BenQ W10000

By Philip Wong, CNET Asia
Mar 30, 2007

Early last year, we had an up close and personal encounter with BenQ's ex-flagship home theater projector, the PE8720. Not only was it the most affordable 720p DLP back then, the pretty beamer also garnered an Editors' Choice for putting on a stellar performance.

This competent light cannon has since been superseded by the Computex 2006-announced W10000. The initial enthusiasm of this step-up 1080p model may have died down after long months of shipping delay. Nonetheless, we are glad it's finally heading our way at a hard-to-resist price tag. Looks like the long wait was worth it afterall.

Design
The W10000 once again bears the signature hallmarks of the Taiwanese company's home theater projectors. Decked out in glossy white and augmented with matt-silver trimming, it is easily one of the prettiest 1080p models out in the market. The subtle hues should also blend seamlessly with most home decor, especially for users planning a space-saving ceiling mount. That said, we would definitely suggest the services of a professional installer for this matter, taking into consideration the enormous 492 x 393 x 195mm bulk and a back-breaking 9.5kg weight.

Taking center stage on the front is an oversized zoom lens, flanked by exhaust vents on both sides. The top is where you will find all the non-lit buttons for the motorized adjustments, video input and miscellaneous controls, while the right houses a removable perforated panel concealing the user-replaceable dust filter. To facilitate a tabletop setup, there are also not two but four height-adjustable feet to balance out uneven ground and carpeting. Last but not least, a bundled cable panel cover can be deployed on the rear to keep the messy cords and cables out of sight.

	A matching remote with lots of handy dedicated controls. (Click for larger image)

The iPod-inspired styling is also obviously extended to its matching remote controller. This lights up in contrasting red and comes loaded with just about every imaginable dedicated keys for hassle-free one-touch operation. Most notable among the lot are the six video inputs and ISF day- and night-calibrated picture modes. Taking everything into consideration, including its excellent ergonomics, this is an almost perfect implementation that is lacking only in one area--a backlighting system that requires manual activation.

The now-familiar BenQ display menu has also made a comeback for this new model. Well-structured and intuitive, it puts almost full control of the electronics at the users' finger tips with a balanced selection of basic and advanced configurations. Here, we counted no less than 50 controls nested within five submenus plus two built-in test patterns. Most notable is the Color Gain and Offset that allows indepth video calibration using our new SpyderTV Pro. That's besides a manual iris adjustment to customize light output for enhanced contrast.

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