ViewSonic PA503S 4000 Lumens SVGA High Brightness Projector for Home and Office with HDMI Vertical Keystone

If you’ve ever bought one of those cheap temp-brand projectors here, you’ll know that they do not last and they’re not very bright. This projector, on the other hand, is high quality. It’s a known brand, and it shows with this projector. The brightness is top-tier. The image quality is great. I spent too much time researching, and if you’re reading this and wondering why you might spend more money, it’s for the quality, quiet fan (especially on Eco mode), and a nice remote that works well. Get this one if you want a projector that is bright and will last.

Used at a hotel for a PowerPoint presentation. The price of this was less than the cost of the rental. Worked well and highly recommend. Set up was easy and it was easy to get a clear level image on the screen.

I use the projector for exclusively outdoor movie nights. My previous set up (an ageing NEC projector) has been the source of many happy family memories. With COVID limiting social gatherings, I wanted to create a better experience ... and hopefully one that was easier to set up. Achieving this turned out to be an interesting journey so thought I would share in case it helps anyone. The short version – the View Sonic PA 503S was the winner, but whether this makes sense for you does depend on what you need from a projector. Read on for the details... Initially I went back and forth on whether it was worth upgrading at all. My existing set up was a 10 yr old NEC projector, a bed sheet, and UE Boom speaker. It had the huge advantage of being available & free! However, there were some things I was looking for in an upgrade. Highest on my list was the ability to use a cell phone as an input source (the NEC projector could only use an input from a portable DVD player), plus it needed to be almost fully dark before I started the movie. In addition, it was fiddly to set up and the sound was not great. The screen was the first issue to solve. After significant research, I went with a Yard Master 135” screen. It was expensive, but it works great and I am very happy with it. I can relocate movie watching from where I used to hang the bedsheet to the more convenient location of my back patio – much more comfortable. I addressed the audio by using a Vizio sound bar I had lying around, which gave a huge leap in performance. Now for the projector... and here is where it gets interesting. I attempted to research projectors, but there were only a few sites I could find that did a decent comparison test. In fact, many sites comparing projectors seemed to simply re-cycle the marketing blurb from each product. One can spend $100 or $1000 on a projector, and its not easy to figure out whether spending more gets you a better experience. So I bought 3 projectors and ran a back to back test. The units I tested were the ViewSonic PA503S ($300), the Vankyo Leisure 3 ($127) and the QKK Mini Projector (2020 version, claiming 4200 Lux, cost $100). I also found a cable which promised to turn HDMI signal into an S-Video input, which I could then plug into the NEC projector. Findings below. 4th place. NEC projector plus cable. Failed to get out of the starting blocks. The cable did not do as promised, and ended up mangling the Netflix formatting. 3rd place. Vankyo Leisure 3. Did a great job with video display. It was a little brighter (but not by much) vs the NEC. The focus ring and keystone adjustment feel like the weak spot for this unit.. and likely all similarly priced mini projectors. On this particular unit, the keystone adjustment was so loose it shifted when you adjusted the focus. And the focus had to be cranked right to end extreme in order to get a sharp image ... to be honest it wasn’t really in focus even then. My guess is that this was just the unit I had... but it did not inspire confidence As with many reviewers, I could not get Netflix to produce sound thru the projector, but that was not a show stopper as I am using a sound bar with ARC-HDMI input as my audio. 2nd place. QKK. Like the Vankyo, it did a great job of video, and had the same audio issues. Video was sharp, and a little brighter vs the NEC. It was relatively short throw... I filled the 135” screen at a projection distance of around 12 feet, which worked well for my set up. A word on quality control. Like the Vankyo, focus / keystone adjustment is a weak spot. It’s a very plasticky and crude mechanism. Incredibly I had to buy 3 of these units before I got one that worked. The first one was a lemon – it never focused properly. You could get focus in the center of the screen but not the edges, which really killed us when we had a movie with sub titles. The 2nd unit was lost in delivery. Amazon refunded it. The 3rd one I reviewed here. Its focus ring / keystone adjustment mechanism worked well, and it was easy to get good focus. 1st place. View Sonic PA503S. The View Sonic is at a completely different level of quality, plus it offers one huge advantage – it is literally twice as bright as the QKK & Vankyo. Firstly the image – its clear, and the focus is easy to adjust to perfection. No softness at the edge of the screen, it was ‘movie theater’ quality. One slight difference vs the QKK... the throw is a little longer. I needed 19 feet projection distance to fill the screen, thankfully not a problem for my set up. Secondly audio – Netflix works on this unit. Again, I had a work around so this wasn’t essential, but in case that matters for your set up. Most importantly of all, the brightness. The View Sonic claims 3600 lumens. It was (by eyeball estimation) twice as bright as the others. This means I can start watching a movie just as the sun goes down, fully 1 hour before the QKK / Vankyo were viable options. This turns out to be a huge deal. The QKK and Vankyo both needed it to be fully dark to watch the movie. Around here that means starting to watch a movie at 9:20pm in the summer... and therefore finishing well after 11pm. With the View Sonic I can start watching at 8:15pm. For comparison the QKK claims 4200 lux, and after some digging I found a claim of 2200 lumens. So for me, a combination of brightness plus a generally much improved build quality convinced me to keep the $300 View Sonic and return the others.

My dad needed something in his office to be able to project from a laptop with clients. I almost went with a cheap projector but then after a little research I realized I would need a more expensive one so he could project with the lights on. I found this, and from photos and reviews it looked perfect. Especially the part that says, "Packed with 3,600 lumens and a high contrast ratio, this projector produces bright images in nearly any environment." However .... it just doesn't really work how we need it to. When the lights are on you can see the picture, but it is too faint. With the lights off this projector is beautiful. Sadly, that's not what it is needed for. Even worse, I went through the trouble of ordering a tripod projector screen, projector stand, laser pointer, etc. And now they all have to be returned. I think he will be better off just connecting his laptop to a TV through HDMI so that it will be clear, bright, and not faint with the lights on. If my apartment wasn't so small I would love to have this to project movies on the wall! Also super cool is from other reviewer's photos where they project movies outside. So all in all, this is an amazing projector. Except that it cannot show clearly with the lights on. From the description I thought that would be possible. Since it can't do what I need it to do for my dad I have to return :(

Really a very good product with ultimate clarity in this budget

Es muy brillante, su resolucion apesar dque es 800*600 no se notan los pixeles ya que hace un escalado, muy recomendado, lo uso en casa con luz y se ve perfecto, no duden en que es buena opcion a un buen precio.

جميل

This Is a great and very bright projector. I had this for 4 years and it served me well. I wasn’t too careful with storage: left it in car outside under freezing conditions and it just wouldn’t break! Today was finally the day: i got the red flashing light probably indicating that the lenses or bulb is out. I might look into replacing it and keep using the projector. Or might get a more modern one. This one was good quality but the only negative is that screen was not big. Otherwise good!

Eso sí es un proyector con buena calidad de imagen. Después de mucho indagar creo que he dado con lo que todo el que compra un proyector quiere, buena calidad de imagen. Incluso con luz encendida se ve muy muy bien. La calidad de sonido es deficiente por lo que hay que poner unos altavoces o barra de sonido , por lo demás en relación calidad precio de lo mejorcito además de la seguridad que da comprar una marca reconocida.