BenQ X1300i Review – with gaming mode

BenQ has optimized a beamer with the X1300i so that a perfect gaming experience should be possible with it. Read BenQ X1300i Review to find out more.

It’s not new that movie enjoyment increases proportionally to the image size. Now gamers are also increasingly discovering the advantages of a large image; nowhere else can you get deeper into the action.

The most important feature of a display that is suitable for gaming is the short input lag. In gaming, input lag refers to the time delay that the signal experiences between the input and the display on the screen. Every millisecond counts here because the player has to react as quickly as possible to the actions displayed to him.

If it reacts only milliseconds too late because the image is only displayed with a slight delay, it may already have lost. For this reason, only a few projectors were suitable for gaming until now. BenQ has accelerated the image processing of the X1300i to get the signal to the screen as fast as possible.

According to the manufacturer, the BenQ’s input lag is 8.3 milliseconds and up to 16 milliseconds depending on the signal. To prove the projector’s playability in the practical test, we were able to engage our gamer colleague and his PlayStation.

Playstation connected, gaming mode selected, and off you go. The BenQ offers the possibility to activate the so-called GamingMaestro by merely pressing a button. The corresponding button on the remote control does not have the symbol of a gaming controller for nothing. This opens the quick start menu with picture and sound settings optimized for different gaming genres. For example, presets for first-person shooters (FFP), role-playing games (RPG), and sports games (SPG) can be selected. Also, one can optimize the detail adjustment of the graphic display. Depending on where the current game’s focus is, the graphics can either display or suppress the most delicate details. The display of much small information increases the image processing time, which affects the input lag. A quick mode can also be activated with one click, in which case the display is not quite as detailed, but it gives the player valuable reaction time.

Our gamer was visibly pleased with the performance of the projector, but especially with the fine-tuning options. The gaming experience on the big screen is comparable to watching a blockbuster: You are literally in the middle of it instead of just being there. The excellent audio department positively contributes its part. The two built-in speakers are far more than a stopgap, especially since BenQ also allows for various sound settings.

The X1300i also has other features that make it stand out even in competition with smart TVs. It comes with a dongle that provides the projector with a convenient Android interface in addition to the WiFi connection. The dongle was already installed in our test device. If you order the BenQ online, it might only be included, and you have to install

In addition to the two HDMI inputs, another input named ATV appears in the input selection menu. Selecting this Android TV input provides the familiar Android interface and access to additional Play Store apps.

BenQ once again relies on accurately preset presets to achieve an excellent picture performance with as little effort as possible. In addition to the standard picture modes, the XI 300i has a gaming preset. If the

console outputs an HDR signal, the color space and gamma values are adjusted accordingly. Furthermore, you can now adjust the picture and sound to the game genre with the GameMaestro mentioned above, whereby the speed of the signal processing can also be adjusted.

We sa already established that the X1300i is excellent for gaming. Furthermore, we measured that the BenQ can also adequately display 4K HDR movies. What is still missing is the performance of regular Full HD content. So, we quickly changed the signal generator accordingly, and after the visual inspection in “Cinema” mode, we used the measurement technology from Caiman. The result is surprisingly good. After all, we get a perfect coverage of the HDTV standard color space BT.709 with hardly measurable deviations on the X1300i right away. Only the gamma curve has to be corrected a bit, but that can be done with a few clicks in the projector menu.

Conclusion

BenQ got it right with the X1300i. Perfected for gaming, it has nevertheless inherited most of the virtues of its colleagues to cut a good figure in typical living room cinemas as well. Convenient streaming via Android TV is also available, and the settings for gaming can be adjusted at the touch of a button.

\Ne fed the X1300i directly with an HDR signal for the measurement, and it selects the corresponding picture mode automatically. The LED lights up in the bright standard mode. The picture already leaves an excellent impression on sight. The color temperature is at the desired 6500 Kelvin A in all brightness levels. The extended P3 standard color space is largely covered B. In terms of color deviations, only magenta is a bit out of line, with a tendency towards red at higher saturations C. The gamma curve is already close to the required PQ curve D.

In HDR gaming mode, the projector behaves similarly in terms of color fidelity and HDR reproduction. The extended D65P3 color space is almost completely covered, and the gamma values also provide sound reproduction in bright and dark parts of the picture.

Finally, we were curious to see how the BenQ would do in movie mode, so we fed it with HDTV signal and set the picture mode to “Cinema,” color temperature and brightness to “Normal,” gamma correction to 2.4 after some test runs. The color temperature is still at the desired 6500 Kelvin A. The BT.709 HDTV color space is correctly covered and nicely linear in all saturation levels B. The color deviations stay in the inconspicuous range C with a Delta E of well below 3.0. The gamma curve is still 2.2 with the specified setting and also has the required curve shape D.