Color reproduction
The GS-1 color space is surprisingly good. I really didn’t expect it to cover the sRGB and Rec709. But the least I expected are the blues it has. They look like they’re from out of this world. What blues! for God’s sake!
BenQ GS-1 color gamut. As it can be seen, its gamut entirely covers the sRGB and Rec709 spaces, easily outperforming in blues, magentas and reds, which have an spectacular saturation. The small dots show the primaries readings; the small squares show where they should be, following Rec709 reference.
When I saw them for the first time I think my jaw dropped off, seriously. I think they’re the most intense blues I’ve ever seen in my life. Not just projectors, but monitors, TVs and any other screen. The magentas are also spectacular. There are really no words to describe their intensity; it’s nothing like what I’ve seen even in the impressive BenQ PG2401PT, with its nearly 130% color gamut of Adobe RGB.
The catch is that the fidelity is not comparable to that of the W1700, although not bad at all.
In fact, the yellows are perfect. The greens and cyans too, with very small deviations. Only the reds and blues deviate a little in the intermediate tones. Surprisingly, the boundary tones of reds, blues – and therefore magentas – are far beyond what they should be, which shows their powerful colour.
It’s nothing that a good ICC can’t solve. In fact, since they are deviated, it is much better that they are on the outside than not inside the reference space (the sRGB in photo or the Rec709 in video). But if you want to use it to watch movies in your home cinema and you are a purist, you will notice that some colors deviate a bit.
It’s true that it’s not a home cinema projector, it’s sold as a camping model, so maybe I’m asking too much of it. But BenQ has me so well accustomed lately that you want more…
Conclusion
Once again BenQ has done it again: it has surprised us again with a product that surpasses the expectations we put in it. A micro projector for camping in a photography classroom? It wasn’t the objective, but since it’s the right size… why not?
BenQ Professional Monitors for Color Management has sent me this projector for review, which they will take with them at the end.
Update May’19: BenQ informs me that it is not necessary to return it.
The review also appears in Photogenic by BenQ. Hugo Rodriguez is a BenQ Monitor Expert & Ambassador.