I’ve had a chance to use the Hisense C1 for a few weeks, and generally speaking I am very happy with it. This is my first projector, and I did a ton of research before choosing it. Firstly, if you’re worried about buying from ProjectorScreen.com — I wouldn’t hesitate. I had decided on the C1 a while back and waited until it went on sale. I got a great deal on this website, excellent customer service, and the projector shipped quickly and safely.
I’ll start with the downsides. Being my first projector, I wasn’t sure how sensitive I would be to the “rainbow effect” (RBE) and “laser speckle.” It turns out I am fairly sensitive to RBE — I’ve read that this can vary from person to person. I find it most pronounced when watching black and white movies, or when my eyes go from one side of the screen to the other quickly. Laser speckle doesn’t really bother me — it’s only noticeable when there is a large section of the screen that is a static block of color; and even then I don’t find it very annoying. I am also using an extremely basic matte white screen, so it may be negated by a better screen.
Being a “lifestyle projector” with a static lens, you have to be either very flexible or extremely prepared for its positioning. I found it to be a little bit of a hassle, but obviously once you have it set up, you don’t need to mess with it.
For reference, for anyone reading this, the bottom of the lens is approximately 3.75” from the bottom of the unit. I could not find that information anywhere online prior to buying the unit — which was annoying when trying to plan my setup.
I pretty much exclusively watch movies on this thing — and almost exclusively physical media. I’ve tried out my PS5, for kicks, and the input lag is too substantial for me to recommend it for nearly any game that isn’t, e.g., turn based. I don’t play video games a whole lot, but apparently, like with RBE, I am very sensitive to input lag.
With all of that out of the way, I would still definitely recommend this projector. Other than the shortcomings listed above, I don’t see any reason to pay more money for a different projector — for what seems to me would be a very marginal improvement.
The picture quality is fantastic, though the colors require some fiddling out of the box. Not a huge deal, just look up settings others have used, and plug them in — takes a just a few minutes.
I don’t have any issue with the black levels. Others seem to be particular about them. Again, to get any improvement, I’d imagine you’d have to spend significantly more money for what, in reality, is probably a very marginal improvement.
Before buying this projector, however, I completely blacked out a dedicated room. It’s not a huge room, but I have no ambient light, a nice set of speakers, etc. If you’re trying to throw this in a living room, it might not be worth it. For what it’s worth, if I turn on the lights, the picture is pretty washed out — if I turn the lights off but leave the door open with the hallway light on, the picture is still good. (Not exactly a scientific measurement, I know, but that’s all I have).
If you’re like me, and you’re a movie fanatic, and you want to move from a TV to a Projector — do it. This projector blows any TV I’ve ever had out of the water, and I’ve had some decent TVs. Colors and black levels may be better on a new OLED, but I’d take this projector (at the same price as a decent OLED), with 100+ inch screen, any day of the week. Obviously there’s the size of the screen — yes it makes a huge difference. However, a very undersold part of using a projector is the effect of looking at reflected light, rather than direct light — it’s very pleasing.
If you’re looking at the C1, you probably know about its selling points. One of the biggest is Dolby Vision — which works great. It’s sort of unbelievable to me that projectors that cost 5X more than this don’t support Dolby Vision.
The C1 itself is finished very nicely in blued brushed aluminum. The remote is fine. I don’t use the streaming features. It’s quiet enough.
It’s not perfect, but realistically I don’t see myself upgrading any time soon, if ever. As I’ve said, you can get marginal improvements by spending exponentially more, but for this price I am totally satisfied.
What I can say — the best pitch I can make, as far as I see it — is that my little dedicated room, when I watch even a regular 1080p Upscaled Blu ray, blows any movie theater I’ve been to recently out of the water. I love movies, so that alone makes it well worth it to me.
