The BenQ HT3550 is a 4k HDR projector primarily meant for watching movies. It projects a 100" image at a distance of 8.2 to 10.7 feet, 120" at a distance of 9.9 to 12.8 feet, and a very large 150" at a distance of 12.3 to 16 feet. The projector comes with auto vertical keystone technology to eliminate trapezoid effects when installed at an angle and includes a lens shift feature of up to 10% on the vertical axis. Finally, it has two HDMI 2.0b ports for 4k @ 60Hz gaming and two integrated 5W speakers.
Our Verdict
The BenQ HT3550 is decent for watching movies. Its native contrast is very good, and its brightness is alright, leading to deep blacks and a bright enough image when watched in a dark room. The projector has a very wide color gamut, but unfortunately, it's just not bright enough to make its colors look vibrant. The projector's color accuracy before calibration is poor, so you need to calibrate it if color accuracy matters to you.
-
Very good contrast for deep blacks in dark rooms.
-
Very wide color gamut.
-
Projector isn't bright enough to project vibrant colors.
-
Poor pre-calibration accuracy.
- 7.0 Movies
Differences Between Sizes And Variants
We bought and tested the BenQ HT3550. This projector has a higher-end model, the BenQ HT3550i, which has Bluetooth and Wi-Fi and comes with the BenQ QS01 Android TV dongle.
| Model | Wi-Fi/Bluetooth | Included Android TV dongle |
|---|---|---|
| BenQ HT3550 | No | No |
| BenQ HT3550i | Yes | Yes |
Compared To Other Projectors
The BenQ HT3550 is a decent mid-tier 4k HDR projector for watching movies in a dark room due to its very good contrast and very wide color gamut. However, there are better options, with the ViewSonic PX701-4K being almost as good for a lot less money and the slightly more expensive BenQ TK700STi being better for watching movies and much better for gaming.
The Epson Home Cinema 3800 is much better than the BenQ HT3550. The Epson is much brighter, with significantly brighter colors. It's also vastly more accurate before calibration and has near-perfect accuracy post-calibration. The BenQ is smaller and lighter and has auto keystone correction on the vertical axis, so it's easier to carry around and faster to install.
The BenQ HT3550 and BenQ TK700STi are meant for different uses, as the HT3500 is primarily meant for home theater use, while the TK700STi is a gaming projector. Still, the TK700STi is no slouch for watching movies due to its very good contrast and decent brightness, making it a tad better overall than the HT3550. However, the HT3550 is significantly more colorful and much more accurate than the TK700STi post-calibration, making it the better choice for color aficionados.
The Epson Home Cinema 5050UB is much better than the BenQ HT3550. The Epson is much brighter, with significantly brighter and saturated colors due to its brightness and excellent color gamut. It's also vastly more accurate before calibration and has fantastic accuracy post-calibration. The BenQ is smaller and lighter and has auto keystone correction on the vertical axis, so it's easier to carry around and faster to install.
The BenQ HT3550 is slightly better than the BenQ HT2050A. The HT3550 is a more recent release with 4k HDR support, while the HT2050A is an older model that's limited to 1080p and lacks HDR. The HT3550 also has a much wider color gamut, although neither projector is bright enough to make colors pop. Regarding image quality, the older HT2050A has slightly better contrast and peak brightness, although the HT3550 looks sharper due to its higher resolution.
Test Results
The BenQ HT3550 projector isn't meant to be portable as it's a big projector without an integrated battery, so you need to plug it in. It has auto keystone correction, but only on the vertical axis, so you still need to center it horizontally to avoid a crooked image. It doesn't have autofocus, so you must manually adjust that to get the clearest image possible.
This DLP projector uses a lamp as its light source, which can last from 4000 to about 15000 hours depending on the selected eco mode, after which you'll need to swap the lamp for a new one. It's not a true 4k projector, as it uses pixel shifting to create a higher-resolution image. This offers better quality than a pure 1080p projector, but not as good as a native 4k projector.
This projector has okay brightness. It offers an acceptable viewing experience in a dark room. Unfortunately, its colors are not very vibrant.
The BenQ HT3550 has a very good native contrast, leading to deep blacks in a dark room.
The projector has disappointing color accuracy out-of-the-box. Its white balance is off, with blues and greens being overrepresented in most shades of white. Its gamma curve is peculiar; the projector is always overbrightened, but bright scenes are extremely so. Finally, the projector's color temperature is very cold, giving everything a blue-ish tint.
The projector's image accuracy post-calibration is great. Its white balance is now excellent overall, with only minor color accuracy issues in the brightest whites. Gamma is now much better, with very dark and very bright scenes still slightly overbrightened. Color temperature is now almost exactly on target.
The BenQ HT3550 has an excellent color gamut. It does a fantastic job with the Rec. 709 color space used with SDR content and even does a very good job with the wider Rec. 2020 color space.
The projector has a 12v trigger out port to connect your screen to it; this allows you to signal the screen to unfold when the projector powers on and inversely retract the screen when the projector is powered off. Unfortunately, the projector doesn't support Bluetooth or Wi-Fi.
