Sony unveils the XW5000 and XW7000 – its smallest native 4K projectors yet
Sony’s latest home theatre projectors are expensive, but they’re compact and crammed full of advanced technology
Sony has unveiled two new native 4K HDR laser projectors, the Sony XW5000 and Sony XW7000.
Priced at £5,999 and £14,999, respectively, the XW5000 and XW7000 are aimed at wealthy home theatre enthusiasts in search of cutting-edge projector tech capable of producing stunning, large-scale 4K HDR images.
Sony XW5000: World’s “most compact” 4K projector
The XW5000 is the most compact native 4K HDR laser projector in the world at 460 x 472 x 200mm (WDH) but packs some serious specifications.
It’s powered by Sony’s “X1 Ultimate for projectors” chip and houses the company’s new 0.61in Silicon X-tal Reflective Display (SXRD) panel, which helps enhance luminance and contrast, while expanding the colour volume of displayed images.
Brightness is stated at 2,000 lumens and Sony’s Triluminos Pro picture technology facilitates DCI-P3 colour gamut coverage of 95%. The 54mm aspherical front lens has a throw ratio of 1:1.38 to 1:2.21 and can be manually shifted by up to 71% vertically and 25% horizontally.
The projector also comes equipped with Sony’s “Dynamic HDR Enhancer” and “Object-based HDR Remaster” technologies, which aim to boost contrast on a scene-by-scene basis depending on the position of objects in each frame.
Sony XW7000: A home theatre enthusiast’s dream
The XW7000 has a similar design to the XW5000 but measures 45mm longer and is a kilogram heavier. A lot of the technology under the hood is the same, too, with the XW7000 making use of the X1 Ultimate for projectors chip, Triluminos Pro picture engine, 0.61in SXRD panel and Z-Phosphor laser light source.
But the Sony XW7000 generates significantly higher brightness at up to 3,200 lumens, which translates to 200 nits when projecting a 150in screen. It also uses a larger 70mm Advanced Crisp Focus (ACF) lens in place of the 54mm 4K lens found on the XW5000 and this brings with it a number of benefits.
Four pieces of “extra low dispersion glass” in the ACF lens help reduce colour deviation, while the use of two moving lens groups (one fixed and one floating) helps with image curvature correction, resulting in better image quality in the centre and corners of images.
The other big advantage of the ACF lens is that it’s powered and can store settings via lens memory. Additionally, it allows for increased lens shift of up to 85% vertically and 36% horizontally and has a wider throw ratio range at 1:1.35 to 1:2.84.
Both the XW7000 and the XW5000 offer a range of calibrated presets and IMAX Enhanced has been added to the various options found on Sony’s 2021 projectors, including Photo, TV and Game.
The latter is a welcome inclusion for those wanting to enjoy games on a grand scale, but gamers will be disappointed to learn that neither of the projectors house HDMI 2.1 ports capable of 4K at 120Hz but, instead, have HDMI 2.0b ports that support 4K at 60Hz. However, it’s not all bad news, as Sony says input lag will be as low as 21ms when projecting 4K/60Hz content.
The Sony XW5000 will be available in May, with the XW7000 following in June.
