BenQ W1070 Projector - Image Quality 3

Posted on June 7, 2013 by Art Feierman

BenQ W1070 Overall Color & Picture Quality

❮ ❯

On everything but the darkest scenes, the BenQ produces a really enjoyable, watchable picture. I'm watching an NFL play-off game while working on this section of the review. The football field looks good, the artificial turf looks almost like grass, very believable. The skin tones on this broadcast seem to have the slightest touch of orange, but that's not something I found when watching movies or other HDTV content. Blame someone else, not the BenQ W1070 for that. The only real complaint would be the mediocre black levels. On the other hand, this is a family room projector, a home entertainment projector. It's expected to handle ambient light. Excellent black level performance seems to start on 3D capable projectors with only two projectors (so far) above $1600 and below $2000. That would be the Acer H9500BD and BenQ's higher end W7000.

Still, black level performance for the price is respectable, as note above. I watched John Carter in 3D on this BenQ last night. Lots of dark and very dark scenes. The W1070 produced very watchable dark scenes, but having also seen the movie on a $5000 JVC, there's a world of difference.

What really makes this W1070 projector's picture so impressive, is the brightness. I usually drop in a couple of images of how the roon is set up on the Performance page when discussing brightness, but this time, I'm putting them right here. Why?

Because I'm able to watch this game with the side window shutters full horizontal. That's letting in the maximum amount of light from a large window just to the side. Remember, I'm using a Studiotek 130, a great screen, but not one designed to help at all with side ambient lighting.

So check these two images out. I've got the rear side door open (a large skylight out there), back shutter partially open, but a whole lot of light coming in from the side window, and the door opposite it.

What we have is still a good looking football game, despite dealing with more ambient light, than I can normally with any projectors except the Epson's (from $1599) and the 2D only Panasonic PT-AR100U ($1199). The thing is, while those other three projectors are brighter still, they aren't near as bright calibrated. So, I can have great color and a medium amount (instead of the usual "modest amount") of ambient light.

I am impressed! Especially for $999 (give or take)!

Note that the blacks of the ref's shirt below and the blacks in other football images, are not near as black as on the images above and below it. This is just a reminder that for all the football images and some other HDTV images, rear lights were on, and side and back window shutters were partially open, allowing a fair amount of ambient light to reach the screen in this image.