By Tony Hoffman

The Boxlight Eco X26 is a modestly priced data projector geared to classroom use. It showed solid data image quality in our testing, and video quality suitable for typical classroom needs. One notable omission is an HDMI port, which has become all but standard on data projectors of all resolutions.

The X26 is an LCD projector with native XGA (1,024 by 768) resolution, and a rated brightness of 2,600 lumens. It measures 3.4 by 12.9 by 9.5 inches, and weighs 6.4 pounds, so it's reasonably portable, though it lacks a carrying case. It's probably most suitable for moving between classrooms or around the office. At the front of the lens are focus and zoom rings; the focus ring is narrow and a little unwieldy, but you should be able to bring the image to a sharp focus in time.

Connectivity The X26 has a modest selection of ports; 2 VGA (one of which can serve as monitor-out); S-video; jacks for composite and component video; audio-in, audio-out; and stereo audio-out jacks that Boxlight indicates are compatible with its SoundLite powered external speaker system ($249 list). Notably absent is an HDMI port. It also lacks a USB type

Data Image Quality The projector filled our test screen with an image ~54 inches on a diagonal when about 8 feet away from the projector. The image stood up well to ambient light.

In my testing using the DisplayMate suite, data image quality proved suitable for typical classroom presentations. Colors were bright; there was some modest tinting. I noticed some modest yellow tinting in some white gray backgrounds, while dark grays, green in darker grays). The User color mode lets you tweak the red, green, and blue levels, but as is often the case, changing them to reduce the tinting threw other things out of whack.

Text quality was typical of an XGA projector, with black-on-white type a bit blurred at the smallest size and white-on-black text blurred at the two smallest sizes.

Video Video quality is suitable for showing shorter clips as part of a presentation. Colors seemed on the pale side at times. I noticed posterizationthe tendency for abrupt shifts in color where they should be gradualin some scenes. As an LCD projector, the X26 is free of the rainbow artifacts we often see in DLP-based models, but also is not 3D-capable.

Audio from the two 3-watt speakers is suitable for a small room.

Among its convenience features are immediate auto-on, in which it will automatically turn on when it detects an input source; instant-off with no cool-down period; a built-in presentation timer; and easy-access top-changing lamp and side-changing filter.

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Boxlight Eco X26