There was a time when projectors had one simple role: to flash up, on a wall or screen, your family slide collection. Now in our multifunction digital age, a piece of equipment that could have gone the way of the 8mm home movie camera has had a new lease of life thanks to the plethora of media currently in business or pleasure use.

The InFocus IN3106 is typical of the current generation of multimedia projectors that have risen to the challenge of the digital revolution. For a start it's relatively compact (measuring 9.4 x 24.89 x 31.5cm) and lightweight (3.18kg) and is designed for easy front, rear and ceiling projection.

At first sight it looks as though there are no controls, but once you've plugged in the power and switched on, a subtle array of touch-sensitive icons begins glowing under the stylish black top. Separate chunky zoom and focus controls are next to these and at the back there's a wide selection of connection ports. These include one HDMI input, S-Video, Composite Video and two VGA plus RCA audio.

The star of the show, though, is the USB cable connecting to your laptop. This is specifically designed with widescreen laptops in mind and so the native resolution is WXGA (1,280 x 800). Using in-built DisplayLink content-over-USB software, it's a matter of seconds to set up from the moment you plug in. The audio, too, can be run through the projector as you're supplied with two 3-watt stereo speakers.

The IN3106 features 3,000 lumens with a 2,000:1 contrast ratio and is fully compliant with HD, natively projecting HD 720P content and supporting Full-HD 1080p via compression. In addition there's 30 degrees of vertical digital keystone change to optimize the image and an Eco Mode which will extend your lamp life from 3,000 hours to 4,000.

The picture quality is excellent, thanks to the use of DLP (Digital Light Processing) technology rather than the conventional LCD type projector. DLP images are more uniformly bright, have more accurate flesh tones, have a higher native contrast ratio and limited pixellation. The image is also more stable, which is particularly noticeable when watching fast action movies (or FPS games played back via HDMI through your consoles or your laptop).

It's also worth mentioning that InFocus provides a 2-year factory warranty for the projector and the lamp has a 6-month warranty against defect or premature failure.

Verdict
A high quality, compact, widescreen, digital multimedia projector with fast set-up capability, that supports HD and provides superior images thanks to the use of DLP technology.

Company: InFocus

Contact: +31 (0)36 539 2000

Tags: digital light processing composite video video graphics array hdmi displaylink universal serial bus graphic display resolutions 1080p