BenQ W5800 review: A 4K projector to upgrade your home theatre setup

If Christopher Nolan is the master of the 70mm film format, BenQ is replicating something similar with 4K projectors. 

The company is doing so by going back to its roots with the W5800 projector. You may miss out on the bells and whistles (there are no on-board speakers or a built-in smart TV platform) but you get one of the best displays (up to 200 inches) that would make any hardcore cinephile sit up and take notice.

Build and design

The BenQ W5800, priced at ₹6,50,000, is no lean projector. At 52cm wide, and weighing 11kg, the projector needs to find a proper place in your room. I’ve reviewed several short-throw projectors, but the BenQ W5800, which I’ve had for the past few weeks, is a long-throw projector. To give the BenQ W5800 the environment to showcase its talents, I took it to my friend’s basement for a spin. This 4K projector comes with a full suite of collaboration options, and the 4K display has a 20,000-hour laser light engine.

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It can be positioned near the back of the room or mounted on the ceiling. For a 100-inch screen, the projector should be placed at about 4.4 metres, and for 200 inches, you must go back about 7-10 metres from the wall. While the BenQ W5800 can do 200 inches, the sweet spot is around 130-150 inches.

The BenQ W5800 has a symmetrical design. The mammoth 1.6x optical zoom lens in the centre is flanked by vertical cooling fans that take up much of the surface area. The panel on the top features the trademark BenQ logo. The positioning of the BenQ W5800 is more flexible than many other projectors, thanks to the 1.6x optical zoom, and motorised lens shift (both horizontal and vertical). This also helps while you’re setting it up. There are manual hardware adjustments for image placement to ensure the perfect image, no matter the projector's placement. Straight off the bat, the BenQ W5800 dazzles you with a colour-rich picture, an array of ports, a button-heavy remote (tech enthusiasts can rejoice) and an out-of-the-box calibration that will suit almost all the hardcore cinephiles out there.

Features, ports and remote

For the nerds out there, this flagship home theatre project gets all the BenQ features – HDR-PRO technology (Tone Mapping, Dynamic Iris, HDR Brightness), CinematicColor super-wide 100% DCI-P3 and 100% Rec.709 colour space (for delivering precise colours) and 2,000,000:1 High Contrast Ratio with Dynamic Blacks – and more.

One thing that is guaranteed with high-end projectors is the connectivity options. With the BenQ W5800, you get two HDMI ports (one with eARC), two USB-A ports, a LAN port, RS232 and 3D sync out, and a power output. Yes, if you had any 3D Blu-Ray discs lying around, you can finally put them to use.

There is also a slew of buttons at the back of the projector, but you’d mostly just use the remote, which is one of the most robust and feature-rich remotes (with orange backlighting) I’ve seen. It has an array of buttons (with a reassuring click), comes with a two-tone charcoal finish, and is very easy to use. The attention to detail is great and there is a button for every critical function. You can change parameters from contrast, brightness, gamma, color manage, and more. In fact, there are buttons for ‘pic mode’, ‘hdr’, ‘cinema mode’, ‘filmmaker mode’, ‘3D’ and ‘invert’.

Picture quality

The BenQ W5800 is best enjoyed while watching good quality cinema. Whether you’re watching a 4K restoration of an Alain Delon film or bingeing through Nolan’s filmography, you’d be hard-pressed to find anything to complain about.

The projector has an advanced colour setting menu. With a motorised focus, zoom and lens shift, getting the picture geometry right is quick and seamless. You can sit back, relax, and enjoy stunning picture quality in minutes. I learnt that you shouldn’t go overboard trying to find the perfect combination of settings. Make small adjustments and enjoy a mind-blowing picture quality in exchange. There’s also an option to reduce motion blur via 4K Motion Enhancer.

What the BenQ W5800 does is to rival the best of the OLEDs from Sony, LG and others. In fact, with the sweet spot of 130-150 inches (going all the way to 200 inches will offer a less satisfying experience), you get a larger picture than OLEDs and an overall sharper image with natural skin tones. You may not get as deep blacks as on an OLED, but it does come mighty close. Switch on filmmaker mode, and the overprocessing can be avoided. Thankfully, the cooling fans are mostly inaudible, even if you’re right next to the projector.

The one downside of the W5800’s image quality is that it doesn’t get bright enough for certain scenes. Extreme brightness remains tricky for this projector.

Verdict

Who exactly is the target audience here? The BenQ W5800 doesn’t offer an “automatic geometry” setting and it doesn’t come with any smarts either. It’s even lacking in-built speakers. At ₹6,50,000, you’ll probably think that’s a deal breaker.

But this projector is meant to be fixed in one place, not be moved around, while being a massive upgrade to an already well-set-up home theatre room.

The BenQ W5800 does the one job it is designed for perfectly: deliver on the picture quality. And it does so with aplomb, delivering a high-end viewing experience with excellent colour accuracy, a wider colour gamut, HDR tone mapping and more.

The out-of-the-box performance is almost as good as after having been manually calibrated. If you have the smarts, go for it, otherwise switch on filmmaker mode, sit back and enjoy.

Sahil Bhalla is a Delhi-based writer. He posts @IMSahilBhalla.

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