Dell 2400MP Projector Review - Image Quality

Posted on July 25, 2006 by Art Feierman

Dell 2400MP Projector Brightness

I'm used to more than a decade of seeing projectors testing have having them typically produce only 70% to 90% of claimed brightness. Every once in a while, though a projector will actually exceed it's claim but that's very uncommon.

In the case of the Dell 2400MP, it is typical in this regard. It is rated 3000 lumens. When measured, in it's brightest mode - PC mode - the Dell 2400MP measured 2357 lumens, just under 80% of claim. Switching to other modes, we recorded:
Movie Mode: 1780 lumens
Game Mode: 1873 lumens

Note, we also measured the Movie mode with a video source, instead of a computer source, and found Movie Mode output an almost identical 1761 lumens. Some projectors do measure significantly lower when using a video source. Not so, this Dell!

I also remeasured the PC mode after switching the projector into it's low power lamp mode. The projector still measured an impressive 2002 lumens, which is approximately 15% lower than full power mode.

Interestingly all three modes measured, (there is also sRGB), had similar color temperatures - close to the ideal for movies/video where 6500K is the desired temperature. It is surprising that the PC mode was also close to 6500K (it measured 6657), and not closer to 8000K. This would indicate that if you wanted to fully adjust the color for the traditionally "cooler" (higher) temperature that most business projectors use, the Dell should actually measure slightly higher in lumens. The color temperature for the other two modes: Movie - 6675K, and Game - 6462K.

What we have here is an extremely bright projector considering it's medium small size, and 5.5 pound weight.

Dell 2400MP Color Accuracy

❮ ❯

As soon as I hooked up the Dell 2400MP DLP projector, and fed it my two test images - the pie chart and the text/compression image, I was truly surprised. DLP projectors as a general rule, have done poorly in reproducing reds and yellows. Typically, bright reds come out dark red - almost wine colored, and bright yellows, a murky greenish yellow. As a result, LCD projectors, which normally have excellent reproduction of all colors have had a big advantage over DLP projectors, when color accuracy is required, or even just having a good bright yellow for text in Powerpoint type presentations.

The Dell 2400MP, however has surprisingly good color handling, including both reds and yellows, as you can see from our Pie Chart image. Although many LCD projectors may still be slightly better at these two colors, it's very unlikely that anyone will have a problem with this Dell projector's performance in this area. In the chart above, the red background is a full on bright red, while the front left, large slice is a bright yellow. In the case of the Dell, the red performance is excellent, and the yellow is very respectable.

Overall, this is about as good as it gets for portable DLP projectors, in terms of reproducing colors. As a result, color accuracy, is one of the 2400MP's strongest points, when compared to the competition out there.

Projector Sharpness

Again, the Dell performed extremely well. The images were sharp from center to edge, with any softness being unnoticeable at normal viewing distances. No problem here at all! The image to the right is a close-up of small to medium sized text (8 to 24 point). The Dell 2400MP performed equally as well on 10 point type with white text on a black background, and did a good, though not exceptional job on handling yellow text on a medium blue background.