One minute review
The Hisense 100L5 isn't exactly your average TV. It becomes apparent as soon as you see that it gives you a massive 100-inch screen for less money than many conventional 75-inch TVs. The main reason it can offer so many inches for your money is that it's not, strictly speaking, a TV. Rather, it's an ultra-short-throw projector paired with a 100-inch rigid projection screen designed to reject ambient light, so you don't have to darken your room every time you want to view it. The projector is a laser light-illuminated DLP housing, which means it can get brighter and achieve a wider color gamut than regular lamp projectors. Unlike lamp projectors, you also won't need to replace your laser during its lifetime. Also, unlike regular projectors, it can be switched more or less immediately, without significant warm-up or cool-down time. It also goes above and beyond most regular projectors, integrating a tuner and built-in smart TV system, with many key streaming apps. This all fits perfectly with the 100L5's desire to be more like a TV than a projector. The amount of brightness and color you can keep on your specially designed screen, even with the lights on or the shades open, is truly amazing. It also manages to give 4K sources a pretty convincing 4K look, even though it's not real pixel for a 4K pixel projector. With a speaker system cleverly built into the rear edge of the projector that also sounds good enough to outperform most TV audio systems, the only major problem with the 100L5 for its money is that it lacks the contrast to it. dark home theater conditions.
Prices and availability
- The Hisense laser TV range is available in 88-inch, 100-inch and 120-inch sizes
- The 100L5 costs € 2,999 / AUS 6,999 / € 3,499 / € 3,699
- It is available, with slight variations, in most major world territories.
Hisense has really started to focus on market localization of late, so it's no longer surprising to find a relatively esoteric and expensive AV product like the 100L5 now widely available around the world. Much more surprising is how affordable the 100L5 is in all the territories it seems. I would consider spending five to 10 times more than the 100L5 to get a regular 100-inch LCD TV. This kind of value for money is sure to turn heads and has undoubtedly played a big part in Hisense's ability to bring its latest 'laser TV' proposition to major retailers around the world, despite possible difficulties associated with display and installation. such a unique product.
(Image credit: Hisense)
Integrated
- Rigid 100-inch screen that adapts to your wall
- Ultra short throw projector sits inches from screen
- Integrates a powerful speaker system on its rear edge
Since it comes in two parts, the projector and the screen, the 100L5 is a bit more of an imposition in your room than a simple 100-inch TV would be. That said, the screen is slimmer than most LCD TVs, while the projector can actually be placed almost within touching distance of the wall. So there certainly isn't the usual projection problem where the projector has to be placed in the middle of your room or close to your sitting position. The projector is large enough as usual for an ultra-short throw design. After all, there needs to be room for the light to bounce around inside the unit before it exits through the slot in the top edge of the projector. However, it looks good for its size thanks to a two-tone silver and gray design and a rear-mounted felt-covered speaker section. Since the projector is positioned against your wall, this rear is actually the most visible part of the projector from your seated position. The 100L5 is equipped with a sensor that can turn off the laser if it detects that someone is starting to lean into the image aperture, so no one is blinded. Ultra-short-throw laser projector systems can be difficult to set up, as it is more difficult than with regular projectors to perfectly position and focus the image on the companion screen. However, while Hisense has tried to make installation easy with an automatic installation app that refines the image based on a simple photograph of your image taken with your phone, the brand also offers a free home installation service with every 100L5 sold. . All you need to do is register your purchase online and schedule an appointment for installation to take place. This makes the price of the 100L5 even better. Connections on the 100L5's projector include four HDMI, the same number you'd expect to see on a TV, and two more than you'd normally find on a projector. However, neither HDMI supports 2.1, so it doesn't support 4K at 120Hz, variable refresh rates, or eARC. However, standard ARC (Audio Return Channel) is supported, and there's also a pair of USB inputs for media playback, optical digital audio output, a headphone jack, and Ethernet and Wi-Fi networking options. Many of these connections aren't things you'd expect to find on a projector, but they are on a TV. As is the most unexpected connection discovery of all: an RF port for an integrated digital TV tuner.
