BenQ W2720i 4K Projector Review: Stunning 4K HDR, Smart Features and Serious Style

Some projectors try to look invisible. The BenQ W2720i doesn’t. It’s a handsome, slightly chunky box with soft curves and a premium matte-grey finish that looks more designer gadget than dusty office gear. The centrally placed lens is framed in brushed metal, which gives it a “serious optics inside” vibe the moment you take it out of the box.

At about six kilos, it’s got some heft, but that weight translates to stability and a sense of quality. You feel like you’re installing a proper piece of AV kit, not a toy. The only caveat is its limited vertical lens shift – just ±5% – which means you can’t get too creative with mounting height. Plan your placement or you’ll be relying on keystone correction to get things square.

Features
Under the skin, the W2720i is absolutely loaded. This is a true 4K pixel-shifting DLP projector powered by a long-life LED engine rated up to 30,000 hours. No more fretting about lamp replacements every couple of years. It’s bright, too, with 2,500 ANSI lumens on tap, which is plenty for evening movie nights and even some daylight viewing in a controlled room. Dynamic contrast runs into the millions-to-one territory, so blacks are deeper than you’d expect from an LED DLP unit.

What really sets the BenQ W2720i apart is how it handles different content. There’s Filmmaker Mode for the purists – it switches off all the motion smoothing and post-processing fluff so you see films exactly as the director intended. HDR support is equally robust, with HDR10, HDR10+ and HLG all present and BenQ’s own HDR-PRO tone mapping making a real difference in highlight detail. For casual viewing, there’s an AI Cinema Mode that adjusts the picture to your room lighting automatically. And if you like to tinker, you can dive into Pixel Enhancer, Motion Enhancer and other tools to fine-tune things.

Gamers aren’t forgotten either. One of the HDMI 2.1 ports handles 4K/120Hz with a “Fast Mode” that drops input lag to a very respectable level. The only catch? You need to manually disable some image processing to hit those numbers. A dedicated Game preset would have been ideal, but at least the option is there.

Connectivity
If you’re the type who hates juggling dongles, you’ll love the W2720i. Three HDMI 2.1 ports with HDCP 2.3 mean you can hook up multiple modern sources – a console, a streaming box, maybe even a Blu-ray player – without running out. eARC support makes it simple to feed audio to a soundbar or AV receiver, so you don’t have to run an extra cable. There’s also USB for media playback or powering a Fire TV Stick, plus RS-232 and a 12-volt trigger for home automation nerds.

And then there’s the built-in smart side. The supplied Android TV dongle pops neatly into a hidden compartment and gives you Netflix, Prime Video, YouTube and more right from the projector’s own remote. Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are on board too. This isn’t a “dumb” projector waiting for an external streamer; it’s ready to go out of the box.

Setup and Usability
BenQ has made the W2720i surprisingly painless to set up. The backlit remote is a small but classy touch – once you’ve used a glowing remote in a dark room, you’ll never go back. The on-screen menus are clean, colourful and fast, and even a first-timer can find their way to the picture modes or keystone controls. Auto-screen fit and 8-point geometry correction save a ton of time if you’re not mounting perfectly head-on. The optical zoom helps too. The only slight annoyance is that you have to dive into the menus to switch off processing when you want the lowest lag for gaming.

Picture Quality
This is where the W2720i justifies its price tag. The image is phenomenally sharp – it may be a pixel-shifting DLP at heart, but you’d swear it’s native 4K. Textures in movies pop, streaming content looks cleaner than you’d expect, and even large screen sizes don’t break the illusion. Colours are vivid without being cartoonish. Skin tones in particular look natural straight out of the box, thanks to factory calibration to Rec.709 standards.

HDR performance is impressive, too. Highlights really sparkle and dark scenes retain enough detail to keep you immersed. In extremely demanding HDR scenes you can occasionally see a bit of clipping in the brightest whites or a slight loss of shadow nuance, but these are minor compared to what most projectors in this price range do. The absence of Dolby Vision is the only notable gap, but HDR10+ and BenQ’s tone mapping do a solid job regardless.

Sound Quality
The built-in 2 × 5 W speakers are perfectly okay for casual TV or presentations. Dialogue is clear, there’s very little distortion and you can crank them up without them sounding horrible. But don’t kid yourself: there’s no real bass or cinematic impact here. If you’re buying a projector at this level, you owe it to yourself to hook up a decent soundbar or AV system. At least BenQ makes that easy with eARC and optical outs.

Performance
Living with the W2720i is a pleasure. In a dim room, it delivers genuinely cinematic pictures. In a moderately lit living room, its 2,500 lumens keep things punchy enough for sports or Netflix binges. Switching between movies, TV and games is seamless once you’ve dialled in your preferred settings. Input lag at around 17 ms for 4K/60Hz is decent for console gaming – not esports level, but far better than many “home theatre only” projectors.

Verdict
The BenQ W2720i nails something a lot of projectors struggle with: being genuinely great at movies while still being friendly enough for everyday use. It looks premium, feels premium, and its picture quality can go toe-to-toe with anything near its price point. Filmmaker Mode and HDR-PRO show BenQ is serious about image integrity, while the smart features and connectivity mean you don’t need a rack full of gear to enjoy it.

The downsides are minor – the built-in speakers are just a stopgap, peak HDR can clip under extreme conditions, and gamers have to do a bit of menu fiddling for lowest lag. But none of these are deal-breakers. If you’re after a single projector that can handle movies, streaming and gaming without compromise, the BenQ W2720i is one of the most complete packages you can buy right now.

Price: AED 10000

Product photography by Ryan Chris