BenQ's $1,999 X3000i, the flagship model in BenQ's Immersive Gaming series, is our first-ever Editors' Choice pick for a 4K (3,840-by-2,160-resolution) gaming projector. Among other strengths, it offers HDR support, a 3,000-lumen brightness rating, and as short an input lag as you can find on any projector today. As with any gaming model, it can serve for watching movies and video as well, and it even comes with BenQ's Android TV 10 streaming stick. But its primary attraction is for gaming. If that's a priority for you, and you have the budget, you'll want to take a close look at it.

Some Assembly Required

The X3000i shares a number of features with the less expensive BenQ TK700STi. Both offer the same three variations for game mode, for example, with each optimized for a different type of game (more on that later). In addition, both are built around 1,920-by-1,080-pixel DLP chips that use TI's fast-switch pixel shifting to put 3,840 by 2,160 pixels on the screen, and they even have the same brightness rating. But where the TK700STi uses a lamp for its light source along with a color wheel, the X3000i uses four LEDs: red, green, blue, and blue.

The second blue LED boosts brightness, and according to BenQ, it helps deliver a larger color gamut, too. BenQ rates the LEDs at 20,000 hours in full-power mode or 30,000 hours in Eco mode, long enough to last the life of the projector and eliminate the need for, and cost of, replacement lamps.

Another key difference from the TK700STi is that the X3000i is bigger and heavier, at 7.8 by 10.7 by 10.2 inches (HWD) and 14.1 pounds. A big part of reason for the larger size is its robust sound system. The X3000i offers virtual 3D surround sound, using a pair of 5-watt treVolo stereo speakers powered by Bongiovi Digital Power Station.

The Android TV functionality is fully integrated, so the projector and streaming are controlled with a single remote. However, as with some other BenQ models we've reviewed, the streaming dongle goes in a hidden compartment, and you have to install it yourself, a process that involves removing screws and a panel, and then putting everything back together.

If you're planning to position the projector in a ceiling mount or on a flat surface lower than the screen, that's all the assembly required. The projector, however, also comes with two "adjustment feet" that the Quick Start guide shows how to add, without explaining why you might need them. They're meant to help aim the projector at the screen if you position it on a high bookshelf in the back of a room, and need to turn the projector upside down on the shelf, as you would with a ceiling mount. In those cases, the built-in feet would be pointing up at the ceiling, so you need the second set to give you an equivalent adjustment capability when the projector is upside-down.

In theory, these are a useful extra. In practice, I found them impossible to attach. Each foot is meant to be held on by a magnet that's about the size of my pinky fingernail and surprisingly powerful for the size. The problem is that each comes as a loose piece that you have to attach while holding it in place with one hand and fighting the magnetic pull on both your screwdriver and the supplied screw with the other. This might be possible if you have small enough fingers or a helper to hold the magnet in place while trying to position the screw, but I gave up trying after several failed attempts. BenQ really should attach these before shipping.

Aside from the frustrations of trying to add the extra feet, hardware setup is straightforward. Just plug in the cables and adjust the manual zoom and focus. Available connectors on the back panel include two additional HDMI 2.0b ports, while Wi-Fi is the only choice for the Android TV connection. One welcome convenience is that you can skip over the Android TV setup if you want to, and come back to it later.

The X3000i's pair of 5-watt stereo speakers delivers both high quality for a projector and high enough volume to fill a large family room. For still better quality and higher volume, you can connect to an external audio system using the 3.5mm or S/PDIF audio-out ports, the one HDMI port that supports eARC, or Bluetooth. You can also use the unit as a Bluetooth speaker for other audio sources.

Picture Modes and Game Modes

For 1080p input, the X3000i offers five predefined, customizable picture modes, plus a user mode. However, Game mode offers three predefined variations—role playing game (RPG), first-person shooter (FPS), and sports player game (SPG)—effectively giving the projector eight modes rather than six. The three game modes, and the audio modes that go with them, are designed to enhance the type of game each is named for. One nice touch is a dedicated button on the remote for rotating through the choices in game modes, plus whichever other picture-mode setting you last used before switching to game mode.

As with many projectors' brightest modes, Bright mode showed an obvious green bias, making it best avoided unless you absolutely need the brightest possible image. Cinema and RPG delivered the most accurate color. Note that in addition to manual color-calibration options, including the ability to adjust hue, saturation, and gain for each primary and secondary color (red, green, blue, cyan, yellow, and magenta), the X3000i also offers an auto color-calibration feature. The auto function is designed to maintain consistent color accuracy for the out-of-box settings over time, as the light source ages.

