Posted on November 26, 2016 By Art Feierman
The Sony VPL-VW365ES is the least expensive true 4K home theater projector currently available, at $9999 list price. It supports 4K HDR for dazzling picture quality, and has an impressive feature set. It replaces the older VW350ES which we previously reviewed, and awarded. The VW365ES is designed to be nicely bright – just enough to be paired with a light rejecting (ALR) screen in rooms with good, but not great light control, and of course, it’s great in your dedicated home theater or cave, should you have one or are about to create one.
We’ll start off with an overview of the VPL-VW365ES, and a list of its highlights. From there, other pages will consider special features, a tour of the hardware, our take on a number of aspects of picture quality, and performance measurements. Finally, a summary of the whole VW365ES review, including a pros and cons section.
Let’s get started.
The VW365ES is a largish home theater projector. It’s case is dark with a matte finish so that it blends nicely into a dark ceiling in a dedicated home theater. But if your room has a lighter ceiling, despair note, because this Sony is a sleek, clean looking design.
Of course the most important aspect of this projector are its three SXRD (LCoS) 4K panels (3840×2160). I see the VW365ES first as a “media room” or home theater projector. Give it a room with respectable control over light, and pair it the right screen, and you will have one impressive setup, that will blow away your friends and truly entertain you.
Sony projectors are extremely strong on picture quality. In general I might say “natural looking picture.” We’ll discuss how good, later.
In the photo player above, the first three images are from HDTV, then three from Blu-ray movies, and finally, four 4K content images.
The lens zoom, focus, and lens shift are all motorized, for your convenience, but the projector lacks lens memory, a minor inconvenience for some. The zoom has a huge amount of placement flexibility.
Sony has reduced the selection of inputs to the minimum, relying on HDMI, and the likelihood of a modern AV receiver, or alternative. It comes with a backlit remote control.
3D is upgraded from the older VW350ES, it’s now RF rather than IR based. No glasses are included, but good, very lightweight 3D glasses today start from well under $20.
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