BenQ LW61ST DLP Projector - Review Summary

Posted on May 30, 2012 by Art Feierman

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A summary of the LW61ST projector and a list of this BenQ projector's pros and cons. 5-30-2012 - Art Feierman

BenQ LW61ST Projector: Bottom Line

I do like just about everything about the BenQ LW61ST (click for specs) projector. OK, I'm not thrilled about the up front price, but that's the trade-off with lamp free projectors such as this BenQ. The overall package is impressive!

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This BenQ projector offers tremendous source flexibility. Not only does it support all the traditional inputs, but also USB Display. The LW61ST also can work right off of a USB thumb drive with a reader. What made me happy was the ability to use my iPad with it. I have an iPhone too, but I figure if the iPad works - and it does - the iPhone will too.

Chart provided by BenQ (from documentation)

Click Image to Enlarge

The laser light source is the marquee feature of course. BenQ puts their max spec at 20,000 hours, and the low number at 10,000 hours. The projector, a DLP, is also filter free. Theoretically, once installed, this projector should only need someone keeping the spiderwebs off of the lens, as far as long term maintenance goes. That's a real boon to organizations managing a lot of projectors, but it's even better for that single projector in a company. Mount it on the wall right over a screen or whiteboard and theoretically, no bother after that, for its useful life.

Brightness in Dynamic mode is 1485 lumens, but this BenQ projector's color is a lot better than I expect to find in most other projectors in their "dynamic" or other brightest mode (some call it Bright mode, or...) Thanks to the laser light source, this projector is still going to be putting out over 1000 lumens, about 10,000 hours or so, down the road. It's an up and down thing with projectors using conventional lamps. A projector with a lamp, will typically be down to 50% of original brightness before the lamp gets replaced, and that's typically between 2000 and 4000 hours.

The LW61ST projector won't need any replacement lamps, as the laser light source is expected to outlast the usefulness of the projector. (Let's estimate 10 years or so!)