Epson EpiqVision Flex CO-W01 Portable Projector 3-Chip 3LCD, Widescreen, 3000 Lumens Color/White Brightness, 5 W Speaker, 300-Inch Home Entertainment and Work, Streaming Ready

James LCanada

Epson quality projection at a reasonable price with the CO-W01

Having been forced to toss out a few lower-priced, but vastly inferior single-chip LCD projectors (with burn marks on the polarizer), I am so very impressed with this capable Epson-quality, ultra bright, long-lasting and flexible projector, I managed to grab a 28% off deal. I have stretched and stapled a screen over a 108”x60” frame built with 2”x2” wood, resulting in a wrinkle-free 124” (10 foot) screen measured on the diagonal. With the ceiling installation of this Epson projector I have the equivalent of a 10-foot HD TV for roughly $550 all-in. Sure, it is at the low end of Epsons’ offerings, but it creates a supersized, immersive big screen experience for streaming movies at home as well as for delivering sharp presentations in smaller office settings. The CO-W01 delivers an amazingly bright, sharp, crisp and clear image perception in vibrant, vivid colours, even with ambient light. It can achieve all this with up-to an impressive 300 inch display. The stated colour brightness of 3000 IDMS 15.4 lumens (equals roughly 3750 ANSI lumens ! ) has been notably verified by independent test results reported in reviews posted on-line. [According to the ISO 21118 standard, a single ANSI Lumen should equal 0.8 ISO Lumens]. An ideal lumen range for multi-purpose spaces is 2000 to 4000 ANSI lumens. For rooms with low ambient light you can select the ‘ECO’ Light Output setting (using a dedicated button on the remote) which slightly reduces brightness, providing a better contrast ratio for darker black-level performance, extends bulb-life, and also reduces power consumption and fan noise (from 38 dB to 29 dB, very noticeably quieter). A personalized selection from various Picture Modes can enhance the experience. In bright rooms, and for larger screen sizes, the ‘High’ Light Output setting bumps brightness up to the maximum when you need need a higher brightness to deliver quality images that are significantly less washed-out by excessive ambient light. To protect the bulb, the projector slowly warms up for 30 seconds or so before reaching maximum brightness. Lamp-hours-used under each Light Output mode can be displayed in the Info Menu. The advanced 3-chip 3LCD technology (one chip for each primary color: red, green and blue) displays 100% of the RGB colour signal for every frame. This provides outstanding and realistic colour accuracy, up to 16.77 billion colours, and better performance by providing colour with up to three-times the illuminance over a single-chip LCD projector at equal lumens level. The projected image is crisp and bright, even at the corners. Of course, a menu ‘Projection’ option can flip the picture for ceiling mounting. A manual keystone correction can properly adjust otherwise skewed or crooked image proportions, when projected at an angle, (as much as 30 degrees for this projector). I was pleasantly surprised that the ceiling-mounted projector reacts to commands from the remote even from directly beneath it. There is a manual focus lever and menu-selected digital zoom (optical zoom not available). Menu options permit adjustments to aspect ratio and colour mode. Picture Shift is a handy feature to help centre the image on a screen. While the resolution of the projector may seem odd, and to lean into the Epson forte for office presentations from computers, rest assured it is indeed high-definition (HDTV) quality and Epsons’ SizeWise chip ensures support for other display resolutions (up to and including Full HD 1080p (1020 x 1080) video via HDMI). The aspect ratio is 16:10, with a native WXGA resolution of 1200 x 800 Pixels or 1,024,000 dots (roughly the 720p (1280 x 720) being broadcast by many TV stations). It is not 4K compatible. The CO-W01 had a long lamp life of up to 6,000 hours ( 12,000 hours in ECO mode, equivalent to nearly 7 years of viewing at 5 hours per day). It is a great value for the money, especially when compared to the relatively short life of lower quality single-chip LCD projectors often reported (in 1-star reviews) as susceptible to projecting anomalous images, resulting from burn marks on the polarizer (progressing from yellow/orange, through brown, to black) after a just few months of use. Directly connect an HDMI cable from, a laptop, cable/satellite box, DVD player, gaming console, or your preferred streaming device. I have an ‘HDMI switch’ that easily enables alternating between Fire Stick or satellite receiver. Unfortunately, the 5 watt built-in speaker is not very impressive. Strangely, there is no 3.5mm jack for sound output, but this deficiency can easily be overcome by inserting an inexpensive ‘HDMI Audio Extractor’ in the HDMI cable linkage to provide the ‘3.5mm jack’ needed to run a separate cable from the Audio Out port of the Extractor to a sound system input. The USB Type-A port permits connection of USB thumb drives, or the USB power cable from a Fire Stick (providing sufficient 5v, 2A). Sadly, the projectors’ USB file support is very-limited to; .jpg , .bmp , .gif , .png , and .avi (720p and < 2 gb).

