I need to carry a stand for it. I am thinking of getting a tripod or something similar to carry with it and make my “portable” experience better. Finally, there is always the chance that you are not really looking for a projector to move around the house, but one that is small and imperceptible to be used in your media room. Well, this one could be your solution provided you wire a good set of speakers to it.

So far I am enjoying my new projector! Great lighting and image. The only negative would be the built in sound systems is not the best BUT I connected it to a potable speaker (Ion Sport XL) and it feels like I have a personal movie threaten in my room. I have figure out how to have it mirror my home so that was a bum too but have been able to use the Apple TV with the HDMI adaptor. Still need to try it for outdoor movie night.

Was not expecting this to be so clear and easy to set up. My sons and my wife were all blown away too. I'm questioning why I've never looked into projection screens before. This machine is lightweight. Focus lever on top makes it easy to focus from any distance. Right now we just have it projected on a wall, painted very light tan. I plan on building a screen for it. There are some great instructional videos online. Playing video games on it is amazing. Never thought I'd be playing Super Mario 64 for Nintendo Switch on my wall! I grew up playing that game on a tube tv. Oh how times have changed. PROS: clear picture mobility height adjustment easy to use pre-settings for picture quality we found to be best sheer size of viewing area CONS: only 1 HDMI input speakers on bottom make for low volume when used on a table or shelf (this will more than likely not be an issue when projector mounted on ceiling) Miracast is an option to project phone, seems very archaic for this day and age. Got it to work but very laggy Lack of Bluetooth. Sunlight or bright room is not ideal for this. Purchased UFC Connor McGregor fight for my sons b-day and watched it @ home using this projector. Made wings from the store. Who needs Buffalo Wild Wings!! This product is incredible. Buy it and you will not have any regrets. I would def recommend this ,and will more than likely look to Epson when it comes to buying another projection screen.

From the size of the box, I could already tell I was in for a surprise. I am used to projectors that are the size of an encyclopedia, but when I opened the box and removed the shipping wrap, I was really surprised by the entire size of this projector. I would consider it much more portable than your standard projector. Set up is simple: plug in the power cord and power brick it has, plug in your HDMI device, turn on the projector and start watching TV or play video games. I hooked this up to my Nintendo Switch in the living room and after some minor adjustments. I had an awesome picture on the wall. I was worried about the illumination of the picture during the day since we have floor-ceiling windows and a lot of light bleeds through, but the picture was solid and for a projector, does well with some high-speed gaming (Used Overwatch as a benchmark) Having a remote to control all the functions is nice but be aware: There is only one button on the projector, and it is the power button. So, do not lose it! The sound was pretty good to, nothing like you would get from a home theater system, but it projects good enough sound for watching TV or playing games. This is definitely a projector I would take with me if I was going to be stuck in a hotel for a week since you can’t play games on the hotel TVs… if you’re looking for a small projector with a big and bright picture, definitely consider this for your entertainment needs.

This projector is the perfect setup for someone looking for a portable way to create a large image for events. This would be perfect for projecting a movie on the side of your home or wall, using for exercise rooms to create an immersive workout, or as your main home theater projector. Be aware that the is a very limited amount of adjustment from the rear feet to allow for the project to be placed above people and objects, so you may have to place a book under it to get the right angle. This can also be solved by mounting the projector to either a wall or ceiling mounts (mounting holes hidden under the rear feet). The setup is incredibly easy and quick, with a very intuitive remote and the minimal selection of ports offers exactly what you need to get this to work as intended, for HDMI connected devices. The only real drawbacks to this unit are the lack of dust/lens cover and the price difference to the EF12 with built-in WIFI streaming is really not much higher. This projector is an excellent value and I would definitely recommend it for for anyone who wants a versatile, lightweight, easy to use projector that is bright enough to work in all but direct sunlight!