The Optoma brand, one of the most popular in the production of hi-tech projectors, is back to show up, with the new UHD55 model also being made available on the Italian market.
After a rather long pause compared to the last big announcement, the Taiwanese brand Optoma returns to appear on the Italian scene through the deployment of a new hi-tech projector, the Optoma UHD55, proposed at a recommended price of 1,599 euros.
The new projector has a classic parallelepiped shape (315 x 270 x 118 mm) which, thanks to its white color, appears quite elegant: on the back, it hides a vast assortment of ports, including an RS-232, an RJ45 for the Ethernet (with the internet that can also be supported in Wi-Fi, by connecting a special dongle to a USB-A otherwise usable to provide content to the media player), a 1.5 A USB-A which is accompanied by a pair of HDMI 2.0b (however there is also an “old” VGA input), an audio input and output via 3.5 mm jack, and an optical digital output.
On the side, and in a portion on the front, the ventilation slits appear, with the Optoma UHD55 projector that always remains very quiet, given an operating noise of 26/28 decibels. The technology used to display the images is based on a single 0.47-inch DLP chip equipped with 1920 x 1080 micro-mirrors: thanks to the XPR (eXpanded Pixel Resolution) technology that derives 4 pixels from each micro-mirror, the system passes from native FullHD to upscaled resolution of UltraHD.
The images, entrusted to the emission of a 240W lamp (from 4,000 to 15,000 hours of operation according to the chosen mode), are always bright, up to 3,600 Ansi Lumen and, in Dynamic Black mode, also very contrasted, up to 1, 2 million to 1. This provided you do not opt for the Wide Color Gamut mode which, obviously, allows you to obtain greater coverage (97%) on the DCI-P3 color gamut, however, to the detriment of brightness. Basically, however, there is always support for wide dynamic range, in HLG and HDR10 formats and a form of MEMC technology, here called PureMotion (therefore always with the interpolation of additional simulated frames).
Due to the projection ratio declared by the manufacturer, equal to 1.21 – 1.59: 1, also taking into account the 1.3x zoom, distances from 1.2 to 8.1 meters are covered, with 90-inch images obtained at 2.4 / 3.1 meters and 150 inches, on the other hand, obtained by positioning the projector between 4 and 5.3 meters, with all the necessary adjustments that can be made by focusing (manual) and, without moving the projector, via the lens shift (vertical , with images translated by + 10%).
Controllable both via the Optoma Connect app (also useful for creating infowall) and via voice commands to Alexa and Assistant, the Optoma UHD55 projector, capable of supporting 3D images as long as it is equipped with special glasses, is animated on the software side by a customized version of Android without Google services, but with a Marketplace that supports the main streaming services. To overcome any gaps, you can use the cross-platform software (macOS / Windows / ChromeOS, Android / iOS) Creative Cast, to mirror content from computers, tablets, smartphones, notebooks, etc.
Finally, the ability of the Optoma UHD55 projector to integrate into the instruction routines of the IFTTT software (perhaps to lower the shutters when projection has begun), and its ability to support gamers through a low latency mode (from 4 to 16 ms depending on whether you are interfacing with UHD @ 60Hz sources or with FullHD @ 240Hz sources).