Pros
– Superb picture quality
– Long-life, solid-state laser optical engine
– Easy to setup
– Good colours, deep blacks
– Has HDR, HLG and 3D support
– Good gaming performance at 240Hz, 4ms response
Cons
– In-built speakers are a letdown
– Limited vertical shift, no horizontal shift
– Zoom and shift functions aren’t motorised.
Rating: 4.5/5
Price: Rs 4.2 Lakhs
I had neiven much serious thought of having a theatre room with a projector and and a massive projector screen. What I have been planning for some time is to get myself a nice 77-inch OLED TV from one of the more reputable brands like Sony or LG. However, having tested the Optoma UHZ50+ projector for over two weeks, I am now seriously considering ditching the idea of buying a TV, and getting myself a DLP 4K Laser projector like the Optoma.
And considering that it is, after all, a projector, that is highly impressive.
The Optomoa UHZ50+ comes with most of the bells and whistles that one would want from their projectors if they wanted to set up their own home theatres. What really stands out though, is the projection — vivid colours, the rich blacks, and the refresh rate. All of this, not only makes the UHZ50+ a pretty solid option for watching video content but for gaming as well.
Optoma UHZ50+ Projector Review: Design and built
We get a minimalistic black chassis with a two-tone finish. The overall styling is common with what we tend to see in most office or school-oriented projectors. While the design doesn’t boast anything unique or extraordinary, it serves its purpose well.
At the back of the UHZ50+, you’ll find a recessed area housing various connectors and ports. For basic operation without the remote, essential control buttons are conveniently located on the top, resembling a scenario where a remote was seamlessly integrated into the chassis’s design.
At the top, you also get the dials to manually set the zoom level, as well as the level of vertical shift using two distinct dials. Users can adjust the focus using a ring at the front element of the projector. The zoom level goes from 1X to 1.3X. The vertical adjustment doesn’t have any numerical markings as that is not needed.
You get some pretty large vents on both the left and right sides of the projector. This helps in ventilation, which has been done in a very clever manner. The end result is that even after hours of usage, the projector stays pretty silent in most use cases. When you max out the brightness, the fan does get a little loud, but not enough that it should be of concern. Moreover, in ECO mode, the sound of the exhaust is less than 30 dB.
Optoma UHZ50+ Projector Review: Inputs, ports and connectivity
The Optoma UHZ50 features a versatile array of connections. It comes with three HDMI 2.0 inputs, out of which, 1 HDMI supports eARC and facilitates Enhanced Gaming. Only one of the three 3 HDMI ports supports PureMotion.
Additionally, there are three USB 2.0 ports, an S/PDIF digital audio interface, a 3.5 mm audio out, 3D sync, and for people with serious home theatres, you also get RS-232 and 12V trigger. The projector also comes with a wireless dongle that can be plugged into one of the USB ports, enabling convenient wireless connectivity. You get dual-band WiFi.
You also get a pretty compact remote. It isn’t anything substantial and just gets the job done. We would have loved to see some more features with it, or at least a hotkey for your favourite streaming apps, but unfortunately, we don’t get that. The remote features a range of essential buttons, including Power, Input Source, Home, Menu, Back, Circular Navigation, Enter, Mute, Volume up/down, Display Mode, and App Menu. Notably, this remote stands out by being backlit, a practical feature often missing in many home theatre remotes, enhancing usability in low-light conditions.
Also, where many display and projector manufacturers are switching over to Android TV OS, Optoma has a custom OS, that is based on Android. The projector doesn’t come with any preinstalled apps and users will need to download them from the Optoma Marketplace as Google Play Services are not supported.
You also get the Optoma Connect App which lets you use the projector as a smart device. The projector offers versatile functionalities, allowing users to effortlessly set up voice assistants like Alexa and Google Assistant. With seamless control directly from your smart device, you can manage the projector efficiently. Additionally, the device provides the capability to create and schedule InfoWall, a customized digital wall presenting tailored information to suit your preferences.
