BenQ projector focuses on filmic fun

The brand's latest affordable 4K HDR beamer is out to show John Archer exactly what the director intended

- John Archer

PROJECTORS, FOR BETTER or for worse, seem to be getting more and more specialised. There are dedicated education projectors, business projectors, gaming projectors and, of course, home cinema projectors. Happily for us, BenQ very clearly describes its new W1800 model as a home cinema projector - an assertion it backs up in a number of promising ways.

How so? Well, firstly it sports BenQ's CinematicColor technology, where RGBRGB colour wheels are dressed in 'rigorously tested' coatings to deliver more accurate colours, and, most strikingly of all, factory calibration reports (to Delta E errors below three) are supplied with each projector that leaves the factory. There's then 'Zero Light Overflow' technology to prevent light being lost on its journey through the projector's optics, helped by heat resistant matte paint finishes to the internal 'optomechanical' structure. Lenses are also 'meticulously polished' in pursuit of picture purity.

This is already sounding like a lot of effort for a £1,099 beamer. But the W1800 additionally claims coverage of a full 100 per cent of the REC.709 colour standard, and includes the Filmmaker Mode preset established by the independent UHD Alliance, here switching in automatically when the projector detects a 24p source.

Mirror, mirror on the wall