VAVA’s Laser TV Delivers An Affordable 4K Viewing Experience For Your Home: Whether in your Theater, Living Room, or Family Room, Immerse Your Family With the Wow Factor of a Movie Theater

Why settle for 65”, 71”, or 77” diagonal LCD/LED TVs when you can enjoy your favorites on a 100” 120” or even 150” Laser TV and Screen combination for watching movie, sports, and well, whatever you want?

VAVA is the maker of a very popular 4K UHD Laser TV. In fact, I reviewed their Laser TV just six months ago. Many of you may not be familiar with the VAVA brand, so I will start with a little background because, well, it is interesting. It is certainly not typical. But this month’s sponsored article is mostly about the Laser TV experience. I’ll be using the VAVA and its images in the conversation, but my goal is to turn you on to Laser TVs. We’re looking at a potential game-changer, taking the projector out of dedicated home theaters and man caves and into your home.

There are so many new brands showing up, primarily from China, some, naturally are pretty well established, and others – who can tell?

It’s easy for us to stick to reviewing the major, well-known brands – there are plenty of projectors for us to review, but then, people are definitely buying VAVA projectors, (which are easily found on Amazon). For that reason, I felt it important for us to take a good, close look.

I first encountered the VAVA folks in early 2019, and learned they were running an Indiegogo campaign to launch this VAVA Laser TV. VAVA’s products are distributed in the US by SunValleyTek, part of Sun Valley Group, which offers several other brands as well, including both TaoTronics and RAVPower, which I am familiar with. They have US HQ in Silicon Valley.

One thing that impressed: It wasn’t just any old crowdsourced campaign. They raised an “eyebrow-raising” $1.84 million. The thing is, when speaking with them, I was told they did the Indiegogo campaign, with the primary reason being the marketing benefits, getting their name out there ahead of their first projector, more than for the money. Cool.

Based on the dollars raised, that works out too about 600 projectors, ordered by the Indiegogo investors. What a way to get off to a good start.

Well, VAVA got it done. Late 2019 they were shipping product to their Indiegogo investors.  About that time, they offered me one to review. This VAVA Laser TV hit the market, and now typically sells at its current $2,799 list price.

Let’s step back a minute and make sure all of you are in tune with the relatively new concept of the Laser TV.

Laser TVs are the projector industry’s easy solution to enjoying the really big-screen viewing experience at home, without out needing a dedicated room – the classic “home theater” or man cave, and instead enjoy it in common rooms like your living room or family room. That tends to make them family purchases, something enjoyed by the whole family, rather than just the hobbyist/enthusiast in the house.

Laser TVs like the VAVA, are smart! (The VAVA runs the Android operating system just as so many other devices do.) Note, Android operating systems are used in most of other projector brands’ smart projectors as well. BenQ, Epson and Optoma, are three, to name a few competitors. LG projectors, on the other hand, use LG’s own system.

The Game Changer: Easy to Own and Use! The VAVA is no more complicated to own and use than having an LCD TV mounted on your living room wall. The difference, you mount the screen to the wall, and the laser TV sits right below it on a table/console (or even the floor).

Simple enough.

The obvious one is that even a 65” TV looks tiny compared to a 100” screen, seems not much more than a postage stamp compared to a 150”. Okay, not really, a 150” measures only a little less than being 5 times as large. Mind you, that’s about the same difference in size between a 30” TV and a 65”. AKA a MASSIVE difference, so that you end up with the movie theater experience!

If you go with this VAVA and a fixed wall screen, all you need to get started enjoying is hooking up the power, and Wi-Fi (or power plus hook up cable, satellite, disc player, or other sources). Once Wi-Fi is connected, the VAVA Laser TV will allow you, of course, to stream your favorite networks – Netflix, Prime, Disney, Apple, Hulu, etc.

One big difference with the VAVA Laser TV experience that you will notice immediately (besides the obvious fact that you are looking at a 100”, or 120”, or even up to a 150” diagonal screen) is that it comes with big sound. If you have dropped several hundred dollars already for a quality soundbar for one of your TVs, then you have a good idea what to expect from the 60-watt sound system built-in.

