The BenQ HT2060 ($999) is the least expensive projector the Taiwanese tech giant offers for dark home theaters and the only one with a 1080p native resolution, rather than state-of-the-art 4K. Surprisingly, our testing shows it doesn't handle HDR as well as the cheaper BenQ TH685P, which is designed for home entertainment in rooms with ambient light (meaning that it focuses more on brightness than image quality). Under most circumstances, the TH685P or a more expensive 4K projector like the Editors' Choice-winning Epson Pro Cinema 4050 are better choices. However, the HT2060 offers high-enough image quality—particularly for SDR input—to make it a reasonable value, and its solid-state light source eliminates the need to buy replacement lamps, which can save money in the long run compared with the lamp-based TH685P.

Design: Simple Setup, Plus Surprisingly Capable Speakers

The HT2060 is built around a 1,920-by-1,080-pixel DLP chip paired with a four-channel LED—red, green, and two blues—an increasingly common choice for a light source, particularly for BenQ models. (The second blue channel is typically used to increase brightness.) BenQ rates the color gamut at 98% of Rec.709 (aka BT.709), the standard for TVs.

Setup is notably straightforward, with no built-in smart TV feature needing a network connection to add steps. At 7.9 pounds and 4.6 by 14.4 by 9.6 inches (HWD), the HT2060 is small and light enough to handle easily during setup, while the manual 1.3x zoom offers flexibility in how far you can place it from the screen for a given size image. The HT2060 also offers a small vertical lens shift—just plus or minus 5% of the centered position—which can help you adjust the image height without resorting to tilting the projector up or down and then using digital keystone to square off the picture. The only connections for image sources are two HDMI ports on the rear panel.

(Credit: M. David Stone)

Home theater projectors traditionally offer minimal or no onboard audio, since most people will add an external sound system in home theater setups. (Such audio systems, even modest ones, will put anything that could fit in the projector itself to shame.) In that context, the HT2060 does better most on this score, offering dual 5-watt speakers that deliver reasonably good sound quality along with enough volume to fill a large family room. Those who want the better quality that goes with an external system can use the 3.5mm analog stereo output or the S/PDIF optical audio output on the rear panel.

Testing the BenQ HT2060: Good Quality SDR, Watchable HDR

The menus offer three predefined picture modes for SDR input, plus a user mode. ISF Day and ISF Night modes are also available if you're willing to pay for a full calibration, but it's hard to recommend that, since the calibration could cost more than the projector. As with most competitors, the brightest predefined mode, Bright, has an obvious green bias, making it best avoided for regular use. However, even in Bright mode, the colors are within a range that most people would consider tolerable, for example, for occasional use on a bright afternoon. The other two predefined modes deliver much better color accuracy and contrast straight out of the box.

After some preliminary testing, I picked Living Room mode—which is also the default setting—for my viewing tests because it delivered better shadow detail than Filmmaker mode. The only change I made was to set brightness properly, by lowering it just a touch.

For HDR input, the HT2060 supports both HDR10 and HLG. In my tests comparing 1080p SDR with 4K HDR versions of the same movie on disc, the projector negotiated a 4K HDR10 connection with the Blu-ray player when using the 4K disc, and it offered two predefined modes: Filmmaker and HDR10. In this case, HDR10 offered the better image quality of the two, and I couldn't find any settings that improved on the defaults.

(Credit: M. David Stone)

For SDR input, the HT2060 delivered good color accuracy as well as good contrast in both dark and brightly lit scenes. Dark scenes also maintained the dramatic visual impact inherent in the scene, holding almost all of the detail I know to look for in the shadows, and offering a satisfyingly dark black level and good contrast. HDR input is eminently watchable but a step down from the SDR version of the same movie. The image in both dark and bright scenes was darker overall than in the SDR version and delivered much lower contrast, dulling down colors. So, although the HT2060 handles HDR better than some 1080p projectors that support HDR, it delivers a better-looking image for SDR.

For full HD 3D, the projector supports DLP-Link glasses, and it offers a single 3D picture mode. I didn't see any crosstalk in my tests, but 3D-related motion artifacts were a touch more obvious than for most current-generation models with 3D support.

(Credit: M. David Stone)

As with any single-chip DLP projector, rainbow artifacts (red/green/blue flashes) are a potential issue for those who see them easily, as I do. I found them more obvious on this BenQ model than with many projectors, but they showed themselves no more frequently than typical. If you're concerned about this issue, try to buy from a retailer that allows easy returns without a restocking fee so you can test it out for yourself.

The good news for gamers is that the projector's input-lag measures at 60Hz and 120Hz refresh rates match those of current state-of-the-art gaming projectors. My Bodnar meter measured 16.3 milliseconds (ms) at 60Hz for both 1080p and 4K input, and 8.3ms for 1080p/120Hz.

(Credit: M. David Stone)

Despite being designed for viewing in a dark room, where high brightness isn't needed, the HT2060 is bright enough to give you a reasonably large image even in a family room with lights on. According to the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) recommendations, the rated 2,300 lumens is suitably bright for roughly a 220-inch 1.0-gain screen in a dark room. In my tests, it easily filled a 90-inch 1.0-gain screen using either the lower brightness Cinema mode setting for SDR, or the HDR10 mode for HDR. It even managed reasonably well at that size when I turned on a floor lamp.

Verdict: A 1080p Projector in a 4K World

How you feel about the BenQ HT2060 will depend heavily on whether most of the movies and videos you watch are in 1080p SDR format (which the projector handles nicely) or in 4K HDR (which our testing shows to be a step down in image quality).

If you'll be watching 4K HDR material often enough for that to be a problem, and you can't stretch your budget enough to consider a 4K projector like the Editors' Choice-winning Epson Pro Cinema 4050—one of our top picks for 4K home theater projectors—be sure to take a look at the BenQ TH685P and the Epson Home Cinema 2350 instead. These 1080p alternatives are designed for rooms with ambient light, which means a focus on brightness rather than color accuracy or contrast, which gives the HT2060 the advantage for 1080p SDR viewing in a dark room. For HDR, however, each does a better job than the HT2060, according to our tests. This makes them potentially better choices if most of what you watch is HDR. The Home Cinema 2350 is also the only one of the 1080p projectors mentioned here that doesn't show rainbow artifacts, a feature it shares with the Pro Cinema 4050.

That said, if you expect that most of your viewing will be for 1080p SDR in a dark room, and especially if rainbow artifacts aren't an issue, the BenQ HT2060 is the obvious choice in this group.