I set up the projector for a 90-inch image at 10.5 feet from the screen. Image quality with default settings is excellent for the price and more than acceptable by most folks' standards. Image detail is appropriate for the 1080p resolution, and colors are well within the range for realistic color in most picture modes. Cinema mode offers the best color accuracy and does the best job holding the subtle gradations that give closeups of rounded objects a sense of three-dimensionality. But the slightly brighter Living Room mode is not far behind, and Game mode is close behind that, albeit with slightly less saturated color. Besides, you get the support of a 3.5mm stereo port. However, I suggest you connect your soundbar using HDMI. The placement & Mount: BenQ TH585

Even though these are two expensive alternatives (GT1080HDR and HD39HDR), the BenQ TH585 has a lot to offer for the price tag it carries. My Take On BenQ TH585: The Conclusion The white segment, meanwhile, lets the TH585 deliver a brighter image than you would get from an otherwise identical projector without one, contributing a lot to the projector's rating of 3,500 ANSI lumens. However, note that this inclusion affects color accuracy, which is why color wheels in projectors meant for traditional home theater in a dark room—take the BenQ HT2150ST, for example—don't include white panels. When it comes to console gaming, the TH585 has a lot to offer for each type of gaming, such as role-playing games, party games, sports games, and action games. Besides, the projector lets you enjoy multi-source entertainment, from a gaming console to a blue-ray player. The key specification: BenQ TH585Furthermore, unlike most projectors, the TH585 has a six-segment color wheel, RGBWYC—red-green-blue-white-yellow-cyan, resulting in brighter and vibrant picture quality. The BenQ TH585 is your best home theater projector under 500 in 2023. If gaming and watching movies is in your mind, you can’t find any better projector in this price range.

So overall, I declare, for the price, that BenQ TH585 is an attractive and robust entry-level home theater projector for gaming and watching content. Pros & Cons: What I like:On the other hand, Game mode offers the best contrast and sense of three-dimensionality in dark scenes, with Living Room mode in second place again and Cinema a close third. So while Game mode is the obvious choice for games, the choice for watching movies and TV depends on whether you need the extra brightness of Living Room mode, and whether you care more about Cinema mode's better color accuracy or Game mode's better contrast, detail in dark or shaded areas, and three-dimensionality. The rated 3,500 lumens is bright enough, according to Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) recommendations, for a 270-inch-diagonal, 16:9 image using a 1.0-gain screen in a dark room, or for a 150-inch image in moderately bright ambient light. As with almost any projector, however, the modes you'll actually to use have significantly lower brightness. Somewhat surprisingly for a gaming projector, the TH585P delivers underwhelmingly low volume, both in absolute terms and for its 10-watt speaker. The audio system is suitable for a small room, but for larger rooms, or even in a small room if you want an immersive audio experience, you'll need to connect an external sound system to the audio-out port. For my formal tests, I used Cinema mode, with Brilliant Color set to 0, to give the best color accuracy while still being easily bright enough to fill a 90-inch screen in a dark room. In informal tests in a family room with lots of windows, Cinema mode was still bright enough to light up an 80-inch 1.0 gain white screen for nighttime viewing with lights on. Living Room mode was a little brighter, and my preferred choice for daytime viewing. As with the BenQ HT2150ST, the TH585 offers only one 3D picture mode and works with DLP-link glasses only. I saw no crosstalk in my tests and only minor 3D-related motion artifacts.

If you're looking for a projector for gaming and for watching movies and TV in rooms with ambient light, be sure to consider a step up in price from the BenQ TH585 and include the Optoma GT1080HDR and Optoma HD39HDR on your comparison list. Both are also designed for gaming and offer higher rated brightness, among other features, for the higher price. If you're more interested in watching movies and TV in a dim or dark room, but still want the fast lag time needed for gaming, be sure to take a look at the BenQ HT2150ST, a more expensive model that isn't as bright as the TH585 but offers better color accuracy and a more robust sound system. The rated 3,500 lumens is bright enough, according to Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) recommendations, for a 270-inch-diagonal, 16:9 image using a 1.0-gain screen in a dark room, or for a 150-inch image in moderately bright ambient light. As with almost any projector, however, the modes you'll actually want to use have significantly lower brightness.Let’s start with the fact that it’s a full HD projector (1920x1080p) equipped with 3500 ANSI lumens of brightness. Instead of focusing on 4K resolution, BenQ has worked on large-screen projection—a primary factor for a majority of the people who want to enjoy their family time on a big screen. Brightness:What does it offer? TH585 claims a 16ms response time as a gaming projector, a considerable slow input lag for enjoying gaming on various gaming consoles, such as Nintendo, Playstation, or Xbox. Moreover, you have exclusive gaming modes to enhance your gaming experience—You can turn it On/Off as per your content. On 2023’s home theater projectors’ comparison list, you’ll find these two projectors as well. Like BenQ TH585 and HT2150ST, the Optoma GT1080HDR and HD39HDR are also designed for home theater purposes—gaming and movies—but with higher brightness, contrast, and of course, higher prices.

Whether your focus is on gaming, watching movies and video in a room with ambient light, or equally on both, the TH585P is worth a look. But be sure to consider whether your budget can stretch a bit to consider other options. The BenQ TH685P, for example, can accept 4K HDR input, takes good advantage of HDR, and shows fewer rainbow artifacts for only a little higher price. The Xgimi Horizon offers far more robust audio at the cost of an only slightly longer input lag. And if you consider rainbow artifacts unacceptably irksome, the Epson Home Cinema 2250 is guaranteed to not show any, though its input lag is more appropriate for casual—rather than serious—gaming. On-projector settings available to fine-tune the image range from brightness, contrast, and gamma to a color-management system for adjusting hue, saturation, and gain separately for each primary and secondary color. Note, too, that there's a Brilliant Color setting, which is common on DLP projectors. This version has 10 steps; each step down the scale lowers brightness but increases color accuracy. Assessing the Brightness Best Portable Projector for Nintendo Switch: Top 3 Portable Projectors For Your Nintendo Switch 2023 Based on the Society for Movie and Television Engineers (SMPTE) recommendations, the TH585P's 3,500-lumen rating should be enough to light up a 270-inch, 1.0-gain, 16:9 screen in a dark room, or a 150-inch screen in moderate ambient light. In my tests, even the lower-brightness Game mode delivered a suitably bright image to light up a 90-inch screen in a family room at night with lights on, and remain watchable—though a little washed out—using an 80-inch screen on a sunny afternoon in a room with lots of windows.

A Solid Pick for Games, Entry-Level Home Theater

As BenQ has claimed the brightness in ANSI lumens, it boasts ANSI 3500 lumens. Since I always prefer nits to measure the brightness of a projector, The TH585 reaches 1000/500 nits. Yes, you read it right. It is better than what you from an expensive TV, most go about 800-1000 nits. Setting the projector to its Game picture mode (with Fast Mode on), I measured the input lag with my Leo Bodnar meter. With the resolution at 1080p, and 60Hz input, the figure came in at 16.4 milliseconds. Along with the fast lag time, the TH585 offers a small chassis and light weight, which is important to gamers who want a projector they can easily move from room to room, bring to a friend's house, or store away when not using it. However, BenQ doesn't include a carrying case in the price.