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By Mike Joubert 2 March 2010

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For a budget projector the BenQ MP515 offers above average specs on both its contrast ratio (2600:1) and ANSI Lumens (2500, used to measure the brightness). The brightness of the MP515 allows for a fair amount of ambient light present when projecting, and should be more than sufficient for most office set-ups, and home entertainment  too. That said, this DLP projector offers a native SVGA resolution (800 x 600 pixels), which isn’t the largest we’ve seen and needs a fair distance from the screen to project a large image.  
 
Connection

 There are two D-sub ports present, so more than one PC can be connected to the projector at the same time (although no extra VGA cable is provided). Presenters can switch between them using either the included remote or the Source button on the unit itself. While the machine contains onboard speakers, it is a measly 2 W and no audio cable is provided to hook it up. The MP515 runs at a low 32 dB (26 dB in economic mode), so you won’t have to worry about noise from the projector drowning out your meeting.
 
Wall colour adjustment
 
A nice little extra BenQ built-in is the ability to adjust your projection according to the colour of the wall or screen you’re projecting on. They call this  “Wall Color Correction” and it comes in handy especially at home, where you might be projecting onto a painted wall instead of a specially bought screen.

 With DLP projectors some people might perceive a rainbow artifact (a flash of colour when scanning the screen) especially on the white parts of the screen. We experienced this with the MP515, although you don’t notice it after awhile. The 2000 hours of lamp life in standard mode is about average, but there are projectors out there whose bulbs last longer.  
 
 As a budget projector we enjoyed this offering from BenQ. It contains all you need, with the above average ANSI Lumens a nice touch. It is available from Computer Corporation on 08616-08616 for a good R4500.

PROS
Above average contrast and brightness, wall colour correction, two D-sub ports
CONS
SVGA resolution not that big, so-so lamp life
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