The NexiGo PJ20 doesn't fit neatly into any of the usual projector categories we test. In most ways—from its low price of $249.99, to its low brightness, rated at 350 ANSI lumens—it competes head-to-head with smaller, lighter mini projectors with similar designs. (The Vankyo Leisure 995W is one recently tested example.) On the other hand, it's small enough to move wherever you like with ease, and its audio is robust enough that you may not need an external sound system—a defining characteristic of brighter, more expensive room-to-room portables. Whatever you choose to call it, however, the PJ20 is focused on home entertainment, offering a big picture for movies and video along with a suitably short lag time for casual gaming.

Saying No to Rainbow Artifacts

As with the Leisure 995W and other Vankyo mini projectors we've seen, the NexiGo PJ20 is built around a single LCD but avoids showing the red/green/blue flashes, better known as rainbow artifacts, that most single-chip projectors are prone to. The artifacts result from rotating through the primary colors in sequence instead of showing them all at once. When you move your eye, or something moves on the screen, each of the primary colors in a small, bright area can fall on a different spot on your retina. Some people don't notice when this happens, but others will see each individual color.

Instead of rotating through red, green, and blue LEDs lighting up in sequence, the PJ20 uses a white LED light source, and pairs it with a 5,760-by-1,080 LCD. Red, green, and blue filters on individual cells in the LCD matrix deliver the red, green, and blue components for each pixel in the 1,920-by-1,080 image to the screen at the same time. With all three primary colors showing at once, there's no way to see the individual components of each pixel if you're far enough away to see the image as a whole. The white LED is designed to last the life of the projector, and is rated at 30,000 hours.

The PJ20 is larger than its most obvious competition, at 4.25 by 12.6 by 9.1 inches (HWD) and weighing in at 5.5 pounds, but setup is essentially the same as for any mini projector. You only have to connect the power cord and a video source, point the lens at the screen, reposition the projector to adjust image size if necessary (there's no zoom), and then focus.

The focus, in this case, is powered, and you adjust it through buttons on the remote, which is more convenient than using a manual focus ring or thumbwheel. However, it's hard to control precisely. I wound up getting a reasonably well-focused image after first overshooting several times, but at the 90-inch-diagonal image size I started with, it wasn't as crisp or as detailed as I expect for the resolution.

When I dropped the size to about 55 inches—which I did primarily to improve image brightness and contrast—the focus looked a lot better, both because smaller images at the same resolution simply look sharper, and because better contrast also increases perceived resolution. (More on brightness and image quality later.)

Connectors on the rear panel include two HDMI 1.4 ports plus two USB Type-A ports, which you can use to read files from a USB memory key or to power a streaming dongle plugged into one of the HDMI ports. The projector also supports wireless connections, including DLNA and Windows Cast, and can mirror Android and iOS phones and tablets.

For audio, the PJ20 supports Dolby and Dolby Plus. Audio quality from the onboard 5-watt mono speaker was easily good enough to be usable at a high-enough volume to fill a midsize family room. If you need stereo, better quality, or higher volume, you can take advantage of the 3.5mm audio-out port or Bluetooth to connect to an external sound system.

Note that one potential issue for the PJ20's design is that specks of dust can get into the projector and land on the LCD. NexiGo addresses this issue with a cleaning kit (you provide the rubbing alcohol) and instructions for cleaning the LCD when needed. I went though the motions and found it reasonably easy to clean, but if you're not comfortable with the thought of messing around with the innards of your projector, you might find the process intimidating.

Testing the NexiGo PJ20: Decent Image Quality and Brightness for the Price

The PJ20's menus include three predefined color modes with no options to adjust any settings, and one User mode that lets you adjust Contrast, Brightness, Color Saturation, and Sharpness. As with too many other inexpensive projectors, having multiple picture modes is almost pointless. Opening the menus covers the entire screen, and the modes are similar enough that by the time you get to the right submenu, change the mode, and close the menu, it's impossible to tell what, if anything, has changed. For my viewing tests, I decided to trust NexiGo's default choice, and used Standard mode.

To NexiGo's credit, its website FAQ points out that the projector is meant to be used in dim or dark lighting. Because the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) recommendations indicate that 350 ANSI lumens is bright enough for a 90-inch, 16:9 image using a 1.0 gain screen in a dark room, I started my viewing tests at that size. I found the image watchable, but contrast was poor, some colors looked faded, and some scenes looked overexposed. After a little experimentation, I settled on a 55-inch-diagonal image for best image quality, which would make the brightness in my test, using default settings, closer to what I expect from about 200 ANSI lumens.

At the smaller size, I still saw a slight tendency for some bright scenes with light colors to look a touch overexposed. But most colors were nicely saturated, contrast was much improved, bright scenes looked much more three-dimensional, and as already mentioned, the smaller size and higher contrast also delivered a crisper image. Hues at both sizes were off target, but no more so than typical for projectors in this class. And very much on the plus side, I didn't see any obvious color bias. However, the PJ20 did not handle shadow detail well. Even when using the smaller screen size, I couldn't make out what was happening in the dark scenes in our test suite.

The input lag I measured goes on the plus side of the register. I measured it, using a Bodnar meter, at 27.6 milliseconds for 1080p/60Hz input, which is short enough for all but the most serious gamers.

Verdict: A Reasonable Low-Cost Choice

If you're considering the NexiGo PJ20, be sure to check out some of its competition as well, to get a better context for judging it if nothing else. Among inexpensive models with 1,920 by 1,080 native resolution, the Vankyo Leisure 495W, Leisure 470 Pro, and Leisure E30, as well as the AAXA P400, all have the advantage over the PJ20 of a smaller size and lighter weight. The P400 has the additional advantage of a short throw, so for any given image size, you can set it up closer to whatever you're using for a screen—a useful extra in tight spaces. However, it's also the only one in the group that can show rainbow artifacts.

The Leisure 495W offers the best audio and the second-brightest image of any of the models mentioned here, but it has only one HDMI port. The Leisure 470 adds a second port and is the least expensive in the group, but it has the lowest brightness, as well. The Leisure E30 was the brightest in our tests.

Compared with all of these, the PJ20 is roughly tied for second-brightest, and it was a close second for its onboard audio as well. It also offers a second HDMI port (as does the Leisure 470), and most people will find its image quality more than acceptable. The combination makes it a solid choice for an inexpensive home entertainment projector and a more-than-reasonable value for the price.