PurpleFoxUnited States

Solid option, i'm very particular and this satisfied me enough.

the remote control is great, the lighting is great, although when it projects black it can sort of seem like its blending into the background of what its projected on unless maybe if you have the white screen. there are two main brightnesses, the highest one makes a audible noise (not horrible), for more brightness, though not a significant amount, and using less brightness prolongs the life, and the regular light mode is very quiet for decent brightness, even with my lights on I can see the screen great, the biggest issue is when the lights are off and I'm watching something, it kind of illuminates the room just a bit, and when i adjust the brightness % it mostly just makes the colors darker, while still projecting the same amount of light so the actual brightness doesn't change as much as i would like, but the colors start meshing slightly. there is a adjusting knob on it to increase sharpness depending on how close the projector is to the screen, don't forget to use that so it doesn't get blurry. Even adjusting that I think the resolution could be better, although its definitely not bad, it could be better, but it is good enough. the keystone works great (that's where you can adjust the screen shape if the projector is projecting at an angle) I connected it perfectly fine to my laptop with an HDMI, and that's what i use it for mostly. the colors hold up nicely even in bright light, and there are different color modes to choose from. the speaker granted isn't totally amazing but i connect it to my Bluetooth speaker anyway just because its a good speaker, but sometimes i don't even connect it out of laziness because the sound isn't completely horrible, see video to judge for yourself. its got great content in the settings (i scroll through them on video) all in all i would rate 4.5 stars but because i don't want to give them 4 stars i just went with 5, it is kind of a ridiculous price for something that's not 100% amazing and satisfactory, but it is a projector, not a TV and its very nice that its portable. this is a completely unbiased review, i am just a regular customer, I'm posting this slightly detailed review because there are not a ton of reliable reviews on projectors on amazon so i wanted to help some other people out in knowing what they are buying, i bought this with the mind if i wasn't satisfied i would just return it, but its absolutely satisfying enough, maybe a bit pricey but worth it anyway. this i want to say is your safest bet for the price, its a reputable brand for projectors, i did a lot of research before settling on this, and am happy with it. although its the only projector I've ever owned so i don't really have a frame of reference, also I'm using it in a moderately small room with a moderately sized screen projected. the video shows different brightnesses in different lightings with different projected colors, & a scroll through the setting screen. i hope this helps.

ravicvUnited States

Go for it if you’re on budget- it’s good!

I tried couple of foreign budget brands after watching so many YouTube reviews but none of them impressed me. There is a reason why Epson,Benq .. etc are top brands. I liked the epson- co-w01 instantly. My observation: Anker solar 1080p projector: worst image quality I have ever seen. Videos are completely washed out- no colors, pale skin tones, no contrast, dull light. 300$ Happrun: it’s no. 1 selling on Amazon but I didn’t like it at all. Edges are blurry, colors & contrast not good, not enough brightness. <90$ Nexigo-pj40: edges are slightly blurry, colors over saturated, too much contrast that you can’t watch hdr movies as anything in the shadow or black is completely black. I don’t see faces of people in dark scenes. Not at all watchable. YouTubers gave rave reviews:( <250$ ***Epson: co-w01: 300$ Pros: bright image even in eco mode Super colors Good contrast ( some reviews complained about contrast but compared to other products in this range it’s good) Very low fan noise Reliable brand Cons: you see some gray bars in top and bottom as this has slightly different aspect ratio but I’m ok with it Bulb life is less and not replaceable. But 12k hours life in eco is good for me. Just 1 hdmi and 1 usb port. No aux port. I’m using fire tv stick with hdmi input and usb port to power the stick. Connected BT speaker to fire tv. All set to enjoy 100+ inches screen.

KelseyUnited States

I love it!

Very bright! I have no issue with seeing the picture with ambient light/lamps on. I've traded out my tv for a projector. It's even bright enough that I can use it during the day with blinds open. It can be a little faded during bright afternoon sun but not unwatchable. The fan can be loud but if you hit brightness on remote, it'll turn it to eco mode and it almost completely eliminates the noise with minimal picture change. Definitely recommend connect to a speaker, built in speaker is not great