The ViewSonic M1 is a stylish pocket gaming projector featuring dual 3.0 watt Harman Kardon speakers for impressive audio on-the-go. This single-chip DLP projector operates with an LED light source for an outstanding lamp-life of 30,000 hours. ViewSonic claims 250 lumens when plugged in, and a battery life of between four and six hours depending on usage.

The M1 utilizes WVGA resolution (854 x 480) and has a fixed focal length, which is typical among pocket projectors. This is the only pocket or ultra-portable projector currently offered by ViewSonic, and for a list price of $337, it’s pretty good! While this projector is compatible with 1080p, it’s important to remember that this is not an HD projector, but rather, one that sports the same resolution as DVD.

The ViewSonic M1 has many uses with its capable onboard file browser and media player. It offers 16GB of internal storage, as well as HDMI, USB-A, USB-C, and will even accept MicroSD cards. This is a home entertainment projector, intended for the casual gamer, for watching movies, sports, streaming video and sharing photos, but can also be used in small conference rooms for business applications. The built-in stand and 360 degree projection lends to its versatility and portability. This projector is currently the least-bright offered by ViewSonic, but is still a lot of fun in a dark room and in the evening hours.

The ViewSonic M1 is a small pocket projector that weighs just 1.5 lbs, and measures only 1.6 inches high, 5.8 inches wide and 5 inches deep. It looks just like a portable speaker and can easily be tucked into a gaming console’s carrying case or laptop bag, and comes with a protective case of its own.

Some would refer to the M1 as a Pico projector, but we usually think of “Pico” projectors as the “super-small, literally fit-in-your-pocket” type projectors, weighing in at less than a pound.  Unless you are still wearing cargo pants (I guess they’re making a comeback?) you’re not going to fit many of the so-called “pocket” projectors in your actual pocket. We tend to think of “pocket” projectors as a step between the teensy-weensy picos and the approximately 5lb portable projectors.

While the ViewSonic M1 is intended for home entertainment, its portability and sleek design may make it attractive to someone who needs to make their presentations on the go; and the size makes it that much smaller when packing for business trips – a definite plus for “road warriors” who travel for their presentations. You will find examples of this projector’s text and presentation quality later in the review, as well as comments on video and audio quality.

This unit is a fun choice for LAN parties (do kids still do that?) or for those just getting into projectors, looking for a larger screen in their dorm room or living room, but don’t want to make the dive into an actual home theater projector or more expensive home entertainment projector just yet.

This ViewSonic boast a pair of 3.0 watt Harman Kardon speakers for impressive, room-filling sound. Short of needing to fill a large hall with audio, which you shouldn’t be using a 250 lumen rated projector for anyway, you will not need external speakers. If you do find yourself needing to hook-up external speakers, there is an Audio Out mini-jack for that!

While I expect most folks using such a projector would be simply projecting on a wall or ceiling, there are some good screens available on the market that are quite portable. In fact, all the photos in this review featuring images projected by the ViewSonic M1 were done so on the On-The-Go Screens Go-90 90 inch portable screen, which retails for less than $100, and can either be wall mounted or stand on its own tripod.

The ViewSonic M1 is a DLP projector with an LED light source, offering a life of 30,000 hours, and a contrast ratio of 12,000:1. There is a built-in file browser and media player, and 16GB of onboard storage. There are inputs for HDMI devices, USB storage devices, USB-C support for smart devices, and a MicroSD card reader built in. In other words, there is plenty of storage and connections for just about any media one would expect to play back on such a unit.

Optoma unveiled the UHL55 at CEDIA 2018 earlier this month. The projector follows in the footsteps of their first smart projector, the Optoma UHD51A, with its Alexa Voice Control function integrated into the projector itself. The Optoma UHL55, also 4K, has a unique, compact design that makes it a great addition for smaller spaces, and a great conversation piece due to its shape and style of the chassis.

Before we get into it – what is a First Look Review? Our First Look Reviews are one-page, simple reviews based on the projector’s specs, features, and our thoughts based on those aspects, before we get the projector in for review – these First Looks are a mixture of insight and common sense. We won’t know if the projector lives up to our expectations until we get it in for testing, but we can make assumptions from what we know about similar projectors from the manufacturers, in addition to those specs/features. Now, on with our First Look Review of the Optoma UHL55!

The Optoma UHL55 is a $1,599, 4K UHD projector with built-in smarts – but more on that in the Special Features section. With a claim of 1,500 lumens, this isn’t a projector for your bright room, but has enough brightness to deal with some modest to moderate ambient light. It will do well in a dedicated home theater or cave, or in media rooms and living rooms where there is at least some control over ambient light. My own living room is pretty bright, and I installed blackout curtains so that I could review business and education projectors during the day.

These curtains have proven their worth time and time again with business and education projectors, and when I got my own home theater projector. When I got my Epson Home Cinema 5040UB (which, when calibrated, has 1,115 lumens in Bright Cinema Mode), though the projector can deal with some ambient light on all but the darkest scenes, the projector is really meant for more of a dedicated home theater than a living room – and those curtains have come in really handy. Moral of the story? If you find that the 1,500 lumens isn’t enough for your ambient light conditions, there are always workarounds.

