The Plus Vision V-332

The Plus Vision V-332 shows off some incredible ingenuity on the part of the company's designers. Perhaps the most important of these feats is the projector's Unplug and Go capability. Rather than waiting around for the projector's cooling fan to stop running, presenters can simply pull the plug. Yes, that's right, pull the plug-something a seasoned presenter will find difficult to imagine.

Instead of vaporizing its lamp in a puff of smoke, the V-332 will employ an internal battery to power the cooling fan for about 30 seconds, long enough to avoid any serious damage. Because the V-332's usual cooling phase requires at least 90 seconds, we recommend reserving the Unplug and Go feature for those times when you have to get out of Dodge quickly. Nevertheless, it's a handy insurance policy.

Another innovative feature on this projector is its lens cap, or rather its lack thereof. In place of the traditional flimsy plastic cover that is destined to be lost, the V-332 sports an ingenious mechanism that functions like the iris on a camera. Simply rotate the well-marked lens ring to one side, and the cover opens gracefully like something out of a science-fiction movie.

The V-332 is about the same size as the previous ultralight projectors from Plus, but about half a pound heavier. Advertised at 2.8 pounds, it tipped our scale at 3 pounds, and the complete travel configuration with remote control and typical cables weighs 3.7 pounds. This extra heft is no doubt caused by the battery that powers the fan.

Plus promotes this projector's special capabilities for handling high-resolution movies, from either a progressive-scan DVD player or an HDTV tuner. Our test unit did not include the V-332's optional component-video cable, but we found that a simple S-video cable worked fairly well in its place. In our standard test screening of The Matrix DVD, the lack of the component-video prevented us from analyzing high-def video quality, but we noted that the V-332 displayed the action scenes with pretty much the same ability as our 32-inch CRT monitor.

Our main complaint for this projector concerns its remote control. Although quite small (about the same size as a business-card case), this remote lacks such basic presentation features as the ability to advance PowerPoint slides, or a laser pointer for pointing out details. The remote can control only certain rarely used features, such as the volume of the projector's single small 0.5-W speaker, anti-keystoning, and digital zooming.

In our lab tests, we measured the brightness at 1180 lumens, almost exactly what the manufacturer claimed. With the exception of part of one corner, the image was sharp and well focused. However, we were surprised that the V-332 has one of the lower contrast ratios we have tested recently.

The Plus Vision V-332 is neither extremely light nor bright. Nor is it exceptionally affordable. Still, its compact size, conversation-piece lens cap, and time-saving internal battery should prove useful to many presenters.