Sony Bravia Projector 7

Sony's sophisticated middle-child projector should not be overlooked

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The Sony Bravia Projector 7's journey to UK shelves has been fraught with drama and uncertainty. In fact, it wasn't long ago that we had resigned ourselves to never seeing the latest edition of Sony's legendary laser projector series light up our AV testing room.

Thankfully, after a period in which Sony pulled out of selling projectors in the UK and Europe altogether, the Japanese brand announced that a key preventative issue had been resolved, and sales of the Award-winning VPL-XW5000ES, Bravia Projector 8 and Bravia Projector 9 resumed.

With that triumphant return, Sony chose to also launch in the UK the Bravia 7 Projector (also known as the VPL-XW5100ES), which we plugged into our reference home cinema system at the earliest opportunity. Thank heavens it all worked out, because this is a sublime home cinema projector.

At £6999, it's hard to believe that, within the context of Sony's premium home cinema lineup, this is considered to be a mid-range model. It sits above the VPL-XW5000ES (which has just celebrated its fourth year as a What Hi-Fi? Award-winner), which launched at £5999, but can now be found for less.

If the Bravia Projector 7 looks familiar to you, it's probably because you either own, or have read our reviews of, the VPL-XW5000ES, VPL-XW7000ES, Bravia Projector 8 or Bravia Projector 9.

Sony has mastered stretching a chassis design to fit a multitude of different models. Still, we don't mind that so much, as a serious home cinema projector such as this will usually be tucked out of sight in a dark home cinema screening room. Besides, this is still quite a sharp design. Its elongated hexagonal shape when viewed head-on is pleasant enough, with the top panel meeting at a central apex that frames the lens quite nicely.