For my formal movie viewing tests for 1080p SDR, I stayed with Cinema for its color accuracy. Both bright and dark scenes fell a touch short of delivering a good sense of three dimensionality, but contrast in both was more than acceptable. Shadow detail held particularly well, showing some details in dark scenes that most projectors leave hidden. That's a small extra for watching movies, but important for games that hide treasures, or enemies, in the shadows.

For 4K, the picture-mode choices drop to two, which show either as one for HDR10 and one for HDR10 Game (labeled HDR Game), or as one for HLG HDR and one for HLG Game, as appropriate for the input signal. The HDR Game mode offers the same three choices among FPS, RPG, and SPG modes, identifying them as HDR10 FPS, HDR10 RPG, and HDR10 SPG in my tests. As with SDR input, the dedicated button on the remote for changing picture modes will let you quickly cycle through the choices.

For my formal viewing tests with 4K HDR movies, I used the HDR10 mode. As with most projectors with HDR, the X3000i offers a setting, labeled "HDR Brightness" in this case, that's needed because the best setting can vary according to the video source and the room lighting. For best quality, you'll want to adjust it as needed.

It was hard to see any difference between the 4K HDR version and the upscaled 1080p SDR version of each movie clip in our test suite. The HDR version may have had slightly better contrast and may have done a little better job holding subtle tonal gradations. But the overall impression of image quality was essentially the same as for SDR, and without a side-by-side comparison it wasn't clear whether there were any differences.

I can definitively say that the 4K HDR version of movies looked at least as good as the 1080p SDR versions, which isn't true for all projectors with HDR. Also note that BenQ says it tuned the X3000i to optimize the look of HDR for PS5 game consoles, rather than for Blu-ray players, and that it's in the process of doing the same for XBox consoles. As a result, you may see a more dramatic difference between SDR and HDR for gaming than I saw for movies, depending on the console you use.

The X3000i also supports Full HD 3D, using DLP-Link glasses. I didn't see any crosstalk in my tests in the one 3D mode, and 3D-related motion artifacts were less obvious than typical.

For those who find the red/green/blue flashes known as rainbow artifacts annoying, the bad news is that I saw them more often than typical with the X3000i. If this is a potential issue for you, be sure to buy the projector from a dealer that allows returns without a restocking fee, so you can test it out for yourself.

Very much on the plus side is an input-lag time that's as short as you can find on any projector today. I measured it with a Leo Bodnar meter in all three variations of Game mode at 16.7ms for 4K/60Hz input; 16.9ms for 1080p/60Hz; and 8.7ms for 1080p/120Hz. These results are consistent with BenQ's own ratings, including the company's rated 4.2ms at 1080p/240Hz, which the Bodnar meter doesn't offer a setting for.

At BenQ's rating of 3,000 ANSI lumens, the X3000i should be able to deliver a suitably bright image for a 250-inch-diagonal, 1.0-gain, 16:9 screen in a dark room, according to Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) recommendations. Using Cinema mode and Eco power mode, it lit up my 90-inch, 1.0-gain screen nicely in a dark room and also delivered a suitably bright image using an 80-inch screen in a family room at night with low to moderate ambient light. The image was also highly watchable, on the 80-inch screen in daytime, using the full-power setting. (See more about how to select the right projector screen.)

Verdict: This Is the Gaming Projector You Probably Want

Quite simply, the BenQ X3000i is the most impressive gaming projector we've seen—as it should be, given its price. Less expensive lamp-based choices you might want to consider include the BenQ TH685P, the BenQ TK700STi, and the Optoma UHD55. The TH685P doesn't offer 4K resolution, but it accepts 4K HDR input, and it's the least expensive of the models mentioned here. The UHD55 is a head-to-head competitor with the TK700STi. It doesn't have BenQ's three predefined versions of game mode, which the TK700STI offers, but it shows fewer rainbow artifacts, which will be enough by itself for some to favor it.

That said, the BenQ X3000i's much more robust sound system compared with the competition, its predefined settings for different types of games, and its solid state light source—which maintains a higher percentage of initial brightness for far longer than a lamp, and lasts the entire life of the projector—make it well worth its higher price. They also make it our newest top pick for a gaming projector, and our first Editors' Choice award winner for a 4K gaming projector.