Are you finding new ways to enhance your living room cinematic experience?. Why not start with the BenQ W1700 Home Cinematic Projector. This month, we had a chance to test out this new 4K projector and we were surprised, to say the least.
Design and Usage
The first thing you would notice about the BenQ W1700 is its build size. Measuring in at only W353 x H135 x D272mm, it is smaller than most projectors out there on the market. It is encased in the classic BenQ white bodywork and complemented with round edges creating a rather homely feel.
One could say that with its size, it should be ready. On a good note, the device does have the weight that makes it feel reassuring, while the finish has a touch of class in it without having the cheap plasticky feel.
One of the cheaper 4K projectors out on the market today
On another cool note, the remote control that comes with this device is rather handy as well, it is brilliantly well-lit and it is comfortable to the touch. The button layout is organised without the usual slew of choices perfect for the layman to use.
Features
The wide range of accessibility makes the W1700 an attractive option
For its price point, the W1700 has quite a fair bit of accessibility. It sports two HDMI, one compatible with the 4K-friendly HDCP 2.2 anti-piracy system. There’s also a 12V trigger port for firing up, say, a motorised screen, plus D-Sub PC and 3.5mm audio in/out. The W1700 provides its 4K playback using the common DLP approach. In retrospect, this means that the 4K is just an upscale rather than a true 4K display, but it definitely provides better results than most “pseudo” 4K projectors.
The top menu dial has all the standard controls for a cinematic home projector
The W1700 supports HDR10, the industry standard HDR platform, delivered from a 2200 lumens maximum lamp output and a claimed contrast ratio of 10,000:1. While some 4K projectors struggle with the HD setting due to lack of brightness and colour range, the W1700 comes equipped with a few features to make it work.
First, an ‘Auto HDR Natural Color Rendition’ system claims to compensate for the oversaturated greens and reds often associated with HDR on projectors. The result, says BenQ, is a ‘perfectly lifelike colour performance automatically tuned to reflect nature’. Additionally, the Cinema-Optimized HDR Performance allows you to retain greyscale accuracy and balance dark colour saturation effectively allowing you to keep the dark details well-lit.
The full range of visual support the W1700 provides
Non-HDR viewing, meanwhile, should benefit from BenQ’s CinematicColor technology. This uses a combination of light waveform analysis, light leakage suppression and a special coating on the RGBRGB DLP colour wheel to deliver colours that are close to the standard dynamic range Rec 709 standard right out of the box. Although the projector does also support calibration by ISF engineers.
Adding on to its cool slew of features, if you have any 3D glasses lying around, you can also watch 3D enabled movies at your own living room, but we were not provided with any for this review hence were unable to test it out. The lamp life for this unit hovers around 15,000 hours with the Smart Eco Lamp dropping it down to around 8,000 hours which is fairly good for this device.
Conclusion
So if you are looking for a projector that won’t break the bank, yet still want to be able to view your movies via the living room, the BenQ W1700 might be the right fit for you as it helps you balance between viewing amazing HD content as well as the ability to go 4K.
