Our intrepid trade-focused reviewer Richard Stevenson gets his hands – and eyes – on the much-anticipated Sony Bravia 9 (VPL-XW8100ES) projector.
Sony’s previous generation VPL-XW7000ES projector put the brand head-to-head with JVC’s finest cinema beamers, thanks largely to the introduction of dynamic tone mapping to rival JVC’s best. It was a very good projector. I know, I bought one. Only marginally frustrating then, we bring you the latest VPL-XW8100ES as it upgrades pretty much everything.
OK, the case, remote control and fabulous all-glass lens assembly remain unchanged. The shape gives the Bravia 9 Projector, as it’s known to friends and sales staff, the same end-on-look as the back of a Star Wars Imperial Destroyer… which, we can all admit, would have been a better name than nicking a moniker from Sony’s TV range. The mounting points are also identical, offering a very simple upgrade for well-heeled customers, as the XW8100 has gained a significant £10K on its retail price.
Specification-wise, while 3D support has finally been deleted, you get twin HDMIs with 4K/120Hz compatibility and a low latency mode to keep gamers happy. This model gets another 200 lumens to raise the bar to 3400 maximum brightness, and a contrast ratio nearly doubled to 15000:1. Interestingly, noise is down to 22dB, from 26 dB of the 7000, and it’s noticeably much quieter than its predecessor when the laser engine is cranked up to 100%/maximum output.
That allows you to use more of the Bravia 9’s full brightness capabilities without the fans ramping up to take-off velocity, making that small on-paper jump in lumens considerably greater in practical reality. Moreover, in testing, at the same relative brightness, the XW8100 runs considerably cooler than its predecessor, which will be a boon to boxed projector installations or smaller well-insulated rooms where AV heat build-up is an issue.
Driving all these top-line performance enhancements is Sony’s powerful new XR Processor. With tech borrowed from the brand’s flagship TVs (hence the Bravia name), this brings features like XR Dynamic Tone Mapping, XR Deep Black and XR Triluminos Pro – all of which work to optimise HDR content, enhance black levels, and expand the colour spectrum very effectively.
On the control side, the Bravia 9 supports integration with the majority of mainstream home automation platforms, including Control4, Crestron, Savant and AMX, and Sony says IP control capabilities have also been improved, providing more robust and reliable network integration. It is fully compatible with Domotz network management (for IT geeks) and Snap One’s cloud-based management and monitoring platform, OvrC (for integrators).
Weighing in at a svelte 14kg, the Sony is not onerous to mount and uses the same symmetric bolt pattern central to the lens for easy alignment. Not that this is an issue for getting the image to hit the screen squarely because the motorised lens assembly offers a whopping +/- 80% vertical and +/- 31% horizontal lens shift! Given Sony’s heritage in imaging, no surprise there is nothing but praise to be lavished on the lens cluster and its optical properties.
EVERYTHING BETTER THAN EVERYTHING ELSE
I said earlier that this model upgrades ‘pretty much’ everything… because the single 12v trigger is still only an output. That is great for triggering screen masking, which is used in very few installations. Yet it is absolutely useless if you want the projector to boot up automatically when the AVR is powered on. As there is no CEC control over HDMI either, unless the installation has a full home control system, then end users (like me) are going to be juggling multiple remotes at start-up. To quote my wife prior to the technology and automation-themed Wallace and Gromit movie at Christmas, “Wow, 26 grand, and it doesn’t power on automatically”. She then gave me a Gromit-like raised eyebrow.
Out of the box, the ‘Preset’ RGB panel alignment needed the finest tweaking to bring the Red and Blue panels perfectly in line with the Green at the centre cross. Drift to the edges of the test pattern is barely visible on a 3m screen. Focus is fully motorised and nicely granular, but still requires good eyesight and your nose on the screen to get it pixel perfect. Going back to Sony’s imaging expertise, why there isn’t an autofocus system on a projector at this level is a mystery to me.
The set-up menus incorporate nine picture presets, including IMAX-Enhanced, and a user-configured picture mode. All presets can be tweaked with variable gradation smoothing, gamma correction in 10 steps, and a suite of Sony proprietary twiddles. These include True Cinema (frame rate sync, reduction in motion interpolation and cinema-like picture), Motionflow (frame-by-frame processing to reduce motion blur and deliver cinema-like feel), Cinema Black Pro (Iris and lamp control to enhance black levels and contrast) and Sony’s Reality Creation. The latter is Sony’s take on 4K upscaling, detail enhancement and noise reduction… not bringing Jessica Rabbit to life in the room, which is a shame.
Many installers make additional revenue from calibration services, and for this Sony has no shortage of advanced picture-fettering options, allowing for anything up to full ISF goodness. I am not a huge fan of set calibration parameters, however, as I prefer the subjective approach to picture balance. After all, one man’s visual perfection may be another man’s over-saturated cartoon-like image.
Moreover, Sony baseline presets are perhaps the most balanced and usable ‘out-of-the-box’ suite of image settings I have seen from a projector. I could live with Cinema 1 and IMAX Enhanced without touching another setting. Even traditionally ‘out-there’ settings like Game is well-gauged and relatively restrained. Ironically, the only one I didn’t vibe with was Reference. After the frankly amazing brightness, natural colour and stunning contrast of IMAX Enhanced mode, Reference mode looks a bit, well, dull.
Overall the image quality is another solid step up in Sony’s video projection game, with near TV-like brightness, colour and contrast (in a dark room), silky smooth image processing and incredible detail even in the depth of shadow or super-bright areas. The image upgrade is most noticeable side-by-side with its forebear, which produces a more muted and slightly ‘greyer’ image by comparison. The reduced noise and reduced heat output from the vents are also a fabulous addition to its USPs, particularly when talking to potential upgrade customers with a 7000ES in place.
My micro-gripe about the 12v trigger aside, the Bravia 9 projector is as flexible as they come, supports all the mainstream formats (save Dolby Vision, and that is a moot point given the impressive native HDR and dynamic tone mapping), has upped its gaming game, and delivers a class-leading image at the price. I wonder if Sony will notice if I slip my old 7000ES in the sample return box.
