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Follow on Google News | Buyer Beware On Amazon: False Claims To Look Out For This ChristmasMany of the top selling projectors on Amazon seem too good to be true, offering impossibly cheap prices for high lumens. We investigate the TRUTH behind these dubious projectors...
We decided to investigate and purchase one of the Top 15 projectors on Amazon to see what was going on. We discovered a large amount of false trades descriptions which we have reported to Amazon at the beginning of the year, yet 12 months later the problem still exists despite numerous complaints to Amazon. We reviewed the best selling Amazon projector: Elephas Full Color 130" Portable LED "Pico" Projector. This review highlights the major flaws in all Amazon's best selling projectors and shows how many manufacturers are massively exaggerating features and specifications of these projectors. This guide will help you to avoid buying dubious products. Lumens Test: The biggest false description on Amazon The most important test is brightness so we compared the popular Pico Genie P55 which is a genuine 50 lumens to the Elephas Full Colour 130" which is stated as "1000 lumens". The Elephas is well priced at £54 on Amazon which is impossibly cheap for a projector of "1000" lumens. The image in this article shows the brightness difference between the Pico Genie P55 (bottom image) and the Elephas (top image). If anything, the Pico Genie P55 is brighter and also has a better resolution. This is fairly shocking when you consider the Elphas is being listed as 20x brighter than the Pico Genie. Yes, 20 TIMES! Amazon's top 15 projectors state they have 800-1500 lumens which is simply false. The alarm bells should initially start ringing when you see a headline figure of 1000 lumens and a price of anything less than £400. Take a look at a projector that does a real 500 or 650 lumens in this video (https://youtu.be/ Focus The Elephas and Amazon's top 15 projectors often will have a fixed focus meaning it has to be an EXACT distance from the wall to be able to view it otherwise its out of focus. In other words it's useless if you want to put the projector anywhere other than 1.5m away from the wall. Pico Genie and other premium brand projectors can be focused as small as 15cm from the projection surface to create a tiny image or over >100" simply by moving them closer/further from the projected area. Check its got real DLP DLP is a premium image chip from Texas Instruments meaning your image quality will be viewable and far superior to the chinese versions listed on Amazon. It usually also means the projector itself is much smaller as can be seen with the Elephas versus the Pico Genie above. The costs of these DLP chips are high so as a rough guide anything advertised under £140 on Amazon is more than likely not going to have a real DLP chip inside. Size / Portability The P55 is a fraction of the size of most of the top 15 projectors listed on Amazon and is more pocketable. Also the quality is not compromised because of its size as Pico Genie projectors use DLP rather than poor quality LCOS. As can be seen below the Elephas is almost 4x bigger than the Pico Genie. Battery All Pico Genie products include a battery as standard. The Pico Genie P55's inbuilt battery will last for up to 2.5 hours. In comparison to Amazon's top 15 which are 4x the size and do not have any battery at all. Pico Genie projectors are ultra portable and can be used anywhere. Fan Noise/usage & burning smells The Pico Genie P55 makes very little fan noise when in use and can be used for as long as required on mains power. Amazon's top 15 projectors such as Elephas are incredibly noisy and kick out a lot of heat. They also state they should not be used for more than 3-4 hours at any one time. This also highlights a major safety concern. We used the Elephas for around 1-2 hours and it became very hot and produced some unusual burning smells. Trusted Portable Projector Brands Online: Below we have listed out a number of brands that have an excellent reputation across the projection market. • Acer • Pico Genie • Vivitek • Casio • Philips • Epson • BenQ • Optoma • Aiptek Beware Of: • Elephas • Uvistar • Crenova • Yokkao • UNHO SUMMARY: Tips to Avoid Buying Dubious Projectors from Amazon & Online • Claims its New < £80: If it's brand new and less than £80, don't bother. The projector is more than likely being way over sold by a Chinese company. LED projectors of any decent quality that are new with DLP and a minimum genuine lumens of 50 lumens start at £150 / €180 / $195 • Claims its New <£300 and claims over 600 lumens - it's quoting "Chinese marketing lumens" and maybe 10 or 20 times overstated and probably 50 lumens with no DLP and is fake • DLP? - Ensure the projector has Texas Instruments DLP, this provides superior image quality and is the industry standard. • States "use in a dark room" - If the projector has over 200 lumens and states "Use in a dark room", usually means its less than 50 lumens so avoid • Catches Fire - If it says "it needs to be turned off after 2-4 hours", give it a miss. It is more than likely dangerous and prone to catching fire. It has been made very cheaply and so key safety processes can easily be missed. • Common Sense - If it sounds too good to be true, it is!! Remember if you buy cheap you usually end up buying twice so just buy the product thats right for you first time around. End
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