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When looking for a projector, you’re typically introduced with a couple of totally different classes. There are ultra-portable fashions just like the Anker Capsule II that sacrifice brightness and backbone in favor of comfort and portability. Then there are projectors that attempt to strike a stability between high quality and portability, such because the Viewsonic M2e that I reviewed final 12 months. Lastly, we’ve the Benq TH685P, a cinema-focused projector that’s extra suited to a devoted media room in your house that was despatched to us for assessment.
Design
The Benq TH685P is pretty giant measuring 12.28 x 8.56 x 4.33 inches, nevertheless, it’s surprisingly light-weight, and it options a number of methods to mount it. Whether or not you need to use the holes within the backside to mount it the wrong way up from the ceiling, or put it behind a display and venture the image from the again. There’s additionally the extra conventional and handy approach, by putting it on a desk and utilizing the three adjustable toes to angle and degree the image out.
So far as ports go, the TH685P consists of two HDMI 2.0b HDCP 2.2 ports on the again for connecting a streaming dongle, Blu-ray participant, console, and extra. Together with HDMI ports, is an audio enter and output jack, each of that are 3.5mm, and a 1.5A USB Kind-A enter that can be utilized to energy a streaming dongle. Sadly, that’s not sufficient energy to stream 4K HDR with most dongles, so that you’re going to wish to energy it individually if you would like the very best quality.
Situated on prime of the Benq TH685P are all the controls you may ever must navigate menus or management playback.
Moreover, there are two rotating dials positioned close to the lens of the TH685P. Certainly one of these is used to regulate the zoom, a characteristic that could be very useful for getting the image simply the appropriate dimension with out the necessity to transfer it forwards and backwards continuously.
The second dial is used to focus, and I discovered it a bit tough to make exact changes attributable to how stiff the main target ring is, nevertheless, that is one thing you’ll be establishing as soon as, and hopefully not touching once more. At the very least there gained’t be any hazard of it slipping by accident, though, it might have been good if Benq had built-in autofocus.
Person expertise
The TH685P is basically a dummy show, and by that, I imply there’s a minimal interface with no sensible apps or solution to view content material with out extra enter. This implies a streaming dongle, Blu-ray participant, console, or another enter supply is required.
You may suppose this can be a strike towards the TH685P, however you wouldn’t be pondering that if you happen to had tried a few of the software program I’ve skilled on different projectors. The software program is commonly a half-baked try that’s barely useable, and you find yourself plugging in a dongle anyhow to flee the restricted choice or damaged apps. Benq has merely saved you some frustration right here by supplying you with no alternative however to attach a video supply.
What the TH685P lacks in sensible options, it makes up with loads of choices for customizing your viewing expertise. You’ll be able to entry these by way of the menu utilizing the controls on prime of the projector, or by utilizing the included distant. The menu affords two totally different interfaces, a primary one by default for these of you who prefer to maintain it easy, and a extra superior interface for these of us who prefer to dig in and actually tweak the image high quality. You’ll be able to even modify the colour output relying on the colour of the floor you’re projecting on.
Whereas the distant works nice for powering the projector on/off, adjusting the amount, altering image settings, switching sources, and looking menus—that’s about all it will possibly do. Regardless of having buttons for playback controls, I used to be unable to manage my Chromecast Extremely or PS5 whereas watching content material. Simply one thing to concentrate on.
Video high quality
Coming from a 65-inch 4K TV, I wasn’t anticipating a lot out of the TH685P’s 1080p output, particularly when projected on the wall at practically double the scale. Nonetheless, I used to be utterly blown away by the readability of the 1080p image. What made it much more gorgeous, was how extremely vibrant it’s with 3500 ANSI lumens, it even made it doable to make use of in the course of the day. Though, it appears significantly better in a darkish room. Moreover, the saturation and dynamic vary from the HDR10 help makes motion pictures and video games look unbelievable.
Talking of gaming, the Benq TH685P’s prime promoting characteristic is the 120Hz refresh fee and eight.3ms low enter particularly for avid gamers. I had a blast enjoying video games blown up on a 100-inch display with out feeling any lag.
My solely criticism of the image high quality, comes from one thing often called the rainbow impact. It’s a difficulty with sure projectors the place you’ll discover pink or inexperienced pixels popping up on the display throughout some scenes. I solely seen this round 10% of the time whereas utilizing the TH685P, and solely with sure movies I watched. It appears some motion pictures are extra liable to triggering this impact than others, nevertheless, I don’t recall seeing it whereas gaming.
That is a kind of points, the place some individuals might not discover the cut up second it pops up on the display, whereas it would drive others loopy. Personally, I wasn’t too thrown off by it, however it was noticeable and price mentioning if you happen to’re contemplating buying the Benq TH685P.
Audio high quality
Sometimes, I watch motion pictures both utilizing a 5.1 encompass sound setup or a soundbar. I don’t anticipate a lot from TV audio system, not to mention a tiny projector speaker. That’s why I used to be utterly shocked the primary time I watched a film with the TH685P. I used to be in awe of the depth and separation of the sound popping out of this tiny speaker inside this little field.
Granted, the sound could be higher if you happen to used a 5.1 system or a soundbar, however if you happen to don’t have a kind of already, I feel you’ll be pleasantly stunned at how good the TH685P sounds. I do know I used to be.
It additionally has loads of quantity to fight the sound of the fan, which is, sadly, fairly loud. That’s par for the course with projectors in my expertise although. Particularly ones with such vibrant bulbs in them.
Remaining ideas
There’s a lot to like concerning the Benq TH685P. It has a shocking vibrant saturated HDR image due to its 3500 ANSI lumens output, which may attain as much as 100-inches at 8.2-feet away from the wall. The speaker additionally sounds improbable for a way compact it’s. Plus, it has been geared for next-gen gaming with a 120Hz excessive refresh fee and a latency of 8.3ms.
On the identical time, the TH685P additionally has a loud fan and places out a number of warmth, together with a slight concern with the rainbow impact that’s widespread in some projectors. As with most merchandise, there are all the time professionals and cons, the Benq TH685P tends to have extra within the professional column for me, and makes for an awesome addition to your media or gaming room setup for $800.
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