Hero Projectors Review

[Lutgarda Briseno]

TheBenQ W5800, which retails for $5999, is the latest addition to the company's family of 4K home cinema-focused projectors. The W5800 is designed for demanding home cinema enthusiasts who value accurate color reproduction and better optics over maximum brightness and smart features.

The BenQ W5800 is a 4K capable premium 4K UHD home theater projector that retails for $5999 and is designed to meet the demands of home theater enthusiasts. It delivers an unparalleled cinematic experience for those seeking the best in picture quality and performance BenQ has to offer.

BenQ's proven CinematicColor technology should provide accurate color reproduction whether you're watching movies or your favorite shows. When this feature is combined with DYNAMIC BLACK technology, which dynamically adjusts the laser's light output to maximize visible contrast, the result is an excellent-looking SDR and HDR picture.

The W5800 supports High-Dynamic-Range (HDR) content mastered in HDR10, HLG, and HDR10+. BenQ's HDR-PRO technology is HDR tone mapping, which does a good job of balancing details in both bright and dark scenes.

HDR-PRO technology includes a new Local Contrast Enhancer, an advanced algorithm that divides every scene into multiple zones and independently adjusts gamma for each zone. This preserves more details in bright and dark areas and enriches the depth of the 4K HDR picture.

To ensure maximum color accuracy, BenQ calibrates each W5800 before it leaves the factory. They even include a copy of each projector calibration report in the box. According to the calibration report included with my W5800 sample, it has an average deltaE of just 1.1. While some adjustments should still be made to suit your environment (wall color, screen material), the W5800 provides an excellent starting point.

BenQ offers a wide range of models targeted at specific users. The BenQ Home Cinema series is designed to meet the desires of Home Theater Enthusiasts who prioritize color reproduction and contrast above things like maximum brightness and built-in sound.

BenQ has always done a great job balancing performance with value. I have been impressed by the performance of BenQ models I have previously evaluated. For example, the HT3650i is a great home theater projector that retails for under $2000. The HT4550i adds the LED light source for maintenance-free operation and lens shift for more installation flexibility. Several features make the W5800 a step up from the award-winning W4000i/HT4550i we reviewed last year.

I continue to be impressed with BenQ projectors. The unit's picture quality and competitive features make it a strong contender in the premium projector market, appealing to home theater enthusiasts seeking superior performance and value

Measuring 20.7 x 5.7 x 15.4 inches and weighing 23.1 lbs, the W5800 is larger and heavier than most DLP-based home theater projectors. The larger chassis is worth it for the benefit of better black levels, a motorized lens with horizontal/vertical shift, and quieter operation.

The lens is located in the center front of the chassis, along with an IR sensor, LED indicators, and intake vents. There are exhaust vents located on both sides of the unit. A control panel on the rear of the chassis allows you to access the menu and make setting adjustments when the remote is unavailable.

The inputs and connections are located on the left rear of the unit. The W5800 features two HDMI 2.1 inputs, and HDMI #1 supports Enhanced Audio Return (eARC) functionality. There are also two USB 2.0 ports. While the W5800 is not a smart projector, it does include a USB media player, which supports a wide variety of photo and video formats. Other available connections include a LAN port, an optical-digital RS323 port, and a 3D Sync Signal port.

The W5800 has a backlit remote control that is bigger than many projector remotes, but the buttons are large and well-spaced. There are several dedicated buttons to quickly access picture settings, like picture modes, Color Temp, Gamma and HDR brightness. This is nice because you don't need to dig through multplr pages of menu to find popular adjustments.

The BenQ W5800 is equipped with a high-quality motorized lens assembly. It is made up of 14 elements, including an aspheric lens coated with low-dispersion materials and it is designed to deliver a clear and sharp image from corner to corner.

The menu system is well laid out and easily read from a distance. To simplify use, the projector includes an Advanced and a Basic menu. The Advanced menu contains all the settings needed to adjust the picture quality, while the Basic menu gives you quick access to primary menu functions.

The remote also offers several dedicated picture setting buttons so you can directly access picture adjustments without having to search through several pages of menus. The BenQ W5800 is not a smart projector but includes a USB media player, which supports a wide range of photo and video formats.

