home theater projectors They are all over the place in terms of price and performance. It is often the case that you get what you pay for. High-end projectors that mimic what you see at your local movie theater can cost more than $6,000. On the low end, you could easily pay less than $1,000 for a home projector, but you may sacrifice brightness, contrast, and color quality. Many of our favorite projectors fall somewhere in the middle in terms of price and quality. This is certainly true of the BenQ TK705STi short throw projector.

The main cost-justifying reason to consider purchasing this 4K projector appeals to gamers, who will appreciate its low-latency performance and larger screen size. Once you see James Bond on a 12.5 foot screen while playing 007 First light on Xbox, you’ll wonder why you didn’t update sooner. Being a short throw projector, it’s also nice to be able to use the TK705STi in virtually any room in your home. You can place it a few feet from a wall or across the room, allowing for great flexibility.

That said, the TK705STi isn’t for everyone. Movies and TV shows didn’t look as impressive with this projector; certainly not compared to the top-rated Leica Cine Play 1, which costs about twice as much. I also fixed some bugs with automatic keystone correction; Once I figured out how to manually adjust the screen, it was fine, but still a pain.

However, I primarily recommend the TK705STi for gamers who don’t need high-end home theater image quality, as the overall performance of this projector is average.

Living the short shot dream

The BenQ TK705STi is a short throw projector designed to be placed close to the wall. The TK705STi has a throw ratio of 0.8:1, which means you divide the wall size by the short throw percentage. To get a 10-foot-wide image, for example, I would place the projector about 8 feet away, which is exactly what I did in my windowless test area. (Later, in a well-lit family room with large windows, I increased the screen size to 12 feet wide by placing the projector 10 feet from a wall.)

After putting the projector in place, I noticed that its legs were shaking a little. It doesn’t wobble, but it lacks the stability I’d prefer for a mid-range projector like this. If I hit the table, the projector jostled quite easily and even started automatically applying keystone again, a feature I found finicky at best and often incorrectly mapped to the wall or screen. (For what it’s worth, BenQ reps said this is not normal and could have been related to my projector screen.)