Review on Cinema projector BenQ W2700i by Stanislaw Wysocki ᠌

Name: Cinema projector BenQ W2700i
Item: Cinema projector BenQ W2700i
Rating: 4

May 13, 2023

Good value for money, I recommend.

This is my first home projector.
I use it as a supplement. entertainment monitor. The main video source is from a PC in 4K 60fps incl. with HDR.
For about 4 months of operation, I watched more than 300 hours of content, I get pleasure!
The only thing is that there is not enough experience in live comparison, I have not seen "showrooms" in the city, YouTube reviews do not convey the real picture of what is happening (* reviewed tons of reviews), they are misleading.
This projector is very good, but the prices for 4K projectors are still very high, especially for laser ones . For every minimal, micro improvement, the price increases significantly, because. this is still a "niche" product not for mass use, but the prices are already tangible for ordinary users. There are many different models, the Chinese do not lag behind and flood the market, but I can’t evaluate them, the reviews are contradictory. A huge diagonal with a high-quality image (even 1080p) gives a lot of new viewing sensations (for me personally).

Pros

Bright, "honest" colors in SDR and high resolution, 60fps, acceptable delays when outputting video from a PC (the manufacturer says 83ms), you can play dynamic games, good HDR support (the difference is visible, there are more colors, more transitions, better implemented than high-quality software processing on a PC in SDR. But this is not a full-fledged HDR. Also, when outputting HDR content from a PC, there is no difference in the image when encoding 8 and 12 bits (*10 bits for this projector cannot be selected in the video card settings, but for other device (monitor) - it is possible, there is no distortion in the image at the same time)). Good image quality at the level of a normal LCD monitor with an 8-bit IPS matrix (in SDR), almost all hue transitions in the brightest and darkest colors, as well as black / white are visible (the blue transition in the brightest color is slightly lost (* especially in HDR mode), black - in the darkest. You can watch in a room with very low light, weak screen light does not spoil the picture much, while good colors are preserved. But this projector is not for well-lit rooms. The presence of a remote control with backlight. With a screen width of 2 meters, there is no pronounced "pixel" effect, no screenor effect. Even many movies in 1080p look no worse than 4K.

Cons

Price! Slightly "raw", but more or less stable firmware 1.05 at the moment (June 2022), glitches rarely happened, for example, there could be light / darkening on the screen floor for a second, sometimes several times for several times. minutes. I did not catch the pattern of their appearance. Later glitches disappeared, no longer observed. Noisy, especially if hanging overhead. Blacks in dark scenes are not quite black, there is some light, especially in "Cinema" mode (*the main, "correct" mode in SDR). In bright images, due to the contrast, black looks very good. I am very worried about the lamp life and subsequent replacement (until there was experience), it is not known how long the DMD chip will last. High risk of failure in case of accidental disconnection from the power supply (fans stop), dustiness, insufficient cooling, etc. By the way, there are no dust filters, it is not known how soon it will become clogged with dust inside. Mechanical parts, speeds - not very good, but it all depends on the quality. A 2-year warranty is not much, and even then, only when buying from an authorized seller, acc. price. No automated lens settings (manual mechanical adjustment). Weak, simplified software functionality, incl. built-in player (You can finish a little manually). Lens shift (image) - only 10% vertically (but at least it is). To protect the lens after turning off, a cap on a string is provided)