Ricoh UHL3660 4K UST Professional Projector Review

The Ricoh UHL3660 features the company's OptiBright technology, which builds on the company's history of stacking multiple laser diodes and phosphor wheels. The UHL3660 utilizes two laser light sources and phosphor wheels, offering numerous advantages in picture quality and reliability.

OptiBright uses multiple laser diodes that are passed through a phosphor wheel to create a single, ultra-bright laser beam. Combining the light from two high-power laser diodes, the UHL3660 achieves a remarkable 6,500 lumens of manufacturer-rated brightness, enabling the projector to display a stunning picture even in well-lit environments such as lecture halls, boardrooms, museums, and retail spaces.

In addition to being exceptionally bright, the OptiBright light engine uses Ricoh's twin laser and phosphor combination technology, which combines the light from two laser light sources to enhance image stability and light source reliability. The redundant nature of this dual-laser diode system means that even if one laser diode should fail, the projector will continue to display your content without interruption, albeit at a reduced brightness. The dual-laser light source is also remarkably reliable, offering a guaranteed light source life of up to 20,000 hours in CONSTANT POWER mode, even when running 24/7, and up to 40,000 hours in LONG LIFE mode.

In addition to reliable brightness, the UHL3660 features a 5,000,000:1 contrast ratio. Like most professional displays, deep, rich cinematic blacks are not a primary focus of the UHL3660. Still, it performs better than most professional projectors in, and even above, its class.

When designing this unit, Ricoh's main focus was brightness and brilliant colors. The UHL3660 can display up to 1.07 billion on-screen colors, allowing for lifelike color reproduction that suits the environment's needs, particularly in spaces with uncontrolled ambient light sources. By home theater standards, it is not fantastically accurate color performance. Still, the UHL3660 displays more than enough color for the classrooms, boardrooms, trade shows, and event spaces for which this projector is designed.

The Ricoh UHL3660's HDR support enables a broader brightness range than non-HDR projectors, improving contrast and revealing more detail in dark and bright images. This HDR capability enables more accurate and vibrant color reproduction, enhancing realism in presentations and video content where color fidelity is crucial.

The UHL3660's HDR capability allows it to display a higher peak brightness than SDR content, preserving image clarity in rooms with large amounts of uncontrolled ambient light sources. Beyond displaying HDR-mastered entertainment content, this projector supports purpose-created HDR content for educational materials, retail displays, and event and museum exhibits, where accurate and impactful visuals will grab the customer’s attention where and when your client needs it.

The UHL3660 utilizes a large 0.65-inch Texas Instruments DLP DMD (Digital Micro-Mirror Device) with a native resolution of 1,920 x 1,080 pixels, which, when shifted in four directions, can produce a high-quality 4K UHD (3,840 x 2,160p) 16:9 on-screen image. This large format offers superior light gathering compared to the smaller 0.47-inch DLP chips used in many home theater ultra-short throw projectors and selected competitive pro models. The larger physical size of the 0.65-inch DMD also helps improve black levels and detail in dark areas compared to projectors using smaller DLP chips.

Professional projectors can find themselves being used in a wide range of venues, from indoor convention centers to outdoor settings. These environments can expose the projector’s delicate components to dust and other debris, potentially significantly reducing the projector's lifespan.

To combat this, Ricoh designed a sealed enclosure for the UHL3660's light engine. This design earned the projector an IP6X dustproof rating, meaning the light engine is fully protected, even in the most extreme dusty conditions. This protection is especially beneficial for rental fleets, where projectors are often used in challenging environments.

In the world of professional video production for tradeshows and events, time is money. The quicker you can install and set up your projector, the less money it will cost you, which is why professional projectors like the Ricoh UHL3660 offer a range of features designed to make this happen. The UHL3660 is capable of 360-degree installation, allowing the projector to be easily mounted at any angle from the ceiling, floor, or wall to suit your specific needs.

The projector also integrates smoothly into existing AV setups, thanks to its compatibility with Ricoh and third-party control systems. Its ultra-short 0.24 throw ratio enables it to project a large 160-inch image from a distance of less than 15 inches, making it ideal for conference rooms, classrooms, and digital signage. This close placement eliminates shadows caused by people walking between the projector and screen, maximizing display space.