The most accurate preset picture modes were CINEMA, USER and FILMMAKER. The main difference between the picture modes was not the color temperature or white balance but the gamma, brightness and contrast. The BRIGHT CINEMA worked well in rooms with higher ambient light and was still very accurate. In addition to the preset factory remotes, you could also enable two additional ISF picture modes, called ISF DAY and ISF NIGHT. Their default image quality was identical to the user mode.

Like all Home Entertainment-focused projectors, I took the time to calibrate the W5800. I used Portrait Displays Calman color calibration software along with a Klein K10A colorimeter and Murideo 8K Seven Generator to measure the color accuracy of the W5800 before and after adjustment.

Since your room and screen material significantly impact the overall picture, we don't recommend using someone else's calibration adjustments. If your room is brighter/darker or your walls are a different color, your settings would probably be different. Also, the color characteristics of different individual projectors can vary. Therefore, copying someone else's results can actually be detrimental to the picture quality rather than improving it. However, I am including my specific room before and after calibration results.

If you want to make quick BRIGHTNESS, CONTRAST, and SHARPNESS adjustments to improve the picture quality of your projector in your room, there are several free test patterns available on t the Murideo website and their YouTube channel. Murideo also has written instructions in the resource section of its website. Also, check out our YouTube video on utilizing several test patterns called Optimize The Image of a Projector or TV Using Free Murideo Test Patterns

While several accurate picture modes exist, I opted to adjust the USER Mode. When measured, the color temperature was very close to my target of 6500K, and the gamma also measured close to my target of 2.2.

The W5800 color tracking was average. The Saturation Sweep measurements showed that several colors were oversaturated and there was some hue shift.These color tracking issues can be corrected using the projectors COLOR MANAGEMENT (CMS) adjustments.

There was an opportunity to improve the projector's color tracking. I reduced the projector's COLOR ENHANCEMENT setting and utilized the COLOR MANAGEMENT (CMS) controls to correct the oversaturation and hue shift.

There are only few premium home theater projectors that could match the units out of the box color accuracy. This is because each W5800 projector is pre-calibrated by BenQ before it leaves the factory,

While the default color reproduction is very good, there are stiill benefits in having the W5800 professionally calibrated to optimize the units performance in your specific application. Overall most customers would be more than satisfied with the W5800 default picture quality.

At wide zoom, the BenQ W5800 produced a brightness of 2,627 ANSI lumens. which exceeds the projector's rated brightness. For the other modes available on the W5800, I've compiled the results of my measurements below for your reference.

While brightness is important, premium home cinema projectors like W5800 are utilized in dark spaces, so 2600 lumens is more than enough brightness to deliver a good-looking SDR or HDR on a 150-inch screen in a dark room.The projector's laser light source power output can be adjusted. Setting it to NORMAL delivers maximum brightness with a lifespan of up to 20,000 hours.

Switching the Laser to ECO mode reduces the brightness by approximately 30% it but extends the laser light source life to 30,000 hours while reducing audible fan noise. When set to CUSTOM mode, you can adjust the light source output manually from 50% to 100% in 1% increments.

The BenQ W5800 supports HDR10, HLG and HDR10+. In general, projectors usually have a hard time doing HDR justice, but the BenQ HDR-Pro technology help maximize the playback of HDR content. This BenQ technology combines effective tone mapping algorithm with Dynamic Black technology to deliver a good looking HDR image.

The W5800 does reduce overall scene brightness to preserve more highlight detail but the w5800 is a fairly bright projector so the compromise in brightness was worth it. For those who want to manually adjust HDR tone mapping, the W5800 you can use the HDR BRIGHTNESS to change the onscreen brightness level but at the higher setting you will sacfrice some bright highlight detail.

The W5800 supports HDR10+. This format is based on HDR10 but in HDR10+ content, the luminance information for each scene is embedded into the content as dynamic metadata, so tone mapping can be performed according to the specific scene. This helps the projector faithfully reproduce the HDR images as intended by the creators.

The W5800 doesn't have a built-in speaker system, but this is fine because the unit will be utilized in home theaters, which usually include a large sound system. The W5800 ventilation system is designed to prevent overheating during extended use, reduce audible fan noise, and minimize distractions during viewing sessions.

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