Hisense C1 Laser Mini Projector Review

The Hisense C1 Laser Mini Projector ($1,997.97) is one of the first projectors we’ve seen in its category (which, despite the “mini” in its name, is room-to-room portable projectors) to support Dolby Vision, a key variation on HDR with important advantages over the more common HDR10. More significantly, it’s the first to deliver a high-quality image for both as well as for standard dynamic range content, and it also supports HLG HDR. In short, it will show off almost anything you throw at it to best advantage, while its competitors either support fewer HDR options or have issues with one or more of the versions they support. Often selling for less than its list price, it offers just enough to replace the BenQ GP500 as our new Editors’ Choice pick for a 4K room-to-room portable.

Design: Tricolor Lasers Mean Lots of Colors

Like most room-to-room portables, the C1 is a near cube, at 7.1 by 9.7 by 8.5 inches (HWD) and 10.1 pounds, with all of its ports on the back panel. It also uses the most common internal components for its category. A solid-state light source and a 1,920-by-1,080-pixel DLP chip that employs TI’s fast-switch pixel-shifting tech combine to deliver a 3,840-by-2,160-pixel image to the screen. Meanwhile, the extra height from the boxy shape leaves room for a high-quality audio system. (More on the audio later.)

Where the C1 differs from many competitors is that its light source is a TriChroma laser engine, with red, green, and blue lasers. As with any solid-state light source, the triple-laser design offers a long life, rated at a minimum of 25,000 hours. More important, it delivers a larger color gamut (range of colors) than most other light sources can. Hisense rates it at 110% of BT.2020 (aka Rec.2020), the standard for ultra-high definition (UHD, or 4K) TVs.

The key disadvantage for the three-laser design is that it tends to create a laser speckle effect in the image. As with the well-known “rainbow effect” (red/green/blue flashes that DLP projectors tend to show), how easily you see speckle and how bothersome you find it varies from one person to the next. For any particular projector, it may be an issue for some, but not others. (More on this later.)

(Credit: Hisense)

Initial setup is easier than for most of the competition, largely because the Hisense’s Vidaa OS is ready to go without any setup beyond signing in to (or signing up with) whatever streaming apps you want to use and optionally installing more from the well-stocked app store. The already installed apps include most of the major streaming sources—Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, Apple TV+, YouTube, and most notably, Netflix, which is either unavailable on Android TV models or often requires a clumsy workaround. With no setup needed for the OS itself, basic installation is reduced to plugging in the power cord, turning the projector on, pointing it at whatever you’re using for a screen, and connecting to a video source.

The C1 offers both Wi-Fi and Ethernet as options for connecting to the internet through your network. For those who prefer the easier network setup of a wired connection, that’s a particularly welcome touch, while the Wi-Fi gives you the freedom to also connect whether there’s a nearby Ethernet port or not. The connection choices also include two HDMI ports for a Blu-ray player, set-top box, or other video source.

As with most newer room-to-room portables, the C1 offers lots of automatic adjustment features for quick setup both initially and when moving it to a new spot, including autofocus, auto-keystone, screen fit, and obstacle avoidance. The autofocus worked nicely in my tests to give a sharply focused image every time, and is well worth using. However, the other features all adjust the picture digitally, which means they lower brightness and can introduce artifacts in some images. If you care about having the best possible image and don’t mind a longer setup process, it’s best to turn them off, as I did for my viewing tests.

(Credit: Hisense)

Hisense rates the C1’s brightness at 1,600 ANSI lumens. That is enough to light up a roughly 155-to-210-inch image on a 16:9 1.0-gain screen in a dark room, according to the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) recommendations. For my tests, using my preferred settings for both SDR and HDR viewing, the image was appropriately bright for my 90-inch screen both in a dark room and with a low level of ambient light. It was also easily bright enough for my 80-inch screen in daytime in a family room with lots of windows on a sunny day.

