Epson EF-22N

Introduction

In the past few years, the projector market has opened up. Where traditional players, BenQ, Epson, once had the playground to themselves, now new challengers have arisen, many from China.

Their appearance has coincided with a proliferation of new form factors, of increasing variety, and in falling prices – all the benefits of competition. And far from resting on their laurels, the old guard have stepped up their game.

The EF-22N, with a room code of a name, is Epson’s newest option looking to meet the challenge. With a swivel base, a clever design and a compact size, it has good looks and is eminently practical. But with a host of keenly priced competitors nipping at its heels, does it do enough to earn a place in your living room?

Availability

The Epson EF-22N is available now in the UK and USA for prices starting at £999 / $999.99

Design

• Full 360 degree swivel base
• All plastic construction

Long gone are the days when a projector was a bulky, whirring machine that needed to be rooted to one perfect spot Today we have options which are just as comfortable in a tent as they are in the house, though the EF-22N doesn’t quite manage that. Instead this is a machine to sit on the coffee table, or to be moved around the house as required. It’s small, compact and light, fitting in well anywhere.

The review unit I was sent had a discreet black colourway that fit into my home setup easily, while there’s also a trendy blue unit available.

Flexibility is the name of the game with the EF-22N. It can swivel 360 degrees, and also tilt up to 180 degrees. You can project on the ceiling, on the wall, anywhere that suits. It’s a degree of convenience almost unheard of until recently in the projector space, but which puts all of the comparatively static competition to shame. It is the fundamental opposite of a fixed-place projector.

The unit itself is constructed from sturdy plastic, and the hinge offers a pleasing degree of resistance. It can easily be pointed at the ceiling for bedtime viewing sessions thanks to the frame it is mounted on, which is constructed completely from metal.

It feels every inch worth the price of asking, which is often difficult when producing something more lightweight than the competition. This doesn’t feel like a knock-off in any regard.

There’s some thoughtful little touches too, such as the charging port being located in the swivelling base of the unit, rather than at the back of the projector is a pleasant addition.

Beyond that, there’s a single USB-A 2.0 slot, a USB 2.0 Mini-B slot, an HDMI ARC connector and an HDMI slot which supports HDCP 2.3.

Taken overall, it’s a nicely designed, modern, compact smart projector which should have no issue fitting into nearly every living room set up. It’s muted, classy and sells itself well.

Features

• Automatic keystoning
• Built-in 5W speaker

To a large degree, the main feature of the EF-22N is its price, for under £1000 / $1000 you get a small, bright, flexible smart projector from a well-known and respected brand, which is theoretically a million miles from a no-name Amazon alphabet soup offering.

That isn’t to say that it doesn’t have some bells and whistles however. To start, rather than running some kind of custom operating system, it comes with Google TV in-built. That means you have access to a suite of apps from the get-go, this being an operating system build for smart TVs and it has been around for a few years. That means it is fleshed out and mature, and definitely a value add.

Epson has added a few software touches of its own, one of the main examples of which is automatic keystoning and focus whenever the projector is readjusted. Many options from the likes of Dangbei need this process to be manually activated, which requires burying into the settings. As such, it’s a definite timesaver.

Perhaps most significantly of all, this is a laser projector. That means superior brightness when compared to bulb based options, and moreover it grants a long lifespan to the projector. The light source is marketed as lasting for 10 years – not something possible to verify during a standard review period but a significant promise nonetheless.

Lastly, there’s a built-in 5W Bluetooth speaker built into the EF-22N, which does a reasonably convincing job of making movies sound good. As might be expected from something relatively small, it doesn’t challenge even a very budget soundbar, however it’s a pleasant inclusion nonetheless and improves the potential use cases and portability of the projector. The speaker can be used as a standalone unit also, if you wish to use Bluetooth audio.

One important point to note is that, unlike some flexible smart projectors, this is supposed to be used in the living room, it isn’t intended to help with an impromptu back garden movie session. Whereas others from the likes of Anker come with built-in batteries for ultimate flexibility, there’s no such option here.

Performance

• 1000 ISO lumens of brightness
• Features ‘3LCD’ technology

No matter how nice the software, or how nicely designed the device is, any projector is only worth its picture quality – and with the EF-22N, Epson has made some big promises.

Firstly, it boasts 1000 ISO lumens of brightness, a real step up from the lower-end competition, and the difference is noticeable. Though it won’t look its best in broad daylight, that it is visible at all is something of a coup. In most other situations, you’ll have a vibrant image that makes content pop.

That’s at least in part due to the second included feature, Epson’s 3LCD technology, which with no technical explanation, is claimed to produce up to three times brighter colours than “comparable 1-chip DLP projectors”. The veracity of this aside, the objective truth is that, on the EF-22N, colours look great. There’s a lot of vibrancy without going into over-saturation, and there’s plenty of dynamic range.

With a 5,000,000:1 contrast ratio, even in very dark scenes there’s plenty of detail visible, with no muddiness which can plague offerings at the budget end. At 1080p, though there’s enough resolution for most content, I found that it worked best at 80-inches, any larger and the relatively low resolution became easier to see.

Should you buy it?