The BenQ X3000i is a 4K HDR gaming projector with a great balance of performance and features. Coming in at about $1900 Dollars, it’s certainly not the cheapest projector on the market, but it’s also not the most expensive. And, for its heft price, it offers a metric ton worth of value. Opening the BenQ box and placing the X3000i on the shelf, it is a sizeable product, measuring 7.8 by 10.7 by 10.2 inches. It’s also weighty at just over 14 lbs! The BenQ X3000i exudes excellent build quality as its weight and stability scream “well-made” from on high. The X3000i is also fairly easy to set up. It comes with a remote control and all of the necessary cables. Once I plugged it in and pointed it at a 100-inch screen across the room, I was off and running. It should be noted that the X3000i only connects to home networks via Wi-Fi meaning there is no LAN connection port to be found. Whether this is a factor would be up to you and your home theater setup.
As far as image quality, the X3000i’s picture is excellent. It produces a sharp, clear image with accurate colors and good contrast. The projector also has a wide viewing angle so that you can enjoy the image from anywhere in the room. One of the things that makes the X3000i’s image quality so good is its 4K resolution. With 8.3 million pixels, the X3000i is able to produce a level of detail that is simply not possible with lower-resolution projectors. This is especially noticeable in games and movies with many fine details, such as fur, grass, and skin textures. The BenQ X3000i also has a high brightness of 3000 lumens. It can produce a bright image even in rooms with some ambient light. This is a big plus for gamers who want to play in a well-lit room without having to sacrifice image quality. The X3000i also supports HDR, which stands for high dynamic range. HDR is a technology that can produce images with a wider range of contrast and brightness levels than traditional SDR images. This results in more realistic and immersive images. While the projector shines with 4K content, it also does an outstanding job upscaling 1080p content to a 4K output. It’s not as clear as a true 4K image, of course, but it is more than passable.
The X3000i is a great projector for gaming. It has a low input lag of 4ms while playing in 1080p@240Hz mode, and all the way up to 16ms at 4K@60Hz modes. This means that there is very little delay between the time you input a command on your game controller or keyboard and the time you see it on the screen. This is important for competitive gamers who need to be able to react quickly to what they’re seeing. The BenQ X3000i 4K HDR Gaming Projector also has a dedicated game mode that optimizes the projector’s settings for gaming. This mode reduces input lag and enhances image quality for gaming and I found it to work very well. There is also the ability to engage a wider color gamut at the expense of some peak brightness, but I found the color gamut to be just fine with this disabled – it’s a personal preference. One issue with the image that I did note was that, sometimes there was a slight rainbow effect. It didn’t happen all the time, but it did pop up now and again. This can be a distraction for some viewers – although, I know that several others watching with me did not seem to see it. Are my eyes just special? Possible.
Something to consider is that this projector is very much geared towards larger spaces like your living room, etc. for the ultimate home theater/gaming experience. While the X3000i can throw a 100-inch image out at around 9 feet, the projector truly shines when sending the light from its four projection LEDs out to a 150-inch screen at around 15.5 feet! The image is glorious and, unfortunately, too much for my small living space. I did test it out at a friend’s house with a large room and, again, it was simply glorious…. This being the case, if you are dealing with a smaller room, you might consider a projector with a shorter throw distance.
Additionally, the BenQ X3000i has built-in Android TV, which means you can access all of your favorite streaming apps without connecting an external device. The projector has a built-in speaker, but you’ll probably want to use an external sound system for the best audio experience. The big drawback of this is that the Android TV dongle will only output a 60Hz signal to the projector, so you’re missing out on the full potential of the X3000i. But, the tradeoff is that you get access to all the streaming services offered by the dongle. I used not only the dongle in my working with the projector, but also my 4K UHD player. My copies of John Carpenter’s Halloween, Michael Dougherty’s Trick ‘r Treat, and Top Gun: Maverick all proved to be excellent pairings on this projector.
The BenQ X3000i is a great projector for movies and gaming. If you’re looking for a 4K HDR gaming projector that offers great performance, features, and image quality for the ultimate home theater/gaming experience, the X3000i is a great option – just be prepared to pay for it and make sure you have the space to accommodate its throw distance.
