Viewsonic PJD5351 projector

ViewSonic's latest short-throw projector is a powerhouse in a tiny body

Good Gear Guide

ViewSonic’s PJD5351 is a short-throw projector that can display a 60in image from only 1.1 metres away. This makes it very useful for use in confined spaces, and its specifications make it an enticing package although the lack of a zoom option may annoy some users.

Pros

  • High brightness, good dynamic contrast mode, useful short-throw lens

Cons

  • Annoying remote, fixed focal length

Bottom Line

If you need a projector that can display a large image from a short distance away, ViewSonic’s PJD5351 is a great choice. Its fixed focal length means there’s no zoom capability, but its other specifications make it an good choice.

Would you buy this?

  • Price

    $ 1,399.00 (AUD)

Special Offers

Like the Dell M209X, the ViewSonic PJD5351 projector is a powerhouse in a tiny body. It’s about the size of a good encyclopaedia — 96mm tall, 264mm wide and 225mm long — and sports a satin black finish with some matte silver accents. It’s not one of the coolest projectors around by our reckoning, but it’s attractive enough. It’s also light enough to be easily portable, too, weighing just 2.5kg.

The ViewSonic PJD5351 has every input you’d expect from a business-oriented projector: two VGA inputs and a single output, as well as component, S-Video and composite. It also has 3.5mm audio jacks for speaker input and passthrough. A 4:3 native ratio and a resolution of 1024x768 make this projector useful for business presentations via a PC or notebook.

The ViewSonic PJD5351 projector also has some impressive specifications given its size. It will perform well in a bright environment, thanks to its rating of 2500 ANSI lumens — nothing to sneeze at. High brightness levels are a great advantage on portable projectors, since they're likely be used in a wide range of environments.

The contrast ratio is also good for a portable DLP projector. Its 2400:1 rating is only valid with dynamic contrast adjustment enabled, but that’s not a problem since the adjustments take place quickly and unobtrusively. With the help of DLP’s versatile colour palette the ViewSonic PJD5351 is able to display a wide range of colours and tones — we watched a few DVD movies and weren’t disappointed by colour reproduction.

Our main annoyance with this unit stems from the fact that it uses a fixed lens; there’s no zoom option available. This might make setting it up in a cluttered environment difficult, since your only option for resizing the screen is to move the projector forward and backward. The large focus wheel is well weighted, though, and we had no problems getting a sharp image.

Operation noise is minimal. There’s a small fan on the right side of the projector but it hums along quietly. If there’s any other source of noise in the room — whether it’s projected audio from the integrated mono 5W speaker or ambient noise — you won’t be distracted by the fan.

We were impressed by the ViewSonic PJD5351’s combination of a short-throw lens, bright lamp and versatile dynamic contrast ratio. It makes an equally good show of presentations and videos, so if you’re looking for a compact big-screen projector it’s a great option.

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