Epson EH-TW5210 Review - 3D, Sound and Conclusions Review

Epson EH-TW5210 – 3D Picture Quality

The TW5210’s 3D pictures are more effective than you’ve any right to expect from such a cheap projector. Images look detailed, decently bright, fairly free of flicker and don’t suffer from overt crosstalk ghosting noise.

A little more contrast would’ve been handy to give dark scenes a greater sense of depth and scale. But the main issue with 3D is that, while crosstalk may not be as overt and edge-based as it often is with active 3D solutions, there is enough of it around to make backgrounds often look slightly out of focus, especially during dark scenes.

Epson EH-TW5210 – Sound Quality

The TW5210’s 5W speaker lacks the definition and volume of the best-sounding projectors, and crucially it’s unable to disperse the sound far enough beyond the boundaries of the projector’s chassis to fool your ears into thinking the sound is appearing from anywhere near the onscreen action.

The speaker tends to start ‘buzzing’ distractingly when the going gets tough, too.

Other Things to Consider

Considering how bright it is, the TW5210 runs strikingly quietly in its Eco power mode. The volume levels become much less comfortable in Normal lamp mode, and you may still notice a slight whine and the occasional click during very quiet movie moments, especially if your seating position puts you near the projector. Overall, though, the TW5210’s Eco setting really is impressively quiet for such a formidably cheap projector.

Last year’s TW5200 was self-consciously positioned as a gaming projector, and while Epson doesn’t seem keen to limit the TW5210’s audience by marketing it in the same way, it still clearly has gaming appeal. With this in mind, it’s great to find it turning in an input lag measurement of under 30ms (so long as you make sure you set the Image Processing mode to its ‘Fast’ setting).

This is about as good as it gets with projectors, and should have a bare minimum of impact on your gaming abilities.

One last little niggle concerns the TW5210’s remote control. As well as being a bit crowded with buttons, it isn’t backlit, making it next to impossible to use in a dark cinema room. Unless you happen to have an usherette’s torch handy…

Should I buy an Epson EH-TW5210?

If you’re a home cinema or gaming fan and your budget’s limited to £500, you should definitely buy an Epson EH-TW5210. There’s simply nothing else out there for the same money that gets close to delivering such engaging pictures and – with its ability to be used in both dark and light rooms – flexibility.

If you can find £60-70 more you could consider BenQ’s W1070 instead, as this gives you a better contrast performance. But it also gives you a little rainbow effect, so if you’re sensitive to this the TW5210 may serve you better as well as costing less.

Verdict

The Epson EH-TW5210 defies expectations admirably, turning in a much better video and gaming performance for dark and bright rooms alike than you’ve any right to expect for so little cash.

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