LP-XW60 : Sanyo Presents the Industry’s Smallest and Lightest LCD Projector

Today Sanyo announced a new ultraportable projector model, so small that you can carry it easily with one hand. (Even the model they hired to bring it out could do it.) The projector is planned to be sold worldwide, but the only date we have so far is the date for release in Japan -- April 21. It will sell for around 200,000 yen (USD$1999, according to current exchange rates...).

At the announcement the presenters said that these types of ultraportable projectors are seeing massive growth right now, up to a 32% average increase. With this in mind, Sanyo sees an opportunity for growth by making projectors smaller and lighter.

We already know that Sanyo has a large market share of the super huge cinema advertising projector market share and we know their projectors are used at large event venues, but we haven't really seen Sanyo making an attempt to win over the small office users--until recently. Back in January they announced a new widescreen wireless moviie projector, again for smaller office use. Today's model is unfortuantely 4:3 again. When will the big projector makers realize that the rest of the world is pushing for widescreen? At any rate, this small, ultraportable projector still has some pretty amazing features.

One feature that we found particularly interesting was the automatic keystone adjustment. To display this, Sanyo put the projector on a see-saw type mount and moved the projector up and down (not levelly, at an angle) and stopped at the top. Before we could blink the projector had adjusted its verticle keystone on the sides to be uniform. They did the same thing again by returning the projector to its original position, only more slowly this time. Every inch or so it moved down it was automatically adjusting. This model is so simple even the office's most untalented individual should be able to set it up and make it look good. We also liked the fact that such a small projector has 2000 lumens. All in all, a decent product, and surely you traveling salesman and you extra mobile folks will find this product useful!