In the race of replacing large size TVs with a projector screen for better and larger home cinema experience, many brands who have been dominating in either TV or projector segments are now entering the space of Ultra Short Throw Laser Projectors, also referred as Laser TVs. And recently, I had sometime to play with the latest X2000B 4K UST Projector from Viewsonic.
It is an ultra-short-throw laser projector that aims to revolutionize your Living Room home cinema experience. With a compact depth of 13” and height of 4” in this UST Category, this projector won’t make your cabinets go big and ugly. 4 hours of consumption every day on this can still mean that this projector can be used for as long as 13 years. The 2nd generation Laser Phosphor technology aims to stay strong for 20,000 hours. The projector has 2 color choices, White and Black, which is well defined in its model number as X2000W and X2000B.
Here are my 7 reasons to buy Viewsonic X2000 4K UST Projector -
4K Ultra HD Resolution: The Viewsonic X2000B boasts a 4K resolution (3840 x 2160 pixels) through pixelization, delivering exceptional clarity and sharpness to upto 150” diagonal screen size. (yeah, that's alot!)
Quick Installation: The 4 Corner adjustment and 60 points correction makes it super comfortable to project the image on screen as well as curved walls. Also, the focus button on the remote makes it easy to finetune the image in case of any alterations to its placement.
Ultra-Short Throw Placement: One of the standout features of this projector is its minimal projection distance of only 9” from wall to give you a 100” diagonal screen on wall.
Integrated Speakers: The built-in speakers of Harman Kardon on the X2000B produce decent audio quality with 50W of power, eliminating the need for external speakers if you're in a pinch. While they won't replace a dedicated sound system, they're suitable for casual viewing.
Bidirectional Bluetooth: Bluetooth in the projector can be used along with Harman Kardon speakers as a Soundbar to transfer music, and at the same time you can also get the audio out by pairing wireless Bluetooth headphones to the projector for personal entertainment experience.
App Control: Viewsonic vCastSender is a fantastic app which allows you to connect and control your projector via mobile phone. Nobody likes to use the remote to type and search.
Backlit Remote: Backlit remotes were only seen in dark room home cinema projectors, and Viewsonic has offered the same in this Living Room projector too
I was just getting excited about the projector, but then I came across these 7 reasons to why I could give this a miss and can continue my exploration in some other products -
Instant Power ON: The company claims of instant power on feature but when we tested the same, we got these results, and it definitely does not mean INSTANT. Though, I couldn't confirm if this was due to the projector getting heated as we had used it for almost 2 hours. Let me know if you have got the right answer for this in the comments below!
Impressive Brightness: The X2000B offers 2,000 lumens of brightness from its phosphor laser light source, which is really not at par with other products which have gone beyond 3000 lumens as well for the same price.
Cinematic Color Accuracy: It supports HDR10 and HLG source content but due to 100% Rec. 709 color space used in SDR videos, it does not cover the DCI-P3 and Rec 2020 color space which is often used for HDR color mastering. Mind you, the Formovie at similar price has got Dolby Vision too!
Refresh Rate: 60Hz refresh rate for 4K can deliver fast moving images but only when Frame Interpolation is kept On. And btw, for Gamers this low VRR along with 40 ms input lag can be a big disappointment. What do you think?
HDMI ARC: In the world of OTT, where Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision play a very important role, Atmos is possible but in lossy and compressed format due to HDMI ARC port but Dolby Vision is still far away for this one.
Fan Noise: With laser sources, the fan noise have drastically reduced for most of the projectors to 24dB. However, Viewsonic X2000B still has 30dB noise levels that goes upto 36dB of noise at 1mtr distance.
Price: The Viewsonic X2000B falls into the higher price range for projectors, with a retail price of around 4 lakhs in India. At this price point, there are definitely some more better options to buy. What say?
Let me know your views on this projector, and if not Viewsonic which other UST Projector would you buy?