Acer X1160

Author's product rating:   

Picture quality	Excellent
Colour sensitivity	Excellent
Resolution	Excellent
Ease of Installation	Very Easy
Value for Money	Excellent

Advantages:	Cheap, lots of features, lightweight and compact, energy efficient
Disadvantages:	It will do everything except make you a cup of tea .

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

This DLP (digital light processing) projector is ideal for anyone wanting the perfect home cinema experience or for a hardcore gamer looking for the most realistic graphics and high performance.

Not only is this digital projector full of the latest technology but it has a very stylish design with a black case and silver trim, and a black compact remote.

Firstly its technology makes it a clear leader in the world of projectors.
It has 2000 ANSI lumens (ANSI lumens are the measurement of the brightness of the projector) which is really good for clear bright pictures.
It has a contrast ratio of 2000:1 which means it displays the dark colors and the bright colors at a very high ratio on the one picture. For example if it was displaying a picture of a sunset the sun would be very bright and the shadow would be very dark making it more lifelike.

It has a longer lamp life lasting up to 4000 hours. An average lamp will last only 2000 hours. There is a Top-Load Lamp design which is exclusive to Acer projectors. This feature makes it so simple to change the lamp and it shows that the designers put a lot of thought into this projector.
The bulb type is P-VIP 160 watts, which can be replaced for around £140 online or in any specialist computer or electrical store.

It also has a six segment color wheel which completely eliminates the color separation i.e rainbow effect experienced by a small percentage of people .
It has Acer ColourBoost which defines each color and projects it beautifully and it also has SmartFormat technology for perfect lifelike displays.
It also supports wide format pictures that allows you to change into wide format mode without needing to adjust the resolution on your computer or laptop. SmartFormat Technology has a simple mode which allows for easy extension between speakers for presentation use.

The resolution is 800 x 600 SVGA. There are two main types of resolution, SVGA (800x600) and XGA (1024x768) these apply to computer outputs as well so it is advisory to check the resolution of your computer before you purchase a projector however most XGA projectors will support SGVA formats without much loss in quality but displaying an XGA format on an SVGA projector will make it difficult to see with blur and lines.

The Acer X1160 comes with a built in Keystoning capability which corrects the position of the picture on what it is display on. In other words if you place your projector below or above the desired location to be fully visible on screen then this product will automatically compress the picture digitally as necessary to provide a squarer image that will fit on your display.

If you are worried about being environmentally friendly or saving money in the long run then this projector is one of the most cost efficient and energy saving projectors on the market. It clearly takes the lead in environmental factors as it costs less than a television to run.
It uses 255 Watts of electricity when in use which is excellent considering that an average plasma TV will consume 350 watts. Taking into account that you are paying £140 for a replacement bulb you will be using on average 7p per hour plus 255 watts of electricity at 8p per unit works out at an average of 27p per hour when the projector is in full use, not only saving money but the environment too.

This projector is extremely quiet emitting only 33dbA of sound when in peak use. It can be very distracting in a classroom environment to have a noisy projector and at home if you wish to watch something at a low volume some projectors will overpower the sound by emitting an average of 43 decibels.

It has a manual zoom on the lens which can be a lot more accurate than a digital zoom although the draw backs are, that if you have the projector ceiling mounted it might prove a bit difficult to reach the lens.
It has a full range of video inputs so you won't need to worry about compatibility too much however check out this list of inputs:

Analogue video signal:

Composite video, composite video, RGB and s-video.

Analogue video format:

PAL-B/G, PAL-D, PAL-H, PAL-I, PAL-M, PAL-N, NTSC 3.58, NTSC 4.43, SECAM B/G, SECAM D/K, SECAM K1 and SECAM L
Digital TV video formats:
480i, 480p, 576i, 576p, 720p and 1080i.

Its dimensions are 26.7cm x 18.7cm x 8cm and it weighs 2.3kg making it ideal for people on the move at it is light enough to be bolted to the ceiling with the flimsiest of brackets. The instruction manual is easy to follow however most people won't need it as it's pretty self explanatory and the ease of installation will have you using it in no time.

It features a security lock for extra safety when not in use. Prices range from £230 to £358 and it can be purchased from any good electrical retailer, specialist stores or online.
There are many accessories such as a projection screens from £40, a carrying case for around £18 and a ceiling mount brackets around £20.

All in all if you are considering buying a projector I would strongly recommend you consider this one. It's high quality output together with its durability and cost adds up to one spectacular projector. Acer have out done themselves on this model.