InFocus IN100 Series DLP Projectors Preview

When you are looking to outfit an entire school with projectors, your needs are different from the home theater enthusiast. You're worried about price, you're worried about lamp life, and you're worried about performance in less than optimal conditions. Often this comes at a cost. Either in a monetary one or in a cost of features.

InFocus has a new line of projectors that look to give you exactly what you want and no more.

The IN100 series of projectors includes five different models. These models all share a single enclosure and similar lightweight designs for easy swapping. The five different projectors (IN112, IN114, IN116, IN124 and IN126) all sport different features so that you can choose only those features that are important to you and your situation. They do, however, have some similarities.

To start with, they feature a filterless design for easy, no maintenance operation. In fact, they are rated for 24/7 operation. The lamp door is located on the top of the projector for easy lamp replacement. They all feature a 3000:1 contrast ratio and are 3D capable (but in our opinion - not recommended). Six-segment DPL color wheels are used and all have a 2 watt speaker included. In Eco mode, each of the projectors have 28 to 29dB noise with a 30 to 33dB of noise in regular mode. All the projectors have a 5 year limited project warranty and a 6 month lamp warranty.

After that, you can choose the projector that best suits your needs to get the best price. If you only need SVGA, you can save money with one of the cheaper models. But if you want all the bells and whistles (including and HDMI input and widescreen WXGA resolution), you can spring for one of the more expensive models. They even have a couple of XGA models in between. Also included is a short throw, fixed lens model that is HD capable and can fill a 60" whiteboard from 2.5 feet. 

The lamp light on the new models have been increased by up to 50 percent than previous generations with lifespans up to 6000 hours in Eco mode and 5000 hours in normal. The projectors sport up to 3200 lumens brightness for crystal clear images in well-lit rooms and up to a 3000:1 contrast ratio.

One thing we like about these business/education type projectors is the ease of entry. Yes, you'll sacrifice lens shift, true 3D (the 3D on these projectors is PC only), and other features standard on home theater projectors, but you can get an HD model for $500. Even with the price of a screen, that's a huge savings over a flat panel with a screen size 1/2 the size. While these won't be the projectors you grow old with, they will get you into a front projection system for cheap.

>> Click the Specifications Tab above to see how each of the projectors breaks down in terms of features and pricing.

Conclusion

InFocus has really done well with the IN100 series of projectors. By splitting the features up into a number of models and putting them all in the same case, they've enabled themselves to put out many different projectors without having to stock a bunch of different enclosures. This is fairly brilliant in our opinion and will only help to keep priced down for the consumer. And in the end, who cares what case the projector is in?

For more information, please visit www.infocus.com. Warranty is 5 years limited on the projector, 6 months on the lamp and 90 days on accessories.

Unless otherwise indicated, this is a preview article for the featured product. A formal review may or may not follow in the future.