Mitsubishi XD95U
GCN LAB REVIEW: If you are looking for an inexpensive projector that will work well in most situations, you won’t find a better value than the XD95U.
The Mitsubishi XD95U is a nearly perfect portable projector with only a couple of minor flaws.
Barely touching the scales at 3 pounds, 4 ounces, the XD95U packs a lot of raw light power into its 8.75-inch-by-8.25-inch frame. The projector has a clever wall mode that makes it work well regardless of the background it uses as a screen. It can be projected onto a blackboard, a yellow or green wall, or even a pink background without affecting image quality. You tell it what color the background wall is, and it will compensate by changing color saturation levels accordingly.
With a bright, 1,050 lumen measurement at the center, the XD95U can project in almost any ambient lighting condition other than direct sunlight. Unfortunately, the light is not as uniform as we would have liked to have seen, with a 915 measurement in the corners of the screen. That 135 lumen drop off just exceeds the line of what the naked eye can notice — not bad, but perhaps not suitable for highly detailed images, such as those in the medical field.
The XD95U has one of the smallest projection sizes in this review. Even when the screen size is maxed out, it’s still smaller than most other projectors at their minimum levels. When reduced for our testing, the viewing area was at least four feet smaller than most others along the diagonal. With such a compressed area, we didn’t expect to find any lumen difference.
Its color accuracy was also a little off, with greens coming out somewhat yellowish. It did have good color-stepping accuracy, so slight differences in hues were apparent in most cases. Text, however, was only average, readable at 12 points, but a bit fuzzy below that.
The best feature of the XD95U is the price. At $999, it’s got a lot of bang for the buck. All of its image-related flaws are minor. For example, if you want a bigger screen size, simply scoot the projector back. If you are looking for an inexpensive projector that will work well in most situations, you won’t find a better value than the XD95U.
Mitsubishi Digital Electronics, 888-307-0349, www.mitsubishi-presentations.com