BenQ W4100i 4K 4LED Home Theater Projector Review

The core concept behind BenQ's 4LED technology is combining standard red, green, and blue LEDs with an additional blue LED, along with a special phosphor layer that boosts green levels, resulting in increased overall brightness. In the case of the W4100i, BenQ can offer up to 3,200 lumens of brightness, which addresses the biggest complaint about LED projector light sources. Because of the 3,200 lumens, the W4100i works great in a range of environments from a dedicated home theater to a lights-on space like a living room.

BenQ completely seals the LED light engine on the W4100i, protecting delicate components along the entire light path from dust and dirt. Sealing the light source extends the estimated life of the W4100i’s light engine to a manufacturer-rated 30,000 hours compared to lamp-based systems that typically last 3,000 to 5,000 hours. Not only do LEDs last longer than lamps, but they also age better. UHP lamps typically experience rapid, then catastrophic, brightness drops, sometimes losing 25% of their brightness in the first few hundred hours. Eventually, the lamp fails, leading to a sudden, complete lamp blowout and requiring replacement. LEDs undergo gradual decay over their lifetimes, so brightness and color degrade slowly. LEDs look better, last longer, age better, and save you the hassle of having to replace a lamp multiple times over the projector's lifetime.

The core concept behind BenQ's 4LED technology is combining standard red, green, and blue LEDs with an additional blue LED, along with a special phosphor layer that boosts green levels, resulting in increased overall brightness. In the case of the W4100i, BenQ can offer up to 3,200 lumens of brightness, which addresses the biggest complaint about LED projector light sources. Because of the 3,200 lumens, the W4100i works great in a range of environments from a dedicated home theater to a lights-on space like a living room.

BenQ completely seals the LED light engine on the W4100i, protecting delicate components along the entire light path from dust and dirt. Sealing the light source extends the estimated life of the W4100i’s light engine to a manufacturer-rated 30,000 hours compared to lamp-based systems that typically last 3,000 to 5,000 hours. Not only do LEDs last longer than lamps, but they also age better. UHP lamps typically experience rapid, then catastrophic, brightness drops, sometimes losing 25% of their brightness in the first few hundred hours. Eventually, the lamp fails, leading to a sudden, complete lamp blowout and requiring replacement. LEDs undergo gradual decay over their lifetimes, so brightness and color degrade slowly. LEDs look better, last longer, age better, and save you the hassle of having to replace a lamp multiple times over the projector's lifetime.

The DLP (Digital Light Processing) imager used in the W4100i delivers what BenQ calls true 4K, displaying 8.3 million distinct pixels regardless of the number of native pixels on the DMD chip. This larger chip only has to double the DMD's native 2,716 x 1,528 pixels, unlike 0.47" DLP imagers that must quadruple 1,920 x 1,080 pixels to display 8.3 million pixels on the screen.

Whether you're watching movies or your favorite shows, BenQ's exclusive CinematicColor and HDR-PRO technologies should deliver accurate color reproduction and an exceptional brightness range in both bright and dark scenes. This is accomplished by leveraging BenQ's enhanced HDR tone-mapping via its DYNAMIC BLACK technology.

While most modern 4K DLP home projectors support HDR specs, BenQ goes much further with the W4100i, adding its Dynamic Black technologies to increase contrast and dynamic range in HDR mode.

The W4100i projector has a feature BenQ calls CinematicColor DCI-P3 technology, which is said to enhance on-screen colors. When the projector is in HDR mode, it is now possible to widen the color range from Rec.709 to 100% DCI-P3 by enabling the W4100i's brand-new Wide Color Gamut (WCG) option in the projector's ADVANCED PICTURE menu. WCG mode significantly impacts red and green tones, covering 67% of the BT.2020 standard. Compared to projectors that only support Rec.709, the W4100i can more closely map colors to the BT.2020 standard. This new BenQ projector should be able to reproduce colors with greater accuracy, creating lifelike, vibrant content.

Equipped with a Google-certified QS02 Android TV dongle, the W4100i provides users access to one of the largest Android TV content libraries available from the Google Play Store. With over 5,000 native apps. In addition, the W4100i's ability to wirelessly cast content allows you to display your favorite entertainment apps, movies, TV shows, music, games, sports, and more directly from your Android or iOS device, Mac, Chromebook, or Chrome browser.

BenQ includes full support for Netflix. This is the Netflix app without a customized launcher or sideloading an application.

The W4100i provides 1.3X zoom, 2D lens shift (vertical 0%-60% and horizontal ±15% max.), and 2D keystone correction for easy installation, setup, and operation even in a darkened room. This is going to be an exciting project to review.

The BenQ W4100i is almost identical to the older W4000i. In fact, it’s the same size, weight, and layout of I/O and controls. The BenQ W4100i measures 16.55" W x 5.32" H x 12.28" D (420.5 mm x 135.3 mm x 312.1 mm) and weighs 14.55 lbs. (6.59 Kg).

The projector offers a modern style like most BenQ projectors, with a blend of black and gray tones with a semi-gloss finish. Its darker color will stand out far less than cream or white projectors, helping it avoid acting as a reflection source.

