Optoma UHD55 guide

Optoma UHD55 Review

All colors and no lag make a brilliant 4K projector

THE BOTTOM LINE

The 4K Optoma UHD55 is equal parts gaming and home entertainment projector, thanks to a short input lag combined with a high quality image.

Designed for both gaming and home entertainment, the Optoma UHD55 projector ($1,799) offers 4K resolution (3,840 by 2,160 pixels), impressive color quality, and the short input lag that gamers demand. The competing BenQ TK700STi has a few more features, including fully integrated Android TV. But the UHD55 wins on the core issue of image quality. Although it falls just short of being an Editors' Choice pick, that's enough to earn it the higher rating of the two.

While occasionally great, the UHD55 lacks the sort of consistency required for a truly immersive home entertainment experience

The Optoma UHD55 is a perfect example of just how much the humble beam box has evolved over the past couple of years. In keeping with a fast-growing number of affordable home entertainment projectors, it combines support for both 4K and high dynamic range images with a startlingly bright light output, strong gaming features, and even built-in video streaming support. The days where a projector at this price could only be expected to passively deliver dull pictures from only external sources that you’d need to watch in near total darkness are long gone.

Trying to accommodate all the demands of modern home entertainment life, though, can pose quite a challenge for a projector’s picture quality – especially at the relatively affordable end of the market. So has Optoma managed to get the UHD55’s feature and performance balance right?

Some things are always going to be paramount when we talk about projectors. Resolution, contrast and colour will be on anybody’s list. Support for HDR standards, calibrated quality modes and connectivity should be right up there. But when I think about what’s good about the Optoma UHD55, I’m most impressed by its flexibility and ease of use and by the fact that it covers all the ways you’d want to use it well.

There are better projectors out there for home cinema or for streaming binges and cheaper options if you’re just focused on big-screen gaming. Yet the UHD55 is a great projector for doing all of the above and more.

With strong gaming features, decent HDR performance and brilliant colours, the Optoma UHD55 is a great all-rounder