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Sony’s new entry-level native 4K SXRD projector cuts a few corners, but delivers a superb, laser-driven image at the company’s most affordable price yet. When Sony refreshed its home cinema projector line in late 2020, a few folks were left scratching their heads. Though the news was headlined by the company’s advanced VPL-GTZ380 flagship first launched earlier…
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Sony’s new entry-level native 4K SXRD projector cuts a few corners, but delivers a superb, laser-driven image at the company’s most affordable price yet.
When Sony refreshed its home cinema projector line in late 2020, a few folks were left scratching their heads. Though the news was headlined by the company’s advanced VPL-GTZ380 flagship first launched earlier for the commercial sector, the just announced VPL-VW715ES lamp and VPL-VW915ES laser projectors were relatively modest updates to their predecessors. They introduced more advanced video processing and better overall performance, but remained startlingly expensive, a fact made evident in late 2021 when LCoS-rival JVC introduced new laser projectors with noticeably lower pricing. And the VPL-VW325ES, the $5,500 entry-level projector that finally replaced the aging VW295ES in May 2021, was pretty much the same story: a more expensive update to an underpowered lamp projector offering the same meager 1,500 ANSI-lumen brightness rating. I mean—what was Sony thinking?
Turns out they were thinking about how to hang on for the next generation of projectors brewing in the lab. Their announcement in April of three new XW series laser models seriously modernized the line and makes a more aggressive value proposition. While the 10,000-lumen VPL-GTZ380 and the 5,000-lumen step down VPL-VW5000ES (also overdue for a refresh or replacement) remain expensive workhorses at $80,000 and $60,000 respectively, the VPL-XW7000ES ($27,999), VPL-XW6000ES ($11,999), and VPL-XW5000ES ($5,999) replaced four existing models in the prior family and completely eliminated lamps (with the simultaneous killing of the VPL-HW65, Sony’s last remaining 1080p SXRD home theater projector).
By far the most exciting introduction for budget-conscious enthusiasts is the XW5000ES we’re reviewing here. This new Sony brings laser plus native 4K LCoS SXRD to a previously unseen price point, and competes effectively with two other recent introductions that have titillated the enthusiast world. Epson’s new LS12000 3LCD laser projector represents awesome value at $4,999, but achieves its full UHD resolution using four-phase pixel-shifting, a similar approach to what’s found in most 4K DLP projectors. So while it offers benefits not found in the Sony, it can’t lay claim to being true native 4K or enjoying the deep native blacks you get from LCoS imagers. Meanwhile, JVC’s newest entry-level, native 4K LCoS model is the DLA-NP5/RS1100, a $6,999 lamp-based projector that is a more expensive update of the old DLA-NX5/RS1000. It, too, offers some benefits not found in the Sony, including a more advanced lens and JVC’s well-respected Frame Adapt dynamic tone-mapping for HDR…but buyers of that unit will face periodic $600 lamp replacements.
We have previously reviewed the Epson LS12000 and JVC DLA-NP5. Now we’ll focus on the Sony.