Delta E, as a measure of grayscale/color accuracy of 3 and under, is considered 'Excellent' and imperceptible by the human eye. The W4100i white balance out of the box was outstanding, with an average deltaE of around 1.  This measurement is better than many more expensive projectors we have reviewed, even after those units had been calibrated.

Overall, the calibration confirmed that BenQ’s factory tuning is highly accurate and that further manual calibration provides only marginal visual improvement. The differences between the default CINEMA mode and the calibrated version were measurable but virtually indistinguishable to most viewers. The accuracy of the W4100i’s factory settings rivals that of many calibrated projectors.

Even though we're talking about a 4K projector, most of the broadcast content we watch (sports, news, and TV shows) will be produced in HD for years to come. The W4100i does a fantastic job upscaling 720p and 1080p content to the full 4K UHD. If you pull out an old DVD, the standard-definition image looks exactly as you'd expect on a 4K DLP projector… passable but not great.

Games originally designed for earlier consoles in standard or low HD resolution look surprisingly decent. The W4100i displays them without those distracting upscaling artifacts, though you do notice a bit of inevitable softness since the image is being blown up way past its native resolution. I tried an older golf game, and it looked quite good, even when stretched across a massive 110-inch screen.

When I jump into new games, I typically prefer to keep the projector locked into HDR mode. The overall boost in dark-area detail that HDR provides is hard to beat, especially in competitive titles. However, it's interesting to note that for proper theatrical movies, I actually prefer the W4100i's appearance when calibrated in SDR mode.

We usually spend most of our review time talking about the initial, out-of-the-box experience, but for a dedicated movie night, taking the time to set up that specific SDR profile definitely pays off.

The BenQ W4100i is a high-quality projector that incrementally builds on the older W4000i, while offering a noticeable step up in picture quality. The W4100i uses the same 3,200-lumen 4LED light source but, through processing, creates a picture that not only looks brighter but, based on my measurements, is brighter, measuring 3,893 lumens in my testing. This extra light, paired with the projector’s very accurate factory-tuned color, means you can get a great-looking image even if you’re watching in a room with some ambient light leaking in, without a significant sacrifice of color depth.

Another advantage of the W4100i’s 4LED light source is that you completely avoid the annoying laser speckle that many projectors using true RGB laser light sources can suffer from.

Due to the projector's larger 0.65-inch DLP sensors, there’s a noticeable improvement in image clarity compared to 0.47-inch projectors, in large part thanks to the 2-way XPR pixel-shifting technology. This advanced version of Texas Instruments XPR delivers smoother on-screen motion and reduces artifacts during busy scenes. Plus, BenQ's new AI-CINEMA modes analyze your video's scenes in real time, fine-tuning the projector's contrast and color settings to create a natural, balanced image. AI image processing on the W4100i works especially well with heavily compressed streaming media or poorly mastered video. If you prefer to manually dial in your image adjustments, you can easily switch this feature off.

Like many DLP projectors, the W4100i's biggest challenge is contrast. If you are a serious home cinema fanatic who prioritizes deep, inky LCoS-level blacks, this projector might not be for you. That said, through some very clever software, BenQ has made real strides in offsetting DLP’s inherent contrast and black-level limitations. HDR-PRO has been seriously overhauled and now integrates a new Global Contrast Enhancer right alongside the existing Local Contrast Enhancer, which does a solid job of boosting overall image depth. In addition, the Dynamic Black function's control range is much wider, modulating light output for finer adjustment in dark areas, perceptibly enhancing the subjective contrast impression. This dynamic tone mapping works across HDR10, HDR10+, and HLG. HDR-PRO prevents highlights from blowing out while retaining more detail in the shadows than even the impressive previous models' performance. That said, the obvious lack of Dolby Vision support is a real miss for BenQ, as many of its competitors offer both HDR10+ and Dolby Vision HDR.

For gamers, the W4100i is impressive, offering a respectable input lag lower than the previous W4000i’s, hitting 6.5ms at 1080p/240Hz and 17.9ms at 4K/60Hz. The projector features three (3) new HDMI 2.1 ports with ALLM, which automatically switches to low-latency mode when you fire up a compatible console like an Xbox 360 X or PlayStation 5.

If you are a fan of projecting large 3D video, BenQ continues to support 3D playback with a pair of compatible 3D glasses. The powerful 4LED output gives you a lot more brightness headroom in 3D mode than most older models, resulting in an immersive 3D experience, especially on a big screen.

The W4100i is a smart projector that comes with an Android TV dongle, offering many of the best Google smart streaming experiences. I would be lying if I didn’t express my disappointment at the lack of Google TV support, given that BenQ opted for an older, far less curated Android TV experience. On the plus side, BenQ seems to have addressed the menu navigation lag that has plagued their smart projectors for years in this new model.

Ultimately, the W4100i’s combination of 2X XPR pixel shifting, improved HDR processing, and wider contrast control results in a much brighter-looking, color-accurate image. If you bought the W4000i, you might need to carefully consider upgrading before rushing into it. However, if you own an older 4K projector, upgrading to the W4100i is likely a fantastic choice for your home theater. Even if inky black is a requirement, it can be dramatically improved by pairing it with a good contrast-enhancing screen.

Overall, the BenQ W4100i delivers impressive video quality and offers a range of features and settings to enhance your home entertainment experience.