BenQ Sets Its Sights Higher

This Full HD home cinema projector excels in some areas, but still leaves John Archer wanting more.

- John Archer

BenQ is a champion of the affordable projector world. Pretty much all of its budget ‘home entertainment’ DLP projectors in recent times have outperformed both their price points and most of their competition. I was therefore intrigued by the prospect of a new mid-range W8000 home cinema model. If BenQ can deliver quality on projectors costing under £1,000, surely it can work wonders with a projector that costs £3,000?

The W8000 certainly looks like it means business. Its footprint is large even by mid-range cinema projector standards, and it stands higher, too. It’s also heavy, suggesting there’s plenty of quality electronics and optics tucked away under its substantial hood, while its black finish is ideal for the sort of ‘bat cave’ environment most movie fans will be looking to put it in.

Connections are found to the rear, and comprise two HDMIs; a 12V trigger port; a component video input; a D-Sub PC jack; an RS-232C port to help you add the projector to a home control system; and a 3D sync jack. No 3D glasses come as standard with the W8000, though, and BenQ didn’t provide any for this review.

Lifting a flap on the PJ's upper edge reveals sensitive wheels for optically shifting the image up, down, left and right, while the standard-throw lens I received with my test W8000 offered a reasonable amount of optical zoom. As a clear sign of how serious BenQ is about the W8000, though, it’s available with a variety of different lenses, including a long-throw option for really large rooms.

The only downside to providing lens options is that it prevents the W8000 from featuring motorised control of its zoom, focus and image shifting functions. You’ll have to get offyour backside and do it all manually.