Optoma TX7155 3.6lb XGA DLP Business Projector Review

The Optoma TX7155 DLP business projector has a thoroughbred specification which when combined with its reasonable pricing is the value for money formula that marks a best selling product. The TX7155 DLP projector sits in Optoma’s business projector line but, it has also proved popular with gamers.

Placing it in the category of a portable projector are its small form factor and light weight at 3.2 lbs (1.45 kg).

Optoma TX7155 DLP Projector

For the business traveller who may have to make a presentation in less than optimum environments with high ambient light levels, the Optoma TX7155 can pump out up to 2500 ANSI lumens. It should handle most typical business application. Contrast ratio is good at 2500:1 however it is a Full On/Full Off figure which will be much higher than what the static contrast ratio would be but, it does give a basis for comparison.

For setting up adjustments the projector has digital keystone correction of +/- 30 degrees in the vertical plane. It has manual zoom for adjusting for the distance to the screen but, at 1.15:1 it is doesn’t provide a lot of flexibility. Fan noise in both standard and economic modes 36dB/33dB (STD/ECO) is at the higher end of what would be expected.

For the presenter, the Optoma TX7155 projector has a well featured remote control which also doubles as a laser pointer. Notable features are page advance feature and mouse control.

A handy feature is the quick cool down cycle of 15 seconds meaning there is practically no time waiting for the projector cool down before leaving. If you do happen to want to leave the projector in one spot there is a Kensington Lock Port for security.

There is a good variety of digital and analog connections available including HDMI, VGA in, USB, S-Video, Audio in and Composite.

Gaming with Optoma TX7155

The high brightness and contrast ratio figures will be important to gamers as it means more detail in darker scenes.

While a lot of the specification for the TX7155 matches up with what a gamer would be looking for, the native XGA (1024 x 768 pixels) resolution does not. The projector would have to do a lot of scaling computations to fit the 480p, 720p or 1080p video output of a games console to the native resolution. Unfortunately, it’s scaling that is the primary cause of that gamers curse: lag. While the response time of DLP is measured in microseconds (a thousand times quicker than LCD response time measured in milliseconds), it is the processing time taken by scaling that will generate the lag.

If you can match your game console video output resolution to the native resolution of the projector no scaling is required and you don’t have a lag problem. But, if you check the database of output resolutions for various consoles and games at HDTVArcade you will see that you’re not going to get a match.

For the business user the lag would be unnoticeable and while the TX7155 is native XGA (common for a business projector) it is also compatible with VGA, SVGA, XGA, SXGA+, UXGA resolutions, to name a few.

Display Modes

For quick setup Optoma have provided a number of factory presets optimized for various types of image which include;

Presentation: Good color and brightness from PC input.
Bright: Maximum brightness from PC input.
Movie: For home theatre.
sRGB: Standardized accurate color.
User 1 and 2: For user’s own settings

Lamp life in economic mode is 3,000 hours but, reduces to 2,000 hours at the full 2,500 ANSI lumens (standard mode).

Optoma offer an comparatively long Three Year Optoma Express Replacement Service on the projector and one year on lamp which is a lot longer than the very common 90 day warranty.