The Vankyo Leisure 510 projector offers several improvements over both the Leisure 3 and 410 models. It supports a huge variety of multimedia devices due to its many input ports. It’s also an LED-based projector so it has a lamp life of up to 50,000 hours. If you used the machine for 10 hours a day the lamp would last around 15 years. This is a big contrast to regular bulb-based projectors and reduces your long term investment. You won’t have to worry about buying replacement light bulbs when they go out after far fewer hours of use.
I’m somewhat surprised at just how fast projector technology has improved over the past few years. This has allowed projectors to shrink and offer higher end performance at a lower cost. If you’re reading this I’ll assume you may be wondering whether the 510 is worth the extra cost. Is it a large enough improvement over the lower-end models? I’ll try to review the features and differences to help you make the best purchasing decision.
Image Quality
One of the most important aspects people consider when buying a projector is its picture quality; this all comes down to a combination of several different things of course. The native resolution of this model is 1280×768, which means it can display 720p content natively. This spec is much higher than the 800×480 resolution found in both the Leisure 3 or 410 models. In fact, that’s a massive 156% increase in pixels. To say it another way, the Leisure 410 and 3 models represent merely 39% of the total pixels found in the Leisure 510. 
Having a higher native resolution gives the projector the ability to produce a sharper and clearer image. However, all of the projectors will upscale your media to 1080p, but the overall clarity is influenced greatly by the native resolution rating. This is an important point to be aware of when choosing a projector. When you get your projector set up make sure to use the manual “focus ring” to get a clear image. There isn’t any automatic focus built-in, so you have to manually adjust the focus and keystone to get a visually pleasing image.
The machine can display an image up to 200 inches and should give you an accurate movie theater experience. The shortest distance it can throw a sharp image is 4.9 feet and the furthest is around 18 feet. You may want to measure your room to see what type of distances you have available.
Contrast/Brightness
A contrast ratio is the range between the brightest color and the darkest color. Having a larger range means the projector will display more vivid colors and darker blacks for low-lit scenes. The rating of the Leisure 510 is 5000:1, which is also much higher than the 2000:1 found in the lower-end Vankyo models. This just means you’ll see more rich colors and dark scenes will appear darker.
The brightness rating is another important factor as this will determine how brightly the entire image appears. Having a higher rating allows you to use the machine during different times of day. Ambient light will also be less of an issue when you buy a brighter projector. The Vankyo 510 provides 4,500 LUX of brightness. This is yet another big increase over the cheaper 410 and 3 models which offer 2,800 LUX and 2,400 LUX respectively.
Audio
There are dual speakers installed in the machine that will pump out 3 watts of audio power. This does an admirable job at providing clear speech and sounds. However, I always implore people to consider purchasing external speakers to give you more bass and loudness. This all depends on how much you care about the audio portion of movies or video games. So, whether this matters is a personal preference of course.
Having external speakers or even hooking the projector up through your surround sound system will take your experience to the next level. You’re already getting a visual improvement, you don’t want to skimp on the audio part in my opinion. Another thing to quickly note about the “sound”; it seems like the fans cooling the machine are a bit quieter in this compared to the other models I’ve mentioned earlier. So, that could be something to think about as well. Everyone’s opinion on what’s considered loud or quiet can, naturally, vary between people.
Connectivity
It’s really nice being able to have the right input connections available. When you buy a projector, you want to be able to hookup all of the video gadgets you have. Everything from Blu-ray players to video game consoles. Thankfully, this projector includes practically all of the necessary ports you may want to use. There’s even an SD card slot if you want to just load video files from that.
The back contains two HDMI inputs for all your modern devices. This means you can plug in your Roku or Fire Stick and have the ability to conveniently access Netflix and all your other streaming apps. Use the other HDMI port to play your favorite video games on your living room wall. There’s a lot of possibilities with these two ports, as it’s the input the majority of media players use nowadays.
You also have access to a VGA port, so you can directly connect your computer to play movies, games, and more. To round it all off there’s an AV composite port, this is for your old devices that use the red, white, and yellow cables. Old gaming consoles, DVD players, and those legacy machines are supported and can be used here.
Summary
Native resolution: 1280×768
4,500 LUX brightness (recently upgraded)
5000:1 Contrast
LED lamp life: Up to 50,000 hours
Dual 3-watt speakers
Throw Distance: 4.9 – 18 ft
2x HDMI, VGA, AV Composite(red, white, yellow), Audio port
3-year warranty
Includes: remote, carrying case, VGA cable, AV cable, HDMI cable
Conclusion
Well, the Vankyo Leisure 510 seems to be a really nice improvement over the lower models. It has many aspects that are clearly better including the resolution, brightness, and contrast. These facts make it a smarter choice if you plan on using the device more often. Movies will be sharper and more colorful when you have movie nights with loved ones. Vankyo does say they offer a 100% money back guarantee so it’d be worth a try. The projector is also a good entry point in terms of performance and price. However, if you want a projector with native 1080p Full HD video capabilities I’d like to point you to the Vankyo Performance V600.
If you hold parties with friends to watch football or some other sporting event every week, having a projector can be a pretty big deal. Imagine having your entire wall as a screen, it makes the plays even more intense and exciting. And if you’re a gamer, the increased display size makes your games feel more immersive. You could throw some party games on there and invite all your friends over.
Whether you should spend the extra money for the 510 model will come down to a couple things. How important is it to you to have better resolution, brightness, and contrast? Will you be using the machine only for occasional movie nights or will this be used more often? If you plan on hooking up external speakers, the audio differences shouldn’t be a factor when deciding at least. Try to determine the frequency you’ll use the product and how significant the improved functionality is to you. If it’s your first projector I’m sure you’ll be pretty pleased either way between the 410 and the 510. I’ll also quickly mention that there’s now an upgraded version called the 530W which you might want to consider as well. Visit that article for more information and some comparisons. Thanks for reading and hopefully you’ll enjoy becoming a proud projector owner in the near future.
VANKYO Leisure 510 Offers
If you’re searching for the latest prices and any deals currently running, I’d like to point you to the links below. The prices on Amazon can fluctuate frequently so I’d highly recommend you add the product to your cart to view a total price.
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