NEC NP60 projector review

Is the NP60 the projector for your home?

9 March 2007 11:00 GMT / By Paul Lester

Outside of an office environment bigger isn’t usually better when it comes to projectors. Home users want stylish, compact offerings they don’t have to bolt into the roof with 6-inch girders, and thankfully the tech industry is responding in kind.

When you look at the specifications of the NP60 you might understand our delight at realising that the 2 x 2’ box it was supplied in is mostly packing material. Lurking underneath was a superbly compact and attractively styled device tucked neatly into the carry case supplied.

The NP60 weighs just one and a half kilograms and measures under 10 inches wide and 7 inches long. With a 3000 lumens rating this is a fantastic achievement; one that NEC claim is a new world record. Along with an impressive enough 1600:1 contrast ratio and 1024 x 768 resolution, the NP60 has all the ingredients for success. More selective users will point out that it only offers composite and S-video inputs, along with a VGA port for a PC, but even despite this middle-of-the-road connectivity we were extremely impressed by the results.

Set up is predictably a breeze being so light and portable and we had it up and running with a picture from a cold start in under a minute. Despite its diminutive size you’ll get an image up to 300” in size provided you can position it at the maximum 13m away from the wall.

Realistically though we can see the NP60 fitting perfectly into an average sized lounge, and at a distance of 3m results were extremely impressive. The auto-focus makes short work of tidying up an image, and you’ll find a manual adjustment on the remote for fine-tuning and a zoom control just behind the lens.

Thanks to the impressive lumens rating we achieved a perfectly watchable picture even in broad daylight. After dark it improves further and although we’ve seen sharper results on high-end models, the composite-based picture from a unit this size was excellent. You can improve things even further by browsing through the menus, where you can perform quick environment changes, fine-tuning and even tell the projector to adjust the image to compensate for the colour of the wall.

This is all very quick and easy to do, either from the controls on the unit itself or the remote, making it an excellent choice for beginners or those who are looking for a no-fuss solution.

Verdict

At around £1000 there are cheaper models around, but not many that achieve performance like this from something so small. For a combination of quality, portability and ease of use the NP60 is an excellent choice for the average home user.

Score

Review Recap

Made by: NEC
Price as reviewed: £1100
The good: Extremely easy to transport, setup and use, great picture quality, straightforward adjustments, fast start-up and shut-down
The bad: A little loud on non-Eco mode, no component/HDMI
Quick verdict: We loved the convenience and performance of the NP60, it’s an excellent solution for the average home user and while you’ll pay a little more than some budget rivals, it’d be well worth it
Score
Winner