Acer VL7860 Highend projector: compact and high quality at a high price

Acer VL7860 Highend was introduced by the vendor at the Berlin IFA 2017 exhibition and immediately intrigued all home theater lovers as a sample laser projector for home use. Today, finally, we can talk about this device in more detail.

Acer began selling the Acer VL7860 Highend laser projector for home theaters at the end of March, and since this is a really powerful solution for a small amount of money for the Hi-End segment, we were quick to present you with its review and test.

Test results

The Acer VL7860, with a body height of just 310 mm, is one of the most compact UHD projectors under test. In addition to this advantage, a 4K projector is one of the best models on the market. It is distinguished by excellent image quality, achieved thanks to the interpolated 4K resolution (3.840 x 2.160 pixels with XPR technology), high contrast and HDR support. Specifications also pleasantly surprised. The price of a little less than 4,000 euros, of course, is not too happy, but acceptable for such a high-end projector, like Acer.

Benefits

• Net 4K high resolution
• HDR support
• Very good technical characteristics

disadvantages

• High price
• Power consumption during operation

Acer VL7860 test results

• Price-quality ratio

• The average

• Place in the overall ranking

• 1 of 18

• Value for money: 55

• Image quality (60%): 99.3

• Ergonomics (15%): 92.6

• Equipment (20%): 90.7

• Energy Efficiency (5%): 76.1

 Home Cinema Perfection

460 x 175 x 310 mm - such compact UHD projectors have not yet been tested so far, which immediately takes the VL7860 out of the ordinary. Yes, and technical support Acer demonstrates a high level of quality. For example, the VL7860 uses a laser lamp that runs up to 20 times longer than conventional UHP models. Acer itself indicates 30 thousand hours as a service life. The laser lamp provides the maximum luminous flux of 1 7664 lumens, so the projector gives an excellent picture even in brightly lit rooms. Even more powerful projector with similar characteristics will be only Optoma UHZ65.

By the way, the official specifications of Acer VL7860 should not embarrass you. Although the projector initially claims a rather low resolution - 2,716 x 1,528 pixels, thanks to the intelligent XPR switching technology, full-fledged 4K projections are real. To do this, each image is projected twice: once without changes and once - shifted by 0.5 pixels diagonally. Thus, not only the UHD format can be played without loss, but low-resolution video also scales very well.

acer_2The real feeling of home cinema comes from the special 4K Blu-ray, which Acer can reproduce in full color splendor, having in its arsenal HDCP 2.2 and HDR 10. Here the contrast 1.255: 1 and the chess, black and white contrast 173: 1 perfectly manifest themselves. Gamma deviation is only 1%, so even in very light and dark scenes it will be easy to see the details of the picture.

In this almost perfect model, unfortunately, you can still find something to criticize. On the one hand, due to the use of DLP technology, a rainbow effect appears more often, and on the other hand, there is no 3D support. The latter, however, is unlikely to be noticeable due to the decline in popularity of this format. Yes, and the rainbow effect does not necessarily become a problem, because everyone has an individual color perception. It will be best to test the projector first, because it is possible that you will not notice these DLP technology artifacts.

Acer VL7860 Highend projector: compact and high quality at a high price. Ideal technology for UHD Blu-ray

Setting up the Acer VL7860 is quite simple thanks to the 1.6x optical zoom and the ability of the lens to move vertically and horizontally using LensShift technology. The screen can be maximized to 300 inches (7.62 meters diagonal). The projector is equipped with one VGA and two HDMI ports that support the current HDMI 2.0a standard required for playing UHD Blu-ray. In addition, two speakers with a power of 5 W are installed, but they, of course, are still quite far from the sound quality, which a full-fledged home theater sound system gives.

acer_4 "Devourer" of electricity in action

As expected, the UHD projector cannot be called energy efficient. In normal operation, we measured 344 watts, which can be reduced in ECO mode to about 212 watts. But from a high luminous flux you in this mode, of course, nothing remains. In standby mode, the power consumption remains only within the limits of a reasonable one: on average 0.5 W is consumed.