Tech Review: BenQ W1050 Home Cinema Projector

BenQ very kindly sent over their W1050 projector to review. Actually, they sent me two as the first one had a minor fault, but they very quickly got everything sorted and it was go time.

First a bit of basic info. It gives 1080p Full-HD image projection up to 100″ at only 2.8 meters (although you can get a bigger picture depending on how far the unit is from the screen). It has 96% coverage of Rec.709 (that is the international HDTV standard that depicts the colours as the director intended) and a 15000:1 contrast. It has a brightness of 2200 Lumens. It also has 3 dedicated picture modes: Sport Mode, Vivid TV Mode and Cinema Mode which are calibrated with the best settings of brightness, contrast, and colours. It weighs 2.56 kg and the dimensions are 99 mm (H): 332.4 mm (W): 214.3 mm (D). You can see all the specifications here.

On the rear of the projector it has 1x mini USB connection, 2x HDMI ports a PC VGA and a RS 232, together with video and audio in and out 3.5mm sockets.

The BenQ W1050 was a pleasure to set up. Out of the box it was a doddle to connect up the Blu-ray player and PS4 with HDMI cables. It also have the options of how the unit was going to be used – on the ceiling, infront or behind the screen etc. I used a soundbar connected to either the Blu-ray player of PS4, depending on what I was using. The projector does have a built-in speaker, but as always they are something to use as a last resort as you want decent sound to go with the great picture.

I use a stand-up screen in the living room and put the projector on a side table. I did have to move the table itself to get the image small enough to fit the screen as there are few options to change the screen size. That would have made things a little easier, but it was not the end of the world. It does have Vertical Keystone Correction – Countering the trapezoid effect when the projector must be placed off-center, such as simple placement on top of a table, the vertical keystone function adjusts the image for a professionally squared image – which does give you a few more options.

There is some fan noise, as there always is with a projector, but on the whole it was very quiet and once a film or game was playing you only really heard it during quiet moments.

The picture quality was also great straight out of the box, but it is worth changing the brightness, contrast, etc to get the picture that suits you. That is quite simple to do using the remote control to go through the different menus. The various presets do a good job, so take your time to ensure you have everything set up as you want it. The projector has CinematicColor technology that gives “optimal colour to bring out the most accurate and enhanced images.”

What this basically means is you get clear, balanced, vibrant images. It also looks great in daylight, which is always a bonus. It produces deep blacks and great detail for the images. Playing Blu-rays you get stunning picture quality with no downscaling or compression. Obviously, when viewing DVDs there is some pixelation in places, but that’s mainly due to the lower quality of the DVD and not the projector. When playing video games the image is smooth and the projector keeps up admirably with the fast pace of video games.

On the whole I was very impressed with the W1050. For just under £600 it is not a bad price for a projector and the picture quality is fantastic. I would have liked a little more control over the size of the image without having to move the unit, but on the whole, I can really recommend this projector.