It happened late at night. We were watching a high-def broadcast of Korean wrestling blown up to a 7-foot image. These immense TV pictures, of course, came courtesy of a projector-in this case, the $1,499 Dell 2300MP. We had been testing this device for a while and had frequently been impressed with it. But now, as we were able to discern such minute detail as the facial expressions of the wrestlers' audience, we were suddenly more than impressed. We were blown away.

There is a whole lot to like about the 2300MP. Its combination of power, performance, price, and portability are truly unique. In fact, the only real problem we have had with this projector is its name, which suggests that the 2300MP is the replacement for the bargain-priced, low-resolution Dell 2200MP. Not true. The 2300MP could eat bargain projectors for breakfast.

So if it's not a bargain projector, what is it? This Dell simply refuses to be pigeonholed. Yes, with a price of only $1,499, the 2300MP is at the sweet spot of the bargain XGA projector segment. But, with a brightness claim of 2,300 ANSI lumens, this model is safely perched at the top end of the performance projector category. Has Dell created a new category? Yes: the one-size-fits-all projector.

As if its features aren't impressive enough, the 2300MP is quite portable. By itself, it weighed only 4.6 pounds. Even with the necessary cables and remote control, it was still less than 6 pounds. To enhance its portability even further, Dell has equipped the projector with the company's traditional rigid carrying case, which should survive anything short of target practice.

The carrying case is not the only thing that the 2300MP has inherited from its Dell siblings. The remote control is capable of paging forward and backward through a PowerPoint slideshow, and a component-video cable is included for use with a DVD player or HDTV converter box.

In fact, the 2300MP comes with a whole slew of cables-a welcome change from the cost-cutting practices followed by many manufacturers-and many of them have Velcro straps for easy storage.

In our tests, the 2300MP was superb. The total warm-up/cool-down time was moderately long, at 2 minutes 47 seconds, but once the projector's lamp fully kicked in, it displayed a steady, high-quality image. Individual pixels were sharp and well formed, without any halos.

Our subjective findings were corroborated in the lab. The projector pumped out 2,411 lumens, which was a bit more than the manufacturer claimed and one of the best readings we have seen. Our ANSI contrast ratio score of 492:1 was naturally much lower than the claimed full-on/full-off ratio, but, again, it was one of the best in our database.

The only real flaw was the brightness uniformity between the corners and the center. The 2300MP's score of 63 was below average for projectors of this class.

Despite its impressive brightness, the 2300MP was fairly quiet. Its fan noise was not intrusive, even for movie-viewing applications. Plus, to drop the fan noise further, you can switch to the projector's Eco mode, which drops the brightness by only 25 percent but quiets the fan to a whisper and lengthens the lamp life.

Even though the 2300MP carries a relatively low price tag, it comes with a 1-year warranty enhanced with Dell's Advanced Exchange program. Under this program, Dell will quickly send a replacement before it receives your defective unit.

The bottom line is that the Dell 2300MP is well suited for just about any projection application you can think of. It doesn't support any exotic connections such as wireless or memory cards, but if you want a good projector that's portable, powerful, and can juggle work and play with ease, you can't go wrong with this model.