Projectors have for long scored over television sets in terms of the sheer display of real estate that you can get. The Sony Bravia A8F, for instance, is priced at ₹3,29,900 for the 55-inch set and ₹4,49,900 for the 65-inch one. In comparison, The BenQ TK800 is priced at ₹1,99,000 and gets you 120-inches from a distance of around 4 feet.
Sound tech: While there is still a dearth of 4K broadcast content over cable TV and direct-to-home (DTH) platforms, you can subscribe to streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon Video and get an extensive collection of 4K content—a lot of which is also high dynamic range (HDR) compatible for even better contrast and visual detailing. It’s for this audience that the BenQ TK800 is perhaps an integral part of the home theatre set-up. It supports resolutions up to 4K (3,840x2,160), supports HDR10 content and has good brightness levels rated at 3,000 ANSI lumens. This projector runs on Texas Instruments’ DLP XPR Technology. It relies on pixel shifting, where the sensor moves half a pixel width, allowing the algorithms to process overlapping data. This adds to the overall resolution, clarity and data that makes up the final visuals. It does not rival an authentic 4K image, but for movies and TV shows, your eyes will hardly be able to detect the difference.
Display: The projector does a good job on brightness, too—even in a room with the afternoon summer sunlight streaming in. You need to tweak the display settings to get the best balance between warmth and intensity of colours.
The lamp life, though, is just 4,000 hours in standard mode— much lower than a lot of BenQ’s own projectors. You can double that in the SmartEco mode.
In sum: The BenQ TK800 offers great value for an immersive TV, movie or sports viewing experience. It may not match flagship OLED TVs on all counts, but with its huge screen, the TK800 is an ideal alternative to the idiot box.