LG Laser TV review - Hands on

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Posted on 9 Jan 2013 at 00:33, by Seth Barton

We've seen a lot of short throw projectors for use in office and education markets, but the LG Laser TV is the first we've seen specifically for home cinema use. It creates a 100in image at a distance of only 22in from the included screen and packs in a raft of extras than make it deserving of that TV moniker.

With a full 1080p resolution it's certainly well-suited for entertainment use. Though we have to say that you'll still need a fairly big living room, as sitting too close to a 1080p picture across a 100in screen does show up the number of pixels.

Surprisingly, it also comes with numerous features usually found on Smart TVs, such as media playback, Netflix, Intel's WiDi wireless display technology and even LG's motion-controlled Magic Remote for browsing it all. It's refreshing to see a company treating a home cinema projector like a TV, rather than simply a display.

Continuing the Laser TV's standalone credentials are two built-in 10W speakers, so you don't need a home cinema surround setup as well. Despite packing all this in, the projector is still fairly compact.

It uses a laser diode system, and the vibrant colours from this looked great. We're guessing there's a DLP chip in there somewhere, but LG weren't saying. The lasers mena there's no rainbow effect from the chip, and it runs cooler too - so is quieter than most projectors and doesn't have lengthy start up and shutdown times. This makes it far more TV-like than a typical projector. LG also claims an impressive 25,000 hour 'lamp' life, around 5x longer than typical lamps.

Having seen the 100in Laser TV in action wehave to say we're very impressed. It's the most TV-like experience we've had yet from a projector, and hopefully it will competitvely priced against the likes of 75in traditional LCD/LED sets.

For all the latest news from the CES show, read CES 2013: In-depth, hands-on coverage from our team in Las Vegas