Optoma UHZ50+ Projector Review: Features and performance
The Optoma UHZ50+ projector can create a massive 300-inch screen. It’s super bright and can reach up to 3,000 lumens, which is impressive compared to other projectors in its class since most other projectors in this category are usually limited to 2,000 to 2,500 lumens.
The Optoma UHZ50+ is capable of showing both, HDR10 as well as HLG content. You also get PureMotion frame interpolation, which helps in motion smoothing.
The UHZ50 boasts impressive features, including 4K resolution and 3D compatibility. It utilizes Optoma’s DuraCore light engine, a technology similar to many other laser projectors. The process involves a single blue laser, which is split to produce the blue light on the screen and energize a yellow phosphor. This yellow light is then further divided into red and green, providing RGB colours through a single laser.
Laser projectors, like the UHZ50+, generally have a longer lifespan compared to the more common UHP types. Optoma claims a 30,000-hour lifespan for the laser light source. If used for 6 hours a day, that’s still an impressive 13 years of usage. By that point, you’d likely have upgraded your home theatre setup at least once. Plus, Laser projectors switch on much more quickly compared to traditional UHP projectors.
With the UHZ50+ you also get features like automatic 4-corner adjustment, and 2D keystone correction, all of which make the setup process a breeze. You do get vertical lens shift, but it is limited to 10 per cent.
I typically used the projector at around 130 inches or so, in a 2.35:1 aspect ratio, although the projector has a native aspect ratio of 16:9, and can easily switch between 4:3 and 16:10 as well. I was using a plain, slightly yellow colour wall as the screen. Luckily, you get features such as Wall colour adjustment and a Colour Management System that lets you fine-tune the colours coming out of the projector, to your heart’s liking. The projector is capable of covering about 125 per cent of Rec.709 colours,
You also get something called Dynamic black technology. This feature enhances the depth of your image by seamlessly adjusting the laser output according to the brightness information in each frame. This results in a striking high contrast ratio, making bright scenes appear sharp and clear, and ensuring that dark scenes maintain intricate details with deep blacks and exceptional light and shade nuances.
The result is that the picture quality out of the UHZ50+ is outstanding. Even in daylight, the UHZ50+ maintains excellent brightness and contrast, eliminating the need to adjust settings based on ambient lighting. The projector excels in displaying details, even in dark scenes. Overall, the UHZ50+ delivers exceptional picture quality without any problems.
The only downside is the speaker setup. The UHZ50+ has two 10W drivers on its sides. For a projector that can go up to 302 inches, a better speaker setup would have been nice. But, if you are going to use it for a home theatre you should be investing in a good sound system anyway. At the minimum, you should have a good soundbar with a separate subwoofer.
What impressed me the most was that I was able to play games at a high refresh rate. It perfectly handled my PlayStation 5 at 4K 60fps, as well as my desktop.
The Optoma UHZ50+ can support up to 240Hz, and although I did not get to measure that during my review, it surely was faster than the 144Hz monitor that I currently use. To top it all off, the input lag can be as low as 4ms. That’s nearing the territory that we typically get to see in high refresh rate gaming monitors.
Plus, games and videos looked a lot better too, even without playing around with the colour profiles. Do keep in mind that you will have to run your games at 1080P for such a high refresh rate.
Optoma UHZ50+ Projector Review: Verdict
At Rs 4.20 Lakhs, the Optoma UHZ50+ is definitely on the more expensive side. However, when you consider how other 4K laser projectors are priced, and the features and image quality you get out of the Optoma UHZ50+, plus its advertised long life of over 10,000 more hours than the competition, the pricing starts to make sense. Furthermore, 4K laser projectors have surely started coming down in price.
As I said before, I really did not consider setting up home theatre room for watching movies or a dedicated gaming room with a projector before this, and was mainly interested in getting a nice 77-inch OLED TV. However, now, I am seriously considering a projector like the Optoma UHZ50+. Would I buy the UHZ50+ itself? Well, the more I game on it, and the more I watch content on it, I would have to say yes.
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