Dell Advanced Projector: P519HL Laser Projector Review

The Dell Advanced Projector P519HL is a full 1080p resolution (1920 x 1080), 4,000 lumen projector for business and education applications. It has DLP technology and a laser light engine, which means the projector’s lifespan is far longer than its lamp-based counterparts. The Dell P519HL is well suited for higher education and large venues, with its impressive projection size of up to 300”. It would also be at home in high school classroom environments, as well as conference rooms, meeting rooms, boardrooms, houses of worship, and smaller entertainment venues.

Like always, I’ll begin this review of the Dell P519HL with a brief overview, followed by the projector’s highlights before moving on to a list of its special features. We will also tour the hardware, discuss picture quality, and talk about performance before summing it all up for you on the last page. By the end of this review, you should know if the Dell Advanced Projector P519HL is the right projector for your business or education applications. Let’s get started!

We wish to thank Epson America for sponsoring this year’s Best Classroom Projectors report.  

The Dell Advanced Projector P519HL is a $2,499 laser projector with 1080p (1920 x 1080) resolution projector claiming 4,000 lumens. The projector can produce an image of up to 300” diagonal, making it a perfect fit for larger venues like higher education classrooms, lecture halls, museums, auditoriums, houses of worship, and smaller entertainment venues. Just be aware that, the larger the projected image, the more lumens you need.

This is a DLP projector, meaning it uses a color wheel to reproduce the entire color spectrum. There are always trade offs between the different types of projector technologies, but DLPs do have some real strengths. DLP technology yields to manufacturing smaller projectors. This allows for more portable, lighter weight projectors than, say, their 3LCD competition. This makes installation easier, especially when mounting the projector to a high ceiling.

In poor lighting conditions, where there is some degree of uncontrollable ambient light, you’ll get more white lumens dollar-for-dollar than a 3LCD projector, though a 3LCD projector will perform better in terms of color when faced with ambient light. This is because 3LCD projectors have as many color lumens as they do white ones, while DLP projectors do not. That 4,000 lumen count only refers to white lumens in the case of the Dell P519HL. Again, trade-offs. In controlled conditions, both technologies perform well.

DLP projectors have sealed light paths, which prevents dust particles from settling on the inside of the light path and causing “dust blobs” on your projected image. This saves time and money, as to get the dust removed is a major maintenance call. With a sealed light path, you get protection of the DMD chip, color wheel sensor, laser bank, and other optical components. 3LCD manufacturers are starting to seal their light paths as well, though they do it in a different way.

Laser light engines are amazing for business and education environments. These types of light engines generally last three times as long as their lamp based competition, sometimes more. In the cast of the Dell P519HL, the light engine is rated at up to 20,000 hours. That’s about 10 years of heavy use. Most lamp based projectors fall between 3,000 hours and 8,000 hours, so that 20,000 hours is a pretty sweet deal.

The Dell Advanced Projector has good, if not simple, connectivity. It has all of the inputs and connectors you need for a basic setup in a business or education environment. That is, no advanced networking like HDBaseT, which is used for running A/V signals over extremely long distances. If your applications require you to do that, look elsewhere. If not, keep reading. Next up, let’s take a look at the projector’s highlights before getting into its features and performance.