Pros & Cons
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- 4K resolution
- Bright; rated at 5,000 ANSI lumens
- Notably short throw, even for a UST projector
- Supports Dolby Vision, HDR10+, HDR10, and IMAX Enhanced
- Triple-laser technology delivers a wide color gamut
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- Expensive
- Shows rainbow artifacts often
Hisense L9Q Ultra Short Throw Triple Laser Projector Specs
| Dimensions (HWD) | 6.5 by 24.6 by 12.5 inches |
| Engine Type | DLP |
| Inputs and Interfaces | Ethernet |
| Inputs and Interfaces | HDMI (ALLM, eARC) |
| Inputs and Interfaces | USB-A |
| Inputs and Interfaces | USB-C |
| Inputs and Interfaces | Wi-Fi |
| Maximum Resolution | 3840 by 2160 @ 60Hz, 1920 by 1080 @ 240Hz, Full HD 3D |
| Native Resolution | 3840 by 2160 using 1920 by 1080 DLP chip with XPS fast-switch pixel shifting |
| Rated Brightness | 5000 |
| Warranty | 2 |
| Weight | 28.4 |
Most of what you need to know about the Hisense L9Q projector can be shoehorned into two sentences. First, it's expensive: $5,997.97. And second, if your projector budget allows for such a big spend, it's worth it, even though its closest competitors for brightness—the Epson QS100 and LS800, two of our top picks—cost less. The L9Q delivers an outstanding combination of features, starting with a stunning image, high brightness, and a larger maximum image size than typical. It's not replacing the Epson QS100 as our top pick for the category, because our testing shows it displays frequent rainbow artifacts (red/blue/green flashes). However, for those who don't mind the artifacts, the L9Q offers enough to easily earn an Editors' Choice award of its own as a high-brightness, premium ultra-short-throw (UST) projector.
Design: High Brightness, High-Quality Image and Audio (Plus, It Looks Spiffy)
The L9Q is designed to please both interior decorators and viewers who couldn't care less about the projector's appearance, as long as it delivers a big, bright, high-quality picture. For the first group, its handsome copper-and-black design simply looks good sitting on a media center. And because it has an unusually short throw even for a UST model, you won't have to move the furniture it's sitting on away from the wall, even for the largest picture size the lens supports—a 200-inch 16:9 image. For the second group, both its brightness and image quality put it in the top tier for its price.
Like most 4K projectors, the L9Q delivers its 3,840-by-2,160-pixel image to the screen courtesy of a 1080p DLP chip and TI's XPR fast-switch pixel shifting. The light source is Hisense's own TriChroma triple-laser engine, which uses red, green, and blue lasers for the primary colors, rotating through them in sequence. As expected for a tri-color laser source, it delivers a wider color gamut (range of colors) than defined by BT.2020 (aka Rec.2020), the spec for 4K UHD projectors and TVs. Hisense rates it at 110% of the standard. Other key ratings include the 25,000-hour laser engine life and the 5,000 ANSI lumens of brightness.
(Credit: M. David Stone)To put the 5,000-lumen rating in context, note that most UST models that qualify as entry level to mainstream—meaning prices up to about $3,500 without a screen included—offer brightness ratings that range from 2,100 lumens (which is a little low for a large image in a family room with windows) to 3,000 lumens (which is better, but still marginal for a large image size in a bright room). The L9Q's 5,000-lumen-rating makes it the brightest 4K UST home theater projector we've seen. (More on brightness in the section on testing below.)
The L9Q's 28.4-pound weight and 6.5-by-24.6-by-12.5-inch (HWD) size are both at the high end for UST models, but within the range that makes it easy to unpack and move into place. Setup is standard for a UST model that offers a powered focus controlled through the remote. Connect cables to the ports on the side facing the screen, then turn it on, position it properly, and focus—while standing back far enough to see the entire screen. The menus also offer automatic screen fit as well as manual keystone correction. However, it's best to avoid digital geometry adjustments if possible, as they can introduce artifacts to some images.
(Credit: M. David Stone)A particularly welcome touch is that the L9Q has four HDMI ports—enough to connect a Blu-ray player, a set-top box, and a game console, and still have one free. It also features three USB ports—two USB 2.0 Type-A and one USB-3.0 Type-C—for reading files from USB memory, and it even offers a built-in TV tuner and RF antenna. For streaming, it utilizes fully integrated Google TV software and allows you to connect to your internet-connected network using either Ethernet or Wi-Fi. Note also that it can mirror phones, tablets, and PCs using AirPlay, Miracast, or Chromecast.
