BenQ LH820ST 1080P Short-Throw Laser Golf Simulator Projector Review

While the BenQ LH820ST features a more traditional front projector design, the company has still built an attractive and even somewhat stylish-looking projector. The lightweight design, intuitive controls, and connection placement make this projector easy to lift, maneuver, and operate. The exterior is primarily an off-white matte color for reduced ambient light reflection.

The LH820ST measures 15.9 x 10.6 x 6.15 inches (410 x 272 x 157.7 mm)
and weighs 12.3 lbs (5.6 kg). This is reasonably small and lightweight for a home theater projector and excellent for a simulator projector.

The front of the projector is where the lens with its manual focus control ring is located. Next to the lens, there is an IR sensor for the remote control and an air vent. The hot air exhaust vent is on the projector’s right side, with another air vent on the left side.

The input and connectors panel is on the projector's rear panel. There is a control panel on the top of the LH820ST.

The BenQ LH820ST features an inputs and connectors panel in a single row. From left to right: there is a USB mini connection, a LAN (RJ45) connection, a monitor out, an RS232 port, two PC inputs, a composite and an S-video in, an HDMI, and analog audio out. Next, there are several 3.5-inch barrel connections for audio signal input, audio in, mic input, and audio out. Lastly, there is a standard USB Type-A connection.

The top of the chassis has a push-button control panel on it. The control panel has a Power On/Off button. A D-pad on the control panel with an “OK” button allows easy directional control. An Eco Blank button to momentarily turn off the light source, Input button, Menu button, Mode button, and Back button round out the control panel.

The BenQ LH820ST remote control is well laid out and backlit. The top section has power controls and mostly setup shortcut buttons.

The next bank of buttons is focused on navigation: Back, Menu, Auto, Mute, Light (for the backlight function), and Blank. Then, there is a 1-9 plus 0 numeric pad for entering numbers in the network settings or when setting the remote-control ID. On either side of the 0 buttons are the All button (left) and ID Set (right).

The final section of the BenQ LH820ST’s remote control contains six buttons. Zoom + and Zoom – are paired together, with Zoom + on the top and Zoom – on the bottom. It is the same setup for Page + and Page – with Page + on top and Page – on the bottom. The final two buttons, stacked on each other, are 3D and Freeze. Overall, that backlight made the remote control easy to use.

BenQ’s menu system is the standard uniform professional menu they have used for years. It is text-driven rather than icon-oriented. BenQ’s layout is very familiar and easy to navigate. I prefer this straightforward menu on a pro projector.

My only complaint is the actual navigation speed, which could be faster in response to button presses.

The LH820ST offers excellent color saturation and contrast, which works well as a simulation projector, especially in environments with uncontrolled ambient light. The projector's super bright light output and enhanced color saturation will benefit users watching entertainment content in brighter spaces. Movies and video content can appear slightly over-saturated in rooms with more light control. Users who want to use the projector's extensive picture adjustments to dial down the color will find it easy.

You can see in the images above that this projector’s picture is pleasantly warm, producing images where reds and yellows are pronounced. Sometimes, this creates an oversaturated look with skin tones. Here at Projector Reviews, we focus primarily on how a projector looks out of the box, and this projector does a good job using only the preset picture modes. As this is a BenQ projector, the company includes an excellent color management system that will allow you to have the projector professionally calibrated or tweak the displayed image as much as you want.

My go-to movie and TV content modes were the sRGB and User modes. The projector also includes extensive user adjustments for white balance, gamma, and color temperature, which will contribute even more toward dialing in an excellently calibrated SDR image.

One of the biggest challenges for a golf simulator projector is to create an immersive image on a screen whose primary feature is that it does not break when golf balls hit it at full speed from very close to the screen. These screens are not typically videophile quality. BenQ knows this and has built a projector to help compensate for the visual limitations of golf screens.

The LH820ST’s GOLF mode provides a noticeable boost of blue and green colors, helping to make the grass and sky pop without significantly over-driving the rest of the projector’s color performance. I would not use this mode to watch movies, but it looked great on the golf games I played, which is what it is designed for. The GOLF mode is an incredibly convenient feature that works remarkably well.