The UHL3660 delivers sharp, vibrant images with 4K UHD resolution and HDR support, rendering details with clarity and accurate colors. It supports 16:9,16:10, and 4:3 aspect ratios. Connectivity is robust with HDMI 2.0 and HDBaseT, ensuring reliable signal transmission. Wireless projection via Miracast for Windows and Android simplifies content sharing.

Ricoh also provides a free projector management utility, allowing for remote control and monitoring of up to 100 Ricoh projectors. It utilizes PJLink protocols, allowing operators or network administrators to access real-time status and performance data and receive alerts.

For those requiring larger displays, two UHL3660 units can be seamlessly combined. The projector's built-in image correction technology simplifies multi-projection setups, eliminating the need for external hardware or specialized software.

The Ricoh UHL3660 is an ultra-short throw projector that, while larger and heavier than typical home theater models, is not much bigger. This increased size is logical, given its need to house two laser light sources with their phosphor wheels and a robust cooling system necessary for its powerful 6,500 lumens of brightness. I’ll get into noise in this review's PERFORMANCE, SOUND section, but know that I’ve reviewed home-based projectors that are louder than the UHL3660.

Measuring 20.87 inches wide, 18.5 inches deep, and 5.47 inches high (530 x 470 x 139 mm), the projector weighs 25.4 lbs (11.5 kg). Comparing it to the Nexigo Aurora Pro, a home video ultra-short throw projector I recently reviewed, the Ricoh professional model is an inch narrower and only two inches deeper. Remarkably, it weighs just three pounds more than the Nexigo.

As with all ultra-short throw projectors, the lens and sensor assembly are located on the top surface. The front panel, facing the audience, features an air intake and an exhaust port. Three indicator lights are positioned to be visible across the front and top of this panel. Adjacent to these lights is the projector's complete control panel, allowing technicians to fully configure and adjust the device directly, even without a remote control.

The projector's left side contains another air intake vent and the integrated three-speaker sound system. The bottom of the UHL3660 has five dedicated threaded mounting points, compatible with Ricoh and various third-party mounting solutions. Additionally, the projector features two adjustable feet, offering a maximum extension of 20 mm and a tilt of up to 3 degrees.

All input and output connections are situated on the right panel of the UHL3660. This area also houses a second cooling exhaust vent and the projector's comprehensive array of ports, including two RJ45 network connectors, two micro USB service ports, two USB Type-A ports (one providing power for external HDMI media devices), a nine-pin RS-232 port, two HDMI 2.0 inputs, and one HDMI 2.0 output.

While the projector has built-in WiFi, its functionality is limited. Consistent with many professional projectors, the UHL3660 is primarily designed for IP-based connection to external devices for command and control. However, Ricoh has included wireless screen mirroring via Miracast. Ricoh has also incorporated a recessed, covered compartment on the underside of the projector. This chamber can securely house various external devices, such as digital signage content modules, HDMI devices like Amazon Fire Stick-based signage players, and consumer HDMI sticks like Roku or Google TV. This design enables these devices to be neatly tucked inside the projector body rather than protruding or hanging down from it, which would make them potentially vulnerable.

The UHL3660 remote has many buttons organized into multiple sections. The top section contains buttons for POWER, entering the projector into ECO mode, and accessing all inputs, including WIFI and HDBASE-T sources. The middle section of the remote is where the standard navigation controls are located, and the INPUT, AV MUTE, PICTURE, and MENU quick access buttons are located on each of the D-Pad's four corners.

The last section is the projector’s number pad, where each button also serves as quick access to some of the projector's most commonly used functions, such as VOLUME, FOCUS, MAGNAFY, ASPECT, and DISTORTION (Image geometry), among others, as shown in the photo. I am glad that Ricoh has added volume buttons on the remote control.

The Ricoh UHL3660 offers a High Dynamic Range (HDR) mode, which significantly enhances the projector's contrast ratio, brightness, and color depth. HDR content provides a wider and more immersive tonal range than Standard Dynamic Range (SDR), providing deeper blacks and brighter highlights.

Ricoh allows adjustments to the projector's primary picture settings even while operating in HDR mode, enabling users to fine-tune the image quality to their preference and the specific content being displayed. The Ricoh UHL3660 is compatible with and can display encoded content in HDR10 and HLG (Hybrid Log-Gamma) formats, thereby providing support for a variety of HDR sources.