Hisense offers more specifics about the L9Q's onboard audio than it does for some of its other projectors. The 6.2.2 channel sound system uses 10 speakers, including two subwoofers and upfiring speakers (which bounce sound off the ceiling to help create 3D sound that seems to come from above and behind you). Taken together, the speakers give the projector a 116-watt audio system, according to the spec sheet. Add Dolby Atmos, DTS X, and sound calibration by Devialet, along with all that firepower, and the resulting high-quality audio may well be all you need. If you want to improve on it, however, you can connect to an external audio system using the s/PDIF optical audio out port, Bluetooth, or the one HDMI port with eARC.
Performance: Good Out-of-Box Image Quality, Adjustments Galore
Hisense tends to offer a wide range of settings choices in its projectors. In this case, that translates to seven SDR picture modes, eight HDR modes (using the same settings for HDR10 and HLG), and three each for HDR10+ and Dolby Vision. Both SDR and HDR lists include a Filmmaker preset, while HDR adds IMAX as well. For both of those modes, the L9Q will switch to the right mode for input tagged as one or the other, and adjust other settings as appropriate. In addition, the 3D mode works with any of the SDR picture modes. The menus keep the list of modes from being overwhelming by showing only the ones that work with the current input.
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For those with a critical eye, who can be a bit fanatic about making sure they're getting the best possible picture, there are also lots of options for customizing each mode, and you can even choose whether the settings you change apply to all sources or just the current source, so you can adjust your preferred mode differently for different sources. There's even a color management system that allows a full calibration if you know how to do one, or are willing to pay someone to do it for you. However, out-of-the-box color accuracy in my tests ranged from more than acceptable by most people's standards to definitively good, depending on the picture mode, leaving little need for calibration.
(Credit: M. David Stone)Based on my preliminary tests, I chose Theater mode for SDR viewing tests, HDR Theater for HDR10, the equivalent HDR10+ Theater for HDR10+, and Dolby Vision Bright for Dolby Vision. Image quality for SDR and all versions of HDR is impressive across the board, encompassing everything from color accuracy to contrast, black level, and shadow detail. However, it's worth experimenting with some additional settings to see whether you'd rather have them on or not, and if so, at what setting.
For my tests using SDR and most variations of HDR input, I set Active Contrast to Medium and left Content Type Auto Detection, AI Scene, and Auto Light Sensor turned on. I also changed the setting for frame interpolation—called Motion Enhancement on the menus—to Film. The default setting added too much of a soap-opera effect, making filmed material look like video. For Dolby Vision Bright, the frame interpolation adjustment was the only change I made.
(Credit: M. David Stone)The L9Q is the first Hisense model I've tested that offers full HD 3D support that works with my Blu-ray player. It's compatible with DLP-Link glasses and automatically switches between 3D and 2D modes as appropriate. (You can also switch to 3D manually when needed.) I didn't observe any crosstalk in my tests, and 3D-related motion artifacts were so minor in our test clips that I'm not sure I would have noticed them if I hadn't been specifically looking for them.
Image brightness lives up to expectations. Using the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) recommendations for a dark room, 5,000 ANSI lumens is far brighter than needed to light up the maximum 200-inch image the lens is rated for. It's also bright enough for a 175-inch image in moderately bright ambient light. In my tests, with the somewhat lower brightness for the settings I used, it was easily bright enough for my 120-inch screen in a dark room.
(Credit: M. David Stone)In additional tests in my family room using a 110-inch image on a painted wall (the largest patch of blank space I have available) instead of a screen, it delivered a bight image and nicely saturated color at low to moderate levels of ambient light, and a highly watchable image with only slightly washed out color even with sunlight streaming through the windows and skylights. Add an ambient light rejection (ALR) screen—as you should with any projector in a room with ambient light, and as we discuss in How to Choose the Right Screen for Your Projector—and you can have a satisfyingly bright picture at an even larger size.
(Credit: M. David Stone)Rainbow artifacts and laser speckle are potential issues for any DLP-based triple laser projector. However, how easily you see either varies from one person to another and can also vary with the ambient light level, the screen you're using, and more. In my case, I see red/green/blue flashes easily, but tend not to see speckle. For the L9Q in particular, I saw rainbows often enough to be bothersome when using a white screen, but fewer when using an ALR screen, and I didn't see speckle at all. If you're concerned about either or both of these issues, our advice, as always, is to buy from a source that allows free returns so you can test them out for yourself.
Two final big pluses for gamers are that the L9Q supports Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM), and its input lag is state-of-the-art short. My Bodnar 4K Lag Tester measured it at 17.6ms for both 1080p and 4K at 60Hz, 12.1ms for 1080p/120Hz, and 4.6ms for 1080p/240Hz.