BenQ TK850i True 4K HDR-PRO Smart Home Entertainment Projector powered by Android TV | 3000 Lumens | 98% Rec.709 | Lens shift & Keystone for Easy Setup | 3D Projector for Binge Watchers and Sports

I have wanted a projector for a long time, and finally was able to get one. I did a lot of research, and i really loved hat i had read about this one. This projector is great. It is a 1080 projector with pixel shifting, so they can call it 4k. It supports HDR and has a wide color range. The latest firmware added ARC. Projector also supports 3d if thats your thing, I had a passive 3dtv that i thought was good, this is fantastic!!! Its really what 3d should be. I have watch a few 4k movies on it and it puts out a beautiful picture. I have also watch a lot blu-ray movies and it up converts great. What was my real surprise was watching old tv shows that were of not great quality. I feared seeing it blown up on a 110 screen was going to make it impossible to enjoy, and i am glad I was wrong. It even made old Andy Griffith shows look great. Now i am not going to lie, mounting this was not fun. Where it mounts, it is not flush, so you have to be pretty creative with the mounting bracket you use. If you choose not to mount it and just have it on a table, you should have no worries. You really need to read the mounting instructions well though, and make sure you have the room to do it. This is a shorter throw projector, so you can get a 110 screen from a little over 8ft away, but i wish i would have went with a 100 because of the room. If you follow the instructions even an idiot with no experience or confidence in doing anything like this can do it pretty well. It just make take a little longer than a professional. Dont let the price fool you, you are getting a high end projector in the BenQ th3550. This projector is beautiful in a dark room, and still looks good in low light, or light not directly on it. In a bright room its going to look washed out. Benq has the TK850 projector that is better in more light, so if you cant control your lighting that maybe better for you, but if you can control your lighting, again you cannot get better than this.

This is my first projector and after looking at all of the different options, I figured this was the one to go with. Its been said that this projector resolved lot of the first generation projector problems so not having to deal with some of those quirks is always a positive. In any case, this projector was MUCH better than I had expected. Im just projecting on a wall and it looked so good that Im debating to whether to even a buy screen for it or not! Eventually ill get the screen but its not by any means an urgent need for me. I honestly cant tell whether im watching a TV or projector. Of course the room does need to be dark (some light is still acceptable) but if you have good amount of ambient light then the picture will look washed out. Things i dont like: 1) Optical output is only outputting stereo sound. Not sure WTF BenQ was thinking here. I ended up buying a new receiver due to this. This was major let down for me and almost wanted to return this projector. But my old receiver was in need of update anyways so decided to fork the extra money for a new receiver. 2) Fan noise (when I had it on a table this was a bit loud but ever since mounting it on a wall, Ive noticed that its quieter than before). 3) Mounting - For some stupid reason, BenQ decided to not have a flat surface for the mount side so one of the screws is right next to the raised body. You can probably see it in the pics. In the end it still worked fine but for a company whos in this business for a while would have given some thought about this and made sure that the mounting side is completely flat. I used the Mount-It mount as it allowed for extension to drop the projector height. Things I LOVE: 1) Picture quality - Hands down just amazing out of the box and Ive only just watched 1080p content so far! Planning to connect 4k firestick this weekend to get an idea of how great this projector really is. 2) Has USB power port (2.5A at that) so that I can just power the firestick off that port. Works perfectly! I really havent played around with the different settings on the projector and frankly im afraid to just because its puts out damn good image right now. Make sure to measure the distance from the lens to the wall and also the height of the projector. I think BenQ has a good calculator for this but again difficult to use. However, the best way is to just use a ladder and put the projector on it to see how the image would look. I just zoomed out the image completely and made sure that I was satisfied with the minimum image size it projected. After that I just found a good mounting spot for the projector mount between 1 to 2 feet after that spot so that I can then zoom in to get image size I wanted on the wall. Id say go for it if youre debating to whether to get this as your first projector or not. I dont think Id ever consider buying large TVs if a projector in that setting could also work.

