Until the 21st Century came along, projectors were more used for conferences, schools, business meetings, and presentations rather than home theater or backyard movie night usage. In fact, the only ones who indulged in viewing films at the comfort of their own home were the rich and famous, who could afford setting up their own home theater complete with film projector used in movie houses. Therefore, the video projector revolution we’re currently experiencing today has business projectors to thank for in regards to their success.
With that said, business projectors are still being developed to this day. Now that the new decade is upon us, what’s the best business projector you can get for a decent price and high ratings off of Amazon in 2020? In our humble opinion, the BenQ MW612 WXGA Business Projector has everything you can wish for in a business projector and more.
What Are Business Projectors?
Ostensibly, business projectors are projectors used by businesses for a business conference, presentations, proposals, meetings, briefings, and the like. Up until about the Year 2000, LCD (Light Crystal Diode) projectors were mostly used for projecting presentations and mirroring your computer desktop display. Video projectors for home cinema use didn’t end up becoming a mainstream concept until the old SD (Standard Definition) or analog systems of yore became obsolete and made way for newer digital systems that were HD (High Definition) instead.
- True Video Projectors Came About in The New Millennium: Sure, there were SVGA projectors capable of digital video or movie projection since if you can mirror the computer desktop then naturally you can also use the projector as an alternative monitor. However, more streamlined consumer-friendly video projectors came along later in the New Millennium as alternatives of HDTVs (High Definition Televisions) and HD computer monitors. As computer resolutions rose and the computers themselves became more sophisticated, so too did these alternatives for computer display.
- Older Business Projector Types: The older business projectors of the 1990s were mostly used to connect to notebook PCs or workstations in order to project video clips, slideshows, clipart, GIFs, tables, charts, and full movies for (PowerPoint) presentation purposes. In the last century, businesses had the SVGA projector with its SVGA connector, 800 x 600 resolution, and 4:3 aspect ratio. Later on, in the 2000s came about the XGA projector with its USB-A or USB-B connector, 1024 x 768 resolution, and 4:3 aspect ratio. There’s also the SXGA projector with the USB-A or USB-B connector, 1280 x 1024 resolution, and 4:3 aspect ratio.
- Modern Business Projector Types: The BenQ MW612 WXGA Business Projector belongs to the WXGA projector category. WXGA and it’s even bigger screen counterpart WUXGA are projectors made for modern 21st Century devices such as Apple, Dell, Samsung, Alienware, Microsoft, and beyond in the 2010s. WXGA offers a 1280 x 800 resolution, HDMI and USB connectors, and 16:10 aspect ratio. In contrast, the WUXGA is an updated version of the WXGA that provides 1980 x 1200 resolution, HDMI and USB connectors, and 16:10 aspect ratio. It’s already the 2020s, but until a new type of projector is made, then the WXGA and WUXGA projector is the latest type currently available.
What The BenQ MW612 Brings to The Table
Why should you go get the BenQ MW612 specifically when it’s a WXGA business projector instead of a WUXGA one? You don’t necessarily need to go for the 1980 x 1200 resolution automatically. If you’re on a budget and you want a decent resolution for your PC presentation then the WXGA is good enough for your desktop requirements. After all, WXGA and WUXGA both have the widescreen 16:10 aspect ratio. Unless you’re gunning for extreme close-ups or cinematic detail, there’s really no need to get those extra pixels from a WUXGA.
Additionally, BenQ MW612 is simply a master class projector all its own in terms of projection excellence renowned all over the world and trusted by businesses everywhere. With that in mind, here are the things that the MW612 brings to the table specifically that other WXGA or even WUXGA competitors couldn’t at all or at the same level as BenQ.
- High Image Quality: Naturally, the MW612 has excellent image quality. What you see from your laptop screen or desktop will be translated perfectly with the projector even when dealing with ambient lighting because business projectors tend to be brighter than their home cinema counterparts. It also helps that it has 1280 x 800 native WXGA resolution and a stark 20,000:1 contrast ratio to increase blackness clarity while also reducing eyestrain at the same time. Your presentation will definitely not suffer from using this particular projector brand.
- Big Screen Projection: WXGA is the widescreen version of the modern XGA projector family of projectors. Thusly, you can project images, presentations, and videos from 12 feet to 2 inches at 40,000 ANSI lumens of brightness. It also has lenses to help zoom in or out of your mirrored computer screen with amazing fidelity and quality. Whatever conference room you might have, it will surely benefit from a projector like BenQ MW612 because it’s made to fit into 16:10 aspect ratio widescreens that are the standard for such venues. It’s also great for school presentations and meeting room discussions.
