AWOL Vision LTV-3500 Pro Laser TV Projector Review

The AWOL Vision LTV-3500 Pro measures 23.6 x 14.6 x 5.2 inches and weighs around 28.6 pounds, making it relatively compact for an ultra-short throw projector. This design allows it to fit seamlessly into most living spaces. Cosmetically, the LTV-3000 Pro looks nearly identical to the LTV-3000 Pro that we reviewed a while back, but it is slightly heavier.

The silver plastic remote control includes common buttons for power, input selection, and volume control. In addition to these more standard controls, AWOL Vision has added direct buttons for brightness, sound, file explorer, and network functionality. The LTV3500 Pro has a built-in media player, which can also be controlled using the projector’s remote control.

The projector is bundled with an Amazon Fire Stick, which includes its own remote. You will need to use both remotes during the initial setup. Once the projector and Fire Stick 4K Max are configured, you can use the projector’s remote to control both via HDMI CEC (Consumer Electronic Control). While you can use one remote most of the time, you must grab the other remote to make some adjustments. For example, you need to use the Home button on the FireTV remote to access the dongle’s App Home page directly.

The projector uses an Android 0S 9.0-based menu system. The projector’s settings menu is intuitively designed, with a well-organized layout that makes navigation straightforward. It offers detailed picture adjustment settings, including White Balance, Color Temperature, and a comprehensive Color Management System (CMS). Users can easily fine-tune the image to their preferences, ensuring the best possible viewing experience. With the exception of a media player and casting, the LTV-3500 Pro does not have many built-in smart features. 

Like all AWOL Vision Laser TVs, the LTV-3500 Pro is bundled with an Amazon FireStick 4K Max, which allows you to access a wide range of streaming services, smart apps, and Amazon Alexa. The Amazon FireStick 4K Max dongle features a quad-core 1.8 GHz processor, which is 40% more powerful than the older Fire TV Stick 4K.  It supports Dolby Vision, HDR 10, HDR10+, and Dolby Atmos audio. 

I prefer it when smart features are fully integrated into the projector operating system because I only need one remote.  However, I noticed that apps started faster and ran more smoothly than many smart projectors I reviewed. Since you can easily replace the Amazon dongle with a newer version, the LTV-3500 Pro's smart capabilities can be easily upgraded. 

When evaluating color reproduction, a Delta E measurement of 3 or less is considered ‘Excellent’ and imperceptible by the human eye. After adjustments, the Grayscale and Color Tracking Average Delta E measurements were both less than 2, which is excellent. The LTV-3500 Pro also did a much better job tracking colors, but some brighter colors were slightly undersaturated after adjustment.

Like most Tri-laser-equipped projectors, bright colors appear overly saturated in most picture modes when viewing SDR content. This is especially noticeable when viewing bright colors. Since the Wide Color Gamut setting is engaged in the USER mode, colors are more saturated and vibrant than in the MOVIE mode. While this is inaccurate, the look may be preferred when viewing content in a room with moderate ambient light.

Overall, the projectors' out-of-the-box picture quality was better than most Laser TVs. However, like most Projectors, you would benefit from having the LTV-3500 Pro professionally calibrated to optimize its performance in your application. Most Laser TV customers would be more than satisfied with the LTV-3500 Pro's default picture quality.

I viewed a wide range of High-Dynamic-Range content encoded in HDR10 and Dolby Vision. When watching HDR10 material, I preferred HDR STANDARD mode because the HDR MOVIE mode was noticeably warmer, which made skin tones reddish. This was especially noticeable when viewing movies like Matt Max Fury Road.

For those who want to adjust the onscreen brightness level based on how the scene or movie is mastered, an HDR setting changes the projectors' HDR EOTF (Electro-Optical Transfer Function). There are HDR tone mapping options: Low, Middle, High, and Auto. I left the projector in the AUTO setting when watching most HDR10 content except for material mastered at 4000nits or above. However, you will sacrifice some onscreen brightness or flatten the contrast to maximize the picture's highlight detail. 

AWOL Vision Laser TVs were some of the first projectors to support Dolby Vision. The LTV-3500 Pro includes three Dolby Vision presets: DOLBY VISION DARK, DOLBY VISION BRIGHT, and DOLBY VISION VIVID. When viewing Dolby Vision and HDR-10+, which contain dynamic metadata, the LTV-3500 Pro did a good job automatically adjusting its HDR tone mapping curve based on the movie/scene.

Factors such as screen size and gain impact the overall brightness of a projection system. To optimize the picture quality of Dolby Vision material, the maximum onscreen brightness needs to be calculated and factored into the Dolby Vision tone mapping algorithm. Therefore, there is a setting in the Advance Menu where you can input your projection screen size and its gain.