The BenQ LH820ST provides rich colors, making it an excellent choice for golf simulator environments and even home entertainment content.

BRIGHT mode maximizes the brightness of the projected image for environments where extra-high brightness is required.

PRESENTATION mode is designed for presentations. The brightness is emphasized in this mode to match PC and notebook coloring.

GOLF mode is specifically designed for golf simulators and optimizes the blue sky and the green grass color.

sRGB mode maximizes the purity of RGB colors to provide true-to-life images regardless of brightness setting. It is most suitable for viewing photos taken with an sRGB-compatible and properly calibrated camera and for viewing PC graphics and drawing applications such as AutoCAD.

VIDEO mode is appropriate for playing colorful movies, video clips from digital cameras or DVs through the PC input for best viewing in a blackened (little light) environment.

3D mode is meant for playing 3D images and 3D video clips.

USER 1&2 modes recall the settings customized based on the currently available picture modes.

The BenQ LH820ST is a Full HD (1920 x 1080p) laser DLP projector, boasting an impressive brightness that I measured at 3,639 ANSI lumens. This projector is equipped with the advanced BenQ blue laser light source, providing users with an estimated operational life of up to 20,000 hours in NORMAL mode. BenQ’s laser light source allows the LH820ST to excel in reproducing visuals with remarkable precision. BenQ’s use of a Texas Instruments DLP chip, featuring a native Full HD resolution, eliminates pixel shifting, thus contributing to the projector’s high-quality imaging. DLP technology has earned its reputation as the preferred choice among projector manufacturers due to its unmatched quality, speed, and overall performance standards.

The BenQ LH820ST is physically small and lightweight, making the projector easy to move and install with easy access to all the projector connections and controls.

I tested this Full HD projector on a 100-inch screen. I only noticed a resolution issue on the projector's menus and only when I was standing closer than six feet. Displayed images, although not as crisp as on a 4K display, still looked good, with a good amount of detail. Upscaled 720p content looked great, and the projector displayed standard-definition content better than average.

The BenQ LH820ST’s high-brightness light source makes this projector ideal for spaces impacted by uncontrolled ambient light. My testing confirmed that the manufacturer rated 3,600 ANSI lumens of brightness is accurate. I calculated a maximum brightness slightly higher of 3,639 ANSI lumens. This high brightness is an advantage in rooms or venues where substantial uncontrolled ambient light may be prevalent.

The projector’s ability to display rich, warm colors is likely due to BenQ’s use of a dual-color wheel system, resulting in an impressive ability to cover 90% of the BT.709 color gamut and the company’s excellent color science engineers. BenQ clearly understands the capabilities of the technology in their projectors and how to use their tech, allowing the LH820ST to produce a good image in a wide range of challenging environments.

BenQ’s dedicated GOLF mode is a perfect example of BenQ’s engineers’ grasp of color science. The projector’s dedicated GOLF mode boosts green and blue colors, making the sky and grass pop. Aside from the dedicated GOLF mode, the projector’s out-of-the-box color quality is good, with slightly oversaturated red hues often found on DLP projectors.

By modulating the laser power, the BenQ LH820ST has a dynamic contrast ratio of 3,000,000:1. The BenQ LH820ST can produce darkish blacks, but only so far. The LH820ST’s high lumens output works against this projector’s ability to deliver deep blacks with dark area detail. Turning the light source output down by putting the projector in ECO mode and tweaking the brightness and contrast helps achieve darker blacks, but only so much, and crushes the blacks. I don’t think sacrificing shadow details is worth the modest increase in black performance for movies and TV content.

This projector is designed to provide a lot of light with better color than most high-brightness projectors at its price point. This projector is not intended to offer inky blacks with tons of detail.

The LH820ST is not the least expensive projector in its class, but it is worth the manufacturer’s $1,899 MSRP. It’s a solid golf sim projector.