Buying Guide: How to choose your projector
What brightness? What resolution? Lamp or laser? Our buying guide helps you select the ideal projector for every environment: from offices, boardrooms and public spaces to classrooms, auditoriums and lecture theatres.
What kind of projector do I need?
It all depends what you want to do. Our light, compact desktop and portable projectors are easy to carry between classrooms or meeting spaces. For larger venues like lecture halls and auditoriums you’ll need the higher light output, serious features and connectivity options of our installation projectors. If you’re tight on space, our Ultra Short Throw projectors are a very popular choice for classrooms and small meting rooms.
Read more
How bright do I need?
You’ll see the brightness of all our projectors measured in lumens. More brightness makes all the difference if you want to present without dimming the room lights or drawing the curtains. At the other end of the scale, models like our VPL-FHZ120L laser installation projector offer an impressive 12,000 lumens – ample brightness for large lecture theatres, auditoriums and public venues.
What resolution do I need?
Measured in pixels, resolution is a good indicator of your projector’s ability to clearly show fine details. The higher the resolution the better, allowing audiences to see sharply-defined graphics, video and small text. WXGA (1280 x 800 pixels resolution) offers plenty of crisp detail: ideal for making presentations direct from a laptop or PC. WUXGA (1920 x 1080 pixels) models give even more detail – the same as a Full HD television.
Portable or permanently installed?
Projectors essentially fall into two classes. As the name suggests, portable or desktop models are light and compact, making them easy to carry between meeting rooms or training suites. Our energy-efficient portable projectors benefit from features like quick start-up, saving time at the start of a lesson. Installation projectors aren’t designed to move around. Bigger, heavier and brighter than desktop models, they are typically installed on a wall or ceiling in larger boardrooms and lecture theatres. Plenty of connections allow integration into the room’s audio-visual system, while interchangeable lenses give installers more flexibility to deal with any room size or layout.
Lamp or laser?
The reliable laser light source in our projectors offers an impressive operating life of up to 20,000 hours. This makes laser particularly suitable for applications where the projector’s being used for extended periods of time. Conventional lamps, in comparison, require more frequent replacement. However, advanced Sony technology extends the lamp life of our latest models to as much 10,000 hours – reducing operating costs and reducing the risk of sudden lamp failures half way through a presentation.
Explore our projectors
Brilliant image quality, with a choice of lamp or laser to suit any application.