Epson Home Cinema 2150 Review

The Epson Home Cinema 2150 is a great home theater projector for less than $100. It offers a great, 1080p HD picture, and is fairly easy to set up. However, in our testing it wasn't the best performer in its price range.

Performance Comparison

The Espons Home Cinema 2150 fell behind only the top models in our testing. In the sections that follow we go over its performance in all of our tests in detail.

Image quality

The Home Cinema 2150 was one of the best performers in our image quality testing. When we used it in a home theater setting, it produced a crystal clear picture with good color composition and contrast. Skin tones were generally rendered quite accurately, one area where many other models struggled. The 1080p resolution rendered everything from small text to detailed photographs with great clarity.

The only slight weak point in the 2150's cinematic performance is that bright scenes can sometimes look a little bit washed out. In our testing we noticed some loss of detail in bright areas on the screen. This is by no means a dealbreaker and is a relatively minor complaint.

Ease of Use

The Home Cinema 2150 was one of the most user friendly models we tested, sharing the top score of 7 out of 10 in this metric. It offers a lot of adjustability with both vertical and horizontal keystone correction and vertical lens shift. There is alos a 1-1.6x optical zoom. this gives you a lot of room for error if you want to the 2150 on a permanent mount. If you place it on a flat surface, the leg adjustment is quick and easy. Just press the release button, slide the leg the height you want, and then release the release button.

We weren't fans of the 2150's remote. Its buttons are fairly small and grouped close together, making pushing the wrong button by accident a common occurrence. The remote is also not backlit, making things even harder in a dark home theater setting. This isn't a huge deal as, once you have your projector set up, you probably won't use its remote for much besides turning it on and maybe selecting inputs.

Brightness

The 2150 was the brightest of the home theater geared models we tested, producing 1943 lumens in our testing. In a dark, home theater setting the 2150 has more than enough brightness. However, the 2150 still struggled when we used it in a well lit room. During our presentation testing it struggled to overpower ambient light and project a clear, white background. Instead, the backgrounds of graphs had a blueish tint to them. Images projected in a bright room didn't look terrible, but this certainly wouldn't be our first choice as a presentation machine. If you want a good, 1080p projector that can handle presentation take a look at the Epson EX9200.

Fan Noise

Earning an average score of 6 out of 10 in our fan noise testing, the 2150's fan gets loud enough to be noticed, but generally isn't annoying, nor does it ruin a movie watching experience.

When we first turned on the 2150, its fan noise was barely perceptible. As the lamp heated up the fan got louder and noticeable, but still quiet enough that we couldn't hear it while watching action scenes or heavily scored movies. When there was nothing but dialogue we could hear the fan, but we didn't feel like it truly distracted us from the movie.

Value

The Epson Home Cinema 2150 lists for $900. It is an excellent projector, but the some similarly priced models have slightly better image quality and a quieter fan, and lists for $750. If you can find the Home Cinema 2150 on sale for less than $750, it's a worthwhile purchase.

Conclusion

The Epson Home Cinema 2150 is one of the best sub-$1000 home theater projectors you can get.