Turns out VAVA didn’t mess around. Basically, the VAVA projector has a fully capable Harmon Kardon speaker array – think soundbar, built right in. Even my 77” OLED TV’s internal sound, sounds sadly weak and thin by comparison. Of course, if you do have a separate massive sound system, you can use that instead of the internal speakers.

Now, I personally do like serious bass, in both my music and definitely in my action and sci-fi movies. Since no soundbar or projector has deep bass, I solved that problem by adding a wired subwoofer that I’ve had lying around for about 20 years. It simply hooks up to a typical RCA output. (Best if your subwoofer has its own crossover to limit the upper frequencies going to it, but that’s a relatively standard feature.) You can spend less than $100 or you can spend far more for more audiophile sub-woofers. The affordable one I have is great for movies but not as accurate for music. Still, it adds that bottom end. You’ll definitely want to consider a small sub-woofer if you like bass, or just like “Rock’in the House!”

My experience with the VAVA is rather unique in terms of my reviewing. It arrived in the midst of our planned move to Florida, from California. Moving out of our house in July, we decided to rent for the rest of the summer (skip hurricane season in FL), and move October 1st. Well, the VAVA arrived after we moved into our rental. I finished our review of the LG there, on my old UST ALR rigid screen (now with Phil), and started the VAVA. Then came the move. I finished viewing the VAVA and did the review from our new place. As you can see, there are images of the VAVA from my theater, and living room. Sadly, the VAVA went back to them, before my VividStorm UST/ALR screen arrived for the living room. No matter, I got plenty of time to study the VAVA, and enjoy it, between the two places about 2200 miles apart.

As the result of using it in three different rooms (two locations), I have a good handle on things like picture quality, how much ambient light this system can deal with, and even more.

The first was the rental. The 100” rigid screen set up in the living room, which has sliding glass doors behind the screen on the left, windows behind the right side, a skylight, and light from the adjacent kitchen and its glass doors.

What an ALR/UST screen looks like from above: The SI screen looks black – as it is absorbing all the light that would normally bounce upward back at the camera. View the screen from below the screen looks medium gray.

That room itself never gets nearly as bright as my current living room, but as you can see, sunlight in some photos is coming in through the sliders and windows lighting up the floor and furniture around the screen and projector. The VAVA did just fine in this room, in handling the ambient light. Even in the worst time of a sunny day, the VAVA was certainly very watchable!

Moving to our new place, my new small theater (bedroom #3, redone in all dark surfaces) has a large side window, immediately to the right of the screen and three tall windows in a bay window type configuration straight back. The room has blinds in the photos here. Since then I’ve added blackout curtains as well.

My new theater – blinds closed but light leaking in, none-the-less.No problem at all for the VAVA, even though I’m not using an ALR screen.

Note in particular how good the colors look – rich and saturated, despite plenty of light leaking in from the blinds being hit by the sun.

Of course, in the theater, with great lighting control, everything always looked great. Here’s a movie image was taken in the evening:

The third room is the living room of our new place (and HQ). It is a ridiculously bright room. I doubt if 1 person in 500 has a living room this naturally bright. Honestly, my living room has been too bright for any of the Laser TVs, with the possible exception of the LG – which sells for more than double the VAVA’s price. (I reviewed the LG before we moved here.)

Sadly, my new VividStrorm 120” ALR/UST type motorized screen did not arrive before I had to return the VAVA. The images of my living room (on a cloudy day and evening), below, suffer from being projected onto a textured wall, which is a far cry from using a screen specifically designed to prevent a lot of ambient light from reflecting off the screen to your eyes, washing out the picture.

This is what the rest of the room looked like when the previous image was taken – a partially cloudy day, (sun just starting to hit the balcony) but the room is still pretty bright, you can even see some sunlight starting to hit the balcony:

And another image from the same shoot:

So, if you think these images above looks “OK” figure that with my VividStorm 120” screen absorbing a chunk of the rooms ambient light, the image would look quite noticeably better/brighter. Note that the wall is textured. That certainly doesn’t help either.