- Compatible Connectivity: You can connect the 16:10 WXGA projector to anything requiring HDMI in case you need to also produce HDTV videos or even home cinema films from DVD or Blu-ray Disc players. It can also accommodate media from across the board, from videogame consoles to cable and TV boxes for entertainment purposes or for demos on the latest games in case you’re running the videogame company. It also comes with MHL and 5V/1.5A USB power supply to boot for immediate charging and linkup to various laptops or notebook PCs.
- Wireless Options: You can also opt for wireless options with the BenQ MW612, such that it’s compatible with wireless dongles such as QCast or QCast Mirror HDMI in order to deliver wireless presentations and whatnot. The beauty of wireless connections is that multiple presenters can connect to the same projector without having to plug, unplug, or replug anything as well as restart or jiggle connectors into ports until they work. Just connect to the BenQ MW612 the way you would to a Wi-Fi signal and you’re good to go. It’s that simple.
- Easy Installation: You won’t have to worry about moving anything in your conference rooms—from tables to chairs and so forth—in order to perfectly align your projector to the screen with perfect throw distance in accordance to screen size. The projector has a vertical keystone correction in case the projector or the screen displays the image at an awkward angle. You can also lens shift and lens zoom for good measure to get the right or exact projection size in comparison to the screen every time from various locations.
- Committed Warranty: BenQ offers a 2,000-hours or 1-year lamp warranty for your lamp, whichever comes first. There’s also a limited part and labor warranty that lasts for 3 years. This doesn’t include CID or customer-induced damage though. This warranty merely assures that the device won’t easily break down in terms of normal usage for at least 3 years in terms of various parts within it and 1 year for the lamp. If they are to break down sooner, get it replaced while it’s under warranty. Contact BenQ customer service for more details.
- Android Compatibility: Other brands are more Apple-friendly, enabling you to connect to iPhones, iPads, and even iPods depending on your needs. However, we chose the BenQ MW612 projector because it’s the more budget-friendly choice that’s still HD enough with its resolution without breaking the bank when it comes to its price. Most anything related to Apple is much pricier than its Android equivalent, plus Android is the more cost-effective choice between the two formats. Its HDMI linkage can either be done by a standard HDMI cable, high-speed cable for HD data delivery, or wireless via an HDMI dongle system.
- Flexibility In Your Hands In Every Way Possible: When shopping for the right projector, you need flexibility in your hands rooting from a simple and convenient design. The aesthetics of the BenQ MW612 projector might be straightforward, but simplicity has its own appeal and the convenience more than makes up for the lack of bells and whistles design-wise. Functionality is what BenQ MW612 is all about, which is why we’re highly recommending it as the best modern 21st Century or 2010s to 2020s projector you should buy instead of a WUXGA or vintage SVGA, XGA, or SXGA projectors.
Key Features from Buying Guides and How The BenQ MW612 Fares on Them
This part of the buying guide involves the many different considerations you need to take note of when shopping for a business projector. Incidentally, the BenQ MW612 ticks many of the boxes of requirements here, hence why it’s the highest recommended business projector of this guide. Naturally, if there are circumstances or conditions that the BenQ MW612 doesn’t meet, we’ll take note of it and recommend other types of projectors, whether they’re SVGA, XGA, SXGA, or WUXGA.
- Native Resolution: The native resolution of a projector is the number of pixels it uses to create an image, whether it’s mirroring your computer monitor or displaying a movie from your Blu-Ray player. The more pixels it has the higher the resolution. The BenQ MW612 has a 1280 x 800 native resolution that can work on a screen designed for 1920 x 1200 resolution with a simple lens zoom adjustment because it still fits the 16:10 aspect ratio. In other words, they both feature the same rectangular shape and would fit on any 16:10 proportioned screen.
You would normally think that the more resolution the better. If you’re going to buy a projector, you might as well go for a WUXGA one instead with a 1920 x 1200 resolution. However, if you’re budget conscious, typically a 1280 x 800 resolution is enough for your needs, even in newer systems. WXGA is still commercially popular because like in the case of 1080p HD versus 4K UltraHD, not many businesses have made the switch to UltraHD and still depend on HD instead. Why upgrade to 4K when HD is enough? Ditto with WXGA versus WUXGA.
