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NEC's new sub-5-pound, LCD-based LT155 projector offers much to like. Loaded with great features, the LT155 packs a lot into a compact form factor--and at a price (under $5000) that is very competitive. But some performance drawbacks prevent us from being as enthusiastic as we might otherwise be about this unit.

Of Form and Function

Though it doesn't have the elegant design of projectors we've seen from InFocus or Compaq, the LT155's utilitarian, boxy design does the job in a small, easy-to-carry package. It has all of the requisite connectors conveniently placed on the left side, including a USB port; a power cord connector; composite, S-Video, and audio inputs; a VGA port; and a CompactFlash slot. The silver-colored unit has a compact footprint, measuring 8.2 by 9.6 by 2.5 inches (width by depth by height), and it weighs in at 4.9 pounds.

The LT155 uses LCD panels, prisms, and mirrors to project images; the projector's native resolution is 1024 by 768, typical for a projector this size. LCD-based projectors generally deliver richer, more saturated colors than do models based on Texas Instruments' Digital Light Processing (DLP) technology, but DLP models project brighter images.

As so many projectors in this price class do, the LT155 gives you the option of using controls on the remote to operate your mouse pointer while displaying content on screen. NEC takes that option one step further by including a nifty gizmo that gives you wireless mouse connectivity to the projector via an infrared port. The wireless dongle connects easily to the USB or mouse port on your PC or Mac (using the included USB, PS/2, or ADB cable). While many projectors offer some kind of mouse control via remote control, most require you to connect your computer directly to the projector. Though NEC is not the only company to provide a wireless dongle for this kind of connectivity, wireless is still the exception--and it's an added convenience when you're setting up for a presentation. Of course, you still need to use a monitor cable to get the video output from your laptop to the projector.

You don't always have to haul your laptop along for the presentation, though. Thanks to the included and easy-to-use software utility, you can convert screen captures to JPEG files and create slide shows that you can then copy to a CompactFlash card (the bundled software will work only on a PC, though, leaving Mac users to fend for themselves). A button on the projector's remote lets you easily shift between displaying images stored on a notebook or desktop and images stored on a CompactFlash card. We've seen only a handful of projectors that include a media slot (we've seen other products with PC Card slots, for example). If you'll be using the projector mainly for running presentation slides, the ability to leave the notebook at home and run your presentation from a CompactFlash card is a major convenience.

We also were very happy with the LT155's ability to compensate quickly for keystoning, which happens when the top of the image appears wider than the bottom because of the angle from which you're projecting. That sort of distortion happens rather routinely with any projector, so we found the LT155's remedy convenient: You simply push a button on the remote, and the projector compensates automatically. Many projectors include electronic keystone correction, but you must first go through various menu layers to activate it.

Like the Proxima DX2 (reviewed in August 2000), the LT155 has a laser pointer built into its remote, with a selection of projector-generated pointer icons (arrows, pointing fingers, and such) that you can use if you prefer pointing at objects on the screen with something larger than a tiny red dot. However, the projector-generated pointers move sluggishly across the screen, and because you control the pointer with a rubberized disc on the remote control that works much the way a notebook's pointing stick does, controlling the pointer's movement can sometimes be awkward.

You can use the remote for digital freeze frames and zooms, features that can be really handy when you're including video in your presentations.