When displaying HDR content on the UHL3660, there was a noticeable improvement in the projector's reproduction of black and dark area details, leading to a more nuanced and detailed picture. This enhancement was particularly apparent when the projector was set to the NATURAL picture preset mode, suggesting that this mode is optimized for taking advantage of the benefits offered by HDR content.

The Ricoh UHL3660 is not the only ultra-short throw projector that has made its way into the professional space, but Ricoh sets itself apart from the rest of the category in several ways. In my testing, the UHL3660 is very bright, exceeding Ricoh's rated 6,500 lumens on brightness. This means the projector produces enough brightness to display a high-quality, colorful image, overcoming the challenging ambient light conditions that are typical of the spaces it is designed to work in.

Ricoh combines high brightness with a large 0.65-inch 4K (3,840 x 2,160p) DLP DMD (Digital Micromirror Device), with a native resolution of 1,920 x 1,080 pixels. Ricoh utilizes the long-established four-way shifting technology from Texas Instruments, known as XPR, to display 4K resolution on the screen. This advanced DLP chip offers several advantages over most of Ricoh’s competitors in the space.

Most of the competition uses lower resolution DLP sensors that max out at WUXGA (1,920 x 1,200 pixels) resolution. This means that the Ricoh can display almost four times (4x) the resolution of these WUXGA competitors. There are professional brands that offer 4K using a smaller 0.47-inch DLP sensor. However, the 0.65 DLP DMD provides significant advantages compared to professional projectors using the smaller one.

A 0.65-inch DMD provides improved contrast, resulting in better blacks. These larger sensors use larger mirrors, which shrinks the size of the gaps between the mirror, significantly reducing the screen door effect. This is a significant advantage, especially when projecting images as large as 160 inches.

A 0.65-inch DMD also has better light-handling capabilities, enabling this projector to fully utilize the brightness produced by its twin laser light sources. Along with higher brightness, the larger surface area of the 0.65-inch DMD offers improved heat dissipation, reducing the risk of sensor damage and contributing to the projector's durability, especially in use cases that require 24/7 operation in challenging environments.

As of this writing, no other 4K UST professional projector offers this combination of technology and performance for $6,000. I’m unaware of any Ricoh proprietary technology used to make this combination possible, so I can only assume that more projectors like this will be hitting the market soon. For now, the Ricoh UHL3660 is pretty much the only option available from an established projector brand.

The powerful combination of a 0.65-inch DMD, an ultra-bright 6,500-lumen laser light source, and 4K UHD resolution in an ultra-short throw form factor makes the Ricoh UHL3660 a compelling professional offering.

The projector's out-of-the-box color accuracy is commendable, and the inclusion of Natural Color Enhancement technology expands its capabilities to display a wider color gamut, approaching 87.8% of DCI-P3. This offers five well-tuned picture preset modes, providing out-of-the-box picture quality not typically found in high-brightness professional projectors. Ricoh further enhances usability with an advanced color management system, including adjusting wall color compensation, gamma, and black levels.

The UHL3660 offers numerous connectivity options, including dual HDMI 2.0 ports, an HDBaseT connection for long-distance content transmission, and command and control. Ricoh’s inclusion of both wired and wireless LAN capabilities makes network control easy. In addition, Ricoh has included dedicated HDMI and audio output ports alongside RS-232C and wired remote options, ensuring quick and painless integration with various AV setups and control systems.

While the UHL3660 features WiFi connectivity, its functionality is limited to Miracast and control functions. The UHL3660 is fully compatible and supports external devices, such as dongles, for casting, digital media players, and streaming devices used in digital signage and streaming applications. Ricoh has included a dedicated chamber at the bottom of the projector, designed to house compatible devices safely and securely.

The Ricoh UHL3660 is a highly interesting professional-grade, high-brightness, ultra-short throw 4K projector with excellent image quality. The projector’s ultra-short throw design makes it a fantastic solution for environments where space is at a premium and a large, impactful display is required.

The projector’s connectivity options, including dual HDMI, HDBaseT, and built-in Miracast, ensure compatibility with various sources and control systems. While the $6,000 MSRP might initially appear considerable, a closer look reveals the UHL3660's distinct advantages of brightness, resolution, color, and contrast quality compared to many competing professional models, making it an excellent option for businesses and educational institutions seeking a versatile and powerful projection solution.