- Native Resolution Options: Aside from the 1280 x 800 resolution of WXGA, there’s also the Full HD 1080p resolution of WUXGA at 1920 x 1080. WXGA is more like the 720p HD resolution but offers a little more since it’s at 800p technically. It’s still HD but WUXGA is closer to 1080p. Business projectors haven’t gone full 4K resolution but that might soon change in 2020. Both go by the 16:10 format, which is close to the home cinema projector’s 16:9 format. That means it’s possible for you to use these projectors in a home cinema context if you wish.
This resolution still mostly used for business projectors for good reason. There isn’t a huge push for 4K for computer PCs as of yet like in the case of HDTVs or videogames even though you can customize your computer to go full 4K as a gaming PC if you wish. Businesses can work recently enough with a 1080p or 800p projector since it’s mostly used for presentations and it’s good enough for video presentations without going fully cinematic on them. It’s the same reason why for the longest time SD TVs stayed at 480p or 480i resolution at a 4:3 square aspect ratio.
- High Brightness for Well-Lit Rooms: Normally, in well-lit rooms, a typical video projector comes off as faint or bland because the ambient lighting is messing with the starkness or contrast of the image. It’s the same reason why the stars look brighter in the provinces away from the big city because there’s less light pollution and more pitch-black darkness to go around in rural areas. The distant starlight is like your projector’s projection and the ambient lighting of your room is like city light pollution. You need a stronger light to stand out in such situations.
Thusly, the BenQ MW612 offers ideal brightness at WXGA 4000 ANSI lumens when dealing with presentations in bright meeting rooms. The high brightness allows everything to be seen clearly and with vibrant colors, such that there are no distractions and better note-taking, collaboration, and teamwork to be achieved from your presentation. Everyone will end up on the same page when all is said and done. The picture quality of the MW612 is nothing short of brilliant, featuring image adjustment controls and adaptable lens customization. This way, everyone can confidently focus on the meeting, video, or presentation being projected.
- Brightness Concerns: You can opt not only for a more full-HD projector aside from BenQ MW612 at a higher price point. You can also get something that’s brighter too. There are HD 1080p projectors that have a 5000-lumen output for business and commercial use. The extra 1000 lumens help a lot in display the extra millions of pixels offered by the much bigger 1920 x 1080 pixels of resolution. With that said, there are several other popular native resolutions to watch out for that might be more applicable to your needs depending on the circumstances. For example, not all computers are modern.
If you’re a small startup business using vintage desktops and laptops, then you might have no choice but to similarly use legacy systems that are more compatible with them, such as SVGA, XGA, and SXGA. SVGA’s 800 x 600 resolution works with classic monitors and computers with a VGA output to them as well as certain VCRs. XGA (1024 x 768) and SXGA (1280 x 1024) are kind-of HD resolutions for the 2000s computers that use USB connectors to work. They all share the 4:3 aspect ratio found in standard-definition devices and media. You can use HDMI adaptors to make your BenQ MW612 work with vintage equipment, but sometimes they’re not enough to ensure smooth connections or image fidelity.
- High Contrast for Clear Text: Presentations tend to involve either note-taking or screen capturing of notes on the screen from the students in a classroom or the business persons involved in a given meeting. It’s therefore important for you to get a projector like BenQ MW612 because of its pixel fill factor and high contrast. This then results in true blacks and legibility/readability of every chart, graph, character, video, or text displayed. Screen shots or grabs won’t look like blurry messes with this particular HD display of 1280 x 800 native WXGA resolution.
What’s more, the high fill factor works by increasing the clarity of color or black & white images for the sake of eye strain reduction and instant understanding of whatever you’re looking at. You want your computer screen to look immediately understandable when viewed on a larger projector screen because that image is typically made with the PC user in mind. You want your viewers to stay focused on your content without being distracted by artifacts or bad color bleed from your projector that can result in a muddy mess of image care of lesser projectors out there.
- More About The 4,000 Lumens of High Brightness: The brightness of the BenQ MW612 doesn’t only defeat the ambient lighting of a typical conference room. It can even deal with daylight lighting from open windows or presentations at a courtyard with no walls or the widest of spaces. You can better promote collaboration, discussion, and learning through the brightness allowable by the WXGA projector. It’s the ideal projector for medium-sized meeting rooms typical of many a business out there, although it can accommodate bigger conference rooms as well.
This amount of brightness is made possible by the lamp of the BenQ MW612 projector, which comes with a warranty of 1 year or 2,000 hours of usage. If it breaks down within 2,000 hours or 1 year, it’s still under warranty and you can get a replacement. It’s guaranteed to at least last within a year of regular usage. This high-luminance projector allows participants of a meeting or presentation to clearly see the slides and videos being projected by the device even if they’re set at the very edge of the room. The texts remain crisp and the pictures all have a vibrancy to their colors.
