Projectors

Even aggressive colours don't appear forced or unbalanced, thanks to the projector being able to resolve subtle details in vibrant areas of HDR colour (including white) much better than most projectors. Yet the 100L9GTUK's colours are comfortably at their best in terms of intensity, balance and credibility in the Dynamic HDR mode, the more restrained and warmer-toned Standard, HDR Day and HDR Night options revealing the optics and tuning are significantly better suited to a cooler look.

This raises valid questions about the PJ's colour accuracy, but what I can say is that the Dynamic preset really is seriously enjoyable to watch, and aside from the occasional slightly peaky skin tone, it seldom feels unnatural or 'off'. On the contrary, I was often struck by how richly engaging the 100L9GTUK's pictures are versus some UST laser rivals.

Going back to dark room viewing, the intensity and brightness that the projector brings to HDR sources is remarkably TV like. The lights in the windows of Maria's tenement building at night stand out proudly against darkness around them, while the gleams in Tony and Maria's eyes in the dark chapel scene reveal a surprising ability to deliver localised HDR peaks alongside the generally impressive brightness. And it's worth stating here that this model handles HDR, brightness and colour vibrancy significantly better than Hisense's previous, single-laser, 100L5UK.

Mirror Image
This is a 'pseudo' 4K projector that creates a 4K image by 'double flashing' its DLP mirrors, rather than providing a native 3,840 x 2,160 mirror count. However, the amount of noiseless detail and crispness it achieves with West Side Story's pristine 4K BD transfer is fantastic.

It does unusually well at swapping between bright and dark environments, but you do need to be aware of a few compromises. You won't feel it much in a well-lit space, but in a dark room the system's focus on brightness leads to some shallow black levels. The aforementioned West Side Story chapel scene, for instance, plays out behind a pretty pronounced veil of greyness. This issue is another reason why I personally prefer the Dynamic setting for both dark and light room viewing, as that extra level of light punch provides a welcome distraction. Even in Dynamic mode, however, it's a dark room problem you can't ignore, as is a quite extensive 'hot spot' along the bottom of the image that was clearly visible in the black bar of West Side Story's 2.39:1 picture.

Despite not using a colour wheel, the 100L9GTUK can show signs of the DLP rainbow effect (red, green and blue striping flitting over bright objects), and the structure of the ALR screen causes the picture to dim quite sharply if viewed from much of an angle. Motion looks a little uncomfortable, too – either slightly too juddery with motion processing turned off, or slightly billowy or processed with motion processing on. Finally, setting the Adaptive Contrast feature to max, which typically gives the best picture results, can cause 'jumps' in baseline brightness levels. Switching to the Mid Adaptive Contrast setting fixes this, but robs images of some of their beguiling intensity.

The built-in speakers are impressive, but can't compete with the very best TV systems, predominantly because they don't project quite enough to make dialogue sound as if it's coming from the action onscreen rather than the black box below. Atmos processing expands the soundstage a little, but feels a little unfinessed, while extreme bass moments can come with a side order of distortion. Generally, the low-end performance is solid, though.

Short-Throw Spectacle
I've finished on a few negatives, but you've got to consider that at this price a product like the 100L9GTUK is always going to involve compromises. A PJ and screen combo can't be expected to adapt flawlessly to both bright and dark settings, so the great news is that with its tri-laser system's spectacular brightness and colour capabilities, such compromises are handled pretty darned well.

HCC Verdict

Hisense 100L9GTUK

Price: £4,499
www.hisense.co.uk

We say: The TV-like feature count and remarkable brightness and colour make Hisense's latest 'Laser TV' an impressively epic living room solution.

Overall: 4/5

Specifications

3D: No 4K: Yes. 3,840 x 2,160 (via TI DLP mirror-flashing technology) HDR: Yes. HDR10; HLG CONNECTIONS: 3 x HDMI inputs; 2 x USB; optical digital audio output; Ethernet; headphone output; composite input; RF port BRIGHTNESS (CLAIMED): 3,000 Lumens CONTRAST (claimed): N/A ZOOM: N/A Dimensions (Projector): 610(w) x 155(h) x 346(d)mm Weight (Projector): 15kg

FEATURES: Built-in 40W audio system; Dolby Atmos decoding; 25,000-hour claimed laser lamp life; VIDAA smart system; Freeview Play; Ultra Motion MEMC processing; tri-laser system; Dynamic, Standard, HDR Day, HDR Night, HDR Sport presets for HDR content; 31cm throw for a 100in image