Canon LV-7275 review

This projector's design catches the eye immediately, largely thanks to the smooth curve downwards to a sturdy carry handle at the rear. While this may not exactly excite, it certainly made life easy when moving from room to room during testing. Beneath that handle sit DVI and VGA inputs, as well as both 3.5mm and stereo RCA audio connectors and an Ethernet port for easy remote management.

It's a polysilicon TFT projector with 2,600-lumen brightness, which leads to vivid colours and an inviting image. The black level isn't quite as deep and immersive as some here, but an even and neutral white is ideal for presentation slides. As with several other TFT models here, reds appear orange and greens a little too yellow, but the menu system is one of the most intuitive of the group, so we managed to get a picture to our satisfaction with a bit of tinkering.

From just 2m the Canon produces a monstrous 66in 1,024 x 768 image, which adds appeal for small meeting rooms, and the built-in 7W speaker is one of the loudest and fullest of the group. This adds to its credentials as an occasional movie projector too, although the colours lack the accuracy of the DLP projectors. Auto-keystone correction is also available, and worked quickly and accurately in our tests.

But as pleasant to use as the LV-7275 may be, if you're anything more than a light user there's one large stumbling block we haven't yet mentioned. Added to a high £686 exc VAT purchase price is an astonishing replacement lamp cost of £429, so when your brightness has faded after 3,000 hours you'll find yourself shelling out a sum higher than two of this month's projectors cost to buy outright. Plus, there's only a paltry 90-day warranty on the lamp; we can forgive this on a projector such as the dirt-cheap Acer, but not after spending so much here.

If that 3,000-hour mark is beyond the reach of your likely daily usage the Canon certainly deserves to go on your shortlist as a well-designed, all-round office projector. But a busy office with regularly-used meeting rooms will find itself better served by one of the more economical projectors on offer.

Author: David Bayon