BenQ W1070+ projector review

A bargain Full HD beamer for your home cinema

BenQ W1070+
Low price and high-quality performance

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While we spend a lot of time talking about the great advances in TV technology, you've got to love the fact that quality 1080p projectors are now just as affordable as mainstream televisions.

You're not really going to replace your full-time screen for a beamer, but at this price a good projector can quickly give you a home cinema experience for chump change.

We liked

Compact and easy to travel with as well as being simple to set-up and use, the W1070+'s low price makes this is standout choice for all seasons and scenarios.

The wireless option is handy, but top of the list is the way the W1070+ deals with colour. The deep blacks and shadows of murky Lake-town in The Hobbit on Blu-ray contain plenty of fine detailing, while the brighter colours of the mountain lair are well saturated and help create depth-filled antics.

There are plenty of picture modes to experiment with, too.

The W1070+ gets about its business quietly, too; I measured its noise during a movie at a constant 53 decibels close-in to the projector, which is actually pretty quiet, and it was certainly never distracting.

We disliked

Though the BenQ W1070+ proved reasonably easy to set up, I much prefer more generous manual vertical and horizontal lens shift levers that other manufacturers include on their projectors, such as Epson.

Though it delivers decent 3D images, BenQ's active shutter specs are as unlikely to find buyers as the much pricer wireless kit.

Though the W1070+'s images are smooth and blur-free, during playback of The Hobbit I did spot plenty of horizontal judder during lingering camera pans, which were occasionally quite unpleasant to watch. Nor was the W1070+'s user interface impressive; it's too small on the screen and lacks any of the niceties of a smart TV, which, after all, is the W1070+'s main competition.

Verdict

The W1070+ is a great value projector both for occasional use or for a dedicated home cinema room. It lack a few niceties when it comes to ultimate picture processing and the user interface, but a touch of judder aside the W1070+ offers surprisingly refined and versatile images.

The 3D mode demands the buying of specs while the wireless kit is half the cost again of the W1070+. However, even without those two add-ons the W1070+'s combination of an easy set-up and colourful, clean Full HD images that impress even in ambient light make BenQ's latest a bargain beamer for all seasons.

If you're wondering whether to take the plunge and make a projector your go-to display for films and games, the W1070+ is a certainly bold and bright enough – and easily one of the best value entry-level projectors around.

Jamie Carter

Jamie is a freelance tech, travel and space journalist based in the UK. He’s been writing regularly for Techradar since it was launched in 2008 and also writes regularly for Forbes, The Telegraph, the South China Morning Post, Sky & Telescope and the Sky At Night magazine as well as other Future titles T3, Digital Camera World, All About Space and Space.com. He also edits two of his own websites, TravGear.com and WhenIsTheNextEclipse.com that reflect his obsession with travel gear and solar eclipse travel. He is the author of A Stargazing Program For Beginners (Springer, 2015),