DOLBY VISION DARK made the overall scene brighter, but DOLBY VISION BRIGHT made highlight details more visible. Dolby Vision did a noticeably better job maintaining highlight details in content mastered above 1000 nits than projectors' HDR10 tone mapping. The images above are screenshots from the Spears and Musil UHD Benchmark test disc that I used to compare HDR10 content mastered in 4000 nits to Dolby Vision. The details in the bright area behind the horses are more visible in Dolby Vision.

 The AWOL Vision LTV-3500 Pro also supports HLG (Hybrid Log-Gamma), the HDR standard developed for live broadcast, so you are all set to enjoy sports and award shows when the networks start broadcasting in HDR. While content mastered in Dolby Vision looked better, I was pleased with the picture quality of HDR material regardless of the format in which it was mastered.

The LTV-3500 Pro has a dedicated game mode, which, when combined with the projector's HDMI 2.1 inputs, provides an optimized gameplay experience. Low input lag is important when playing first-person shooter games, where slow response time can make all the difference between your character surviving a firefight.

AWOL says the LTV-3500 Pro’s latency is 15ms at 4K. The projector's maximum refresh rate when playing 4K games is 60 Hz. If you need to increase the frame rate, drop the resolution down to 1080p, and you can game at up to 120 Hz with input lag as low as 8 ms.

The projector's HDMI inputs support ALLM, so the projector can automatically switch to Game Mode when gaming content is detected. While I am not a hardcore gamer, the LTV-3500 Pro, I didn’t experience any noticeable input lag when playing action games on my PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X.

While ultra-low lag is important, nobody likes being taken out by an adversary they couldn’t see. Many modern games support HDR, including Dolby Vision and HDR 10+. The projector's outstanding HDR performance ensures you see details in dark and bright areas of the screens, so you see your enemy in the game before they see you.

With a retail price of $5999, the AWOL Vision LTV-3500 Pro is one of the most expensive Laser TVs on the market, but its build quality and feature set justify the price.

The AWOL Vision LTV-3500 Pro includes high-quality optics that deliver a detailed 4K image. The Ricoh F2,0 lens assembly also offers motorized focus, which ensures excellent edge-to-edge sharpness on screens up to 150 inches.

The projector’s tri-laser light source can reproduce over 100% of the BT2020 color gamut while delivering 3300 ANSI lumens (3500 Peak Lumens) of brightness. This exceptionally bright projector can deliver vibrant images even in well-lit rooms or during daylight hours.

The LTV-3500 Pro supports several HDR formats, including Dolby Vision, HDR10+, HDR10, and HLG. It is one of the only projectors on the market with Dolby Vision, and HDR content displayed in this format looks noticeably better than in HDR10.

The LTV-3500 Pro also supports 3D playback, so those with 3D movies can use their catalog. The unit doesn’t ship with active shutter 3D glasses, but they are available on the AWOL Vision website. You can also purchase compatible DLP-LINK 3D glasses from sites like Amazon.

The LTV-3500 Pro includes a 36-watt stereo system that supports both Dolby Atmos and DTS Virtual X, which delivers a more immersive audio experience than many Laser TVs. 

The LTV-3500 Pro can be used with the new AWOL Vision True Wireless 5.1.2CH Dolby Atmos Home Theater Sound System for users who desire even better sound. The Vision system is compatible with the latest immersive surround sound formats and supports 5.1.2 Dolby Atmos/DTS:X decoding.

The multichannel system is truly wireless, so there is no need to deal with awkward and unsightly speaker cables. It delivers high performance in a true “plug and play” easy-to-setup package.

The projector is bundled with an Amazon Fire TV Max so you can stream content and access apps directly through the projector. You also use your voice search for apps and control certain features via Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant.

In Gaming Mode, the projector input lag can be as low as 8ms, ensuring a smooth and responsive gaming experience. Since the LTV-3500 Pro includes HDMI inputs that support ALLM  (Auto Low Latency Mode), the projector will automatically switch into Game Mode when gaming content is detected. 

The LTV-3500 Pro also includes what AWOL Vision calls Smart Room Ready functionality. This ensures the projector seamlessly integrates with Control4 and other projector control and management solutions, so features like power, volume, HDMI source switching, and more can be managed through platforms like PJLink, Control 4, SAVANT, and Crestron.

In summary, the AWOL Vision LTV-3500 Pro is a premium Laser TV with excellent image quality and advanced features. It would be a great option for a dedicated media room or any living space.