Epson Powerlite Pro G5350NL Projector - Image Quality

Posted on March 31, 2009 by Art Feierman

Epson Powerlite Pro G5350NL Overall Color & Picture Quality

As is typical for Epson projectors, the G5350 fired up quickly and displays an excellent image right out of the box. The advantage of the LCD approach over a DLP projector is rich, well-saturated colors. Many DLP projectors have reds that are too dark and yellows that lean toward green. Not so with the G5350. Reds were deep and well, red, while greens, though slightly oversaturated, were very appealing. As my laptop has an HDMI output, I was able to take advantage of this digital connection on the G5350. As more computers are equipped with HDMI outputs, it’s nice to see this connection option making its way into business projectors.

With my laptop set to display at the G5350’s native resolution (1024 x 768), small (8 pt.) text was sharp and easily readable on a 112” diagonal projected image. This was true of white text-on-black and yellow text-on-dark blue backgrounds as well. Convergence was also quite good, resulting in a nice, sharp image with all sorts of source material.

Viewing photographic images and video with the G5350 was somewhat less appealing. As was the case when we reviewed the Epson 1735W, Photo and Theater modes provided the best overall picture quality for photo and video presentations. While the relatively low contrast ratio (1000:1) of the G5350 was a detriment to any video with dark scenes, its solid color rendition and brightness were a boon to outdoor, daytime video, which looked quite good. The bottom line is while it’s not likely that the G5350 will be used for watching DVDs like a home theater projector, such viewing is still pleasant.

As is the case with other Epson business projectors, there is a movable electronic zoom that allows the user to zoom in on a particular section of the screen. This can be very handy for pointing out details in photos or charts. There is also an on-screen pointer that can be controlled by the multi-directional thumbpad on the remote. You can also freeze the displayed image via a button on the remote.

Switching to WXGA (1280 x 800) resolution to test the G5350’s video processing, the image quality was still quite good for large scale presentations, though it suffered in comparison with display of its native resolution. There was a horizontal shift in blue which caused a blue fringe on one side of any text. At normal viewing distances however, it wasn’t easily noticeable and did not detract from the presentation. Smaller text, while not as sharp as it was at the native resolution, was still quite readable. If your source is able to output 1024x768, you’d be better served to use that resolution with the G5350 for the best possible picture.