When you’re setting up your home cinema, you want to make sure everything is just right, from the popcorn to the film choice and, of course, the picture quality from the best home cinema projector your budget will allow.

In the past, many people have turned to Epson to fit the 4K UHD bill. But more recently BenQ has stepped things up a notch, offering amazing 4K UHD resolution, HDR and colour space accuracy and quality at a lower price point. With BenQ’s latest range, movie nights are more enjoyable than ever and hassle-free to boot with some of the most cutting-edge home cinema projectors available, at much lower prices.

 

High quality and great value

If great picture quality is on your radar, chances are you’re looking for a home cinema projector that offers 4K Ultra High Definition resolution.

While you may be initially drawn to the Epson 7400 – which is indeed a great projector – ensuring that you’ve secured the most cutting-edge home cinema technology within the convenience of your own home will require you to explore all your options. After all, there are a number of models on the market today that offer great value for money.

With this in mind, you can take a step up and get a better contrast ratio with the likes of the Epson 9400, but again, you’ve got to ask yourself the question: is there something on a par in quality at a lower price point?

Next on your list of considerations should be the BenQ W2700 and its ‘big brother’, the BenQ W5700, offering stunning content projection to rival both the Epson 7400 and Epson 9400. You will be hard-pushed to find any other home cinema projector that offers image quality this good, within this price range.

 

Comparing the Specs

Before we delve into the details on the latest BenQ devices, a quick refresh on what makes a difference when it comes to home cinema projector picture quality.

 

Resolution

The higher the image resolution, the greater the image quality. 4K is the best commercially available home cinema projector resolution on the market and the images you’ll see will really make a difference to your viewing.

The two new BenQ models are 4K UHD, which doesn’t actually mean a 4K native resolution on the panel.

Through upscaling technology, projector manufacturers have been able to bring the cost of 4K on the screen down to a much more accessible price point – a development that BenQ have really made the most of to bring 4K images to a wider audience. This has undoubtedly contributed to a significant shift in the market.

 

Colour Space

This is where it can get a bit more technical, so we wrote a guide to navigating colour spaces here. And the HDR standards here.

Essentially, look for higher percentages and more HDR variants and colour spaces. More really is more!

This will show that the projector is technically capable of producing a wider range of colours, ensuring you get to see the image as the director or game developer intended.

This is where BenQ are leading the way in 2019 – with HDR10, HLG, 100% Rec.709 and 95% coverage of the demanding digital-cinema standard DCI-P3, you can be assured that what you’re getting is breath taking colour accuracy for a pretty unbelievably low price.

 

Brightness

If you’re in the market for the best home cinema projector, you might not think brightness is such a big deal. Compared to office environments, where it’s not as easy to control the ambient light, this might be true. But there is still a risk that ambient light leakage could spoil the show at home.

To get that in-the-dark cinema feel, you need to ensure you have the projector to match the environment you plan to use it in. Projectors emit light as measured in lumens. If you don’t have a dedicated dark room and think ambient lighting will be an issue, it’s worth considering investing first in some heavy curtains… and a home cinema projector that can manage at least 2,000 lumens.

 

Lamp life

Lamp life is typically 2,000 to 5,000 hours for most projectors on the market. Simply put, the longer the lamp lasts, the less likely you’ll have to keep stumping up to replace it. The 2019 range of BenQ projectors have a 4,000 lamp life, so that’ll easily see you through 200 full viewings of the both extended versions of The Hobbit and The Lord of The Rings trilogies ?.

 

The latest home cinema projectors from BenQ

With all that in mind, let’s delve into the stats for the 2019 home cinema projectors from BenQ.

Best value - BenQ W2700

Price: £1,398.00 incl. VAT

Specifications:

  • DLP display technology
  • 2,000 ANSI Lumens
  • 3840 x 2160 (UHD) Resolution
  • 4,000 Hours Lamp Life (Typical)
  • 30,000:1 Contrast Ratio
  • First Year Collect/Repair/Return, with Second and Third Year Return to Base Warranty (Projector)
  • 1 Year / 1,000 Hours Warranty (Lamp)
  • 4.2 Kg

Pros:

  • High brightness-capacity, combined with 4K UHD on the screen resolution, for high-quality image delivery
  • Shorter lens ratio and optical zoom allows it to be placed close to the screen while delivering high-quality images that other models can only create from a distance
  • Adaptive to ambient light, so fewer constraints on where it is installed

Cons:

  • Slightly reduced brightness compared to previous models

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3bkZpQzt60

 

The one to beat...

Much better optics, colour processing and installation options - this really is a market-beating projector at this price.

BenQ W5700

Price: £2,398.00 incl. VAT

Specifications:

  • DLP Display Technology
  • 1,800 ANSI Lumens
  • 3840 x 2160 (UHD) Resolution
  • 4,000 Hours Lamp Life (Typical)
  • 100,000:1 Contrast Ratio
  • First Year Collect/Repair/Return, with Second Year Return to Base Warranty (Projector)
  • 1 Year / 1,000 Hours Warranty (Lamp)
  • 6.5 Kilograms

Pros:

  • High-brightness capacity plus 4K UHD resolution, ensuring detailed images
  • Enhanced colour mapping and hyper-realistic video quality, ensuring an immersive home cinema experience
  • Equipped with enhanced tone mapping, ensuring that subtle on-screen details are retained

Cons:

  • None at this price...
  • Some may say it's less-suited to environments with high amounts of ambient light, owing to its lower lumen output compared to other models. Our tip - just get better curtains and buy it.

 

Contact us

A home cinema projector that best suits your needs will deliver that fully immersive cinematic experience you’ve always dreamed of. What you want is high quality images from a device that will slot into your home, letting you kick back and enjoy the show.

There are so many types of home cinema projectors to choose from, but it needn’t be time-consuming. If you’re looking for answers to any burning questions about how to find the perfect home cinema projector system, or need some advice, feel free to drop us an email or call us on 0800 073 0833.