If you are a regular reader of this blog, then you must have seen me reviewing Smartphones & other gadgets here, usually, I review phones, computers, and other consumer electronics but today I'll be doing a Home cinema projector review, though it falls in the same category of consumer electronics, but its my first time getting hands on a projector, so it's something unusual for me. Before I begin, I'd like to recommend you guys to watch the Unboxing video of Epson EH-TW5300 Home cinema projector, it's live on our YouTube channel, do subscribe to our channel for more such videos.
Coming back to the Review, I'd like to thank Epson for sending me the Epson EH-TW5300 projector so that I can go ahead with my review. I've personally used the projector for about 15 days and carried out my tests so that I can write this review. Below is resultant of all my tests & user experience combined to the best of my knowledge. I hope this review answers all your questions, but still if there is anything you want to know, just leave a comment below.
What is Epson EH-TW5300?
Epson EH-TW5300 is a projector designed for Home cinema entertainment, which can project at Full HD resolution and supports 3D Playback. The projector has a claimed dynamic contrast ratio of 35,000:1 and uses RGB liquid crystal shutter projection system. It supports mobile phone connectivity and produces a brightness of 2200 lumens (color & white light output) which is quite impressive. Epson EH-TW5300 is available in India at Price between Rs.71,000 to Rs.76,000 (amazon.in)
Design & Box Contents
The box which arrived at my doorstep looked quite big, but I was surprised how light it felt on lifting it up. Epson EH-TW5300 looks amazing at first glance, it has a small body and weight around 2.9 kilograms, which I think is quite light for a device like this. The body dimensions are 249 x 297 x 119 mm, it has an amazing curvy body with rounded corners and nice glossy white color. Inside the box, we get; Remote Control, 3-meter power cord, VGA to VGA cable, 2x AA Batteries for Remote control, Software CD and the Projector itself. Epson was kind enough to throw in their 3D glasses 'Epson ELPGS03' for testing purposes, they are available in India as well, at the price between Rs.6000 to Rs.7000 (Amazon.in)
Top Panel & Front
There is a large vent on the left-front side of the projector, through this vent, heat produced during projection escapes, believe me, projectors produce a lot of heat when in action, luckily the vent releases all the heat so that the projector does not overheat, however in worst case scenario, if the projector temperature rises higher than it should, there is a Temp light on top of the unit which will turn on. The top panel of the projector also contains a cut, which provides access to the focus & zoom rings, which can be adjusted as required. Also, you'll find a lot of buttons on the top panel, which is useful for setting up the projector. The projection lens is quite big and is hidden under the lens shutter, which can be easily moved by sliding from AV Mute to open. There is also a Keystone adjustment physical slider on the top panel, which can help you get the sides straight.
Rear & Sides
The rear area of Epson EH-TW5300 contains different sets of connectivity ports which include, 2x HDMI ports with one having MHL support , a VGA input port, Audio Out port, USB 2.0 port, other composite video ports, power input and a service port. The USB 2.0 port can be used to directly connect your flash drives, a camera etc. for watching videos & playing slideshows directly. You can also connect your PC / Laptop using either HDMI cable or the VGA cable for projecting content. The sides do not contain anything other than some vents and other such openings.
Other Features
Epson EH-TW5300 has a physical zoom slider ring present on the top panel, next to the focus slider ring. It offers 1.2x optical zoom which I find quite impressive. Epson claims that the lamp life in economy mode is around 7500 hours, which again is quite impressive if you compare it with other projector brands in this price range. In normal mode, the lamp life reduces to 4000 hours. As I said earlier, EH-TW5300 also supports 3D playback, but you'll need to buy 3D glasses separately. Other amazing feature of Epson EH-TW5300 is, inbuilt speaker. The projector packs a mono 5-watt output speaker which does a decent job. The bottom area contains screw type legs on each corner and a drop-down leg at the center front area.
Functions
The Home screen was easy to navigate with all commonly used functions at proper places. It was really easy to set-up the projector, it took few minutes to connect my laptop with it for the first time, but after that it was just a piece of cake. Epson EH-TW5300 can project up to impressive 332 Inches on any wall virtually. Using its keystone adjustment settings, you can perfectly align your projection depending on the position of the projector. The remote which came along with it was easy to use, but took some time to figure everything out. The buttons on the remote are small & sometimes confusing. The buttons on top of the projector are again easy to use, it contains all commonly used settings including the keystone adjustment.
Picture Quality
When I plugged in EH-TW5300 for the first time, I was dazzled with its picture quality. The projected image was bright & crystal clear, color production was accurate, contrast was great thanks to its high contrast ratio of 35,000:1, overall the picture quality was decent and above my expectations. Epson EH-TW5300 can virtually project up to 332 Inches, which I found really impressive
According to Epson, EH-TW5300 is 3 times brighter than 1-chip DLP projectors, which I found true, considering the brightness which came out of it. Since it supports Full HD 1080p resolution, watching HD videos using the projection were a bliss, I enjoyed my time with EH-TW5300 and at times I forgot that I'm at home, it felt like a movie theater all the time. Another thing which I loved about EH-TW5300 was the MHL connectivity option (Mobile High Definition Link), using an MHL compatible cable, I was able to use my smartphone as the content source for projection. EH-TW5300 was just too good for 3D playback, thanks to Epson for dropping in 3D glasses, I enjoyed watching 3D videos on EH-TW5300, also the 2D-to-3D conversion option was amazing, I was able to convert 2D videos to 3D in a matter of minutes.
The only flaw which I found in the picture quality was below average black-level response. During video playback, the blacks seemed washed out and whiter. I was expecting deep blacks from EH-TW5300 but was slightly disappointed seeing washed out blacks every time. There was no such issue during bright scenes, in fact the picture looked more vibrant & rich during bright scenes, as compared to the dark scenes. Other than that, EH-TW5300's picture quality was decent.
Sound Quality
The sound quality of the inbuilt 5w mono speaker is reasonably good and much louder than expectation. The audio does distort at high volumes, but otherwise, it is clear & there is good audio detail. Mostly during my tests, I was using an external speaker with the projector but during the inbuilt speaker tests, the audio output was decent, if not best and I enjoyed in both the cases. The speaker performs really well throughout, the voices are clear, there is a good amount of Bass and audio detail.
3D Playback
The 3D mode of Epson EH-TW5300 is what I enjoyed the most since I was also given the 3D glasses, I was really curious to try them. The 3D output was amazing and I was really impressed with the projector. The projection was surprisingly detailed and sharp, It was almost like watching a 3D movie in Movie theater. However, I did notice that while in 3D mode, the cooling fans inside the projector make a high level of noise, which at some point starts distracting you. Other than that, the projector worked like a charm.
Conclusion
So after conducting different tests on EH-TW5300 & based on my personal experience with it, I would like to conclude that EH-TW5300 was really impressive throughout. It is small in size, light weighted, easy to carry around and with wide variety of connectivity options, it was really a simple device for me, I was able to connect multiple devices using its connectivity options, and everything was really simple. The picture quality was really great, except for the black-levels issues, everything was great and vibrant. The sound quality was again decent, The 3D playback was amazing and overall using Epson EH-TW5300 was a great & enjoyable experience. I'd definitely recommend Epson EH-TW5300 for people who are looking for a portable & high quality Home-entertainment system, this one is totally worth it.