Epson BrightLink 710Ui Interactive Projector Review – Picture and Sound Quality

Epson BrightLink Interactive Projector Review – Picture and Sound Quality: Color Modes, Video Image Quality, Text and Presentation Quality, Audio Quality

The Epson BrightLink 710Ui has five color modes: Dynamic, Presentation, Cinema, sRGB and Blackboard (listed above in order of best mode). All of the modes have great color, even Dynamic, its brightest mode. Historically, brightest modes are the ugliest of modes, being really strong on the greens and yellows. That is why we call them your “break glass in case of emergency” modes, used only when ambient light washes out the image of the better modes. Epson did a good job on the 710Ui’s Dynamic mode, however. It does have stronger greens and yellows than any of the other modes, but, white is still mostly white, not tinged a sickly green or yellow. In the photo, you can see that the woman’s skin tone looks as though she is being lit with fluorescent lights. Not pretty, but still pretty good.

Presentation mode is another bright mode of the BrightLink 710Ui, but the green and yellow tinge diminishes immensely with this mode. Presentation would be suitable to watch videos on, as well as, of course, presentations. I would consider it to be the best mode for viewing text and presentation on because of its high brightness and reasonably good color. Cinema mode is the projector’s best mode, with skin tones looking natural and all other colors being close to true. sRGB mode is also quite good, and I would consider it to be a more desaturated version of Cinema mode, with more tendency toward reds than Cinema mode’s magenta hue.

Speaking of magenta, Blackboard mode is all of that. This is because the mode is designed to work best when projecting on a dark surface like a blackboard, so there is a definite and noticeable hue of pink to white and all the colors on the color wheel. This mode will not be used on a typical whiteboard, wall, or screen surface, as the colors will be all off. That said, I believe most will find that either Presentation or Cinema mode will suit their needs for color, as well as cut through ambient light (but more on that on the next page).

I shot all of the above photos in Cinema mode, which really does an excellent job on skin tones. Epson uses 3LCD technology in these BrightLink projectors, so the 710Ui has the benefit of having as many color lumens as it does white ones. That means the colors are getting just as much love as the whites, giving them an extra pop that really makes a difference when viewing video content. The images from Journey to Space, Bill Nye Saves the World, and Ted Talks all look great, but don’t take my word for it – check out the photos in the slider!

One of the most important things for a business or education projector to do well on is sharpness and readability of text. The Epson BrightLink 710Ui can produce an interactive surface of up to 100”, which is a good size for a classroom. Students in the back of the room, however, get a different experience than those sitting in the front, which is why it is so imperative that the text be sharp. We have provided our graphic for testing text in the first slide to show the projector’s readability on varying font sizes. The infographics and slides following have a variety of background colors, font colors, and of course, font sizes.

While testing the BrightLink 710Ui for text readability, I found that I could read the text easily from the back of my room. In the Effects of Meditation on the Brain infographic, the font used in the explanations is very small – probably around 8 point. You can see here that it is sharp enough to read, though I wouldn’t recommend that for presentations and lessons (that’s just mean). The regular 12 point font should be fine for most applications. The projector’s resolution is WUXGA, the business and education world’s 1080p, so it’s not really all that surprising that the image looks so good.