- Seamless Wireless Presentation with Universal Compatibility: It’s also vital for you to get a projector like BenQ MW612 because of its seamless wireless connectivity, allowing you to do presentations on many compatible laptops and desktops as well as media players out there. It’s universally compatible. You can plug a wireless dongle or wireless HDMI system unto the BenQ MW612 HDMI 1.2 port and USB power supply wireless dongles and get a stable wireless connection to the transceiver of your media player, whether it’s a PC, tablet, smartphone, or media disc player. It depends on which dongle you use though.
Speaking of mobile devices, you can do ultra-smooth presentations on various receiver/transceiver systems, some of which make use of your cellphone as a method of managing the connection or even controlling the MW612 itself. The recommended wireless systems that work best with this BenQ projector are the QCast and QCast Mirror HDMI Wireless Dongle. With it, you can project various presentations, slideshows, or full HD video with wireless freedom akin to laptops, smartphones, and tablets. No need to fiddle with any HDMI or USB cables any longer! However, the transmission quality will depend on your meeting room’s Wi-Fi environment or mirror function compatibility.
- MHL, HDMI, and USB Connectivity: The main thing business presentations require from projectors, whether they’re the LCD, LCoS, or DLP type, is the ability to allow smartphones like Androids and iOS devices to connect to them and mirror videos, photos, and documents with ease. The projector can act as your method of accessing compatible files and presentations off of your mobile devices. In the case of the BenQ MW612, it’s able to share content through MHL cables while charging the mobile device at the same time. It’s the same deal with USB connections.
The MW612 also offers a built-in 1.5A USB Type-A power output that powers up HDMI dongles for a wireless experience. You’re assured of beautiful presentations because the device finds ways to ensure good color grading, faithfulness, and clarity without being encumbered by ambient lighting or keystoning. It’s an adaptable kind of projector that has beautiful aesthetics all its own with its sleek, lightweight design while providing excellent projection performance that’s expected in a modern business setting. This includes the ability to work wirelessly or to connect to multiple PCs as required. Most importantly, it can double as a home cinema projector with its near-HD resolution and 16:10 aspect ratio.
- Vertical Keystone for Perfect Alignment: Keystoning is what happens when your projector or your projection screen aren’t perfectly parallel to each other, resulting in a trapezoidal image or projection shape reminiscent of an old-timey keystone. Sometimes, keystoning is unavoidable, whether you’re having issues with the angle by which your projector is mounted or the angle of the screen. The BenQ MW612 projector has ways to counteract the trapezoid effect while minimizing artifacts, pixilation, and resolution reduction that’s usually associated with this digital correction feature.
The keystone effect will tend to happen when you have to place the projector atop a table or in an off-center manner. Speaking of which, the projector also features lens shift correction to boot in order to allow you to get a perfectly squared or rectangular image depending on the resolution or aspect ratio of what you’re projecting (a video, a Livestream, a presentation, slides, and so forth). There’s also lens zoom to boot in order to enlarge or reduce the image perfectly unto a given screen without necessarily moving the projector around for the right throw distance. This is an optical zoom to keep the image from getting jaggy lines or blurs.
The Nitty-Gritty of Getting a BenQ MW612
This projector buying guide highly recommends the BenQ MW612 projector as the all-around or likeliest choice for all your business presentation needs. You might be forced to deal with lesser projectors from the 1990s if you’re doing presentations on vintage equipment like VCRs or laptops from literally a century ago. However, as far as fully digital presentations are concerned with a video output equivalent to that of home cinema projectors but with better brightness in lumens, you won’t go wrong with the BenQ MW612 WXGA Business Projector.
You can update to a WUXGA projector in case you’re dealing with the newest computers around but most of them work well with our recommended WXGA projector regardless because they share the same 16:10 aspect ratio, so only a little adjustment is required. As far as presentation are concerned, you don’t really need to go full 1980 x 1200 resolution anyway unless you wish to get the closest to the business projector equivalent of 4K UltraHD up and running. If you wish to do a video presentation with cinematics, it’s better to shift to a 4K home cinema projector anyway. WXGA is a budget-friendly choice.
See more:
- Buyer’s Guide – Home Theater Projectors (The Best Home Theater Projector)
- A Beginner’s Guide to Projectors (Projector specifications explained)
- BenQ MW612 WXGA Business Projector