Epson has a wide array of projectors that can be used in a variety of business and entertainment scenarios. Amongst their huge selection is the CO-W01 which could be one of Epson’s most versatile projectors offering a highly portable design alongside clear image quality.
It’s a relatively small-sized projector measuring 21.1 x 29.5 x 8.7 cm and weighing a mere 2.4kg. Its lightweight and compact design made it easy to transport, perfectly fitting into my backpack.
One of the big worries with lightweight devices is their robustness and ability to withstand knocks during transportation, with that being said I was highly impressed by the projectors' tough outer casing which kept the device safe at all times and put me at ease.
Much like with the majority of Epson’s projectors, the lens is encased within the device with its focus slider situated at the top.
However, the projector doesn’t come built with a lens cover or include any sort of protection, which is slightly frustrating as it is much more susceptible to dust and even scratches during transportation.
The projector comes built with a 5W speaker which isn’t the most powerful, however, I feel that it being situated at the top rather than the side allows the audio to be projected a lot easier.
The projector also includes a front stand and screws so it can be mounted in various different ways. This is fully welcomed as it grants owners a number of ways to include the projector in their set-up. That being said the front stand is a tad shorter than what I was expecting and didn’t really add to the overall experience.
Setting up the CO-W01 is relatively straightforward, with the projector’s UI being very simple to navigate by using the remote.
The remote literally granted me full authority of the projector at all times allowing me to control the keystone correction, zooming or selecting an input source at any time.
Alongside these features, the CO-W01 can change the light output by picking from two different settings, High and Low (eco).
There is a massive difference between the brightness of overall image quality, but I found the Low setting to work amazingly even in well-lit areas.
Other than the difference in brightness, I did find that the fan would become extremely noisy when set to High, but this was a rare occurrence.
Amongst these settings I found the different colour modes to be the main features that dictate a huge portion of the overall experience, normally there are only subtle differences between each colour variant but here there was such a drastic difference between the six different modes.
I found Dynamic, Cinema and Vivid to be the best modes when gaming or watching movies. But I was impressed with the Blackboard and sRGB modes as they greatly fulfilled their purpose, especially the sRGB mode which was great at matching colours from PC and Laptops.
Like all of Epson’s projectors, the CO-W01 utilises their trademark 3LCD Technology which negates the rainbow effect that can occur in cheaper projectors.
The CO-W01 is a WXGA projector meaning that it has a native resolution of 1280 x 800, with an aspect ratio of 16:10.
It has a throw ratio of 1.27 to 1.71 and can display images from 33’ to 378’. To top it off it comes with a 3,000 lumens bulb which is very powerful given the price range.
This may not be Full HD or HDR, however, I have to say after testing with game consoles and 4K movies I was extremely blown away by the crisp and vibrant picture quality.
Of course, there were some noticeable drops in quality especially when the image size reached the realm of 300’ but when you find that sweet spot of around 250 the image quality is surprisingly fantastic.
The projector does not come with any built-in apps like Netflix or Amazon Prime and has a limited amount of input connections. Not having built-in apps isn’t a deal breaker as the projector easily recognises external sources like Amazon’s Fire TV Stick straight away.
But the projector could do with far more input connections or just a wider range as only having one HDMI, USB-A and one USB-B really limit the number of devices that can be connected to it.
Epson CO-W01 Verdict 3/5
Epson’s CO-W01 displays great picture quality given it isn’t really Full HD or features any HDR capabilities, but it will be sufficient for movie nights or business meetings.
That being said, it is missing a few features such as Android TV and lacks a dynamic range of input connections which you can find in projectors for the same price.
On top of that, the fan can get really loud rather quickly, even when performing tasks that I didn’t think were demanding.
But overall CO-W01 is a versatile projector that can be used in a variety of settings and boasts a vibrant display.
