BenQ’s new W8000 professional home cinema projector was recently launched at a price tag of AED 10,000. This one is BenQ’s first home theatre projector that comes with an interchangeable lens option and is built for custom installation.
The company sent the product to us for review and even though we believe the pricing of AED 10,000 is a bit on the higher side, we were blown away by the sheer quality of the visuals. The W8000 is targeted at consumers looking for a Full HD 3D projector.
The projector offers 6X Speed RGBRGB colour wheel and is tuned for REC 709 HDTV Standard. Other technologies that the projector accompanies include Digital Colour Transient Improvement and Digital Luminance Transient Improvement.
Both these technologies heighten colour vibrancy in drastic colour transitions without noise. BenQ offers a line up of five optional lenses, offering a range of 1.5 meters to more than 11 meters between the screen and the mounted location. The lens we received with the projector for a test drive offered a range of 1.5 meters.
The W8000 also comes with a contrast ratio of 10000:1 and claims to provide true blacks. In addition, the W8000 also features the company’s exclusive CinemaMaster technology. The W8000 also comes with the horizontal + vertical lens shift feature.
A couple of dials on top let you move the lens, which in turn physically moves the image around. We see this often in high-end home theatre projectors and it’s a very useful feature to have. Normally, if placed on a table, the projector will project the screen upwards. In the same way, if on the ceiling, a projector is mounted upside down. With lens shift, you can choose to place the projector in a high bookshelf or a low coffee table and still get the screen here you want it.
in terms of connectivity, the W8000 offers two HDMIs, a 12V trigger output, a D-SUB PC input, a component video input, an RS232 port to aid integration into a home control network, a 12V trigger port for potentially driving an external motorised screen, and a 3D Sync output. This latter port proves that the W8000 supports 3D playback. Having said that, BenQ doesn’t supply any 3D glasses as standard with the projector, and didn’t provide any for this review.
The projector was really easy to setup and use. The combination of keystone and lens shift means that the screen need not be perfectly perpendicular to the projector either. It’s also fairly quiet: just 31dB (or 28dB in eco mode) — meaning that it won’t distract you from enjoying your movie watching experience.
In terms of output, the W8000’s single-chip DLP projection engine promises a maximum light output of 2,000 ANSI lumens and a contrast ratio of 50,000:1. Both the specs are pretty good for a home theater projector.
In terms of performance, the W8000 really delivers. It offers beautiful visuals and its handling of colours is truly amazing. We did not encounter any sort of striping or blocking, even in the trickiest of dark scenes.
For some the pricing might be an issue – but as they say, quality comes at a price. If you are looking at building an ultimate home theater system, the BenQ W8000 should be on top of your list.
Price: AED 10,000
