BenQ W500 review

BenQ's W500 is the biggest and heaviest of the 720p home cinema projectors here, and the only LCD model.

It's also the only LCD projector that BenQ sells, and is going to be phased out soon. However, that's no reason to discount it, as it's still an excellent projector.

At £567, it isn't the cheapest 720p projector money can buy, but it's solidly built and, thanks to its larger fans, doesn't get as hot or noisy as its smaller rivals. Crucially, it has lens shift, which means you don't have to place the projector squarely in front of the screen. This makes the W500 ideal for placing high on a shelf behind your sitting position. What's more, the 1.2x zoom is slightly longer than the other 720p projectors. Bear in mind, though, that the W500's throw ratio is smaller than other 720p models, so you'll need a fairly deep room for a large image.

As well as lens shift, the W500 has other features for home-cinema installation, including a 12V trigger for motorised screens and a chunky remote control with back-lit keys.

There are four preset image modes and three user-definable modes, and the image- tweaking options run to two pages in the menu system. As well as standard brightness, contrast and colour settings, there are more advanced settings such as colour temperature, dynamic contrast and clarity levels.

We found the 7.5 IRE black level setting dramatically increased contrast. Enabling the dynamic iris setting improved contrast further, but made the image slightly darker. Increasing the brightness brought out detail in dark areas, too. Adjusting the colour temperature had a marked effect, depending on the source material we were watching. Although it's hard to beat a DLP for colour accuracy and contrast, you won't be disappointed with the W500's image quality, and you won't get the shimmering or rainbow effects you'd get with a DLP.

Considering its great quality and features such as lens shift, the W500 is better value than InFocus's cheaper X9, and so it wins our Best Buy award.

Author: Barry de la Rosa