Sony VPL-XW5000ES

This superb Sony laser projector is a cut-price stunner

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Despite being the cheapest truly native 4K laser projector the home cinema world has ever seen, the XW5000ES's combination of laser lighting and exceptional processing results in picture quality that redefines projector expectations at its price.

It is notably smaller and lighter than the brand's previous 4K laser projectors, making it easier to handle. Plenty of venting helps dissipate heat, while an improved cooling system means that the venting doesn't end up spewing excessive amounts of either hot air or light leakage at you. This cooling system also enables the XW5000ES to run impressively quietly even when it's working hard with an HDR source.

The XW5000ES's star turn is its relative affordability for a projector that combines a native 4K resolution using Sony's proprietary SXRD projection technology with laser lighting. Despite its affordability, by Sony 4K laser projector standards at least, it still benefits from the brand's X1 Ultimate processing, which adds such features as digital contrast optimisation, object-based HDR remastering and object-based resolution enhancement to the enhanced upscaling, clarity-boosting Reality Creation and Dynamic HDR Enhancer features.

The ability of this processor to break images down into different elements that can all be treated differently, rather than the whole image being treated the same way, should help pictures look more three-dimensional and natural. Especially with Sony's long-running Reality Creation option on hand to deliver what, for our money, is the projection world's finest sharpness-boosting feature.

Perhaps the single most important element of the XW5000ES's processing system, though, is the Dynamic HDR Enhancer. This analyses incoming content so it can pick out relative bright highlights and increase their intensity without impacting other elements of the picture.