Here’s another Monday Night Football image taken in the evening with low lights on, but without all that sunlight pouring into the room. Even without the “right type of screen,” no problem:

Movies are great, too. When the lighting is under control, you can expect to enjoy huge, rich, dynamic scenes in movies (pre-calibration images):

Now, if you want the best possible color, the VAVA’s out of the box performance is not particularly accurate. But, despair not. We professionally calibrated it before reviewing it, and we provide those settings for your VAVA, for free. Just follow the link at the bottom to the VAVA Laser TV review, where you will find our two calibration pages. It will take you about 10-15 minutes to copy in all the numbers, so you can have more accurate color for an even more enjoyment.

Hopefully, you have learned a bit about VAVA, and their Laser TV, and what having a Laser TV brings to your party, I’ll sum things up:

The Bottom Line: Smart Laser TVs are pretty awesome. Do it right, with a proper screen, and you can add the movie theater experience to your living room or family room, etc. And the savings on the cost of movie theater popcorn and drinks will probably pay for your much of laser TV over time.

You have real choices in Laser TVs, from the $2,799 VAVA ($1,000 list below the closest competition), to other brands’ models starting about $1,000 higher. You can spend far, far more, of course. Although not technically a Laser TV due to lack of built-in speakers, Sony’s is $24,999. By comparison, the VAVA is a drop in the bucket.

I started this conversation by introducing you to VAVA.  How credible are they?

VAVA delivered around 600 projectors to their indiegogo investors, and they are approaching 300 ratings on Amazon in the first few months of shipping to new customers.  All considered, it’s a very respectable number for the new  Laser TV class of projectors in terms of sales.

Based on the number of ratings they have on Amazon, VAVA appears to the number one selling 4K Laser TV there.

Now in fairness, there are brands that don’t sell on Amazon, and some you can buy there, but also sold through dealer networks or big box houses.  Still, in just a few months, VAVA is off to a really impressive start.

What do owners think?  

4.4 out of 5 on Amazon.  That pretty much says it all.

Don’t forget.  Should a VAVA Laser TV end up in your living room or wherever, be sure to try our calibration settings.  You will definitely like the picture even more!

This is about the experience. Now, of course, I’m hardcore: Even the 77” TV on my wall for the brightest days, in my really bright room, seems downright small by comparison to the really big screen experience – be it 100”, the 120”  I am now using, or larger.

One more benefit I forgot to mention: The VAVA supports 3D content. That’s great even though most new LCD TVs have dropped 3D. You need the big screen experience to enjoy 3D.Avatar in 3D was really rather awesome on the VAVA! No surprise, of course!

If you have a suitable room – which, for Laser TVs, means most rooms, including bedrooms, then the choice is yours – feel like you are in your local theater, except that overall the experience is way better at home.

Sure, you can buy a 65” LCD TV for under $500. A 71” OLED TV (much better than LCD TV), though will set you back almost 10 times as much. Not only will that OLED cost more, and be smaller, it also will have inferior sound quality.

By comparison, VAVA can get your family enjoying a far larger laser TV setup, for less than that smaller OLED TV.

Which is more fun:  Laser TV or Driving In Rush Hour?

While you are deciding whether a Laser TV is for you, here’s one last thought: Compared to a Laser TV, you will spend many times more on a car or truck which you likely won’t keep nearly as long.

The point is, even if you have a really nice car, SUV…when you are driving, you usually aren’t “really enjoying.” Rather, you are driving from Point A to Points B, C… running errands, work, etc.

By comparison, a few thousand dollars spent on a Laser TV setup, is all about enjoying every minute of watching it. (Your favorite sports team losing, notwithstanding!)

Thanks to VAVA for picking up the tab for this feature. Now you know you can enjoy the big screen experience at home, without a dedicated theater – or “breaking the bank!” And – no one can let you enjoy the 4K UHD Laser TV experience anywhere near the price of the VAVA.

My last two cents:  It’s great that we get choices in life: Enjoying a Laser TV is one of those great choices. I’m a hardcore enthusiast, and looking for higher end models for my new living room, but I do believe the VAVA is a great “entry level” 4K Laser TV!  As if anything 4K is entry level!

Thanks for “listening” to another of my custom advertorials. I do hope you found it useful in your hunt!  -art

Laser TVs are pretty awesome. What are you waiting for?

The VAVA Laser TV (VAVA Website)

VAVA Laser TV Review: 2500 Lumens of 4K UHD Ultra Short Throw Projector For The Whole Family

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