Bright enough to throw a suitably sized image for a large conference room or classroom, the Epson PowerLite 1975W WXGA Wireless 3LCD Multimedia Projector ($1,999) offers other strengths to go along with its 5,000-lumen rating. High on the list is its excellent image quality for data, video quality in the same league as 720p home-entertainment projectors, and Miracast and WiDi support for easy connection to phones, tablets, and PCs that support either of those standards. All that, and more, makes it a shoo-in as our Editors' Choice WXGA projector for a midsize to large conference room.

The 1975W ($1,600.68 at Amazon) is a little brighter than the 4,000-lumen NEC NP-P401W ($1,049.27 at Amazon) , a previous top pick, making it a little better suited for larger rooms. It lacks the NEC projector's vertical lens shift, which lets you adjust image height without tilting the projector and then having to deal with keystone distortion. But for most applications, the convenience of Miracast—for easily connecting with a mobile device to show whatever is on the device's screen—is far more useful.

Both models are built around three-chip LCD engines. The three-chip design means that they can't show the rainbow artifacts (flashes of red, green, and blue) that are a potential problem with single-chip DLP models. It also ensures that color brightness for each projector is a match for its white brightness, so you don't have to worry about a difference between the two affecting image brightness or color quality. (For more on color brightness, see Color Brightness: What It Is, Why It Matters.)

A potential disadvantage is that the 1975W, like most LCD data projectors, doesn't offer any 3D support. This won't be an issue for most business or classroom use. However, if you're one of the exceptions who needs 3D, you'll need to pass on the 1975W—and the NEC model as well—and look for a DLP projector, like the Optoma W401 .

Setup and Brightness

Weighing 10 pounds 3 ounces and measuring 4.9 by 14.8 by 11.4 inches (HWD), the 1975W is intended primarily for permanent installation or room-to-room portability on a cart. Setup is mostly standard, with manual focus and a 1.6x manual zoom, which gives you substantial flexibility in how far you can put the projector from the screen to get the image size you want.

Based on the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) recommendations, in theater-dark lighting and using a 1.0-gain screen, a 5,000-lumen image is bright enough for roughly a 270- to 365-inch image (measured diagonally) at the 1975W's default aspect ratio. With moderate ambient light, it's bright enough for a 178- to 200-inch screen. For smaller screen sizes, you can lower the projector brightness by using its Eco mode, one of its lower-brightness predefined modes, or both.

The 1975W comes with a Wi-Fi dongle in USB-key format. The one unusual touch for setup is that you have to insert the dongle into a USB Type A connector hidden behind a side panel. Most projectors that have have Wi-Fi inside the case don't make you plug in a USB dongle.

The Wi-Fi dongle lets you connect the projector to a network through an access point, which lets you use the downloadable Epson iProjection app to connect to the projector through the access point from an iOS or Android device. For iOS devices, as well as Android devices that don't support Miracast, it also lets you use the app to connect directly to the projector. However, you can't have both options active at the same time.

The back panel offers a typical assortment of connectors. Image inputs include two HDMI ports, with one that supports MHL, a composite video port, and two VGA ports. Other choices include a USB Type B port for direct USB display and for controlling the computer mouse from the projector's remote, a LAN port both for sending images and audio and for controlling the projector over a network, and the aforementioned USB Type A port to let you read files directly from a USB memory key, connect a document camera, or update the projector's firmware.

Image Quality and Audio

The 1975W's image quality for data is excellent by any measure, with the projector showing no issues worth mention on any of the images in our standard suite of DisplayMate tests. In my tests, it scored well on color balance, with suitably neutral grays at all levels from black to white in all but the brightest predefined mode, and it delivered eye-catching, vibrant color in all modes. It also holds detail well, with white text on black crisp and highly readable at sizes as small as 6.8 points, and black text on white highly readable at 7.5 points.

See How We Test Projectors

Video quality is limited by the native resolution, so the projector has to scale 1080p video input to 720p. However, image quality is in the same league as 720p home entertainment projectors, which makes it extraordinarily high quality for a data projector and easily usable for long sessions.

One last plus is the audio system, with the 16-watt mono speaker delivering good sound quality and enough volume to easily fill a midsize room. For higher volume or stereo, you can plug an external sound system into the audio-out port.

If you need 3D capability, you should take a look at a DLP projector like the Optoma W401. If you don't need 3D, you might consider the NEC NP-P401W, which is a little less expensive than the Epson PowerLite 1975W WXGA Wireless 3LCD Multimedia Projector and only a little less bright. If you need the 1975W's extra brightness, however, and particularly if you can make good use of Miracast for easy wireless connections to devices that support it, the 1975W is well worth the additional cost, and an easy pick as our Editors' Choice WXGA projector for a midsize to large room.

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Further Reading

• How We Test Projectors
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• Hands On With Sony's Xperia Projector Prototype
• Hands On With ZTE's SPro2 Smart Projector