Sub-6-pounders that offer diversity, performance
Presentation Magazine, May 2001

The Optoma 718 looks almost identical to the Compaq MP2800 - they come off the same assembly line in Taiwan, after all. The Optoma 718 is different in a few important ways, though: it's significantly brighter and doesn't have a detachable video module.

Unlike Compaq, Optoma uses a 150-watt lamp in its projector, which allows the company to claim 1,100 ANSI lumens - a claim that isn't too far off the mark. I measured the Optoma's wide-zoom performance at 993 ANSI lumens, which squeaks into my 10-percent allowance. I also measured an average of 958 ANSI lumens using both the wide-and narrow-zoom settings.

With the same contrast and brightness settings used to measure lumens, I measured the Optoma's ANSI contrast ratio at 288-to-1. I also quantified the Optoma's contrast ratio through the white-black sequential contrast ratio and found the 718 made an impressive 562-to-1 ratio. The Optoma 718 beats both the Compaq MP1800 and the MP2800 for brightness and contrast ratio and the difference is easy to see on the screen. The Optoma 718's image had excellent uniformity, with only 3-percentage variation across the entire screen. The Optoma carried about 94 percent of peak brightness in the corners, which is one of the best values I've seen in a projector that weighs 5 pounds or less.

In fact, the Optoma 718 outperforms the Compaq 2800 in almost every category except color saturation - an indication that Optoma's engineers opted for maximum brightness. I measured the Optoma's color saturation at 13.8 units, which is bellow the 14.5 units the Compaq turned in. In a side-by-side comparison, the Optoma had less red and blue color saturation in comparison to the Compaq 2800. The Optoma's white point, however, at 3.69 units away from standard D65 was still quite good, which allows clear, neutral-showing whites with computer-generated images.

The Optoma 718 looks a lot like the Compaq projectors in that it has the same vertical arrangement and the same twist-out, snap-down elevator foot in front. But the Optoma 718 has what's missing on the Compaq unites - screw adjustment for tilt control on each side of its wide elevator foot. As with its cousins, the 718 has all its data, video, control, audio and power connectors in the back of its narrow body.

Like the Compaq units, the Optoma 718 also supports SXGA signals and the resulting resized images aren't bad. The projector comes up short in the video department, where the little Compaq MP2800 beats the Optoma 718 hands down. The Compaq MP2800 provided good-looking, clear, noise-free video images with great sound from its whopping 8-watt speaker, but the Optoma was decidedly anemic. Clearly, this is a projector intended primarily for displaying computer-generated images. By William Bohanon, Chief Scientist at Escondido, California Based Manx Research.

CONTACT: Optoma Technology Inc., 888.942.2929, www.optomausa.com