Acer K138ST - Review 2022

The Acer K138ST ($899) is a highly portable projector for business concern or coincidental employ, with a relatively short throw for an LED-based model. The addition of an MHL-enabled HDMI port lets it projection content from a smartphone. Video quality isn't great, all the same, both due to posterization and a considerable rainbow effect. The InFocus LightPro IN1146 , our Editors' Selection LED projector, shows ameliorate video and has more connection choices.

Design and Features
The K138ST is a handsome projector, white with a apartment acme, curved sides, and rounded corners. Information technology measures two.3 by nine.four by 5.8 inches (HWD), making it a little larger than palmtop size and smaller than the InFocus LightPro IN1146. Information technology'southward lightweight at 1.7 pounds, and information technology comes with a soft carrying case.

This DLP-based projector has native WXGA (1,280-past-800) resolution, a rated brightness of 800 ANSI lumens, and a 100,000:one rated contrast ratio. Its LED light source is rated at xx,000 hours in Normal manner and 30,000 hours in Economy mode, then the seedling should easily last the lifetime of the projector. Its throw ratio of 0.viii:one is at the upper limit of what we would consider a short-throw projector. This lets you place the projector a bit closer to the screen for a given image side than a standard-throw model.

On top of the K138ST is a four-way controller with center button that you can use to access the menu organization, as you tin can also do with the projector's minor remote. Behind the lens is a focus ring. As is the case with most short-throw—and most mini—projectors, it lacks an optical zoom.

I interesting feature is LumiSense, an ambient-calorie-free sensor that can suit the projector'south brightness and colour saturation based on local lighting conditions. It can be turned on or off from the projector'south menu.

You can project 3D content with the K138ST, simply you'll demand DLP-link active-shutter 3D spectacles for each member of your audience. It's not a great choice for 3D projection, withal, every bit rainbow artifacts are visible in some 3D, equally well as 2D, images.

Connectivity
The K138ST has a basic set of inputs, including a VGA port, and an HDMI port, which also supports MHL and lets yous project content from your smartphone or tablet. In that location are also audio-in and audio-out jacks, and a port for a Kensington lock, a good protective measure out for such a portable projector. Its USB Blazon A port is strictly for charging an external device like a phone, as was the example with the Acer C205 . In comparison, the InFocus IN1146 adds an SD card slot, and its USB Type A port supports either a USB pollex drive or an optional Wi-Fi dongle.

Data Testing
The projector filled our test screen with an 65-inch image (measured diagonally) when placed a little more than than 5 feet away from the projector. In information-image testing using the DisplayMate suite, data-prototype quality was average for an LED-based DLP projector. Colors were well saturated, only I did detect some purple fringing in a few images.

In some information images, I saw scaling artifacts, which generally announced when there's a mismatch between the image source's resolution and a projector'southward native resolution. They have the grade of extra or thicker lines in patterned fills. This is an issue that the K138ST shares with the InFocus IN1144, the Vivitek Qumi Q6-BU , and all of the other LED-based WXGA projectors nosotros've reviewed over the past few years that use a TI DLP chip. In these cases, the artifacts are not due to resolution differences, but to the particular design of these chips and the shape of the pixels. Such artifacts shouldn't have whatsoever event on images other than those containing patterned fills.

The K138ST's text quality is typical of an LED projector. In testing, both blackness text on white and white text on black were easily readable at sizes down to 9 points. I noticed more purple fringing than usual around the text, and within the white letters.

All single-fleck DLP projectors are potentially subject to the rainbow outcome, which takes the form of petty red/green/blueish flashes, especially in light areas against dark backgrounds. I noticed rainbow artifacts in several of the K138ST'southward images, but they are seldom a significant problem in data images and shouldn't exist an outcome hither.

Video and Audio Quality
In our video testing, rainbow artifacts were more obvious than is usual for a DLP projector, and would likely be distracting even to people mildly sensitive to the outcome. I also noticed some posterization, a tendency for abrupt shifts in color or tone when they should exist gradual. Because of these issues, I would limit video use with this projector to short clips, whether YouTube videos or equally office of a presentation.

Sound from the K138ST's twin iii-watt speakers is good for utilise in a small room. If you turn the volume upward more than halfway, you receive an onscreen warning telling you that over-boosting the volume can cause bad sound quality. If you want more than volume or ameliorate audio, you tin can connect a gear up of powered external speakers to the audio-out jack.

Conclusion
The Acer K138ST is compact and easily portable, and information technology has a relatively short throw for an LED projector, so you tin can position it close to the screen, and you lot can also display content from a smartphone attached to its MHL-enabled HDMI port. Its effulgence and sound organisation make it best for use in modest rooms, and data-image quality is average, while video is all-time kept to short clips, mostly because of the rainbow result. The Editors'Pick InFocus LightPro IN1146 has more connectedness choices, and more watchable video, with fewer rainbow artifacts, only it lacks the K138ST'south curt throw.

Source: https://sea.pcmag.com/projectors/11109/acer-k138st

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