LG PW800 review

Light as a feather, pretty as a peach

Light and sweet
Light and sweet

Why you can trust TechRadar We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.

With a 7.52 second boot the PW800 is fast to set up. The projector has an easy-to-use sliding lever that shifts focus. You can power on the projector on the device itself or by using the remote.

Using a source like VGA, RCA, or HDMI is pretty straightforward, but not automatic. If the source is already set up, you can just plug in and play. However, the PW800 is not set to auto scan or auto input search, so if you plug in HDMI and the projector is set to Component then it will not automatically change to HDMI.

LG PW800

The PW800 has a beautiful D-pad style menu at the top of the projector. The button makes navigating through choices super easy. However, if you want to change the volume, or input, you have to use the given LG remote, which is responsive and intuitive.

LG PW800

The PW800 comes with two-watt speakers that produce poor sound quality, but not as bad as most of the other projectors I've tested. There is very little bass and the volume doesn't get high enough. The higher the volume the worse the audio quality becomes, so don't expect to blast your favorite tunes from one end of your mansion to the other.

If you're working in a small room, with a small audience, the speakers are passable. I tested them in a 14-foot by 14-ft room, and it worked fine, but I cannot imagine it being good for anything larger than 20-feet by 20-feet.

Flaws

You need an Android device to Screen Share on the PW800. If you are a Mac user, you're out of luck. I even attempted to connect a Windows machine and I could not get it to work. I looked at the instructions and the information was extremely vague (and I am an information technologist). I can't imagine the typical consumer being able to solve this riddle without exerting superfluous effort.

The projector also doesn't enable you to zoom onto specific parts of the image. If you want to make the screen bigger you have to do it by physically moving the projector back and forth from the screen. This is a very simple feature that is available on most projectors at this price range.