Introduction
Today we’ll be looking at a rather interesting gaming gadget: A projector. Digital projectors have continued to go down in price (or up in quality) are definitely becoming a viable alternative to an HDTV for rooms that can accommodate them. While a decent 40″ HDTV will set you back £400, for a little extra you can get a projector that’ll produce an image many times that size at the same 1080p resolution.
Our subject today is the BenQ W1060, a 1080p projector that costs around £650. BenQ have gotten on my radar in the past year through their support of eSports, most notably their sponsorship of StarCraft II pro-gamer Grubby and the IEM series of StarCraft II and League of Legends tournaments. They’ve definitely got their heart in the right place, but can their gaming wares follow through on their promise of performance at an affordable price? Let’s take a look.
Specifications
- Projection System: DLP
- Native Resolution: 1920 x 1080p
- Brightness: 2000 ANSI lumens
- Contrast Ratio: 5000:1
- Display Colour: 1.07 billion colours
- Lens: f/2.5-2.76, f/23.5-28.2 mm
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9 natively
- Throw Ratio: 1.59 – 1.9 (56.8″@ 2 meters)
- Image Size (Diagonal): 28 to 300″
- Zoom Ratio: 1.20:1
- Lamp: 190 W, 4500-6000 hours
- Keystone Adjustment: 1D, vertical +/- 40 degrees
- Projection Offset: 130% +/- 5%
- Resolution Support: 640 x 480 to 1920 x 1080
- Horizontal Frequency: 31k-90k Hz
- Vertical Scan Rate: 48-86 Hz
- Video Connectors: HDMI x2, Component, VGA, Composite (RCA), S-Video
- Audio Connectors: 3.5 mm audio in, 3.5 mm audio out, Audio L/R (RCA)
- Other Connectors: Mini USB, RS232
- Speaker: 10W
- Dimensions: 330 x 247 x 150 mm
- Weight: 3.6 kg
- Noise: 31 dBA (28 dBA on Economic mode)
- Power Consumption: 270 W (<1 W standby)
- Accessories: Remote control, power cord, Manual CD, Quick start guide, VGA, Carry Bag
Unpacking
The W1060 comes in a large and friendly box, with purple BenQ labelling on top of the standard cardboard brown. This box is fairly ratty from its review days (and covered in thousands of stickers to boot) so we’ll spare you the sight of it.
Inside the box, we’ve got a well packed projector indeed. After the box itself, the next level of protection is a pair of form-fitted cardboard structure. Within this is the projector’s bag, and it’s upon unzipping this that you get your first shot of the projector in the flesh, as it were.
There are relatively few accessories in the box, covering only the essentials: Remote control (with batteries), power cable, a manual on CD, a printed quick start guide, a VGA cable and of course the bag that the projector comes in. There are no HDMI cables, Component cables, etc etc but as these are easily acquired elsewhere it’s perfectly understandable to not include them. The inclusion of VGA means that at least you can easily connect a PC.
