This Gorgeous UST Projector Has a High-Tech Secret

The LuxVision is the new flagship ultrashort-throw projector from AWOL Vision. Not surprisingly, the specs are impressive. A stated 6,000 lumens is certainly possible, given how bright the company’s other projectors are. The new design looks wonderful, too, with a sort of midcentury modern aesthetic that’s highly customizable.

There are two features that are most interesting. The first is a 120Hz refresh rate at 4K. That’s new this year, and it’s not just available on this projector, but also with JMGO’s Iris and Xgimi’s Aura 3 series. Given how the projector industry works, expect to see more projectors with this tech in the coming months and years as it trickles down. 

The other interesting feature is optical image shift. I’ve only recently started testing UST projectors for CNET, and one of the things I keep mentioning in my reviews is how much more difficult they are to set up correctly than the marketing suggests.

How the LuxVision looks

I got to check out the LuxVision at the IFA show in Berlin, and I can confirm they’re definitely bright. With minimal, if any, consideration for the overhead and ambient lighting, the LuxVisions were creating huge, bright images. 

I won’t know how good (or not) the LuxVision is until I get it in my lab, but even now I’m going to praise it for one of its headline features: lens shift. Despite what the marketing from every UST projector company says, UST projectors can be a challenge to set up and fit in a room. They require precise leveling, angling and height, with minimal non-electronic ways to adjust the image other than physically moving the entire projector. The addition of lens shift here is a welcome improvement.

Geoffrey Morrison/CNET

Ultrashort-throw projectors, unlike longer-throw projectors, sit in the eyeline of everyone watching the screen. As such, their design is important. While I liked the Aetherion’s sci-fi angular design, not everyone will. Even the vertical-slatted, Niemeyer-esque LuxVision might not fit every decor in one of its three stock designs. As such, AWOL is going to offer different custom finishes to fit a wider range of living rooms and other spaces.

Geoffrey Morrison/CNET

It’s looking like 4K at 120Hz is going to be the next “big” thing in home projectors. I’ll dive into this more in a future article, but the short version is that DLP projectors (basically all projectors not made by Epson, Sony or JVC) don’t have an issue with motion blur, and motion blur is the main reason TVs started upping their refresh rate about 20 years ago. There are some advantages in input lag and motion for gaming, but the vast, vast majority of content you watch on any projector is either 24, 30 or maybe 60 frames per second. Typically, the way to increase the source frame rate to the display’s rate is by using frame interpolation, aka the soap opera effect. Maybe you’re a fan of that, but I am not.

Geoffrey Morrison/CNET

Regardless of the frame rate, this is likely going to be an impressive projector and, at the very least, an attractive one.

Price and availability

The LuxVision, like all UST projectors, isn’t going to be cheap. AWOL Vision is expecting a recommended sales price of $5,999 when it starts shipping in October.

Geoffrey Morrison

Contributor

Geoffrey Morrison is a writer/photographer about tech and travel for CNET, The New York Times, and other web and print publications. He’s also the Editor-at-Large for Wirecutter. He is the author of Budget Travel for Dummies as well as the bestselling sci-fi novels Undersea, and Undersea Atrophia. He’s NIST and ISF trained, and has a degree in Audio Production from Ithaca College. He spends most of the year as a digital nomad, living and working while traveling around the world. You can follow his travels at BaldNomad.com and on his Instagram and YouTube channel.

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