Optoma ES526

The ES526 comes from Optoma's multimedia line and at a cost of US $531, it targets budget buyers interested in adding a projector to their small- or medium-size office or even a classroom.

Being a budget model the ES526 doesn't feature a sky high native resolution but instead runs natively at 800 x 600 pixels. However, Optoma has given the projector muscle in terms of brightness (2800 ANSI Lumens) and contrast (3000:1) and this makes perfect sense given that it will be used for presentations rather than movies and gaming. The projector uses DLP projection engine.

Putting the projector through its paces the ES526 responded quite well. Running through a Powerpoint presentation the projector's display was very bright when using the Optoma's standard mode. Running in this mode the lamp will last 4000 hours but if you need to present in a room with high ambient light, the Optoma offers a ‘Bright mode', which boost brightness noticeably. When run in this mode the projector's lamp will last for 3000 hours.

Studying the slides carefully we were impressed with the sharpness and crispness of fonts. Even size 10 fonts were quite legible without eyestrain, which makes this a flexible projector to make presentations with.