The BenQ X3100i is a 4k HDR10/HLG 4LED projector primarily meant for playing video games. It replaces the BenQ X3000i and comes with the more advanced QS02 Android TV streaming dongle, while the X3000i comes with the QS01 dongle. It projects a 60" image at a distance of 5 to 6.5 feet, up to a very large 200" at a distance of 16.7 to 21.8 feet. The projector comes with auto vertical 2D Keystone technology to eliminate trapezoid effects when you install it at an angle.
It has two HDMI 2.0b ports for 4k @ 60Hz, 1440p @ 120Hz, or 1080p @ 240Hz gaming. It has one other internal HDMI 2.0b port that's reserved for the included Android TV 11 QS02 dongle. The dongle brings Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.0 support, casting capabilities with Google Chromecast and Apple AirPlay, and support for Google Assistant and Google Voice Search. You can also use the QS02 dongle as a USB passthrough reader, so you can connect USB devices to it to use with the projector. Finally, the projector has two integrated 5W chambered speakers.
Our Verdict
The BenQ X3100i is great for watching movies. Its contrast is good, its brightness is great, and it has a wide color gamut, leading to great image quality when watched in a variety of contexts. It's even bright enough to look good in rooms with a few lights on. Still, its contrast struggles in darker scenes, so it definitely looks best when sticking to happier, brighter movies. Its pre-calibration accuracy is excellent overall, so there's no need to have this projector calibrated to get accurate colors.
- Good contrast for deep blacks in dark rooms.
- Bright enough to look vibrant in dark rooms, and can even handle rooms with a few lights.
Wide color gamut and excellent pre-calibration accuracy.
- The included QS02 streaming dongle has many wireless and streaming features.
Fails to passthrough a lot of lossy audio formats.
Contrast struggles in near-dark content relative to the best home theater projectors.
Not bright enough for well-lit rooms.
The BenQ X3100i is a great gaming projector if you value both speed and image quality. It's bright enough to hold up with a couple of lights on, and its contrast is strong, even if it struggles in near-dark content relative to other projectors. Color is vivid out of the box thanks to its LED light source and wide gamut, which makes stylized games pop; plus, it's also very accurate right out of the box. For performance, the projector has a bit of everything: 120Hz and 240Hz support at 1080p, 4k @ 60Hz, and relatively low input lag. Unfortunately, there's no Dolby Vision support for Xbox gamers.
- Good contrast for deep blacks in dark rooms.
- Bright enough to look vibrant in dark rooms, and can even handle rooms with a few lights.
Wide color gamut and excellent pre-calibration accuracy.
Fast input lag at any resolution and refresh rate.
120Hz and 240Hz support at 1080p.
1440p at 60Hz and 120Hz is downscaled to 1080p.
Contrast struggles in near-dark content relative to the best home theater projectors.
Not bright enough for well-lit rooms.
The BenQ X3100i is a very bright projector. It's easily bright enough to look good in dim rooms, even with a light on. Still, avoid turning on a ton of lights if you want the best image quality. It's also extremely uniform, with no visible vignetting.
- Bright enough to look vibrant in dark rooms, and can even handle rooms with a few lights.
Not bright enough for well-lit rooms.
The BenQ X3100i has good native contrast. While it struggles with near-dark content relative to other projectors, it excels in brighter scenes, with great separation between elements.
- Good contrast for deep blacks in dark rooms.
Contrast struggles in near-dark content relative to the best home theater projectors.
Changelog
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Updated Jan 30, 2026:
We've modified the text in our Brightness and Native Contrast text boxes as a result of our latest test bench. We've also added Brightness and Contrast performance usages in the Verdict section.
- Updated Jan 16, 2026: We've converted the review to Test Bench 0.11, which renames our Contrast test to Native Contrast, and adds a Sequential Contrast test box. We also added new Brightness and Contrast performance usages in Our Verdict. See the 0.11 changelog.
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Updated Nov 24, 2025:
Added a link to the Best Projectors For Gaming recommendation article in the Popular Projector Comparisons section of this review.
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Updated Oct 03, 2025:
We made some minor adjustments before our official TBU 0.10 launch.
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Differences Between Sizes And Variants
We bought and tested the BenQ X3100i, which succeeds the very similar BenQ X3000i. Overall, the X3100i is a slight but noticeable upgrade over its predecessor, as it hits higher brightness peaks, has better contrast, and has a wider color gamut. More noticeable is the inclusion of the QS02 Android TV streaming dongle, which has many more features than the QS01 dongle included with the X3000i, including Bluetooth 5.0, Wi-Fi 6, and native Netflix support.
| Model | Bluetooth | Native Netflix | Wi-Fi | Dongle USB passthrough | 1440p @ 120Hz |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BenQ X3000i (QS01) | 4.2 | No | Wi-Fi 5 | No | No |
| BenQ X3100i (QS02) | 5.0 | Yes | Wi-Fi 6 | Yes | Yes |
Our unit was manufactured in September 2023.
