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 Epson PowerLite S3On its third swing at a budget projector, Epson hits a home run. Price:
$799
by Rich Malloy 
Two years ago, Epson debuted its PowerLite S1, thus inventing the $999 projector. Aside from its price, most of the features on that model were less than extraordinary. A subsequent improvement, the S1+, was not much better. On its third attempt, Epson has finally gotten the formula right with its $799 PowerLite S3. This model delivers one of the best bargains around.
The new S3 has the same silver color scheme and rounded front panel as its older siblings, but it’s 1.4 pounds lighter at a reasonable 5.6 pounds. The rear panel hosts all of the standard connectors, plus a handy monitor-out jack for use with a laptop or desktop. On the top panel you’ll find a rich set of control buttons, including a large Power button (clearly identified with a bright LED). A unique Help button feature launches an on-screen menu for handling some simple projector problems. The RCA audio connectors are more suitable for connection to a DVD player than a laptop, so you may need to provide your own cord for presentations. In any case, the projector’s single, one-watt speaker is suitable only as a last resort. One of the S3’s best features is its remote control. It’s relatively small, yet manages to include a prominent pair of Page Up and Page Down buttons. In addition to these vital tools for any PowerPoint presenter, the remote has left and right mouse buttons and a four-way button for moving the mouse pointer on the screen. To take advantage of the mouse buttons, you’ll need to purchase a $15 USB cable, a reasonable compromise on a budget projector. The remote’s Color button cycles through a number of different color modes, including a standard sRGB color mode, plus a mode to correct colors when the image is projected onto a green blackboard. The only presentation tool missing is a laser pointer. Despite its budget price, the S3 has one of the fastest warm-up and cool-down times we have ever seen. It took only 28 seconds to get a usable image on the screen and an amazing four seconds to shut down. With its Instant Off feature, the S3 can be unplugged and packed up immediately after a presentation. In our brightness tests, the S3 scored 1377 lumens, 14.6 percent below the advertised value, a margin that is unfortunately typical of the industry. Because the S3 uses an LCD imaging engine, we expected a relatively low contrast ratio. Indeed, our result was 227:1, significantly below the advertised value of 500:1, but about average for LCD models. Like all budget projectors, the S3 uses native SVGA resolution, which is not the best fit for most laptops or HDTV. We found the S3’s picture quality to be quite sharp. On a few of our test slides we saw a minor degree of flicker, but otherwise the image was quite steady. The fan was surprisingly quiet. In fact, in the low-power mode, which dims the brightness by 12.5 percent, the fan noise dropped to the point where we could barely hear it. The LCD imaging engine provided rich and accurate colors, and its associated screen-door grid effect was quite tolerable. Some omissions remind us that we are in bargain-basement territory. There is no optical zoom feature, and the complement of cables included with the projector is a bare minimum: only VGA and a short AC cable. The AC cable uses an extension cord-friendly two-prong plug. The user manual is available only on CD, which doesn’t bother us. Epson bundles the PowerLite S3 with a fairly generous two-year warranty that includes quick exchanges for defective projectors. As with most projectors, the lamp is limited to a 90-day warranty. Replacement lamps cost $199, and Epson claims that they last 2,000 hours in standard power mode, yielding an attractive ten cents per hour operating cost. It won’t fit in your laptop bag, but if you want an affordable projector that’s portable enough to take on the road, the PowerLite S3 is the one to beat. Compare Prices | Epson PowerLite S3 Specifications
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