4 Great New Projectors

If you're still fumbling with shades before presentations, it may be time to invest in a new projector. The latest models are so bright, they produce crisp images even with the shades up. We put four of them to the PowerPoint test.

Our test PowerPoint presentation looked crisp and colorful on this 6,000-lumen projector, which is bright enough for use in a large, well-lit room. Instead of repositioning the hefty 21-pound unit to line it up on a screen, you can use a remote to adjust the lens. The lamp lasts 3,000 hours in eco-mode.
COST: $5,460

This sleek white projector, which boasts 4,500 lumens, projected a clear, vibrant image in a brightly lit room. The lamp lasts 2,000 hours longer than the one on the Sanyo. The 7.9-pound device also has two audio inputs, allowing you to play a video and narrate it with a microphone.
COST: $2,995

Ideal for small conference rooms, this compact, 7.7-pound "short throw" projector sits 3 feet from a screen and projects images upward instead of across the room. At 2,500 lumens, the image was bright during our test, but not as crisp as that of the Sanyo and Mitsubishi models. The BenQ's lamp lasts 4,000 hours in eco-mode.
COST: $1,099

Designed for the road warrior, this palm-size projector weighs less than a pound. The 100-lumen LED lamp was not particularly vivid, but it lasts a whopping 10,000 hours. The projector comes with a tripod for leveling the image on the screen. Unlike the other models we tested, it has no speaker.
COST: $499