Moving the goalposts
Hisense 120L9G Laser TV
“The L9G comes with a screen, either 100-inch (with the 100L9G) or, with the 120L9G reviewed here, the full 120 inches. We cannot cheer this loudly enough.”
One local projector company regularly tells us that Ultra Short Throw remains a relatively small sector within the larger but still not particularly huge sector of AV projectors in Australia. They say this to explain why they don’t bring their own UST models into Australia. Perhaps that’s why Hisense continues to brand its UST projectors as ‘Laser TVs’. Televisions massively outsell projectors. So if Hisense can convince you this is a valid alternative to your standard TV, maybe more people will cross the divide.
But calling something a ‘TV’ changes the goalposts. Not only must the candidate pass muster in its projection abilities, it needs to satisfy things like daytime viewing, having a TV-like interface and a tuner for free-to-air TV, and having sound built in.
In many of these, the Hisense L9G fills the role entirely adequately, or at least makes a good case for consideration as your everyday television screen. And in other ways, of course, it’s quite a remarkable television.
Off the wall
Image size is, of course, the lead differentiator over your standard TVs, but there is also a marked and laudable difference to any other UST projector on the market of which we’re aware. That is that the L9G comes with a screen, either 100-inch (the 100L9G) or, as with the 120L9G reviewed here, 120 inches. We cannot cheer this loudly enough. A projection system should always be considered in toto, with the screen an essential element. A great many projector users just shine the thing on a wall, hopefully at least a white one, but doing so dooms your image integrity compared with what is possible with a uniform white screen.
There’s no easy way for a manufacturer to communicate this to a projector
