InFocus X10

By Jamie Gemming

December 2008

InFocus X10 DLP projector. $5500

The first thing I noticed about the X10 was the sheer size of the projector. While it doesn’t have the almost comically OTT dimensions of the Panasonic AE 2000 or the high-end Sonys, it is still huge at about 432mmlong, 548mm long and 148mm high. This will not be an issue if you hang the projector from your roof but if you stick it on the coffee table you will not only lose the ability to put coffee on said table, but you’ll quickly discover one of its only shortcomings; the image throw.

‘Terrible’ isn’t quite the right adjective, ‘limited’ is probably better when comparing the picture size to some of its competitors. The InFocus X10 would fire a stunning 100+ inch picture from five metres but place it any closer and you get a picture only slightly bigger than a decent Plasma/LCD. Whereas the Panasonic AX200 or the Epsom EMP projectors can fire a 100 inch picture from as little as three metres, offering a much greater range of placement options.

While I’m pointing out things that didn’t impress me, I should mention the lack of ability to be able to shift the lens and the fan noise. The InFocus X10 sits on a stand and pivots using sort of hip joint/ball and socket arrangement which is really just a pain to use compared to the manual lens shift offered on plenty of other projectors. No one could ever call the InFocus X10 quiet, in fact I found it quite noisy compared to the other projectors I have reviewed recently. This won’t be so much an issue if you are mounting it on the ceiling as it was only noticeable when sitting close to the projector.

Besides, once you see the how bright it is you won’t care. The InFocus X10 is so bright that I was able to use it in the middle of the day with my theatre door wide open, which is a first in the four years I have lived in this house.

Before I go on to tell you how marvelous the projector is, and believe me it’s a goody, I’ll better first run through some of the stats for the train spotters. The InFocus X10 is a DLP projector with a resolution of 1080p/24fps (that’s ‘full HD’ for the layman or big appliance store salesman). The lamp is a supernova rivaling 1200 lumens, and the DarkChip 1 chipset. The rear panel sports the regular coloured analogue inputs and single HDMI v1.3 and DVI ports.

Wonderful, wonderful

Now that I’ve done my grumbling and quickly breezed over the specs I can tell you how wonderful this projector is. The next couple of sentences may sound like a paid advertisement for InFocus because this projector is amazing. I loved everything about the picture it produced. Colours were superb, animated films were striking bold and bright, yet skin tones and backgrounds were natural and realistic in movies such as No Country for Old Men.

Everything about the output of this projector was so good it is hard to pick its best attribute, but if forced to pick one thing it would be its black levels that really impressed. Detail and depth would be the best way to describe things.

Pirates of the Caribbean or LOTR - The Two Towers have plenty of scenes in caves, underwater or at night and movies like this really allow the X10 to show off. Shadow detail and depth of colour in the dark scenes were first-class, though to get the optimal contrast the lamp output is reduced a little. Most of the competitors of the InFocus X10 lack anywhere near this level of contrast with dark colours. However, as competent as the InFocus X10 is, it still could not handle all of the dark scenes in There Will Be Blood and occasionally things looked a little washed out and grey but not nearly as grey as I have seen in that movie previously.

While there are ultimately better projectors on the market, at $5500 this is a very good projector. It will likely face some stiff competition from the new Panasonic, but even so, the X10 is still a more than worthy projector.

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