Ricoh PJ WX4130N

By M. David Stone

File the Ricoh PJ WX4130N under surprisingly different. Almost every other ultra-short throw projector has the same basic design, shaped like a standard projector, but with the lens near the back, pointing at a mirror that sticks up from the case to reflect the image to the screen. The WX4130N is shaped like a tall, thin toaster, with the lens and mirror inside the case, and a window on top where light comes out instead of toast. The design puts the window close to the front of the projector, but it doesn't put the projector any further from the screen. It also makes the WX4130N remarkably small and light, as well as Editors' Choice.

When I reviewed the Editors' Choice Hitachi CP-A221N ($1,300 street, 4.5 stars), earlier this year, I pointed out that it was unusually light for an ultra-short throw projector. The WX4130N is a full two pounds lighter, at 6 pounds 10 ounces, and it measures just 8.7 by 10.1 by 5.6 inches (HWD).

Most ultra-short throw models from other companies, including, for example, the Canon LV-8235 UST , are meant primarily for permanent installation, or, at most, room to room to room portability on a cart. The WX4130N can serve easily enough in both rolls, but given the weight and size, it is better suited than even the CP-A221N for easily carrying from room to room by hand or even using as a portable projector.

Basics, Setup, and Throw Distance
Aside from the ultra-short throw, the WX4130N offers a fairly typical constellation of features for a lightweight data projector. Built around a WXGA (1280 by 800) DLP chip, it's rated at 2,500 lumens, which is on the low side by today's standards, but still within the typical range for portable data projectors. Like many recent DLP projectors, it offers limited support for 3D, but you have to buy DLP-link glasses separately.

In addition to the usual connection choices?VGA, composite video, and HDMI?options for image input include a LAN port and built-in Wi-Fi for connecting to either a network or directly to a PC. Ricoh also offers a free iPad app (sorry, no iPhones) for connecting by Wi-Fi to show PDF-format files. It also offers a USB A port that lets you plug in a USB memory key to read JPG and MPEG2 files directly.

Setup is standard. Interestingly, in my tests the projector offered more flexibility for image size than Ricoh claims. The official range at the native 16:10 aspect ratio is 48 to 80 inches diagonally (40 to 68 inches wide) with a distance of 4.6 to 9.6 inches from the screen. However, I had no trouble getting a well focused, suitably bright image as large as 80 inches diagonally at about 10 inches from the screen. For all of our standard testing, I stayed with Ricoh's recommendations and used a 76-inch diagonal image.

Image Quality
The WX4130N scored well for data image quality. It did well on maintaining uniform brightness across the entire screen, which can be a problem with ultra-short throw projectors, and it did swimmingly on our suite of DisplayMate tests.

Yellow looked just a touch mustard-colored, which is common in DLP projectors, but colors were well saturated and vibrant otherwise. Color balance was good, with suitably neutral grays at every step from black to white. Text readability was also good, with crisp, highly readable characters at sizes as small as 6.8 points for white on black text and 8 points for black on white. Also very much worth mention is that images designed to show pixel jitter were as rock solid with an analog connection as with a digital connection.

The WX4130N's video quality is better than many data projectors can manage. In my tests with 1080p input from a Blu-ray player, the WX4130N handled skin tones reasonably well, and I didn't see any motion artifacts or enough noise to find it bothersome. I also didn't see any posterization (colors changing suddenly where they should change gradually) or serious loss of shadow detail (details based on shading in dark areas) even on clips chosen because they tend to bring out those problems. Probably the best characterization of the video quality is that it's watchable, but not in the same class as a home theater projector.

Rainbows and Other Issues
Rainbow artifacts, with light areas on screen breaking up into little red-green-blue rainbows, are always a potential issue for any single-chip DLP projector. The WX4130N does reasonably well on this score. If you see the rainbow effect easily, as I do, you'll see it on some data screens, but probably not often enough to find annoying. It shows more often with video, but still infrequently enough that even those who are sensitive to seeing the rainbows will probably consider them tolerable.

Also worth mention is that the sound system, with its 2-watt mono speaker, is surprisingly capable, with reasonably good quality and enough volume for a small conference room. The fan is a little loud, rated at 38dB in standard mode and 32dB in low power mode, but with the projector so close to the screen, no one should be sitting close enough to it for that to be an issue.

Even ignoring the ultra-short throw, the Ricoh PJ WX4130N offers a lot to like, with a high-quality data image, reasonably high-quality video image, and surprisingly useful audio. What makes it worth the price, of course, is the ultra-short throw. What makes it Editors' Choice for WXGA ultra-short throw projector is the innovative design that makes it smaller and lighter than the competition without giving a (metaphorical or literal) inch in its throw distance from the screen.

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