BenQ LX60ST

The BenQ LX60ST is one of the first two projectors with BenQ's laser-based BlueCore light engine (the other being the higher-resolution LW61ST [[$1,950 street]]). That's enough to make it interesting even if you're not in the market for a new projector. It's also enough that if you are looking for a projector, you may be wondering whether the new technology is ready for prime time. The good news is that it is. And to allay any fears you might have about it, BenQ backs the light source, along with the rest of the projector, with a full three-year warranty.

The BlueCore engine isn't entirely new technology. It's similar to the laser side of the hybrid engine in Casio's projectors, including the Casio XJ-H1750 Pro Series for example. Where the Casio engine creates red and blue using LEDs, and adds green by shining laser light on a phosphor wheel, the BlueCore engine creates all three primary colors?red, green, and blue?using a laser and phosphor wheel, with different phosphors for each color.

Basics, Setup, and Connections
If you think of the LX60ST as a garden-variety DLP projector, but with a laser shining on a phosphor wheel instead of a lamp shining though color filters in a color wheel, you won't be far off. As with any DLP projector, for example, the native resolution comes from the LX60ST's DLP chip.

The XGA (1,024 by 768) resolution is the same as you'll find in the Epson PowerLite 1880 MultiMedia Projector and the Epson PowerLite 93+ , two Editors' Choices that are less expensive than the LX60ST and also far more portable. At 11.2 pounds, the LX60ST is best reserved for permanent installation or room-to-room portability on a cart.

That said, one advantage the LX60ST has over both Editors' Choice models is a short-throw lens, which lets you throw a large image even in a small room. For the 78-inch wide (98-inch diagonal) screen size I use for most testing, I only had to put the projector 49 inches from the screen, less than half the typical distance for standard-throw projectors.

Set up is standard for a short-throw projector, with a manual focus and no zoom. Image inputs on the back panel include the usual: VGA for a computer or component video plus HDMI, composite video, and S-Video ports. In addition, you can plug in a USB memory key to read files directly, or send data images over a wired LAN port or directly from PCs, Macs, iPhones, and iPads through the optional Wi-Fi adapter ($49 direct).

Brightness and Eco Modes
The 2,000-lumen rating for the LX60ST is a little low by today's standards. The PowerLite 1880, for example, has a 4,000-lumen ratin,g and even the far less expensive PowerLite 93+ claims 2,600 lumens. For any given level of image brightness, that means you have to settle for a slightly smaller image size than you could use with a brighter projector. As a point of reference, however, the LX60ST was easily bright enough for a 98-inch diagonal image to stand up to the ambient light in a typical classroom or conference room.

Also very much worth mention is that the LX60ST offers a wide range of brightness levels for the lamp, delivering both the ecological benefit of lower power use and the economic benefit of lower costs.

Most projectors offer a bright mode and one eco mode for lower brightness and power consumption. They also offer a choice of color presets that are meant primarily to adjust color, but also affect brightness without affecting power use. The LX60ST adds a Manual brightness mode with 15 settings. This gives you the advantage of being able to use the color presets strictly for picking the best color for the task at hand, and then adjust the brightness separately. The savings in power use can be substantial. I measured the brightest mode at 200 watts, the Economic mode at 104 watts, and the Manual mode at a range of from 82 to 200 watts.

Image Quality
You can count data image quality as one of the LX60ST's strengths. It did swimmingly on our standard suite of DisplayMate tests. Colors were fully saturated, and color balance was excellent, with suitably neutral grays across the entire range from black to white in most color presets. Images designed to bring out pixel jitter on analog connections were rock solid. And, as an important plus, it handled detail well, with both black on white and white on black text crisp and easily readable down to the smallest sizes we test with, at 6.7 points.

Video image quality is best described as usable, which is better than some data projectors can manage, but not by much. The most important issue is that colors were a little off, with the problem more obvious in some scenes than others. I also saw some posterization (shading changing suddenly where it should change gradually) and loss of shadow detail (details based on shading) in scenes that tend to bring out those problems.

The LX60ST also did relatively well on rainbow artifacts (with light areas on screen breaking up into little red-green-blue rainbows). These artifacts, are always a potential problem for DLP projectors, but are more of a problem for some than others. With the LX60ST, they hardly show up at all with data images. Even if you're sensitive to seeing them, they shouldn't be a problem.

With video, which tends to show rainbows more easily, the artifacts show up less frequently than with many DLP projectors, so that few people will consider them annoying. However, they show up often enough that anyone who sees them easily will likely find them bothersome in occasional scenes, particularly in black and white source material.

Other Issues
The projector also earns points for its audio system, with its two 10-watt mono speakers delivering reasonable quality audio at a high enough volume to fill a small to mid-size conference room or classroom. Less impressive is the 3D support. As with most 3D-ready data projectors, the LX60ST comes without glasses, which cost $70 or more each.

Very much worth mention is that the LX60ST offers more eco-friendly features than the Manual brightness mode I've already mentioned. The light source is mercury-free, the lens is made from arsenic-free, lead-free glass, the case is made from PVC-free, BFR-free plastic, and the packaging uses PVC-free plastic as well. Beyond that, the light source, with a 10,000 to 20,000 hour lifetime, is meant to last the life of the projector, which saves on carbon costs for transportation.

Finally, and not so incidentally, not having to buy replacement lamps can make the BenQ LX60ST cheaper in the long run than a less expensive projector with a new lamp needed every 2,000 hours at $200 or $300 per lamp. In short, the low running cost can make up for the high initial cost. And the overall balance of brightness, high-quality data images, usable video, eco-friendly features, and total cost of ownership makes the BenQ LX60ST a potentially attractive choice.

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