Pros & Cons
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- 4K native resolution
- Short input lag for gaming
- Laser light source rated at 3,500 ANSI lumens
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- No built-in streaming apps or bundled dongle
- Shows frequent rainbow artifacts
- Image quality for HDR isn't as good as for SDR
- Pricey for what it delivers
Optoma UHZ35ST Specs
| Dimensions (HWD) | 4.5 by 10.8 by 8.5 inches |
| Engine Type | DLP |
| Inputs and Interfaces | Ethernet (control only) |
| Inputs and Interfaces | HDMI 2.0b |
| Inputs and Interfaces | USB-A (power only) |
| Maximum Resolution | 3840 by 2160 60Hz, HDR; Full HD 3D |
| Native Resolution | Equivalent to 3840 by 2160 using Epson's 4K PRO-UHD technology |
| Rated Brightness | 3500 |
| Warranty | 1 |
| Weight | 6.6 |
Although the Optoma UHZ35ST ($2,799) is primarily sold as a home entertainment and gaming projector, Optoma's website lists it in other categories as well, most notably for business and education, and with good reason. Being bright enough for gaming or viewing movies in a family room with lots of ambient light, for example, also helps for presentations in an office or classroom. However, what makes it particularly appropriate for home use is short lag times, which are targeted squarely at gaming. The high list price and only slightly lower current online price make it more expensive than either the BenQ X3100i or BenQ X500i, which are our current top picks for gaming projectors. But its compact size, light weight, and short throw make the UHZ35ST better suited for moving from room to room or beyond.
Design: Solid Basics, Few Extras
As with every 4K gaming projector to date, the UHZ35ST is built around a 1,920-by-1,080-pixel DLP chip that uses TI's fast-switch pixel shifting to put 3,840 by 2,160 pixels on screen. Where it differs from some is that it uses a laser-phosphor light source, starting with a blue laser and adding red, green, and yellow by way of phosphor wheels. As is typical, the light engine is meant to last the life of the projector, and is rated at 30,000 hours in Eco mode and 20,000 hours at full power.
Optoma doesn't include a carrying case with the UHZ35ST, but at just 6.6 pounds and 4.5 by 10.8 by 8.5 inches (HWD), it's easy to move from room to room or to the backyard for a movie night. Setup consists of little more than connecting a video source to one of the two HDMI 2.0b ports on the back panel, plugging it in, turning it on, pointing it at your screen, and manually focusing. In my tests, the short throw lens filled my 90-inch screen from a little more than 3 feet away.
(Credit: Optoma)You'll find no optical zoom for adjusting image size, so you may need to move the projector to match the image to the screen. The projector does offer a digital zoom—as well as digital geometric adjustments, including vertical and horizontal keystone correction. However, all of these are best avoided, since they lower brightness and introduce artifacts in some images. Also missing is any built-in streaming or a bundled streaming dongle, but you can connect a dongle to one of the HDMI ports and power it using the USB 2.0 port that's also on the back panel.
The onboard audio, built around a single 15-watt speaker, is best described as usable but unimpressive. Although the volume was high enough to fill a large family room in my tests, its quality was distinctly tinny and clipped at high volumes—a description that would have been typical several years ago, but compares poorly with today's room-to-room portable projectors as well as with gaming projectors like BenQ's X3100i and X500i. For better quality, plan on connecting an external audio system to the 3.5mm audio-out port or the one HDMI port that supports eARC.
Testing the Optoma UHZ35ST: The Input Lag's Ideal for Gaming
The UHZ35ST offers six predefined picture modes for SDR input. The out-of-box color accuracy for four of the six was unacceptable in my preliminary tests, turning a blue sky green in one of our test clips, for example. As is common, the brightest mode, Bright, showed a yellow-green shift. However, it was one of only two modes that managed to show the blue sky as blue, and most people would consider its color tolerable in a room that's bright enough to benefit from the extra brightness. The good news is that the remaining mode, Reference, delivered reasonably on-point color accuracy, solid contrast, and top-tier shadow detail in all my viewing tests. Colors were also nicely saturated, and the image offered a good sense of three-dimensionality.
