Epson EX7240 Pro Portable Projector Review - Performance

Posted on December 7, 2015 by Art Feierman

Epson EX7240 Pro Projector - Performance: Brightness, Noise, Audio Performance The Epson EX7240 has a zoom lens with a 1.2:1 zoom ratio and with a specified throw ratio range of 1.30 to 1.56. For the following measurements and evaluations, I positioned the projector at 88 inches from the screen and set the projector’s zoom lens to its mid position. This produced an image 62 inches wide.

Epson EX7240 Pro Brightness Measurements
Color Mode	Brightness in Lumens (white or color)
Dynamic	3446*
Presentation	3276*
Cinema	2287
sRGB	2149
Blackboard	1978

* Note 1: I found that the factory default setting for Contrast resulted in a crushing of the whites with the lightest shades of grey appearing as full white. I reduced the contrast setting in Dynamic mode from the default value of 50 down to 37 and for Presentation mode to 44 to eliminate this issue. After making these adjustment I measured the projector's brightness in both of these color modes at approx. 3150 lumens.

Note 2: The lumens values in this table are with the projector's zoom lens set to it mid position. When set to maximum zoom the brightness increased by only 2% and when set to the minimum zoom the brightness decreased by only 3%.

The above lumens values were measured with the projector operating in normal lamp mode. Changing the projector to “Eco” mode reduced the light output by approx. 35%.

I measured the brightness uniformity with the projector sitting level on a table. The vertical and horizontal keystone adjustments were set to zero, meaning no electronic keystone correction was being used. The brightest point was near the center of the image and the greatest light fall-off was measured at the top right corner of the image where it was 27% lower than at the brightest point. While the degree of light fall-off measured at the at the top-right corner could be visually observed when projecting a full white test image, it was not obvious in normal use.

Color uniformity looked very good when projecting a full white screen test image.

Noise

The Epson EX7240 Pro is specified to produce a noise level of 37 dB in normal lamp mode and 29 dB in Eco mode. These values, especially in normal operating mode, are toward the upper end of what is typical for this class of projector. While the noise level, especially with the lamp operating in normal mode, is certainly audible, it should not be distracting to most people when this projector is being used in a business conference room environment. Changing to the “Eco” mode resulted in a noticeable decrease in noise level and to a level similar to that from a typical home theater projector when such a projector is operating in its normal mode.

Audio Performance

The EX7240 Pro has a single 2 watt built-in speaker that produces adequate volume to not only overcome the projector’s fan noise but also is sufficient to provide the audio in a small conference room. As is expected from such a modest size built-in speaker and with only 2 watts of power, there is no real bass and the maximum volume is limited, but better than expected considering the 2 watt rating. Overall, the EX7240 Pro produces a little above average sound quality and volume for this class of portable projector but less than found in certain somewhat more expensive models, including some from Epson that feature higher powered speakers. It certainly will work well for voice narrations and background music for an audience seated around a typical conference table. If used in a larger room with a audience spread out over a greater area then an external amplified speaker could be used instead of relying on the projecctor's internal speaker.