Interview: Benq India’s Rajeev Singh on what makes the X3000i a unique gaming and home entertainment projector

The Benq X3000i 4K home entertainment and gaming projector was recently launched in India. We caught up with Rajeev Singh, MD, Benq India to talk about the company’s latest 4K projector that also offers a big-screen gaming experience. The X3000i is a 4K HDR projector that features a quad-LED lamp, 240Hz refresh rate, 4.16ms low input lag, 3000 lumens brightness, Android TV and a host of connectivity options to connect consoles like the PS5 or Xbox Series X. We also talk about the use of a projector for gaming and its benefits and how home entertainment has transformed post-pandemic.

We wanted to understand how has the COVID-19 pandemic impacted home entertainment and how has the consumer adapted to it these past two years?

A very big game-changing thing has happened in terms of consumer habits and expectations during the last two years. The trend was visible even before that, but it really gained momentum during the pandemic period.

With all the multiplexes getting locked down, the OTT platforms really picked up in terms of the movie releases and everything. At first, people enjoyed these things on a mobile phone screen. Obviously, you can't watch a mobile phone for too long and you have binge-watching happening. You have now matches coming on the OTT platforms, so there was a need of viewing this on a larger than life screen. And that is where the projector use at home has really picked up during the last two years. Projectors have gone into your living room with a different kind of form factor which is what we call a laser TV where you can watch 100 inches, 120 inches 4K projection with all the lights on and then on the other side, the smart portable projectors, which you can use anywhere as you don't need a specific screen for that and you can project on any surface in any room. You can also carry it outside with you when you're travelling out.

So, all these trends, which were anyway visible even before COVID they've really gained momentum during this period because getting entertained at home became a really big thing and the content availability and content delivery were timed rightly. 

Our monitor business as an example has grown by almost two and half times in the last two years. As compared to pre-COVID we are doing 2 1/2 times more business on a monthly-yearly basis now. Similarly, the projector business while it got badly impacted by our institutional sales to education and government during the pandemic period. But the home business has more than doubled in the last two years. So that overall as a company we are doing much more business now as compared to pre-COVID.

Tell us about some of the features that you think make the X3000i a unique offering?

The X3000i projector is uniquely designed to be used for home entertainment and gaming at an excellent level. The top-spec of home entertainment that you would expect in a projector and the top-spec of a gaming projector both are there in this projector. So it's a very unique combination where you can, whether it is watching the movies and fast action or playing games, both are enhanced on this projector so you don't have to look at two different kinds of devices and you're set up for the movies. 

So while for the movie and video experience, it is a 4LED which is a new technology and this is the first world's 1st 4K 4LED projector with a high brightness level of 3000 lumen and DCI-P3 colour space coverage, that's the main thing. DCI-P3 is the professional movie cinema colour space, so it covers that which is right at the top of the projection technology right now in terms of the kind of colours that it can reproduce. On the other side, you have 240HZ and 4ms response time, so it again is at the top in terms of the gaming experience with the low latency that it can give you.

So it is a combination of these two things and a solid-state lamp. So that means you never have to change the light source. It's up to 30,000 hours lamp life so you don't have to change this at all and you can enjoy, you know at least for up to 10 years.

It's really up there and it is very compact in the size. It does not look like a conventional projector. So you can use it anywhere at home in whichever kind of room, whichever kind of setting, you can even put it on the on a sidewall and it can project on the sidewall so it has got a lot of flexibility of installation.

Can you elaborate on the four LED light source and how is it different from the three LED used in other projectors?

It uses the RGBB colour which gives a much brighter image as well as covers the entire DCI P3 colour spectrum. So that is where there are certain colour shades of blue, primarily those that need to be enhanced. So we have used the LED light source in the right proportion to be able to give complete DCI-P3 coverage which is right at the epitome of the colour space coverage as of now.

So one is that it is able to give that kind of colour space coverage. Generally, when you get this kind of colour space coverage, it comes at the cost of brightness. So the brightness with these kinds of projectors is normally lower, it's generally about 2000 lumen or below. Because the moment you go higher, you are not able to get this kind of colour space with this technology, which is what we have made possible for the first time for the industry. You get the high brightness and LED brightness of 3000 lumens is anyway higher than the 3000-lumen brightness of a conventional lamp. So it is brighter than a 3000-lumen conventional lamp, it has got a 500,000:1 contrast ratio so very high contrast which means very good reproduction of black and grey colours along with this kind of brightness levels. You can use this projector even in your living room without really dimming the lights and still you will get a very good quality picture.

So one of the things gamers especially are concerned about is the input lag when using the projector. What are we like looking here for smooth gaming performance?

So one is the refresh rate that is right up to 240Hz and then the response time of 4 milliseconds which is at the top of the line right now. Of course, technology in future will be very different, but in today's world, this is the best which is possible. So it is right at the top of what best you can get in any gaming projector in the world has been given here right now.

Also read: Interview: Marcus Kennedy from Intel on how the 12th Gen is all about performance leadership across the board

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Siddharth Chauhan

Siddharth reports on gadgets, technology and you will occasionally find him testing the latest smartphones at Digit. However, his love affair with tech and futurism extends way beyond, at the intersection of technology and culture. View Full Profile