Benq TK705STi Short-Throw Projector Review: A Neat Little Box for Small Rooms

The BenQ TK705STi is a short-throw, Google TV-enabled projector, perfect for smaller rooms that can’t fit an older model. The overall picture quality is very good. The light is… good. It’s on par with similarly priced rivals, though not class-leading.

The silver and gray design is classy or generic, depending on your opinion, but at least it doesn’t look, like its size.

While its target performance isn’t as good as some recent projectors, the image it creates is more than the sum of its parts. It’s fun and lifelike, with none of the potential artifacts of its laser brethren.

Also read: Best Projectors of 2026

Details and more

• Solution: 4K
• Features of lumens: 3,000 (ANSI)
• Zoom in: No
• To change the lens: No
• Type of light and life source: LED, 20,000 hours (30,000 ECO mode)

The TK705STi is a short throw projector, meaning it sits further from the screen/wall than a very short throw projector, but still closer than a traditional or long throw projector. Make sense? Basically, to create a 100-inch picture the TK705STi needs to be a little less than 6 feet from the screen.

BenQ says the projected image has a brightness of 3,000 ANSI, but that’s a long way from that. I measured. In its most accurate mode I got about 1,280 lumens. In its less accurate Bright mode I got 1,786. These are all reasonable numbers, more than enough to create a bright image and similar to what you will find in the price range. But in the projector light arms race, these are mild moonbeams compared to the blinding supernovas of the latest Anker, Xgimi and Valerion models. Those are all very expensive, to be fair.

Brightness output plays double duty with projectors, in that you want a brighter image because it’s fun to look at, but it also determines the size of the image you can create. That said, it’s fair to ask how much light most people need. No projector can compete with lots of ambient light and everything looks better without it. So after a certain point, its light is too much.

The lens on the TK705STi is fixed, there is no zoom or lens shift. After all, there is an LED light source that is limited, basically, to the life of the projector (about 30,000 hours).

Communication

• HDMI input: 2
• USB port: 1 USB-A, 1 USB-C
• Sound output: 3.5mm analog, eARC
• Internet: Wi-Fi 2.4GHz/5GHz
• Streaming interface: Google TV
• Manage: 12v spark plug
• Remote control: It does not light up

The TK705STi has the perfect set of modern projector connections. There’s Google TV streaming, an HDMI input and even Bluetooth if you want to use it as a speaker. Those speakers share 8 watts of power and, like most projectors, it’s best when paired with separate speakers and receiver or a sound bar.

In a nod to home theaters, there’s also a 12-volt trigger port for turning on a home automation system.

Image quality

I haven’t reviewed any short throw projectors lately, so I didn’t have any to directly compare to the TK705STi. The ghost of BenQ X500ione of my favorites from the last few years, it looks great, though, as you’ll see. I have included the performance of other models of the same value that are not short, but even that is a little misleading. Brands like Xgimi and JMGO drop the prices of their projectors significantly after they’ve been available for a few months. So it’s debatable which one is really fair to compare BenQ in a review, a processor at its full retail price, or one at a reduced, but similar price. I’ll cast a wide net to get an idea of ​​where the 705STi’s performance sits in comparison.

I mentioned overall brightness above, and putting the TK705STi’s 1,280 lumens (or 1,786 in bright mode) in the same way is almost identical to Xgimi Horizon S Max (1,300) which is less expensive when new, but less now. Interestingly, Xgimi claimed 3,100 lumens for that projector. So both are issued at the same rates. BenQ’s light output is also close to JMGO N1S Pro (1,198), which was also very expensive when new. So while there are projectors that offer bright images, bonks Xgimi Horizon 20 Max (2,699) come to mind, all of which are currently very expensive. Regardless, 1,280 lumens is more than enough to create a bright image on a 100-inch screen.

The BenQ contrast is good, although not outstanding. I measured 545:1. This is below the average of all the projectors I’ve reviewed on CNET, but I found it to be average. As for brightness, its difference is in line with similarly priced 4K projectors, which is acceptable for the money. However, this means that the image is not as bad as expensive models, with shadows and black bars in the black box that are more gray than really black.

Risking a bit of repetition, the color is also good, although not as accurate as others. Overall colors are realistic and pleasing, with skin tones that look accurate. It’s just as accurate as the similarly priced projectors mentioned above, but more accurate than that BenQ’s W4100i again The GP520. This is usually a feature of projector performance that BenQ does well, so I was surprised that it was only average here.

All that said, the result is as good as the job. While “all good, but not great” doesn’t sound like a compliment, it also means that the TK705STi doesn’t do anything. which is wrongwhich is where most of the competition stumbles. Most of its competitors will screw up their color handling, or have laser artifacts (more on that soon), and overall create an image that scales well technically, but is less visually appealing than the TK705STi’s. There’s a natural BenQ image that’s easy on the eyes, even if the projector’s headlines are unremarkable.

The competition

Modern projectors use two main technologies to create light: LEDs (like this BenQ) and lasers. Some models use a combination of both, or add a phosphor, and of course all lasers are LEDs, but for simplicity these are the main categories. In our testing, most projectors that use laser light sources are bright, and can have deep colors. A lot of that can depend on the model and how it’s designed, but for this discussion that’s the main “pro” of lasers.

The “cons” are twofold: speckle and chromatic aberrations. Speckle is a type of shiny grain added to an image, similar to a shiny or glittery texture. Depending on how large the image is, and how close you are, you may not see this artifact. Another factor, chromatic aberrations, is only a problem for some people with glasses, especially high index lenses. Also, depending on how close you are sitting, light entering off-center lenses is bent differently. The result is a certain height separation, so things, especially white things like text on a dark background, will look like they have colored halos. As someone who wears glasses and sits next to a big screen, I personally would not choose a three-way projector for my theater.

Instead, I would prefer something like BenQ’s own X500iwhich is also an LED projector. I reviewed the X500i in late 2024, and I’m still thinking about it. It created one of the best overall images of any projector I’ve reviewed in the last few years. That’s thanks to a modest contrast ratio of 1,990:1, one of the best I’ve measured for a reasonably priced 4K projector. Paired with some of the most accurate color of any recent projector, it was great. Due to the layout of my theater I could not install it, otherwise I would have bought it. It went back to BenQ over a year ago, but my measurements confirm my memory of it. No other sub-$2,000 4K projector comes close in terms of accuracy.

However, the X500i is not nearly as bright as the TK705STi, 30 to 50% dimmer depending on the mode. If your goal is the biggest, brightest screen possible, the X500i isn’t it. Its 911-as-measured lumens is plenty for a 100-inch picture, however, and it looks good doing it.

A little black… uh, gray box

The TK705STi is a complete “B” reader: good, but not great. It’s not outstanding by any means, but it’s solid all around and doesn’t do anything bad. It may not be the flashiest model you can buy, but the image it creates is natural and fun to look at. This is especially true if you wear glasses, as mentioned above. For small, or small spaces, it is a good choice. Personally, I would find the larger, and currently cheaper, X500i to produce a better image. That projector isn’t as bright, though, so you can’t get as big an image as you can with the TK705STi. There are always trade-offs, but I think the X500i has it right.

TK705STi data TK705ilong throw version. I hesitate to call it a “long throw” since most BenQ projectors still require less than 10 feet to create a 100 inch image. The TK705i can fit between 87.2 and 113.3 inches (about 7.3 to 9.5 feet) in that size picture, while the TK705STi only needs 69.7 (5.8 feet). While they share the same specs the lenses are different so their actual performance may differ somewhat.