Design
Measuring in at 238mm by 94mm by 283mm and weighing 2.7kg, the BenQ W100 home theatre projector can be easily installed in a variety of positions in your living room thanks to its petite dimensions. Decked out in shiny pearl white, the W100 looks decent enough, but isn't going to win any style awards in our books purely because the grille design on the front and sides of the unit make it look like a small heater. Neat freaks will also bemoan the grille aspect in tandem with the white colour -- dust is going to accumulate on those hard to clean surfaces, and it will show. Thankfully, the W100 comes with a static-free cloth for cleaning purposes.
The lens sits on the right front of the W100, and is protected by a plastic lens cap which is attached to the unit's main body by a short cable. Directly above the lens on the top side of the projector is a well which houses the W100's manual focus and zoom dials. Also on top of the projector are its main controls, which are arranged in a nice rectangular grid decked out with silver buttons. You'll find buttons for power, aspect ratio, source and auto there, as well as mode/menu buttons.
The back of the unit is similarly neatly laid out. All of the W100's connectors are arranged in a straight line across the back of the projector, while the power input is located on the bottom right side. Height adjustment options are fairly basic for the W100 -- there are adjustable feet at the back and front of the projector, with the front one only raising the unit by a few centimetres.
Overall, the BenQ W100 sports decent but uninspiring looks, with its front and side grille design making it look somewhat old-fashioned. Still, it certainly won't clash with anything you already may have in your home theatre ensemble.
Features
The specs of the W100 may seem basic compared to most other projectors, but for something in this extremely low price range it represents decent value. The W100 is a single chip DLP projector with a WVGA native 16:9 resolution (854x480) -- that makes it a fairly low res screen, but the projector does have the ability to display up to 1080i images. The W100 uses a seven segment colour wheel, and can project an image of up to 160-inches wide (with a throw of 53-inches at two metres). Other image specs include a fairly impressive 2500:1 contrast ratio and 1300 ANSI lumens brightness.
Connections are a little light on the ground, however. The W100 only has two components, one DVI, one composite and one S-Video -- there's no HDMI in sight, sadly. The W100's 200W lamp is rated at 4000 hours life, a built-in two-watt speaker and is reasonably quiet at 29/25dB noise level (normal/economy mode). One neat feature we liked was the W100's digital keystone correction. Using buttons located on top of the unit, adjusting the image keystone was an absolute breeze. And speaking of breezes, the BenQ features front ventilation, which means that the exhaust blows out the front of the unit and not through the back or sides. This makes it more comfortable for any viewers who may be sitting behind or to the side of the projector.
Performance
Setting up the W100 is quite simple and shouldn't pose any problems for most consumers. It's an easy matter of connecting the projector to the appropriate source, adjusting zoom and focus using the manual controls of top of the unit and digitally adjusting any keystone issues. The W100 features some preset image levels depending on your tastes, such as home theatre, cinema, family room and gaming -- these mainly seem to bump up the brightness level of the screen image.
Image quality was good for the most part. As you'd expect from a DLP unit, blacks were quite impressive. Watching the night bug attack sequence in Constantine bought up great detail in star Keanu Reeve's wet jacket and hair. Colours, however, didn't fare so well. The W100 seemed to produce fairly flat colours -- the opening scenes in 1920s New York in Peter Jackson's King Kong looked devoid of vibrant colours, such as the usually bright yellow taxis. But this didn't detract too much off the final image, which was crisp and watchable at most times. One word of warning, however -- while this reviewer isn't prone to seeing the "rainbow effect" on DLP screens, several other CNET.com.au editors did see rainbows appearing often.
While the BenQW100 doesn't sport some of the features and functionality of other home theatre projectors, it does come in at a very attractive price. Those looking at taking their first step into projector-ownership but don't want to spend too much money will do well to consider the BenQ W100.
More comments... 11 - 11