BenQ’s GV50 is a new smart laser projector that aims to transform late-night viewing in the bedroom by projecting movies onto the ceiling.
The BenQ GV50 improves on the flexibility of the company’s existing ceiling projector models and delivers enhanced brightness thanks to the inclusion of a more powerful light source. It also comes with a handful of new features not seen in older models, bundled into a sleek-looking, vertical, rounded package. The design also incorporates an intelligent, rotating base that enables easy adjustment of the picture to get the viewing angle just right.
According to BenQ, the GV50 can deliver a 120-inch Full HD image onto any bedroom ceiling, making it easy to enjoy films and TV shows while relaxing in your bed.
It supports 135-degree vertical and 360-degree horizontal projection range, and features various other image adjusting tools, including a zoom lever. The company says the features make it quick and easy for users to adjust the picture to enhance their viewing pleasure, which is ideal for a type of device that’s often placed at an obscure angle on the bedside table.
The BenQ GV50 is designed to project onto the ceiling, like this:
But its flexibility means it's just as good at projecting movies onto a wall, the traditional way:
The GV50 also packs a potent 18-watt, 2.1-channel sound system that sports a “Ceiling Cinema Sound Mode” capability, which helps to adjust the audio output according to the height of the user’s bed. The idea is to provide a more immersive soundscape, without the user needing to pfaff around setting up external speakers in their bedroom.
Other features include a Night Shift Mode that’s meant to alleviate eye strain and a sleep timers for those who are likely to fall asleep mid-way through a movie. In terms of brightness, the BenQ GV50 is rated at a decent 500 lumens. Not the brightest by any means, but for a device that’s clearly intended for night-time viewing, it should be more than ample.
Picture quality is enhanced by BenQ’s CinematicColor technology, which helps to sharpen images and enhance the color spectrum, and high definition range content is enabled with HDR and HLG. The Google TV operating system is onboard, providing access to streaming apps like Netflix, and in terms of specifications, it has a 60Hz refresh rate and a 22.4 milliseconds input lag, which should make it a reasonable device for gamers.
The device comes with a cable that plugs into an electricity socket, and there’s also a built-in battery that should offer around two and half hours of lifetime for viewing, and up to five hours if it’s only used to stream music via Bluetooth. In terms of connectivity, there’s a USB Type-A, a USB Type-C, a DisplayPort and an HDMI 2.1 port.
BenQ hasn’t yet said how much users will have to pay to get their hands on the GV50 ceiling projector, nor has it said when it might go on sale. However, a quick look at the U.K. website suggests it will be available to buy “soon”.
