The first impression, an honest first impression review.
Just hung this BenQ W2700 from my ceiling and installed everything. That took a while because I first had to remove my old beamer, the Sanyo PLV Z4 from 2005 (!), and then adjust the settings in my Logitech Harmony Hub. The big moment has arrived, via my Harmony App on my iPhone I clicked on the button 'Beamer 4K BluRay R2', which instructs the Harmony Hub to send a series of commands to different devices. My amplifier was turned on and the correct settings activated, as well as the settings in my HDMI splitter. The BenQ W2700 was turned on and input set to HDMI 1.
It takes a while for the image, but after about 30 seconds, the lamp has to warm up, a blurry-looking logo of BenQ appeared on the screen. At the top of the beamer is a cover and when you slide it out you can zoom in and focus the image using a few levers. Since the beamer hung upside down from the ceiling, these buttons are easily accessible. Focusing was beep in a second, as was tuning of the correct size image.
The first thing I noticed, when the first image was projected on my screen, were the letters that look extremely sharp on the screen and the dark background which also looked good dark; the white letters are really very sharp and clear.
I expected improvement compared to my old beamer which was already 15 years old, but I did not expect so much improvement. This is because this BenQ W2700 can offer a very high contrast ratio, 30,000 to 1 versus 7000 to 1 with my old Sanyo PLV Z4 from 2005. The sharpness is also evident because the BenQ simulates 4K, it is not a native 4K beamer but using a special technique, the beamer can realize almost the same amount of pixels as native 4K projects, but at a fraction of the price. And don't be discouraged by the fact that this doesn't involve a native 4K projector, the results are truly stunning of the same quality as a native 4K projector. Only a very trained eye can tell the difference.
The second thing that struck me was that I had not yet closed all the curtains in my apartment, but that the image was nevertheless clearly visible. That's because this BenQ has 2000 ANSI Lumens of light output versus 1000 ANSI Lumens, half that my 2005 Sanyo PLV Z4 was able to cough up.
In short, a huge step forward in images and that is an understatement.
The projector also offers a 3D display. However, I have yet to try this feature.
Conclusion first impression:
After I had set all the settings of the beamer correctly, which only took a minute, I decided to set up a blu-ray. I can only say that the image is magnificent. In particular, the colours, skin tones and overall brightness and contrast differ; dark is really 'nice' dark.
Are there no downsides? Yes, a few. For example, the beamer does make audible noise, but this becomes less when you place the beamer in a so-called eco position. This produces slightly less light, but you won't notice it in a shielded room. I also find it a drawback that, unlike my old Sanyo PLV Z4 projector, this projector does not have an automatic closing hatch for the lens that closes again when the projector is turned off. You have to manually take the lens cover on and off when using it. This is to prevent dust in the room from accumulating in front of the lens.
But those are minor issues in my view and do not outweigh the excellent out of the box image quality that it is all about in the end. For €1500,- I now have a projector at home that actually conjures up cinema-quality images in 4K resolution on my screen. Watching movies is taken to a higher level. I can wholeheartedly recommend this projector to anyone.
