IRIDIUM STARLITE LM95

CTO (December'02)

An exclusive first review for Iridium’s latest product, a high quality projector.

With a ten year history in the notebook and LCD display markets, Iridium has a reputation for its Starbook notebooks, and now it’s breaking into new territory with an LCD projector. CTO has an exclusive review of the Starlite LM95, so should you stock the LM95 or not?

As we all know, lugging a projector from site is half the battle. The Starlite LM95 wins friends from the off with a weight of 3.95kg, although you have to add in the soft carry case and cables. Think of a sizeable briefcase rather than small suitcase and you’re in the right sort of territory.

Inside the case there is a warranty card and a user’s manual on CD. The warranty is a respectable 2 years collect and return, with a limited warranty of 90days for the bulb itself.

The manual is in PDF form and refers to LE/LM/LX 95 models, so there are presumably more products in the pipeline from Iridium. There is also a quick start guide on old fashioned paper.

Connectivity is comprehensive. Every cable mentioned is supplied in the carry case and is included in the price. The main use for a projector is for use in presentations from a notebook which requires a simple VGA to VGA cable and, of course, you still have the display on your notebook screen. If instead you prefer to use a PC you have to disconnect your monitor to connect the VGA cable. There is a second VGA port on the LM95 that either serves as VGA2 input or as a VGA out depending on the setting of a dipswitch. That allows you to use the LM95 as a pass-through and to connect your monitor to the output. Bingo, you have both projector and monitor in action.

If you choose to have two input devices it is a simple matter to toggle from input 1 to input 2 and back, which makes it easy to set up presentations where a series of presenters follows one after the other.

Connections from a Mac, DVD player of HDTV is also easy with one providing Iridium advises the output device is within 1.5 metres is the LM95 which may be awkward in some situations. We chose to ignore the audio capability of the projector as the single 1 watt speaker has little to offer over any notebook or PC we can think of.

Once you’re set up, warm up time is less than 10 seconds. Native resolution is 1024x768 (XGA) although you can use an extended desktop of 1280x1024 if you fancy. The IR remote control (both USB and PS/2 cables supplied) can be used to set up keystone adjustment in moments. In addition to acting as a wireless mouse the remote has a laser pointer built in. As with so many projectors, static colour registration is a long way out, and in this case green presentation is quite garish and pale.

A major strength of the LM95 is its 2000 lumens brightness. In a dimmed room we had to adjust brightness down to 30 out of a maximum 127 to avoid washing out pale shades of grey.

The Lm95 works well in a light room and also quiet enough to play back DVDs without distraction. We were impressed by the LM95 and feel it has great potential at this price point.