VIEWSONIC X10-4KE PORTABLE 4K DLP PROJECTOR
THE PORTABLE video projector market is packed with options for anyone seeking a convenient, compact beamer to carry from room to room, indoors to outdoors, or home to vacation home. Most portable models top out at 1080p resolution, however, and feature only basic, and usually far from adequate, built-in audio capabilities. With its X10-4KE, Viewsonic is targeting a more discerning portable video viewer— one who expects 4K resolution and high dynamic range, along with better-than-average audio from the projector’s built-in speakers.
I’ve handled many portable projectors in the past, and most of those had a toy-like quality. The Viewsonic X10-4KE, in contrast, is not a toy, and with a $1,500 street price, you wouldn’t expect it to be. (The X10-4KE is a replacement for the company’s previous X10-4K model, with upgrades including an enhanced remote control and front IR sensor and improved lens with optimized autofocus.) Viewsonic designed its flagship portable with a dark gray case and leather carrying handle that give it a sleek and substantial look and feel. The projector features a 0.47-inch Texas Instruments DLP chip that uses
XPR tech to achieve 4K resolution via pixel-shifting. It’s rated for 2,300 lumens light output, and since the X10-4K uses an LED light source specified to last for up to 30,000 hours in Normal brightness mode, there’s no need to replace lamps during the projector’s lifetime.
On the audio side, the X10-4KE’S built-in speakers were designed by Harman Kardon and are Bluetoothcapable for music streaming. An included Wi-fi dongle lets you set the projector up to stream from Netflix and Youtube among other apps that can be downloaded directly from the Aptoide app store. Along with streaming via Wi-fi, the X10-4K works with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant to control features including power on, input selection, and volume adjust, and it supports screen mirroring from a phone or tablet (vacation photo slideshow, anyone?).
The X10-4KE’S short-throw lens has a throw distance of
1.6 - 11.5 feet, allowing for an image size ranging from 30 to
200 inches. Since the lens has no zoom capability, you’ll need to situate the X10-4KE at a specific, fixed distance from the projection surface. While the X10-4KE is 4K- and Hdr10-capable, Viewsonic doesn’t list a P3 color space spec, though it does cite Rec. 709 color coverage at 125 percent.
Frame interpolation processing is onboard to smooth out motion in sports and other programs, and the projector can display 3D (Viewsonic’s optional PGD-350 DLP-LINK active shutter glasses are sold for $66). The X10-4KE also has an eye protection motion sensor that automatically mutes the projected image when someone walks in front of the beam. Since most installations are likely to be on a coffee table in the middle of a living room, this feature will prevent an unsuspecting child (or dog!) from being temporarily blinded by the light.
Rear panel connections on the X10-4KE include a pair of HDMI 2.0b ports, analog stereo minijack audio input and output jacks, and an optical digital output to send signals to an outboard audio system when using the projector’s built-in streaming apps. There are also a USB type- C and type-a 2.0
and 3.0 inputs, with the latter two able to supply power to a Roku, Fire, or other-type media streaming stick plugged into one of the projector’s HDMI jacks. A LAN port and Microsd card slot round out the connection options on the X10-4KE’S rear, which can be covered up for transport with an included leather panel that attaches magnetically to the projector.
Viewsonic’s handset lacks the backlighting that we expect to see in a projector remote control. It's also a bit on the flimsy side, and even though it only has a few buttons, finding a specific one in the dark wasn’t easy. Fortunately, another option is provided by the Viewsonic’s vcastsender remote app, which is available for both Android and IOS devices.
SETUP
Filling up a 92-inch diagonal, 1.1 gain Stewart Filmscreen Cima screen in my home theater with an image from the X10-4KE required placing the projector on a low table at a fixed 65-inch distance from the screen. Because the projector has no vertical or horizontal lens shift adjustments, the center of the lens needs to be aligned exactly perpendicular with the screen’s bottom edge to avoid image keystoning. With its Auto Vertical Keystone and Auto Focus and features enabled, the X10-4KE can automatically align and focus the image after you’ve roughed in placement. Auto Focus worked well, but I found that making keystone adjustments manually delivered better results.
The X10-4KE’S preset picture modes include Brightest,
TV, Movie, Gaming, and two User-adjustable modes. For my evaluation, I calibrated the User 1 preset for high-def, standard dynamic range viewing, and User 2 for 4K/HDR. The projector’s 6500K Color Temp preset yielded the most accurate grayscale, though it still showed a slight blue bias at that setting. I was able to improve performance by using the red, green, and blue gain adjustments in the setup menu (RGB offset controls, which would have allowed for a more precise grayscale calibration, are not provided). I also selected the projector’s 2.2 Gamma preset, which delivered accurate tracking. The projector’s color management system controls also proved useful in adjusting the image for accurate Rec.709 color.
