Although the Sony VPL-CX20A, at 4.2 pounds, isn't the lightest projector we've reviewed, it's light enough to carry around. It's also strong on convenience features, and the three-panel, XGA-resolution (1,024-by-768) LCD engine delivers a reasonably bright, high-quality image.

This is one of the best-looking projectors we've seen, with a sleek, consumer-electronics style case—but the design is a little too concerned with looking good, and usability suffers. With the controls hidden on the side, you can't read the labels easily, and hitting the wrong button is too easy.

Fortunately, though, you can do everything through the remote, which along with the menus, is well designed and easy to use. One of the remote's nicer touches is the control it gives of zoom, autofocus, and even tilt, to raise and lower the image. There is no remote mouse control, however.

The unit's two connectors are also on the side. One is for HD-15 VGA, which can transfer an analog computer signal or component video. The other is proprietary and accepts a supplied cable that ends with its own inputs for S-Video, composite video, and audio. Sony also supplies a VGA cable, but no others.

The company claims brightness ratings of 1,500 lumens for standard mode and 2,000 for bright mode. We measured standard at 1,177, which is enough to make a reasonable-size image viewable in normal lighting conditions. In bright mode, we measured 1,583 lumens, which can stand up to brighter-than-usual lighting. Contrast ratio in both modes was 91:1, a relatively low score.

Our DisplayMate (www.displaymate.com) tests turned up one image-quality issue worth mentioning: The darkest shades tended to blend into each other, which blurs detail in dark areas of an image. The problem showed up on our video tests as well, although you can minimize it with a feature intended for video that dynamically remaps image shades to show detail better. Otherwise, image quality was good. Audio, however, was barely loud enough for a small office.

If you need a portable projector, though, these minor issues are outweighed by the Sony VPL-CX20A's convenience features like autofocus and remote tilt that make set up easy, and its light weight.