It is projector selection time for US (and many other countries) K-12 schools looking for projectors for the 2017-2018 school year.
In addition, many universities, colleges and medical schools are also on the hunt for the best performance and best value projectors as well as projectors with special capabilities.
We choose projectors from 15 different projector series, representing 8 major manufacturers. There are over 70 projector models total across all 15 series.
Our Education Projector Report this year looks at 15 new projectors launched in the past year, that cover a wide spectrum of what is available, from very inexpensive value oriented projectors, to those with advanced networking, to high power projectors capable of handling large university classrooms, and small auditoriums. It includes a number of interactive projectors all of which are ultra short throw projectors that typically mount above the screen surface - a white board.
Editor's Note: Projectors continue to improve but many of the technologies are maturing, as a result, projector manufacturers no longer replace most models every year many are now on the market for two or three years. Those lasting more than one year, typically will have a price drop in the 2nd or 3rd year to keep them competitive. For that reason: Those projectors from previous years reports that received awards, and that still meet our requirements of being current models at least until the fall of 2017, have been integrated into this year's report.
Although many projectors from last year are still great choices and some of the top sellers to schools, previous winners will not be competing for this year's awards, but you should consider them excellent projectors fully comparable to this year's winners and equally worthy of consideration. -art
We wish to thank Epson America for sponsoring this year's Best Classroom Projectors report.
Our goal is to demonstrate a wide range of capabilities, to help decision makers understand the options, and choose wisely. Those decision makers include IT and AV managers, Tech coordinators, teachers/professors, as well as people on the business side, such as buyers. There probably over 500 business and education projectors currently available in the US.
Figure that perhaps half of those would have to be considered suitable or specifically targeted for some aspect of the Education market.
That means no review site or other publication is capable of taking a close look - that is, review - all of those that are possible fits. There are single state, and even multi-state consortiums buying projectors for K-12, a couple of those do a lot of their own analysis, bring in products to compare, etc., and ultimately cross reference a huge number of projectors.
Our goal is different, rather than categorizing hundreds of projectors and recommending many dozens. We're trying to help you understand what good to great projectors that meet your needs might look like. Our winners reflect the most capable - for different reasons. Some will be ideal for your needs, others won't be a good fit.
- What's in This Year's Report - The Projectors
- Reviews Section - Product Capsules, and links to full reviews of projectors listed in this report
- The Best In Classroom Award Winners
- Includes the reasons we gave each of them those awards
- Learn about our Annual Best In Classroom Awards
- Defining Expectations - Key Considerations
(repeated from previous years - with some updates)- District Level/State Level IT/AV/Tech Coordinator
- School Level IT/AV/ Tech Coordinator
- Teachers
- Buyers: School, District, State, Consortium
- Understanding the physical classroom environment for projector selection
- Special Features - Are these capabilities you need?
