Philips cBright XG2 Impact

Philips' XG2 immediately appeals with its silver casing and clean design, as do the translucent plastic ring surrounds that light up in the dark for easy navigation. However, as a consequence of overdesign, perhaps, the lens' zoom and focus adjusters aren't very ergonomic.

Some thoughtful design is more obvious with the OSD menu, which is simple yet functional. It's easy to navigate, thanks to graphical icons that make the brief text explanations obvious. One letdown, however, was the reliance on a translucent OSD as opposed to simply offering a reposition option.

In the image quality tests, our only concerns were over some blooming, which led to the XG2 failing the horizontal resolution test. However, the colour representation was stunning, with perfect uniformity from each of the red, green and blue screen tests. The XG2 also managed a clean sweep in the text colour combinations and was one of the few projectors to produce excellent keystone-corrected moire results.

During DVD playback, the excellent colours and smooth movement, combined with the relatively low noise levels, helped affirm this projector's claims for home entertainment, as do the tempting price and bundling of a scart adaptor. Its excellent all-round image quality should also appeal to the cost-conscious business buyer.