InFocus IN126

If you need a WXGA (1,280 by 800) projector that's both light enough to serve as a regular traveling companion and bright enough to stand up to ambient light in a small to mid-size conference room, take a look at the InFocus IN126 . Roughly the same price as the Acer K330 , or the Optoma ML500 , it weighs only a little more but delivers a lot brighter image, making it a highly attractive portable projector.

The IN126 actually competes with both the K330, ML500, and a number of other nearly identical models on the one hand?call them micro projectors for lack of a better term?and more standard projectors, like the Editors' Choice Epson PowerLite 93+ on the other.

Each of the micro projectors weighs between two and three pounds, and each offers a 500-lumen brightness rating. That makes them more portable than the IN126, which weighs 4.8 pounds. However the IN126 blows them away on brightness, with a 3,200 lumen rating. The PowerLite 93+, on the other hand, has the advantage in price, but it weighs 6.9 pounds, making the IN126 both the more portable of the two and brighter, with the 93+ rated at only 2,600 lumens.

Another advantage for the PowerLite 93+ is that it's LCD-based, which means it can't show rainbow artifacts, with light areas on screen breaking up into little red-green-blue rainbows. This is a potential problem with any DLP projector like the IN126, because of the way single chip DLP projectors create color. That's a strong point for the 93+ if you're worried that people in your audience may find the rainbow artifacts annoying. However, the IN126 shows relatively few rainbows with data images, so it's not much of an issue unless you want to show video as well as data.

The Basics and Setup
The IN126 offers a suitably small size to go along with the light weight, at 2.8 by 11.8 by 9.3 inches (HWD). InFocus doesn't include a carrying case, however, so if you plan to carry it with you, be sure to take that into account when you compare prices.

Setup is standard, with a 1.2x zoom giving you some flexibility in how far you can put the projector from the screen for a given size image. This is a particularly welcome touch in a portable projector that you have to set up repeatedly. Connectors for image sources include an HDMI port for a computer or video source, two VGA ports for computers, and both a composite video and S-Video port.

Image Quality
Data image quality is a strong point, with the IN126 scoring well on our standard suite of DisplayMate tests. Color balance was good in my tests, with suitably neutral grays at all levels from white to black: colors were suitably vibrant and fully saturated in most presets; black on white text was easily readable down to the smallest size we test with; and white on black text was slightly less crisp, but still readable.

Video image quality was better than some data projectors can manage, but not something I'd want to use for long sessions. The projector did a reasonably good job with shadow detail (retaining details in dark areas based on shading) and I didn't see any posterization, even in clips that tend to cause the problem. However, colors had the dull, washed out look that goes with low contrast; I saw motion artifacts in one test clip in the form of a curved edge visibly vibrating as the camera panned across the scene; and dark areas on screen had a greenish tinge rather than being a neutral black.

I saw few rainbows with data images, so even those who are sensitive to the rainbow effect, as I am, aren't likely to consider rainbow artifacts a problem for data. As with most DLP projectors, however, the IN126 shows rainbows more frequently with video. I didn't see them as often as with some projectors, but they show often enough so anyone who's sensitive to them will likely find them annoying. As a general rule, that's a good argument for limiting video to short clips at most with the IN126.

Other Issues
Like many, if not most, projectors in this weight class, the IN126 offers audio that's hardly worth having. As is typical, the audio quality is somewhere between bad and awful. However, the 2-watt speaker it's loud enough to fill a small conference room. If you need audio but don't need good quality, it may be sufficient. Otherwise, plan on using an external audio system.

One other feature that demands mention is 3D. According to InFocus, the IN126 is 3D capable, and it's equipped with an HDMI 1.4 port, which, in theory, should support 3D. In my tests, however, our Blu-ray player didn't recognize the projector as 3D capable. InFocus says that the 3D works with computers only, but as of this writing, has not been able to confirm whether 3D is supported over the HDMI port even with computers.

If you need a projector with good video quality or you need excellent audio and don't want to bother with an external sound system, you'll obviously need to look elsewhere. But if what you want is a capable data projector that's light and bright, the InFocus IN126 offers a highly capable balance of brightness, portability, data image quality, and price. More to the point, it's an attractive alternative to the pack of nearly identical micro projectors that weigh only a little less, are a lot less bright, and in some cases actually cost more.

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