Epson is expanding its Lifestudio range of projectors that debuted in September with the addition of a much more powerful model that’s said to “raise the bar for shared cinematic experiences at home,” bringing higher brightness and more impressive 4K detail to the table.
The company, which has been the world’s best selling projector maker for more than 25 years, originally positioned the Lifestudio range as a more affordable and portable lineup for home entertainment. Models such as the Lifestudio Flex EF-71 and EF-72 and Lifestudio Pop EF-62B/N and EF-61W/G/R featured the company’s innovative RGB-LED 3LCD optics and its Triple Engine technology, delivering cost-effective big-screen imagery that’s around three-times brighter than its single-chip DLP portable projector rivals.
Just weeks after launching the range, it then seemed to pivot somewhat with a decidedly less-portable and much more powerful model called the Lifestudio Grand EH-LS670, which is an ultra-short-throw projector capable of putting out 3,600 ISO lumens images to create a “vivid, true-to-life picture day or night.”
Now the company is cranking it up further with the Epson Lifestudio Grand EH-LS970, which comes with the same 3LCD laser light source but increases the brightness to 4,000 lumens. It also promises to eliminate the “rainbow effect,” which pertains to those annoying RGB flashes, complexly. In addition, whereas the EH-LS670 uses pixel-shifting to achieve 4K resolution, the EH-LS970 is a native 4K machine that throws up “real 4K UHD” with 8.3-million pixels at 3,840x2,160 resolution.
Users will also be able to enjoy bigger pictures, with the EH-LS970 capable of throwing up a 150-inch image at the very maximum, up from just 120-inches with the EH-LS670. It boasts a throw ratio of 0.16-0.4:1, and dynamic contrast rated at 5,000,000:1.
As with the older model, there are lots of AI smarts baked in. The company talked about “AI-powered image optimisation” that helps the projector adapt to changing lighting conditions and although it didn’t really expand on this, it’s likely to have autofocus, keystone correction, object avoidance and fit-to-screen functionality too. With its AI optimisation tech and high brightness, the EH-LS970 should ensure premium picture quality no matter what the viewing conditions are like, even during the daytime.
Epson said the EH-LS970 runs the Google TV operating system and comes preinstalled with official Netflix, as well as other popular streaming applications. There’s a dedicated auto low-latency gaming mode with under 20 milliseconds input lag over HDMI, and the built-in speaker system has been designed by Bose, promising immersive, room-filling audio. Dolby Audio is supported, and we assume some sort of HDR format is also there, although the company did not mention this.
There is no official product page yet so we don’t know the full specifications of the EH-LS970, but we do know it’ll go on sale in Europe some time in April, so there’s not too long to wait.
We suspect the EH-LS970 will also go on sale in the U.S., as the EH-LS670 did. There’s no word on pricing yet, but considering that the EH-LS670 currently sells for £1,999, it’s almost certainly going to be more expensive than that.