Popular Projector Comparisons
The BenQ X3100i is a great projector, and like its predecessor, the BenQ X3000i, it's very versatile. The X3100i is a slight but noticeable upgrade over its predecessor, especially due to the included QS02 dongle, which has more features than the QS01 dongle included with the X3000i. Otherwise, the X3100i is a fully featured projector with an integrated smart OS, is cast capable, and even has advanced gaming features, like 1080p @ 240Hz and 1440p @ 120Hz support. Still, if you're looking for a gaming projector and don't care about having the best image quality, the ViewSonic PX701-4K is significantly cheaper. Inversely, if you're only interested in a pure home theater setup and don't care about streaming or gaming features, then the Epson Home Cinema 3800 is a better value. Still, if you're looking for a projector that can do it all, the BenQ is one of the best options on the market.
Check out our recommendations for the best 4k projectors, the best gaming projectors, and the best projectors for home theater. If you'd prefer to shop for a cheaper product, check the best projectors under $1,000 instead.
The Hisense C2 Ultra is better than the BenQ X3100i. The Hisense matches the BenQ when it comes to gaming features, and is a bit brighter, with slightly deeper blacks. The Hisense is also much more colorful, which is especially noticeable in HDR content. The one thing the BenQ model has going for it is its slightly more accurate image right out of the box, but otherwise, the Hisense has it beat in most aspects.
The BenQ X3100i might be a bit better than the Valerion VisionMaster Pro 2 if you really don't want to calibrate your projector, since it's much more accurate right out of the box. For most people, the Valerion is the better product. It's much more colorful than the BenQ, which is especially apparent in HDR content. The Valerion also supports Dolby Vision and HDR10+, while the BenQ is limited to HDR10. They're both pretty evenly matched for gamers, although the BenQ supports 1440p at 120Hz, while the Valerion only supports 1080p at that refresh rate; both projectors otherwise support 1080p at 240Hz and 4k at 60Hz.
The BenQ X3100i is a slight but noticeable upgrade over the BenQ X3000i. The X3100i is slightly brighter, has better contrast, and has a wider color gamut. The X3000i is somewhat more accurate out of the box, but the X3100i is still excellent. The biggest difference between the two is in the inclusion of the QS02 streaming dongle with the X3100i, which has significantly more features than the QS01 dongle included with the X3000i. Thus, if you care about streaming features, the X3100i is better, although you can buy an upgrade pack to install the QS02 dongle on the BenQ X3000i.
The BenQ X3100i is a higher-end model than the BenQ X500i and is better overall. The X500i does have some minute advantages, such as slightly better contrast and pre-calibration accuracy, but they can't overcome the X3100i's edge in brightness and colors. The X500i is a short-throw projector; this makes it easier to place closer to your screen than the X3100i. They both come with the advanced QS02 streaming dongle, giving them identical streaming and wireless features. If you're planning to use the projector solely in a dim or dark room, you might not need the extra brightness of the X3100i, but if you hope to use it in a brighter room, the X3100i could be worth the extra money.
We've independently bought and tested over 60 projectors, and we've published all the detailed results for each so you can decide which one to buy. These have all been tested under the same standardized methodology, allowing you to compare them side by side. We still have all these projects in our lab so we can continually go back and compare them to ensure our reviews are still accurate. All our test methodology is also public on our website, so you can validate the results yourself.
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Test Results
This BenQ X3100i's peak brightness is great and slightly brighter than the BenQ X3000i's. Its brightness uniformity is fantastic, and the projector is otherwise bright enough to look very good in a moderately lit room. It's also bright enough to make some colors pop, especially when the lights are dimmed.
The table below lists the projector's other Picture Modes. The 'Bright' mode in particular is very bright, so it can be useful if you're watching in very well-lit contexts, but it comes at the cost of washed-out colors.
| Picture Mode | White Light Output (WLO) | Color Light Output (CLO) |
|---|---|---|
| Bright | 2,497 lm | 1,581 lm |
| RPG | 1,560 lm | 1,500 lm |
| FPS | 1,518 lm | 1,583 lm |
| SPG | 1,513 lm | 1,607 lm |
| RCG | 1,511 lm | 1,574 lm |
| User | 1,515 lm | 1,470 lm |
The BenQ X3100i has good native contrast. Like almost every projector, its contrast is deeper in very dark scenes than in brighter ones, but this model performs very well in brighter scenes compared to other units. Inversely, its relative contrast struggles in near-dark content. Still, it generally has deep blacks when viewed in a dark room.
