Benq TK705STi short-throw projector review: A tidy little box for small rooms

The BenQ TK705STi is a Google TV-enabled short-throw projector, perfect for small rooms that don’t fit a traditional style. Overall image quality is very good. Brightness…good. It’s in line with similarly priced competitors, though it’s not class-leading.

The silver and gray design is either sleek or plain, depending on your point of view, but it’s at least unobtrusive, just like its size.

Although its objective performance isn’t quite as good as some modern projectors, the image it creates is more than the sum of its parts. It’s fun and vibrant, with none of the potential artifacts of its laser-powered brethren.

Read also: The best projectors of 2026

Specifications and so on

• accuracy: 4K
• Lumens Specifications: 3000(ANSI)
• Zoom in: no
• Lens Shift: no
• Light source type and life: LED, 20,000 hours (30,000 ECO mode)

The TK705STi is a short throw projector, which means it is located further away from the screen/wall than ultra short throw projectors, but still closer than a traditional or long throw projector. logical? Basically, to create a 100-inch image, the TK705STi needs to be just under 6 feet from the screen.

BenQ says the projected image has a brightness of 3,000 ANSI lumens, but that’s a long way from what I measured it. In the finer mode I got about 1280 lumens. In the less accurate Bright mode I got 1,786. These are all reasonable numbers, and more than enough to create an image that is bright and similar to what you’ll find in its price range. But in the projector brightness arms race, these are gentle moonbeams compared to the blinding supernovae of recent Anker, Xgimi, and Valerion models. These are all more expensive, to be fair.

Light output serves a dual function with projectors: you want a bright image because it’s fun to watch, but it also limits the size of the image you can create. However, it’s fair to wonder how much light most people need. No projector can compete with so much ambient light and everything looks better without it. So, after a certain point, its brightness becomes a bit unnecessary.

The lens on the TK705STi is fixed, and there is no zoom or lens shift. Behind all of that is an LED light source that’s primarily rated for the life of the projector (about 30,000 hours).

communication

• HDMI inputs: 2
• USB port: 1 USB-A, 1 USB-C
• Audio output: 3.5mm analogue, eARC
• Internet: WiFi 2.4GHz/5GHz
• Broadcast interface: Google TV
• Controls: 12 volt trigger
• far: No background

The TK705STi has a fairly standard set of connections for a modern projector. There’s Google TV streaming, HDMI inputs, and even Bluetooth if you want to use it as a soundbar. These speakers share 8 watts of power, and as with most projectors, they’re best paired with separate speakers and a projector. receiver Or a Speakers.

In a nod to traditional home theaters, there’s also a 12V power outlet to power through your home automation system.

Image quality

I haven’t reviewed any short-throw projectors recently, so I didn’t have any on hand to compare directly to the TK705STi. The ghost of the BenQ X500ione of my favorites of the last few years, looms large on the horizon, as you’ll see. I’ve included the performance of some similarly priced non-short-term models, but even that is a bit misleading. Brands like Xgimi and JMGO are significantly reducing the prices of their projectors after they have been available for a few months. So it can be argued as to what is entirely fair to compare the BenQ to in a review, a full retail price projector, or a discounted, but similar, device. I’ll cast a wide net so you can get an idea of ​​how the 705STi performs in comparison.

I talked about overall brightness above, and to put the TK705STi’s 1,280 lumens (or 1,786 in bright mode) into perspective, it’s almost identical to Exgeme Horizon S Max (1300) which cost a little more when new, but is a little less now. Interestingly, Xgimi claimed 3100 lumens for this projector. So they are lagging by a similar amount. The BenQ’s light output is also close to JMGO N1S Pro (1,198), which was also more expensive when new. So, while there are some projectors that offer brighter images, they are crazy Exgeme Horizon 20 Max (2,699) comes to mind, all of which are currently more expensive. Regardless, 1,280 lumens are more than enough to create a bright image on a 100-inch screen.