Excellent picture quality right out of the box. Can’t beat this level of quality at set price point. Overall very solid projector. You will not be disappointed.

Before buying this projector, i did do a lot of research. Criteria for buying this projector: 1. Price below $1700 2. 4K capability 3. HDR10 capability 4. HDCP support 5. Best for watching movies in dark room 6. Small Room With the above criteria in mind, i narrowed down to two projectors: The Optoma UHD60 and the Benq HT3550. Reason to choose Benq: 1. Projects 100 from 8.2ft so works in small room 2. Small footprint 3. HDR10 compatibility and the Rec 709 coverage. While the Optoma has better contrast ratio and higher lumens so in theory is a better projector but to watch movies i found the picture quality of Benq better. I did watch contents on both(not side by side). So far I am happy with my purchase and the picture quality has been really great. I watch Netflix HDR content and they are visually so appealing.

Allow me to start by saying that I had to return this projector. My theater room has a 1080 projector that does a good job but it bothered me that I got a much better picture on a low cost TV than I did in the theater room. After reading a lot of reviews and matching products with my budget I settled on the HT3550. I set it up and the right half of the picture had about 10 vertical lines; it was like watching a movie from a prison cell. I called BenQ and, much to my surprise, they answered the phone quickly and the support rep asked a few questions, had me try some things, and then finally concluded that it was them and not me. I played with it for a few hours and tried to ignore the obvious glitch. The colors and the sharpness were much better than my 8 year old Panasonic 1080 projector but still not as good as the 4K picture I get on my LG OLED television (no, I didnt expect it to be that good). But, I keep asking myself whether the picture improvement was worth the money. Im still undecided so I havent ordered a replacement. If I was setting up a new home theater, this would be a no-brainer. But as a replacement for a working 1080 projector? Ill get back to you.

Only real dislike is that superimposed images and information, still or scrollng are jittery and it really annoys me. If is audition a 4k projector that does not do this then I will buy it if the price is not ridiculous. This may not be the fault of the 3550 but the broadcaster, that is to be determined.

It even plays my older 1080p 3D movies w/ 3D glasses. Couldnt be happier :)

