Gaming on a big TV is fun. Paying for a big TV, mounting it up a wall, and keeping it clean day after day, on the other hand – not that much fun. If you don’t want the hassle that comes with 100 inches of screen real estate, a low-latency gaming projector like the Viewsonic X2-4K Short-Throw Projector should make for a much more convenient option.
According to the outfit, it’s the first projector to get the “Designed for Xbox” stamp of approval, which means it should work seamlessly with the newest generation of Microsoft’s gaming console. Whether you want to spend the night grinding multiplayer on Halo Infinite, going on coop adventures in Warhammer Darktide, or commandeering various aircrafts in Flight Simulator, this thing lets you do that hitch-free on a giant projected screen.
The Viewsonic X2-4K Short-Throw Projector is a short-throw projector that can beam 4K HDR images at sizes of up to 120 inches, allowing you to enjoy your favorite movies, shows, and video games with vibrant action that take up your entire visual periphery. It delivers a brightness of 2,150 ANSI lumens, allowing it to project brilliant images even with ambient light in the room, while 125 percent coverage of the Rec.709 color gamut ensures rich color reproduction on any kind of visual media. According to the outfit, it can beam a 100-foot image from a distance of around five feet away, which is still not as nice as the ultra-short throw solutions we’ve seen recently that can sit just a few inches from the wall. However, it does have full keystone and four corner adjustment capabilities, allowing it to beam a perfectly-shaped image from practically any angle, so you can position it completely out of the way.
Since this is a gaming-focused system, it comes with 4.2ms input and a 240Hz refresh rate, so every action is immediately reflected onscreen. Do note, these settings are only available in 1080p, so you’ll likely only get the default 60Hz refresh rate when playing on 4K. The projector, by the way, will immediately switch to “gaming mode” as soon as you connect an Xbox console via HDMI 2.
The Viewsonic X2-4K Short-Throw Projector has two 6W Harman-Kardon speakers, so you should get pretty good audio onboard without having to hook up to an external sound system. Unlike other projectors, there’s also no startup time for this model, as it’s been rigged to turn on instantly at the push of the power button, much like a standard TV. Because it’s designed primarily for console gaming, there’s no OS onboard. Instead, it supports physical connections via HDMI or USB-C (you can even plug in the Switch directly), as well as wireless mirroring over Wi-Fi. Other features include a 3M:1 contrast ratio, 1.2x optical zoom, a 30,000-hour lifespan LED, 16GB of onboard storage, a dedicated Bluetooth remote, and a companion app (ViewSonic vCastSender) for controlling it with your phone.
The Viewsonic X2-4K Short-Throw Projector is slated to hit shelves sometime in the second quarter. Price is $2,152.