The Optoma UHL55 is a single chip DLP projector with an RGBB LED light engine that boasts a lifetime of 20,000 to 30,000 hours. That’ll give you about a decade or so of viewing, but you’ll be replacing your UHL55 with an 8K projector far before that light engine goes out. The projector has a high contrast ratio of 250,000:1, but we tend to judge projectors on their black level performance rather than go by these manufacturer claims. At just 8.6” in length and width, 5.3” tall, and 8.7 pounds, the Optoma UHL55 is a compact projector that can be taken outside for a movie night, moved from room to room, or used in relatively tight spaces.

The Optoma UHL55 has a host of special features that make the projector one of the smartest around, perhaps with the exception of the recently reviewed LG HU80KA (though that is about twice the price). The UHL55 has an android operating system with a 4K UHD media player, smart TV apps (like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, I’m assuming), as well as downloadable content from the Optoma Marketplace App Store.

The Optoma UHL55 has a simple back panel for the inputs and connectors. It features an audio jack, a S/PDIF input (Sony/Philips Digital Interface), two HDMIs, a USB 2.0 and 3.0, the standard RJ-45 connector for Local Area Networking, and a DC In port. The control panel is on the top, positioned in a straight line at the front edge of the projector, and consists of only a power switch, a focus button, volume buttons, and a button for connecting Bluetooth audio sources.

Overall, the Optoma UHL55 seems to be a great new addition to the Optoma line of 4K UHD projectors. It appears to be a definite improvement over the UHD51A, though we won’t be able to officially comment on that until we get one of these in for review – hopefully, the UHL55 makes the cut and ends up in our queue. If we do get it in for review, we’ll be able to assess its picture quality and performance in detail. Until then, we can assume it’ll be similar to the Optoma UHD51A, which we reviewed earlier this year.

I started on this HT9050 LED home theater projector review shortly after determining that it would make a better review than its slightly-less-expensive lamp version, the HT8050. The HT9050 is a $8995 MSRP, medium-large home theater projector using TI’s 4K UHD DLP chip. While not what I call true 4K, this BenQ produces an exceptionally sharp image, thanks to the native 2716 x 1528 x2 pixel shifting resolution that puts 8.3 million (partially overlapping) pixels on your screen.

But, with several far less expensive 4K UHD projectors out there now, or shipping soon, for the home market, including those from Optoma, Acer, and Vivitek, the standout feature of the HT9050 is its long-life LED solid state light engine.

I started out with the less expensive HT8050, had it calibrated, and even wrote the first page before I became aware that the HT9050 would only be a grand more. From a practical standpoint, just the savings of not needing to buy replacement lamps pretty much justifies the cost difference. But there’s more to it than that.

This BenQ HT9050 is interesting in another way. Unlike the HT8050, the HT9050 supports BT.2020 color space, or, as it is often described, since no one can do the full BT.2020 – that it does DCI-P3 – the movie theater standard - in a “BT.2020 wrapper.”  P3 is a little less challenging and within the capabilities of the HT9050, thanks to that solid state light engine. It’s the lamp based projectors – compared to LED or Laser projectors – that have the least ability to do the larger color space and their more intense colors. Most lamp based projectors are limited to only about 80% of target, so colors won’t be quite as rich or varied.

Just so you know, the BenQ HT9050, despite being a pre-production unit, was the last projector considered in our late August annual 2017 Best Home Theater Projectors Report. Despite my being so slammed after the report, between attending the CEDIA show (seeing a whole host of new HT projectors) and launching the latest version of ProjectorReviews.com, it took me a full month to write this up. Sorry about that!

Although this BenQ is a very capable projector, one capability is surprisingly missing.  The HT9050, like the HT8050, lacks support for HDR – High Dynamic Range, even though, as mentioned, it does support the wider color space normally associated with 4K capable projectors. That lack of HDR pretty much cost the HT9050 a shot at one of the awards in our report, where 4K capabilities are important.

That said, viewing the HT9050 proved to be an interesting, and overall enjoyable experience. We’ll talk later about how the lack of HDR affects the picture, and how the HT9050 differs in terms of picture from the other 4K capable projectors we’ve reviewed.

Placement flexibility, I should note here, is extremely good. A 1.5:1 manual zoom lens seems to be especially good optics. And, there’s plenty of lens shift, both vertical and horizontal, which definitely separates it from the lower cost 4K UHD DLP projectors!

And, for those of us who are rainbow sensitive (due to the spinning color wheel), here’s one thing about BenQ – it seems at any price point, they tend to put in the fastest color wheel around compared to the competition. I’ll discuss RBE (RainBow Effect) more in the Special Features section of this projector review.

Overall, the HT9050 is well endowed, with HDMIs and other inputs. Also of particular importance to note, the LED light engine has the pleasant benefit of making the HT9050 especially quiet compared to most other HT projectors. The noise specs aren’t that impressive – 31db and as low as 23 db (Silence mode), but my experience says it’s a good bit quieter, as other projectors in the low 30s db range are quoting overly optimistic noise levels. For example, at full power, it’s quite obviously a lot quieter than the Epson 5040UB at full power, yet that projector claims to be only 3 db quieter – a small difference!

We have posted our BenQ HT9050 Projector At A Glance video, which is an overview of the projector's features and some images/clips of the projector in action, with a few comments. This is not summary of this full in-depth review.