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

The picture was fuzzy and would white out any type of oily skin (forehead)

I’m giving this a 1/5 until BenQ fixes the firmware issue that causes the projector to drop the source intermittently and at random. This is a known widespread issue.

In 7 months ownership I haven’t had any HDR due to it changing white colors to caution yellow, then about 2 months ago an area in bottom left quadrant got some dead pixels (solid white). The part that final pushed a review is today when it wouldn’t turn on at all! Green lights come on, but no lamp or fans follow. Seems to be a semi common issue with them. I always had it plugged into either a Monster or APC surge protector, and it projects on a 110” silver ticket 4K screen with all appropriate cables to fully enjoy this highly recommended projector. Part 2! Big piece of you know what!!! PERIOD!!! NO QUESTION ASKED!!! So the company did in fact replace the first hunk of junk, and the second just failed too. It has had burnt out pixels almost since the day I got the replacement, and today 06/07/22 I turn it on got zero screen, unplugged it, and the screen is there with about 70 decibel burnt out cooling fan freaking out. COMPLETE WASTE OF MONEY!!!!!!! I could if bought a Samsung or LG 75 inch 4K for the price this thing set me back, and I wouldn’t of had to warranty one, and have dead second one. Things work great for a few months then practically self destruct. So now I have a 110” wall mount screen, 120” portable screen, wall/ceiling mount, and mobile adjustable stand that don’t do me now good for anything. Glad I bought a 65” LG C1 Black Friday 2021 for the bedroom it’s better gift games anyways.

Awesome projector with great image. It also has plenty of features that the more expensive projectors have.

Just a thing of beauty. Fantastic picture that keeps blowing me away.

The picture doesn’t do it justice! The sharpness of the image and the sound is fantastic! We just plugged in our Roku and it was ready to play! We can’t turn the volume all the way up cause it’s too loud. It’s the perfect projector for our home theater room!

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.

The picture quality is outstanding, not just for the money but for any projector. In a dedicated room with a proper screen and light control it will rival anything you could see at your local digital theater. The colors are unbelievably vivid and the image is very sharp. There are several preconfigured modes, two of which are calibrated at the factory to meet 100% of Rec 709 and 96% of DCI P3. The only issue I had was that the HDR mode wasn’t calibrated at all and all the faces looked like something out Charlie and the Chocolate factory. Inspecting the color manager I found all the settings set to 200. I matched the color manager settings to the calibrated D. Cinema mode and it now has a more color accurate HDR image than my calibrated P Series Vizio LED TV. The bright HDR highlights of the projector can’t match the TV but in a light controlled theater room it looks amazing. Interstellar on UHD BD looks like looking through a window. The Dynamic Iris really brings out the details in dark HDR programs like Ozark in a way that I would say is almost equal to the local dimming of my LED TV. Now your experience will very greatly on your own setup. I have a dedicated room with .5 gain grey walls and ceiling and a 100” 1.0 gain grey screen. I sit about 9’ from the screen. I run it in Eco in all modes except HDR where it needs Normal to give full effect, and Smart Eco in Vivid which is bright enough for sports with the room lights at 20% This was a direct replacement for the HT2050 and it fit my setup without modification.

Im very pleased. I watched a few video reviews before purchasing this projector and I like it even better than the reviewers did. To my eyes the lamp brightness is more than adequate for a dark room even when using the wide color gamut. If youre a gamer, the input lag is only going to be a problem if youre playing competitive multiplayer or if you play a lot of twitchy reflex games where every millisecond counts. I was playing GTA5 (by myself) last night and I didnt notice the lag while playing. 4k hdr movies with wide color gamut turned on are beautiful, I watched The Revenant recently and all those outdoor scenes really popped.

This is a great buy for the money. Its not the brightest projector, but in a truly dark room it cant be beat at this price point.