Hdr-related adjustments include an auto-detect mode and Low, Mid, and High EOTF (the HDR equivalent of gamma) settings. There are also multiple Frame Interpolation and 3D settings for anyone interested in those display options. On the audio front, there are various EQ adjustments that let you boost or cut audio signals at specific frequencies ranging from 100-10,000 Hz.
For all viewing, I selected the projector’s Full Light mode, which, after calibration, delivered 19 footlamberts (ft-l) in my dark theater room. Full on/off native contrast ratio (no dynamic iris setting is available on the projector) measured a mere 206:1, which is well below-average performance compared with similar 4K/DLP models I’ve tested.
HD/SDR PERFORMANCE
I started out my critical viewing with Viewsonic’s portable by watching the Chinese historical drama Shadow on Blu-ray disc. In a sequence where the King dismisses a commander from his duties in front of the full court, there was plenty of detail to be seen in tapestries hanging in the background, and the mostly black-and-white image displayed good uniformity. Shadows lacked depth, however, and the black letterbox bars at the top and bottom of the image came across as more of a medium-dark gray. The projector’s below-average contrast resulted in an image that looked relatively flat, with the rich range of shadow and highlight detail I typically see when viewing this disc failing to come through.
Moving on to something more colorful, I watched a scene from Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood where Rick Dalton (Leonardo Dicaprio) and Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt) drive home from a restaurant while Rick cries— literally— over his fading acting career. The skin tones of both actors had a natural, tanned look and colors of the vintage Hollywood environment that the film’s Oscar-winning production designers managed to conjure up looked appropriately rich. Viewed in my darkened theater room, the image came across as balanced and, for the most part, adequately bright, though it definitely could have used a boost on that front.
After extensive viewing, I ultimately became frustrated with the X10-4KE’S post-calibrated performance and decided to just select the default TV picture mode and see what would happen. The result? A noticeable brightness bump that I found subjectively appealing when I watched animated shows on Netflix and Hulu, and also a PBS Frontline documentary about Amazon.com. While my measured results in TV picture mode showed it to be far from ideal, given the X10-4KE’S limited contrast range, I think most folks would prefer to use that setting, especially when viewing in a less than cave-like environment.
ULTRA HD/HDR PERFORMANCE
Watching both Shadow and Once Upon a Time… again, this time using the Ultra HD Blu-ray version from the disc package, I was surprised by how little HDR contributed to the X10-4KE’S image quality. Quite the opposite, in fact— 4K/HDR in some important ways looked worse on the projector than the regular Blu-ray versions. I did note a very slight increase in highlight brightness in the court scene from Shadow, but it was accompanied by a flattening of highlight detail. Also, blacks didn’t gain any appreciable depth with the HDR version, and there appeared to be a similar flattening of shadow detail.
If the Viewsonic failed to impress with its HDR handling when watching Shadow, the situation got even worse when I viewed Once Upon a Time… on Ultra HD BD. While this film’s image looked reasonably good on the X10-4KE with regular Blu-ray, it took on a flat appear
ance in 4K/HDR, with no highlight or shadow detail to speak of, and a pasty look to skin tones. Viewsonic’s projector may be compatible with 4K/ HDR, but given these results, my recommendation would be to limit your input sources to HD/SDR for best performance.
AUDIO PERFORMANCE
Audio quality from the X10-4KE’S built-in speakers was impressive for a projector and not too far from what you might get with a decent soundbar. Dialogue was mostly full and clear, and the stereo image extended well beyond the projector’s physical dimensions. While there wasn’t much in the way of bass, low-frequency effects also didn’t cause the projector’s case to rattle or vibrate. Music streamed to the X10-4KE from my phone via Bluetooth sounded adequate, which is above and beyond what you should normally expect from an audio playback system built into a projector.
CONCLUSION
Viewsonic’s X10-4KE straggles a strange gap between projector categories. On the one hand, it’s a solid, attractivelooking example of a portable model— one that you wouldn’t mind being seen toting along to your vacation home. And it offers features that place it well above a typical portable such as auto-setup and focus, good-quality built-in audio, 4K resolution/hdr10 support, and extensive connections plus Wi-fi and Bluetooth streaming. Also, its picture calibration options, including RGB gain and gamma settings and a full set of color management system controls, are similar to what you’d find in a standard, nonportable projector.
On the other hand, the X10-4KE’S contrast is well below-average compared with typical home theater projectors, and once you take advantage of its picture calibration options, the resulting image comes across as borderline dim, even when viewed in a dark room. Also, its handling of HDR was substandard, with the EOTF adjustments in the advanced setup menu providing little or no help on that front. In the end, I was happier with the results I got when I threw off my video calibrator hat, selected a picture mode that delivered the brightest image, and eyeballed the adjustments. At $1,500, I have to say I expect a bit more from a projector, even one that's 4K/hdr10-compatible, offers the convenience of portability, and doesn’t require a lamp replacement.