By Christopher David
ViewSonic’s X100-4K+ is its latest offering in the 4k projector segment. A 2,900 LED Lumens 4K UHD home cinema projector has all that is needed out of a home cinema projector. With 2nd generation LED technology, this is a brilliant option for a home cinema projection environment. With the theatres being shut in most parts of the world, the timing of the launch couldn’t have been more apt.
Got a chance to use it and test it out and let me tell you, the X100-4K+ comes with quite a few good features that actually enhance your viewing experience. This is impressive all the way.
Let’s check out some of the features.
True 4K UHD visual experience – The visual experience is surely brilliant. Viewsonic promises 4x the clarity of Full HD, it does work most times without distortions while gaming, watching sports etc. A movie experience is much better than a television if placement and watching angles are maintained during setup. With 8.3 million pixels projection on your screen, the projector will do justice to all 4K movies, games, sports and streaming content. In case you are a gaming enthusiast, you are surely in for a great experience with the quality of the picture and with no noticeable distortions. Also, this supports 3d pictures as well, so if you have 3d glasses, you will be able to watch 3D content too. The X100-4K+ also features Frame Interpolation technology, which reduces motion blur and makes for smooth delivery of fast-moving images. So, action movies and games with faster frames run quite smooth.
Cinema SuperColor+™ Technology with 125% Rec.709 – With ViewSonic’s proprietary SuperColor™ Technology that displays a wide color range, both your bright and dark color environments will be quite clear without image quality being sacrificed. With ISF certified color calibration tools, you can set colors on the X100-4K+ as per your viewing pleasure. Also, there are certified technicians who can set best colors for your home set-up while installation.
2nd Generation LED Technology with 30,000 Hours Lifespan – With 30K hours lifespan, you can watch your favorite content for 4hours a day for more than 20 years. With 2900 LED Lumens, you get 2nd generation enhanced brightness, in turn enhancing your viewing pleasure with bright and colorful 4k images. A longer lifespan for the X100-4K is because it’s an LED projector and is lamp free. Projectors with lamps cannot even come close to this kind of a lifespan as typical lamps would last for up to 5000 hours max. Also, Viewsonic promises an eco-friendly approach with the X100-4K with no harmful mercury used in the product.
Wide H/V lens shift for flexible installation – One of the best features would be the manual lens shift for better adjustments on the projection area. You can shift the lens vertically and horizontally via switches made on the top of the projector, secured under a plastic flap. Shift range can be adjusted to (H: +/- 25%, V: +65%). You can adjust the location of the projected image without moving the projector – so even while mounting the projector, you really don’t need to make any unnecessary changes to your interior design as well.
Extremely low fan noise (20 dB) ensuring pure viewing – If you have been around projectors in office, home or even in theatres, you would have definitely noticed a sound while it’s in action. Viewsonic promises extremely low noise of less than 20 db and while using the projector you actually will not notice any prominent sound from the projector itself. The secret lies in the ultra-silent cooling fans’ efficient hyper-cooling with minimal vibration.
Dynamic Black On/Off – This feature is super helpful for darker environments/scenes or pictures. Dynamic Black technology automatically examines and provides customized high contrast performance according to the brightness level of different scenes. So, your darker scene details will improve immensely with this feature/tech.
Sound – the X100-4K+ sports built-in dual Theatre-Level Harman Kardon Speakers and it goes without saying that the sound experience will be awesome. If you do not want to invest in a home theatre instantly, you are more than covered. The sound is powerful, clear and at 50% capacity it was more than enough for a 800 sq.ft room while watching a cricket match.
Connectivity – The X100-4K+ comes with four HDMI 2.0 / HDCP 2.2 ports, providing more-than-enough connectivity to increase the flexibility of your entertainment experience, as well as ensuring your access to original 4K quality content. You can mirror your phone easily in couple of steps with the projector and display content from your phone to the big screen. The projector supports latest voice activation services so you can use voice control for Alexa & Google Assistant as well. The X100-4K+ also comes along with a remote control for easy access, the center of which sports a calibration wheel for easy navigation. Also, in dark environments, the remote buttons will be lit up so you don’t need to search for controls in the dark. You can connect the projector easily to your home/office Wi-Fi and basic and advanced settings are available to control how your want your projector to behave or be placed. Also, the X100-4K+ comes with an inbuilt app store (Aptoide) which will have some basic apps installed and some you can still download based on availability. You can also use your phone as a remote control for the projector, simply download the vCastSender app on your phone to initiate this. You will need to be connected to the same Wi-Fi network as your projector to be able to pair them both, post which you can use your phone as a remote for the X100-4K+
Should you buy it? – Definitely worth it, for the brilliant features and tech under the hood. Good 4K images, clarity, noise control, sound, wide lens shift/adjustments options, theater level speakers, lamp free. Also, this will be a good fit if you want to mount it for projection.
Cons – Not many noticeable cons, but this is a huge projector. If you are not mounting this to the roof, then the placement can be hard and might require additional furniture to hold it.