The BenQ’s contrast is good, though not outstanding. I measured 545:1. That’s lower than the average of all the projectors I reviewed for CNET, but it falls in the middle. Just like brightness, its contrast is in line with similarly priced 4K projectors, which is acceptable for the money. However, this means the picture isn’t quite as strong as some more expensive models, with letterbox black shadows and bars more gray than actual black.

At the risk of some redundancy, color is also good, although not as accurate as some. Overall colors are realistic and pleasing, with accurate-looking skin tones. It’s just as accurate as, but less accurate than, the similarly priced projectors mentioned above BenQ W4100i and GP520. This is usually an aspect of projector performance that BenQ does well, so I was surprised that it was just average here.

All that said, the end result just kind of works. While “it’s all good, but not great” doesn’t sound like praise, it also means the TK705STi doesn’t do anything mistakewhich is where a lot of the competition falters. Many of its competitors will fault in how they handle colour, or have lasers (more on those in a moment), and generally create an image that measures well technically, but is less attractive to watch than the TK705STi. There’s a naturalness to the BenQ’s image that’s easy on the eyes, even if the projector’s key specs aren’t noticeable.

Competition

Modern projectors use two main technologies to produce light: LEDs (as is the case with this BenQ projector) and lasers. Some models use a combination of both, or add a phosphor, and it can be said that all lasers are LEDs, but for the sake of simplicity, these are the main categories. In our tests, most projectors that use laser light sources were brighter and could have deeper colors. A lot of it can depend on the model and how it’s designed, but for this discussion, that’s the main “pro” of the laser.

The “cons” are two-fold: spots and chromatic aberrations. Speckles are a type of shiny grain added to an image, sort of like a shiny texture or sheen. Depending on the size of the image and how close you are sitting, you may not notice this artifact. the other side, Chromatic aberrationsIt is only a problem for some people who wear glasses, especially high index lenses. Again, depending on how close you sit, light coming into lenses that are not in the center of the lens is bent differently. The result is that certain wavelengths are split, so objects, especially white objects such as text on a dark background, will appear to have colored halos. As someone who wears glasses and sits close to a large screen, I personally wouldn’t choose a triple-laser projector in my theater.

Instead, I’d opt for something like a BenQ product X500iwhich is also an LED display device. I reviewed the X500i in late 2024, and I’m still thinking about it. It created one of the best overall images of any projector I’ve reviewed in the past few years. This is due in large part to its impressive 1,990:1 contrast ratio, one of the best I’ve measured in a reasonably priced 4K projector. It was gorgeous, coupled with some of the most accurate colors of any modern projector. Due to the design of my stage, I couldn’t mount it, otherwise I would have bought it. I’ve been back to BenQ for over a year, but my measurements have reinforced my memory of it. No other 4K projector under $2,000 comes close to the contrast and resolution.

However, the X500i isn’t nearly as bright as the TK705STi, being 30-50% less bright depending on the mode. If your goal is to have the biggest, brightest screen possible, the X500i isn’t it. A measured 911 lumens is enough for a 100-inch image, and it looks great doing it.

Little black… uh, gray box

The TK705STi is a “B” student: good, but not great. It’s not outstanding in any particular way, but it’s solid all around and doesn’t do anything poorly. It may not be the brightest model you can buy, but the image it creates is natural and pleasant to watch. This is especially true if you wear glasses, as we mentioned above. For smaller or tighter spaces, it’s a great option. I personally would take the larger and cheaper X500i currently, which creates a tremendous image. However, this projector isn’t as bright, so you can’t get as large an image as you can with the TK705STi. There are always trade-offs, but I think the X500i would agree to them.

Related to TK705STi is TK705ithe longer throw version. I hesitate to call it a “long throw” since most BenQ projectors still need less than 10 feet to create a 100-inch image. The TK705i can range between 87.2 and 113.3 inches (about 7.3 to 9.5 feet) for this image size, while the TK705STi only needs 69.7 (5.8 feet). Although they share the same specifications, the lenses are different, so their actual performance will likely be somewhat different.