ViewSonic LX700-4K Review

Introduction

The ViewSonic LX700-4K is a single-chip 4K HDR DLP projector that uses a laser phosphor light source with a claimed maximum brightness of 3,500 ANSI lumens and 30,000-hour lifespan.

It supports HDR10, HLG and 3D for those looking for big screen immersion, while gamers will be delighted by 1440p/120Hz and 1080p/240Hz, along with a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it input lag of just 4.2ms. It’s competitively priced as well, but let’s see how it performs in testing.

Price

The ViewSonic LX700-4K is available now, and can be picked up for £1199 in the UK, $1599 in the US, €1699 in Europe, and AU$1999 in Australia. All these prices are very reasonable for a 4K HDR projector with a laser light source and extensive set of features, especially in the UK.

Design

• Compact white chassis
• 2 x HDMI 2.0 inputs
• Remote control

The ViewSonic LX700-4K sports a design that’s a step-up from the usual DLP projector at this end of the market with a compact and well-made chassis finished in white. The lens is offset to right with air vents at the sides and rear, while above the lens are manual zoom, shift and focus controls At the top rear you’ll also find a set of simplified buttons in case you misplace the remote.

At the rear you’ll find the connections, with two HDMI 2.0 inputs on the left hand side, and over the right there’s a USB port for power, an audio output, a 12V trigger, and an RS3232 connector for serial control. There’s also a DC input for connecting the provided power adapter brick.

The included remote control is the kind of zapper that’s typical for more affordable DLP projector. It’s sensibly laid out and comfortable to hold, with all the buttons clearly labelled. Everything you need to setup and operate this projector is included, and there’s also a backlight which makes it easier to control the LX700 in the dark.

Features

• Laser light source
• Simple installation
• Very low input lag

The ViewSonic LX700-4K is a DLP projector that uses a single 0.65” DMD chipset and a colour wheel to create the images. The upside of this approach is there are no alignment issues, so the image is pin sharp, but the downside is you can hear the colour wheel whizzing around and some people may see colour flashes or artefacts called rainbows.

This projector has a claimed resolution of 4K, although this is achieved using 4-way XPR pixel shifting so technically it’s not native 4K. However, it can accept and display a 4K signal and the resulting images offer plenty of detail and are largely indistinguishable from native 4K. In reality the weak link is the inexpensive plastic lens, which is fairly typical for a beamer at this price point.

The LX700 uses a laser phosphor light source, which has a claimed maximum luminance of 3,500 ANSI lumens in the Bright picture mode, which is impressive. In addition the laser is more consistent than a lamp, and has a very long lifespan of 30,000 hours in the Eco laser mode. The beamer is a bit noisy in operation, and that obviously increases as the image gets brighter.

The LX700-4K supports HDR10 and HLG, and thanks to all that brightness this should look quite punchy. The ViewSonic also supports 3D, although you will need to buy optional active shutter glasses and have a compatible Blu-ray player. However, if you’re a fan of the format, the bright picture combined with DLP’s superior response times will result in a fantastic 3D experience.

Those super-fast response times also make DLP projectors an excellent choice for gamers, and the LX700 has been “Designed for Xbox”. As a result, while it is limited to 4K/60Hz because of its HDMI 2.0 inputs, it can support 1440p/120Hz and 1080p/240Hz. At these higher frame rates it also has an incredibly low input lag of just 4.2ms, which is great news for competitive gamers.

Finally there’s a mono speaker built-in with a fairly beefy 15W of amplification, along with eARC over HDMI. However, you really shouldn’t bother with this internal sound system for watching films, sports or games, and even the best cheap soundbar is going to deliver better sound quality.

Performance

• Enjoyably bright HDR images
• Image accuracy could be better
• Great choice for gaming

The ViewSonic LX700 is quick and easy to setup, mainly thanks to a decent throw ratio and effective lens controls for zooming, shifting and focusing the image. The throw ratio is 1.06-1.45, there’s a 1.36x optical zoom, and a 15% vertical lens shift. To shift horizontally you need to physically move the projector, and the LX700 can project an image ranging from 30 to 300-inches.

There’s a foot at the front for raising the picture if necessary, but this puts the image at an angle creating geometry errors you’ll need to fix with the keystone correction. This, like the digital zoom, introduces additional scaling at the expense of fine detail and is best avoided if at all possible.

The laser light source has a Constant Power setting that goes from 50 to 100 in 5% increments for each step, along with Eco and Dynamic Black settings. The Eco mode will get you the longest lifespan, while Dynamic Black improves the contrast performance. However, the claimed 3 million to one contrast ratio is based on turning off the laser, with native contrast actually 2,000:1.

The LX700-4K has a total of nine picture modes – six for SDR, one for 3D, one for HDR10 and one for HLG. Bright mode is, as the name suggests, the brightest, while the Cinema mode is the most accurate out-of-the-box – although brightness drops to 2,500 lumens. It also isn’t that accurate, and the picture controls are limited, which means you can’t improve accuracy using calibration.

Overall the LX700 delivers a solid SDR picture despite some errors in terms of colour temperature, gamma and colour gamut. It’s pleasingly sharp and detailed, and obviously bright regardless of the picture mode you choose. If you’re using this beamer in a normal living room with white coloured walls and windows, its brightness will still deliver images that really pop.

I tested this projector in a blacked-out dedicated home cinema, which meant I needed to dial the laser back quite a bit, otherwise it’s too bright. It also revealed the poor black levels, which look more like a dark grey. This is exacerbated by the higher light output raising the black floor, but in a room with reflected light the contrast will be washed out anyway, making this point rather moot.

Moving on to HDR the X700’s inherent brightness really adds value, and the image accuracy was actually better than in SDR. The tone mapping is good with content graded at 1,000 nits, but struggles with anything graded brighter than that, resulting in obvious clipping on highlights.

The Revenant looks very good in HDR, especially the bright snowy landscapes, but darker scenes reveal the X700’s inherent contrast weaknesses. The scene lit by torches suffered from blacks that looked grey, robbing the night-time backgrounds of depth. The colour gamut is also limited, only covering 79% of DCI-P3, which was apparent on a vibrant film like The Greatest Showman.

Where the LX700-4K really stands out is with gaming, delivering big, bright and detailed images that fully immerse the player. DLP’s fast response times and the support for higher frame rates ensures incredibly smooth motion, making it perfect for twitch-trigger first person shooters.

Should you buy it?

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