Slightly over budget and over-specified to fit within last month’s budget projector roundup (July 2005, page 72), the Casio XJ-360 is a very compact and very capable projector that may just be worth those extra dollars.
 
While not quite a fit-in-your-hand projector, the XJ-360 is small enough and light enough that even when housed within its carry-case the entire package is around the size of other data projectors without their cases. So what does this diminutive three-and-a- half grand projector offer?
 
Quite a bit, actually. Casio rates this DLP projector at 2200 ANSI lumens with a 1000:1 contrast ratio. While the latter’s not the highest we’ve ever come across, especially with contrast ratios reaching 2000:1 and beyond, the former’s high rating negates a lot of the contrast issues, particularly in an office environment. Under test we were very impressed with the unit’s capabilities. The high brightness lent every test screen that extra bit of clarity, and although we did have to mark it down a little for contrast, we were impressed with the colour ranges and clarity of the other test screens. We did note some pixel timing problems that were lessened with a bit of tweaking of the controls, and although there was some minor but noticeable colour streaking and misregistration with the high-contrast colour tests we didn’t feel it would be a problem in any setting. Plain text and image quality was excellent with a vibrant PC desktop, and the XJ-360 appeared happier with 3D PC graphics than it was when we shunted a DVD through it, although both are more than good enough for some extra-curricular activity.
 
It’s very capable, very tiny, but for our money it’s a little expensive. Knock a few hundred off and you have an absolute winner of a projector.