Epson VS335W Projector Review - Performance

Posted on April 16, 2014 by Art Feierman

The Epson VS335W 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 99 inches from the screen and set the projector’s zoom lens to its mid position. This produced an image that was 69 inches wide. Thus, the throw ratio for these measurements was (99/69 =) 1.43:1, or mid-way between 1.30 and 1.56.

Brightness

The Epson VS335 is a fairly bright business projector. It has a rated light output of 2700 lumens and my measurements show that the peak light output (measured near the center of the projected image) exceeded the Epson specification in the brightest mode. Below are the measured peak lumens values for the various color modes and when using the projector’s out-of-the-box settings.

Color Mode Lumens of Light Output

Dynamic 2930

Presentation 2386

Theater 2075

Photo 1960

Sports 2459

sRGB 1925

Blackboard 1566

Whiteboard 2133

The factory default settings for brightness and contrast were nearly correct. However there was a slight amount of “Black Crush” visible which was easily corrected by increasing the setting for the brightness to +2.

The above lumens values were measured with the projector operating in normal lamp mode. Changing the projector to “Eco” mode reduced the light output to approximate 2/3 the brightness of normal mode.

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 left corner of the image where it was nearly 30% lower than at the brightest point. There was less drop-off in brightness at the other three corners, which did not exceed a 25% drop in brightness. While the degree of light fall-off measured at the at the top-left corner could be visually observed when projecting a full white test image, it was not very obvious when viewing presentations, photos or video material.

Noise

The Epson VS335W 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 VS335W has a single 1 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 classroom or conference room. As is expected from such a modest size built-in speaker and with only one watt of power, there is no real bass and the maximum volume is limited. Overall, the VS335W produces average sound quality and somewhat less available volume than is available from some other portable projectors, including some other models from Epson. It is adequate for providing voice narrations and background music in a small classroom or around a conference table. If used in a larger room, with students spread out over a greater area, then an external amplified speaker could be used instead of relying on the small, low powered, internal speaker.

Networking

The Epson VS335W has no built-in network connection provisions (i.e., neither a RJ45 connector for a wired network connection nor built-in Wi-Fi support for a wireless connection). Rather, Epson offers an optional Wi-Fi adapter that plugs into the projector’s USB-A port on the rear of the projector. The VS335W does include the user menus to set up the wireless networking, for when the Wi-Fi adapter is installed. These menus enable the wireless networking setup needed to enable network connections to computers and mobile devices for displaying content from those devices. Unlike some otherwise similar Epson projectors sold for the education and business markets, the VS335W is not set up for monitoring and control over the network by an administrator. Since the VS335W is intended to be a portable model, rather than being permanently installed, this seems an appropriate limitation for this model.