The onboard stereo audio system, built around a pair of 10-watt JBL speakers, supports Dolby Atmos and delivers suitable volume to fill a large family room along with enough quality that you may decide not to bother with an external sound system. If you want to use one, however, you can connect it through the 3.5mm stereo or S/PDIF audio-out ports, the one HDMI port with eARC support, or Bluetooth. You can also set the projector to work as a Bluetooth speaker for other audio sources.

Testing the Hisense C1: Good Out-of-Box Image Quality

The C1 menus offer six predefined picture modes for SDR, six for HDR10, six for HLG, and three for Dolby Vision, automatically switching to the appropriate mode for the current input. Each mode is fully customizable, with enough different options to keep the most nitpicking perfectionist happy by fine-tuning the image. Even non-perfectionists will want to experiment with some features, including Adaptive Contrast and Smart Scene, which both enhance picture quality by analyzing what’s on the screen and adjusting settings automatically.

After some preliminary testing, I chose the default modes—both the SDR and HDR versions of Standard mode—for my formal viewing tests. In both cases, I set frame interpolation (the MEMC setting) to Film, which smooths motion slightly without introducing a digital video, or “soap opera,” effect. For SDR, I also adjusted the brightness, and for HDR10 I set Adaptive Contrast to Low. (Higher settings tended to hurt picture quality in brightly lit scenes.)

(Credit: Hisense)

For SDR input when viewing in a dark room, the C1 delivered good color accuracy and contrast in both dark and brightly lit scenes along with a low black level and good shadow detail that allowed dark scenes to show all of the dramatic visual impact they were meant to have. The image also held up well in low to moderate levels of ambient light for even the darkest scenes in our test suite. The general description for HDR10 quality is identical, but the image offered subtly better color accuracy and contrast. Note that there is no support for 3D.

Additional testing with Dolby Vision input confirmed that the C1 automatically switched to the Dolby Vision picture modes and delivered an appropriately high-quality image. However, not having identical clips to look at in all formats, I can’t make direct comparisons between how well the C1 handles each version of HDR.

(Credit: Hisense)

I saw rainbow artifacts (the red/green/blue flashes that single-chip projectors tend to show) fairly often throughout the viewing tests. However, I see these flashes easily, and they were fleeting enough that, if you’re not as sensitive to them as I am, you may not see any. I also saw some laser speckle, which I don’t see easily. If you’re concerned about either issue, be sure to buy from a dealer who allows easy returns without a restocking fee, so you can test out the projector for yourself.

The projector couldn’t connect to my Bodnar meter at 1080p/60Hz, so I was not able to measure the input lag for 1080p. However, I measured a 35.3ms lag at 4K/60Hz, which is generally considered suitable for casual gaming.

Verdict: Tops for Versatility

If you’re considering the Hisense C1, be sure to compare it first to the BenQ GP500 it’s replacing as our top pick for the category, as well as to the JMGO N1 Ultra and the Xgimi Horizon Ultra. All are solid choices, and each has something the others lack. The GP500 and N1 Ultra are both limited to HDR10 and HLG for HDR support. However, the BenQ model delivers spot-on color accuracy and showed the fewest rainbow artifacts in our tests. Meanwhile, the N1 Ultra is even easier to set up than typical for a room-to-room portable thanks to a gimbal mount that lets you position the picture precisely where you need it in seconds. It’s also the only one in the group that comes with a carrying case.

The Horizon Ultra, like the C1, supports Dolby Vision, while adding support for 3D and offering the shortest input lag in the group by our measurements. However, it doesn’t handle HDR10 as well as the C1 does, leaving the C1 as the only 4K room-to-room portable we’ve seen that not only supports Dolby Vision and HDR10, but delivered a high quality image for both on our tests. That may not remain true for long, but for the moment, it’s enough to make the C1 our top pick. If you want to take the best advantage of HDR from most sources, it’s the projector you want.