Hisense’s Vidda brand has announced an extremely powerful new home projector based on a new MCL39 laser light source to deliver increased brightness and superior colour performance.
The Vidda C3 Ultra builds on the success of the C2 series Tri-Chroma projectors that launched in October, and they’re available in China now. However, with the C2 projectors debuting in China last year ahead of a global rollout, it’s likely that the C3 Ultra will also become available in other markets soon.
It’s an exciting prospect, for the Vidda C3 Ultra puts out a whopping 3,200 CVIA lumens of brightness. That sounds CVIA is a Chinese standard for measuring brightness that doesn’t quite tally with the ISO and ANSI lumens measurements used in the west. Though there’s no official conversion ratio to go by, reviews on the web suggest that one CVIA lumens is equal to around 0.85 ISO lumens, and 0.8 ANSI lumens. So that would mean the C3 Ultra’s brightness maxes out at approximately 2,700 ISO lumens or 2,600 ANSI lumens.
Still, that’s pretty bright anyway, especially for a projector that’s likely to be priced at just over a grand, if and when it comes to the U.K. The secret sauce is Hisense’s cinema-grade MCL39 tri-colour laser source, which combines two red lasers with one green and one blue, helping to “improve light efficiency and performance”.
The Vidda C3 Ultra also features a DLP projection engine powered by a 0.47-inch DMD chipset that supports wide optical zoom at 1.67X, ensuring it can maintain lossless 4K resolution at any throw size. It’s capable of throwing up visuals of a maximum 150-inches when placed around 3.05 metres away, or 100 inches when positioned at two metres from the wall or protection screen.
Other features include autofocus, fit-to-screen alignment, auto keystone correction and image resizing, making it easy to set up and avoid any obstacles that might impact on the visuals, and users also have the ability to adapt the colours on the fly to improve image accuracy. According to Vidda, the C3 Ultra covers 110% of the BT.2020 colour gamut, with Delta E accuracy that surpasses traditional LED projectors and even LCD and OLED TVs.
Picture quality can be further improved with Dolby Vision, HDR10+ and IMAX, and there’s an onboard operating system that hasn’t been named, but is likely to be Hisense’s homegrown VIDAA OS, providing access to streaming applications. However, if the C3 Ultra is launched globally, it could well end up with Google TV baked in, given that most of Hisense’s smart TVs run that operating system.
The device is powered by MediaTek’s advanced MT9681 chip and it features 128 gigabytes of storage space and 8GB of RAM. DeepSeek’s AI is also integrated with the device, helping to answer user’s questions, find content and do anything else we come to expect of voice-powered assistants. As for the sound, it’s pretty beefy, with the unit packing a pair of 10-watt JBL speakers and a 200-watt subwoofer to support immersive Dolby Atmos or DTS:X audio.
In terms of connectivity, there are tons of options including WiFi 7, Bluetooth 5.4, HDMI 2.1 ports that support eARC, gigabit Ethernet, and a couple of USB Type-A slots.
Perhaps the most impressive thing about the Vidda C3 Ultra is its reported price tag. According to Chinese media sources, it’s on sale in China now for around 11,999 RMB, which works out at around £1,230, or $1,670. That’s about as affordable as you’re going to find for a projector of this calibre.