(Image credit: Hisense)
Smart TV (VIDAA)
- Simple and responsive VIDAA system
- Good service localization (including Freeview Play in UK)
- There is currently no support for Disney +, Apple TV or Now TV
While Hisense isn't opposed to using the Android TV or Roku TV smart platforms on its TVs, for the Laser TV it has opted to use its own VIDAA system. It has their advantages and disadvantages. On the positive side, VIDAA is performing impressively. You can navigate its simple, iconic menus without lag, and apps launch and update discreetly. Hisense has deals with many big streaming players, including Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, Rakuten TV and, in the UK, Freeview Play. There's currently no support for Apple TV, Disney+, or Now TV, but Hisense tells us that it hopes to be able to add the first two of those services to VIDAA before the end of 2021. The VIDAA system isn't as sophisticated in some ways as the best platforms. of rival smart TVs. There's no real effort to figure out your viewing habits and automatically create a "bespoke" content recommendation system, for example, and there's no speech recognition support either. But I suspect that for many users the simplicity of VIDAA will be welcome.
(Image credit: Hisense)
Image quality
Hisense L5 Laser TV Specifications
(Image credit: Hisense) Screen sizes: 88, 100 and 120 inches | Tuner: TNT HD | 8K: No | HDR: Yes | Projection technology: DLP laser | Smart TV: VIDAA | Native Resolution: 4K (pseudo) | 3D: No | Inputs: 4xHDMI (all v2.1), 3xUSB, RF in, optical digital audio, CI slot, headphone out, Ethernet, RF port In deliberately starting our tests by running the 100L5 under normal living room conditions rather than the type of In a completely dark room that is normally needed to test the projector, first impressions of the Hisense 100L5 images are truly amazing.
The laser-inspired projector's high brightness, combined with the screen's gain and the short distance the projector's light must travel before reaching the screen, results in an image you can still enjoy even when there are significant amounts of of ambient light in your room. Bright images always look punchy and vibrant, with surprisingly pure colors and an eye-popping intensity level that spotlights aren't supposed to handle in a bright room.
Brightness is also combined with an incredibly wide color gamut, helping the 100L5 avoid the pale, washed-out colors you often see when looking at spotlights in bright rooms.
In addition to making the 100L5's images exceptionally viewable in bright conditions, its combination of high brightness and wide color gamut helps it produce some of the most efficient and compelling High Dynamic Range (HDR) images we've seen from a projector. till the date. As usual with a projector, there's no support for Dolby Vision or HDR10+ active HDR systems, but Hisense's processing handles more basic HDR10 and HLG systems quite well.
The brightest parts of the 100L5's images are so rich and bright that they manage to make the dark areas equally attractive. As it turns out, this impression that the 100L5 can deliver good black levels is an illusion created by the system's combination of high brightness, vivid colors, and the display's light-rejecting qualities. But as the illusions grow, it's a good thing.
The way the supplied display uses a lenticular surface structure to prevent ambient light from interfering with the image is one such AV success story. It's hard to believe Hisense's claims that the screen can reject more than 90% of ambient light, but it certainly works well enough to align with the 100L5's desire to be seen more as a big-screen TV, than a projector.
Images from the 100L5 are crisp and sharp, too, despite the difficulties associated with achieving flawless focus and geometry in an ultra-short-throw projector. Native HD sources scale in a very neat fashion, gaining density and sharpness without exaggerating source noise. Best of all, native 4K sources actually appear to contain four times as many pixels as HD images, even though the single-chip DLP optics the projector uses doesn't actually deliver a native 4K pixel count.
The so-called dual flash system used by the 100L5 to create a 4K effect is endorsed by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) as capable of providing a true 4K experience.