Epson’s new EF-51 home projector looks a lot like a boxy bedside lamp, and it’s even able to bounce ambient, multi-coloured mood lighting around the room to create a sense of ambience when not in use. It’s also powered by a triple-core laser engine that’s said to “redefine” 4K image quality”.
It’s designed as a hybrid product, with its mood lighting capabilities able to be controlled via a mobile app, allowing users to cycle through different colours, adjust the brightness level and modes to get the atmosphere just right.
As far as its capabilities in terms of being an actual projector, it features Epson’s powerful 3LCD technology in combination with a triple-LED light source, which means that the red, green and blue colours all get their own LED block. The colours are merged by the onboard processor into a single beam that creates the optics, resulting in 4K UHD visuals of anywhere between 30 and 150-inches.
Epson said the EF-51 features a light energy recycling system that helps to ensure brightness is more uniform across the entire image while simultaneously reducing background noise. On the other hand, the EF-51 is only rated at 700 lumens, which would seem to limit the need for such an innovation. It also means a less-than-spectacular daytime viewing experience, with far better performance at night.
On the other hand, when you’re watching at night, the image quality should be very good indeed, with the EF-51 also featuring 10-bit colour depth and an impressive 5,000,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio that promises to enhance shadowy details and increase clarity in brighter areas. HDR support is also onboard.
Other features include autofocus automatic keystone correction and four-corner adjustment to ensure a relatively simple setup. The device comes mounted on a gimbal stand that can rotate up to 180-degrees horizontally and 105-degrees vertically, providing lots of flexibility in terms of where you want to project the picture.
The sound is delivered via a pair of 6-watt Dolby Atmos speakers, and the device can also double as a Bluetooth speaker when not being used to watch movies.
Epson said the EF-51 runs the Android TV 13 operating system, with Tencent Video and Aurora TV also onboard to serve up entertainment over Wi-Fi. Voice capabilities are available, together with a remote control, and wireless screen mirroring provides more content options. There’s also an HDMI port with auto-low latency mode for a superior gaming experience.
For now, the Epson EF-51 is only available in China where it’s priced at 5,299 RMB (around £545), but we’re confident it’ll go on sale in other regions soon, as the other models in the EF series have launched internationally.