The projector has a great color gamut, although not in the suggested Cinema picture mode, as Cinema clamps the color gamut to the Rec. 709 color space. However, when set to the 'FPS' picture mode, the projector achieves a wide color gamut. The projector covers almost all of the Rec. 709 color space used with SDR content and does a decent job with the wider Rec. 2020 color space, leading to a pleasantly colorful presentation in both SDR and HDR. If you're looking for a more colorful projector, especially in HDR content, consider the Valerion VisionMaster Pro 2 instead.
The BenQ X3100i has excellent pre-calibration image accuracy, although it's slightly less accurate than the BenQ X3000i. Blues are slightly underrepresented in most shades of white. Colors are incredibly accurate, with only whites and cyans showing minor accuracy errors. As for gamma, the projector is a bit too bright in brighter scenes, but otherwise, it's right on target. Its color temperature is also almost exactly on the 6,500K target, with just a hint of red showing through.
The projector has a full-color calibration mode and a 2-point white balance calibration. After calibration, the color accuracy is fantastic, although its white accuracy, while now excellent, still shows some minor accuracy errors in the brightest whites. This can also be seen in the projector's color accuracy, as it's now superbly accurate except in its whites. Bright scenes are still overbrightened, but darker scenes are slightly too dark. Overall, the projector is now closer to the target for moderately lit rooms. The color temperature, however, is now right on target.
The BenQ X3100i uses an LED bulb as its light source, so you likely won't ever have to worry about replacing it; the manufacturer claims the bulb lasts anywhere from 20,000 to 30,000 hours, depending on the selected eco mode. 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 isn't as good as a native 4k projector. It has a 1.3x optical zoom, allowing you to adjust the projection distance without moving the projector.
The X3100i’s LED SPD shows distinct strong red and blue peaks. In practice, that gives the projector a wide color gamut and high color purity, so saturated art styles look rich and clean.
The BenQ X3100i has full auto keystone, with a manual focus and optical zoom. Here are a few common throw distances:
- 100" screen: ~8.4–10.9 ft
- 120" screen: ~10.0–13.1 ft
- 150" screen: ~12.5–16.4 ft
The BenQ X3100i is a mid-size projector without an integrated battery, so you must plug it in. The projector has auto keystone correction, but only on the vertical axis, so you must center it horizontally. It also doesn't have autofocus, so you must manually adjust that to get the clearest image possible. Its feet are slightly adjustable, and it comes with a set of extra extender feet to increase the vertical angle of the projector. Finally, the projector has two 5W integrated speakers.
The BenQ X3100i is reasonably quiet for a bright, gaming-focused projector. Fan noise is audible up close at full output, but at a typical seating distance it fades into the background during gameplay.
The BenQ X3100i has a 12V trigger out port to connect your screen to it; this allows you to signal the screen to unfold when the unit powers on and, inversely, retract the screen when it's powered off. The projector has one extra HDMI port behind the top cover reserved for use with the bundled QS02 Android TV Dongle. The dongle supports Chromecast and AirPlay, as well as Bluetooth 5.0. The dongle also has Wi-Fi 6 support. The USB port on the projector itself is a service port that you can use for power delivery, but you can use the dongle as a USB reader; you can connect USB devices to the dongle, and the projector will recognize them.
The projector is flexible with signals: it accepts 4K at 60Hz and runs 1080p up to 240Hz for very smooth play from a PC. The EDID also advertises 1440p/60 and 1440p/120, but they're downscaled to 1080p internally.
The projector feels quick in its Game mode, especially at 120Hz and 240Hz. Still, it's decent even at 60Hz, so this projector is a good fit for a plethora of different genres, from slower games running in their quality modes, to faster paced titles running in their performance modes.
The BenQ X3100i's eARC is fine for streaming formats as it passes Dolby Digital Plus, including Dolby Atmos, and other lossy tracks. It does not pass lossless formats like Dolby TrueHD/Atmos or DTS-HD MA/DTS:X. When you try to send one of those lossless tracks, the projector negotiates down to LPCM 2.0, so you only get stereo out of eARC. This is a bummer for those who are rocking an extensive Ultra HD Blu-ray collection, as they typically use a lossless DTS format as their main audio tracks. If you want full surround/lossless audio, connect your sources to an AVR first and send video to the projector, or use optical from the projector, knowing it's limited to Dolby Digital 5.1/DTS 5.1.
- Power cable
- Remote control
- Extra feet
- 2x AAA batteries
- Mounting screws
- User documentation
This projector runs the Android TV 11 smart interface on its included QS02 dongle and is fully cast capable through Google Chromecast and Apple AirPlay. The dongle also supports Google Voice search and Google Assistant. Unlike the QS01 dongle included with the BenQ X3000i, the QS02 dongle natively supports Netflix. The projector also has two 5W integrated speakers.