LCD projectors are very useful at work, home or in school, however until recently their prices were quite high and typical projector could cost no less than thousand dollars or even more. Fortunately, thanks to competition, new production technologies and great prices in Chinese online stores, even high-end devices can now be bought much cheaper. Here’s our unboxing and review of versatile and affordable S320 that won’t cost you a fortune and gets the job done.
S320 LCD Projector – Unboxing
As you would expect from Chinese sellers, the shipment arrived fairly quickly (in about 20 days) and without any obstacles – no customs fees were charged. The order was sent as a medium sized registered parcel and packed in a thick and solid carton to protect against damage that might occur during transit.
Parcel sent from China
Parcel contains a box with HD projector. It’s not manufactured under a particular brand (it is “unbranded”), but as you will see, it does not mean that it has inferior quality
Product packaging
Inside we’ll find everything that is needed to play movies, Power Point presentations or photos. Aside from the projector, there is a 19V / 3A power supply, AV cable, standard remote controller powered by 2 AAA batteries, which are not included and Chinese and English manual. In addition, there is plastic cover on the lens, which protects lens from dust and scratches.
Box contents: projector, cables, manual and remote control
Let’s look at the main features and capabilities.
Main functions
The S320 features a powerful 1800LM LED lamp and can display maximum resolution of 800x600px. While this may not seem much, especially compared to modern TVs or monitors, such resolution is typical for projectors, and as you can see later, the display quality is actually good. The projector uses its own software that supports a variety of video formats and also allows for movies, images, documents and presentations playback directly from a memory card or USB flash drive. Large selection of ports found on the back allows for a variety of input sources. On top of that, there’s a built-in speaker for surround sound audio and a headphone jack. And here are the detailed parameters.
All the slots are available on the back. From left to right: IR LED (used only for remote control communication, doesn’t work as IR port for mobile devices), headphone jack, AV, USB, TF card slot, HDMI, VGA. You can play movies and photos from almost any source!
Specifications
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| Feature | Parameters |
| Resolution | 800 x 600 px |
| Lamp brightness | 1800 lumens |
| Contrast ratio | 1500:1 |
| Interface | AV, Headphone jack 3,5 mm, HDMI, TF card slot, USB, VGA |
| Display modes | 16:9 and 4:3 |
| Lamp power | 36W |
| Speakers | Stereo, Surround Sound |
| Subtitles | Yes |
| Product weight | 1,25 kg |
| Product size | 20.00 x 15.00 x 7.50 cm |
| Package contents | 1 x S320 LCD Projector, 1 x Remote Controller, 1 x Lens Cover, 1 x Audio Cable, 1 x Power Adapter, 1 x English Manual |
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Features
- Powerful lamp with 1800LM brightness
- Support for multiple video sources: AV, USB, HDMI, VGA, TF card
- Built-in speakers and headphone jack
- Custom movie decoding software
- RGB True Color palette of 16.7 million colours
Pros and cons
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- Powerful lamp allows you to display a very large images, up to 200 inches wide
- Built-in software can playback 95% of the most popular video formats
- Surround sound available
- Rich configuration options in the projector settings
- Lamp life is estimated at 50,000 hours
- Handy and light, it fits in a 14 inch laptop bag
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- No Bluetooth or Wi-Fi
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Display capabilities
The S320 has a lot of possibilities for displaying multiple formats and file types. Images and movies can be transferred from one of many sources: PC, phone or cable decoder, external TF card or USB flash drive. You don’t need to configure it the first time you turn it on: just run the projector, connect the source and you’re done. Of course, it is still necessary to set picture focus – this is done by the standard knob at the lens. You can also change vertical angle of the image displayed (which is commonly called “trapezoid”) through another knob, located on the back.
Menu settings are available in English and can be controlled via directional buttons on the top of the case or through remote controller and the menu is superimposed over projected image. What’s important, settings are very extensive and you should take time to get acquainted with possible setup to customize video and sound to your preference.
Image settings menu. You can adjust screen mode (16: 9 or 4: 3 cinema), color temperature, brightness (which is actually lamp power) and noise reduction here. Many settings are available with presets, which are predefined settings for beginners. If you mess up too much with setting and want to revert options to the initial state, you can reset to factory settings.
Movies and pictures quality
Thanks to rich configuration capabilities, powerful and bright 1800LM lamp and excellent GPU processing power, images displayed look vivid and colorful. Colors are bright and properly saturated, and frame refresh is very fluid – obviously this is not the same quality as you would have seen on LCD screen, but it’s quite close! Viewer can further adjust color temperature, brightness and other parameters to suit any needs.
Fast CPU also ensures trouble-free playback of multiple file formats without any image stuttering and lost frames. Manufacturer doesn’t specify what chipset is used for image processing, but it certainly is fast, because even larger-sized movie files and direct Youtube streaming are played smoothly.
Viewing documents or images is also easy. Photos can be displayed as a slideshow and Power Point presentations can be controlled through remote or menu buttons on the cover.
Example of nature documentary streamed directly from Youtube. Colors look nice and contrast is very good, so it’s pleasant to watch movies on S320. Cinema experience in your home!
Audio
S320 has built-in speakers that reproduce stereo and even surround sound. Built-in loudspeaker isn’t very large, so bass and treble are not very strong, but it’s not bad, and you can also tune low or high frequencies by using a simple digital equalizer, available in sound settings. And if you don’t want to use integrated speaker, you can connect the headphones or external speakers as well .
Among the available audio controls there are left / right balance, various sound modes, equalizer and automatic volume adjustment.
Conclusion
The S320 LCD projector is a versatile, great-value, affordable home theater projector that you can use to project home movies or Power Point presentations at work. Large screen size, powerful lamp, multi-screen source and built-in surround speakers makes it a great value for money (currently less than $100). It also looks modern and is not heavy – it weighs about 1.5 kilograms, so it can be carried with you for a meeting or business trip.