For HDR, the UHZ35ST offers only one mode for HDR10 and one for HLG, automatically switching to the appropriate mode for the current input. Unfortunately, the image quality was disappointing, and I couldn't find any settings that offered more than marginal improvement. Shadow detail was good, but in brighter scenes colors were dulled down from what they should be. The issue with color for HDR was also noticeable in my informal tests, although the loss of vibrancy was minor enough that I might not have thought there was a problem if I were looking solely at material I'd never seen before, and didn't have expectations about what it should look like. Overall, that makes the HDR image watchable, but with image quality in our tests that was a step down from how well the projector handled the same scenes for SDR versions of the same movies.
(Credit: Optoma)At this writing Optoma says that it's looking to see how it might better tune the color for HDR. It expects any changes to be incorporated into new units and available as a user upgrade for projectors that shipped without it.
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The UHZ35ST also supports full HD 3D using DLP-Link glasses, and supports a single 3D picture mode. I didn't see any crosstalk, but 3D-related motion artifacts were at the mid-to-high end of the range for today's projectors, making them a little more obvious than with many models.
(Credit: Optoma)Most Optoma projectors do a good job of avoiding the red/green/blue flashes known as rainbow artifacts that single-chip projectors tend to create. Unfortunately, the UHZ35ST is an exception to that rule. In my tests they were both obvious enough and frequent enough in movies and video that anyone who sees them easily (as I do) and is bothered by them could easily consider them a problem. If you're concerned about this issue, buy from a dealer that allows returns without a restocking fee, so you can test it out for yourself.
One unarguable plus for the projector is its short input lag, which is important for games where reaction time matters. I measured it with a Bodnar meter at 16.9 milliseconds (ms) for 1080p/60Hz, 16.8ms for 4K/60Hz, 8.5ms for 1080p/120Hz, and 4.5ms for 1080p/240Hz. Each of these is essentially tied for first place for that resolution and refresh rate among projectors we've tested.
(Credit: Optoma)Two other pluses that you may want to consider are the eco-friendly design, and the ability to mount the projector in any orientation. The eco-friendly claim is based on a cluster of features, including having a mercury-free light source, using only 55% the power of Optoma's lamp-based equivalents, and using 50% recycled material for the chassis and 85% recyclable material for the packaging. Being able to mount the housing in any orientation can be of interest for a variety of applications from retail-store windows to museum exhibits, with the short throw adding the ability to create a large image in a tight space.
The rated 3,500 ANSI lumens is enough to fill a 270-inch, 1.0-gain, 16:9 screen in a dark room, according to the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) recommendations. In my tests using the much-lower-brightness Reference and HDR modes, the UHZ35ST was still easily bright enough to light up my 90-inch, 1.0-gain screen in both a dark room and at low levels of ambient light. In my informal testing in a family room with lots of ambient light, it was bright enough to offer a highly watchable image in daytime on an 80-inch screen.
Verdict: A Pricey But Capable Portable Projector
If you're considering the UHZ35ST, you might also want to consider a less-expensive, but also less-portable, alternative. For home entertainment and gaming, the BenQ X500i and X3100i delivered higher quality for audio and 4K HDR in our tests, and both offer several game modes, each designed for a different type of game. Between them, the X500i has the lower price, while the X3100i delivers higher brightness and an extra game mode. If you're wary of rainbow artifacts, you should also consider the Optoma UHD55, which showed few red/green/blue flashes in our tests, making it a potentially good choice for anyone who finds rainbow artifacts distracting.
The UHZ35ST is more impressive for its versatility than for how well it suits any one type of use. Its key strengths make it a solid choice for use in rooms with ambient light, whether for home entertainment and gaming or for business or education use, while its compact size makes it attractive if you need a projector you can move easily from one room to another. If you also need one that can throw a big image in a small room, its short throw can make it (literally) the best fit as well. Finally, the ability to handle both home and office applications makes it a tempting choice if you need a projector to carry back and forth between locations.