Let me start saying that this is my first BenQ projector and my overall experience so far has been super great. I’m not a professional video calibrator, not a videophile guy, but when it comes to technology, I like to spend my hard earned money wisely. Before I made my decision to buy this 4K projector, I spend hours of research on different brands and models from Sony, Optoma and Epson. It was a tough decision, since I had to take a lot of considerations, like my room size, screen material, lightning, picture quality and must important, value. This is a $1,500 4K DLP projector but what make it so special is that BenQ was able to put so many features and great performance in a complete “affordable” package. Now let’s move on to some of the specs and performance. Build Quality & Remote Control The BenQ HT3550 weights around 12lbs and is 15in x 10in. x 5in. It has a beautiful bronze color on the front and back of the unit and the rest is pure white. What I like about this unit is the size, is not to big and has a nice weight and rounded shape. The remote control is fully backlit and it has a nice weight and feel on your hand. The buttons are well placed and they have a nice click sound when pressed. On the back of the unit are (2) HDMI 2.0, (1) Service USB, Ethernet port and (1) USB for media files which also you can use it for the firmware updates. 2000 Lumens Yeah, let me be clear, this projector is designed for rooms that have complete light control. If your looking to watch movies during the day with some ambient light I suggest go for the BenQ TK850, it has all the same great features of the HT3550 minus the Wide Color Gamut in favor of a 3,000 lumens lamp. However, the expense of light output in this projector is compensated with very well calibrated colors and great contrast out of the box. The best mode to watch movies isCinema. On this mode the projector has the best light output, fallowed by Vivid TV“ for watching cable programming and sports. The other setting is Dark Cinema which engage the Wide Color Gamut but it dims the picture by 10%, however you will get more spectrum color depending how well you calibrate this unit. I found that this unit unit has a very good light output with 100 & 120 inches screens, however with bigger screen I think some users may prefer to go with a more higher lumens projector. 4K - (Pixel Shift) First, this is not a native 4K projector, inside the HT3550 is a Texas Instruments 0.47” new DLP XPR 4K UHD chip which has a physical mirror matrix of 1920 x 1080. It uses 4-phase pixel shifting to create 8.3 million pixels. This is a cheaper but effective way to produce a 4K resolution that it makes difficult to the human eye to distinguish a true native 4K vs. 4K pixel shift picture (also known as Faux-K to others). This technology began with JVCs introduction of pixel shifting in 2013 and since then it has spark controversy among consumers and videophiles purists. But I’m not gonna talk about this topic, it just to give you an idea of what it is. HDR + Dynamic Iris + Tone Mapping These are some of the best solid features of the HT3550. Thanks to the Dynamic Iris and software tone mapping the HT3550 is capable to produce awesome black and white levels, it has a contrast ratio of 30,000:1. As today, this is the only projector under $2K that has Dynamic Iris at this price range. The HDR performance on this projector is super great, all Marvel movies on Disney + looks awesome with really deep blacks and rich colors. For me, HDR is the secret sauce to really enjoy 4K. The Dynamic Iris works very well, however I would have liked that the dynamic Iris would have been a bit faster. Sometimes you can see some light flickering as the DI tries to adapt, it feels a bit distracting but is not something that will not ruin your overall cinema experience. Sharpness This projector has a very good sharp image. It may not have the sharpness of other more expensive hi-end projectors like Sony and Epson but is very decent and clean. The firmware update (V1.0.5) that was release last December really help to improved some of the algorithms in favor of a more sharper picture. This was one area that some users were complaining and I think BenQ did a nice job with the fix. This projector supports 3D. While I do own a very small amount of 3D movies, I decided to give it a try for this review. So I popped in Avatar 3D into my Panasonic 4K player and I was really impressed on how good it performed. The image was sharp, “crosstalk” free, however, the projector dims the light output by 20%, it feels kind of bummer. TV Material Performance This in one area that I feel is bit of a mix bag. The projector does shine with 4K material, with HDR engaged looks simply awesome, but for 1080p material it will depend on which source your watching and how good and clean your getting that signal. Regular Blu-ray movies and streaming will look great, Netflix and Disney + are incredible to watch on this projector. On cable, I feel the projector falls a bit, and the reason I’m saying this is because you can see some jaggy images, however this will depend on how good your cable or satellite provider is and quality varíes from channel to channel. Sound The projector have good quality speakers. They are 5w each and deliver very good and clear dialogue even with the volume down. I think the best EQ sound mode is Cinema and for some reason it even sound better that the user mode. However the best way to go is with a sound-bar. The only thing I really missed is Bluetooth connectivity that helps to avoid long cable runs. Fan noise Ok, I have to admit that this projector is a bit noisy, in my room with a very quiet environment my SPL meter was reading from 26-28db. However, during movie sessions and with the air conditioner unit turn on, the noice is barely noticeable, This will also depend on how far the projector is from the sitting position. Wrap up The BenQ HT3550 is a great DLP projector. As today, it is hard to find a projector under $1,500 packed with so many features. In my opinion, it even rivals some projector that cost a lot more. In the end, I guarantee you won’t regret this buy.

This projector worked well in the small space I had and is bright given the fairly dark room. I think even in a bright room the picture would be fine. I updated the firmware and changed the settings to enable hdmi 1 to ARC from my sound bar. Excellent picture quality in 4K!

Brilliant Black Levels, Very short throw,Dynamic Iris is a very important add on. Lacking on Brightness. Does not support Dolby Digital/DTS Audio 5.1 on Digital Toshlink out. Ideal for small spaces but must have a for very Dark Room to enjoy. Overall its a Good Home Cinema projector.