Sony VPLXW5000ES 4K HDR Laser Home Theater Projector with Native 4K SXRD Panel – Black

Awesome projector very good quality good black detail I am very happy with this projector The only thing is not 3-D compatible and you have to adjust the Lens manually but your adjusted only one time.

I’ve had my Sony XW5000ES for 2 weeks now. After watching plenty of content both streaming and disc & comparing with my old Sony HW40ES, I’m very happy with this new projector. 4K content looks fantastic. Upscaled by the 5000, HD content looks amazing. It’s a major improvement over my old projector. Black level, accurate detailed color, and overall picture quality all look fantastic.
To really appreciate what this projector is capable of you will want to consider a 4K UHD disc player. But even if you just stick to streaming & Blu-ray’s, you will not be disappointed. Everything just looks so much better on this projector.
Yes. Blacks are much darker than my previous projector, but the bright highlights and rich color? WOW!! That’s where the 5000 clearly shines. Another thing I really appreciate about the 5000 is how it handles gradients. My old projector had only 8-bit color depth which looked great 90% of the time until a scene came along with lots of gradients and then the 8-bit color-depth limitation reared its ugly head showing gradient-banding. Ahh, but the XW5000 gradients are as smooth as butter.
HDR content is handled very well on the 5000. I’m quite relieved about that after hearing stories saying HDR looks too dark on projectors. I’m continually impressed how well the 5000 pushes plenty of light where the image calls for it while remaining dark in the same frame for the dark areas of the frame.
Sony’s image-processing and its solid consistent “out of the box” calibration are why many people choose Sony projectors. You can select any of the pre-calibrated setting buttons to your liking and your set to go. I prefer “Reference” in my pitch black theater room, but if you have a little ambient light, you might prefer the Cine-Bright button for a bright calibrated image. For those of us who like to dial in the picture even further, Sony has you covered. All the familiar Sony menu settings are here with a few extras that give you plenty of room to make adjustments.
Performance:
After careful examination, I did not find any focus issues or streaking issues. The sharpness and clarity look great. Using test patterns and white movie titles on black background. Small-print end-credits look sharp and consistent across the screen with excellent black-level and crisp white text.
The big selling point will be the laser light engine. This means no more lamp replacements for the life of the projector. That’s big! The OEM replacement lamps are expensive and lose brightness fairly quickly. The XW5000 laser light engine is rated at 20,000 hours which may outlive the projector itself. If you watched 1 movie every day, the light-engine would last 27 years. Yikes! I’ll be ready to upgrade long before then 🙂
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PROS:
* True Native 4K
* Tight sharp image with good black level.
* Sony’s “X1 Ultimate Processor for Projectors”
* Excellent and consistent “Out of the box calibration”
* Brilliant specular highlights
* Rich full 10bit color
* Impressive HDR for a projector.
* Laser light engine means no more lamps.
* Smaller shell compared to last year’s model.
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CONS:
* Fan-Noise.
Louder than expected compared to the whisper of my old Sony VPL-HW40ES.
Noise Level is not terrible, just noticeably louder.
You can reduce fan noise by lowering the laser light output level to 50 with very little loss of light but a big drop in fan-noise. I personally set the laser where I want it and I’m already not noticing the fan when watching movies. I should also point out that my old 40ES kicked out some serious heat, but putting your hand near the exhaust of the 5000 is lukewarm at the most.
* No 3D at all on the XW5000.
I’m sad about that since I have a dozen 3D movies.
But I understand Sony had to cut it to reach this price point. If 3D is a deal breaker for you, then you need to jump up to the XW6000.
* Manual lens (focus, shift, zoom). For me it’s no big deal. “Set it and forget it” and it’s exactly the same as my HW40ES and I’m perfectly happy with the manual lens. Cut from the list to reach this price point.
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Sony’s cost cutting measures on the 5000 make total sense in my opinion and were absolutely the right call. The 5000 is the most affordable premium native 4K laser projector on the market today. Upgrading to the XW6000 at double the cost of the 5000 gets you a motorized-lens, a better lens, 3-D option, and an extra 500 lumens of brightness.
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Conclusion:
The Sony VPL-XW5000ES is an excellent projector at an attractive price point. I suspect the 5000 will be very successful for Sony and I look forward to future models at this level from Sony. The attached screenshots are intended to show how the XW5000 handles some challenging images.