Review: This £4,000 projector is being called ‘the king’ – but is it worth it? (aff)

This new projector is being hailed the "king" in its price range and, boy, is its price quite regal. I'll not beat about the bush, it's £4,000.

It's the Valerion VisionMaster Max, and it follows on from the VisionMaster Pro 2, which quickly became the darling of the audio/visual connoisseurs. But this costs nearly double the price of the Pro 2, so how can it possibly be better than the projector that won awards and got everyone talking?

Let's start with the aesthetics. As unboxing experiences go, Valerion makes it quite the event. And the projector itself is utterly gorgeous. The pictures really don't do it justice. It's not entirely different to the Pro 2, but it's just a little bit more classy with its piano black finish and a removable lens. Yes, you read that right, this isn't something you'd usually expect at this price, but you can swap the lenses out to alter the distance the projector needs to be from the screen. It's also known as the "throw". As you can imagine, though, the lenses aren't cheap.

The biggest news here is the specifications. And specifically what its spec sheet translates to in picture quality.

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The VisionMaster Max has a triple-laser system with 4K resolution, a dynamic iris system which makes for serious contrast and some of the deepest blacks you could expect from a projector.

There's 3,000–3,500 lumens on tap, auto focus, keystone correction and lens shift, Google TV built in, and it can retain its gorgeous picture on screens up to around 300 inches.

There's built decent built-in audio, which is better than you'd expect, and it has a low input lag for gaming, and it supports 3D imagery, although that's less relevant in this country because content is hard to find. The glasses are really nice though. Comfortable, with plenty of brightness.

Even at this incredible price, a purist would argue that you're not actually getting "true” native 4K. It's actually achieved with pixel-shifting tech, and if you have to look up what that is, the chances are you wouldn't notice the difference anyway, so don't take that as a downside. It's quite common in this end of the market.

Its price has got to be listed as another downside, however. It not only puts it against some serious competition, but it puts it out of reach of most projector fans. Even considering this is by no means the most expensive projector on the market, not by a long way, it's still a massive investment for most people.

Like most lifestyle projectors, it’s trying to do everything – cinema, gaming, smart TV... which means it’s great at a lot, but not always class-leading in every single category. More than most, though, it has to be said. In most aspects, particularly picture quality and ease of setup, it's absolutely brilliant.

If you want a high-end, all-in-one projector that’s easy to live with, this is seriously impressive. The combination of strong brightness, standout colour, and genuinely user-friendly setup makes it feel far more modern than a lot of rivals. And, I can't reiterate this enough, it's a gorgeous centre-piece in any room.

If you’re building a hardcore, dedicated cinema room, you might still be tempted by more specialist models with native 4K or even deeper blacks. But for most people, this hits a really compelling sweet spot.

It’s the kind of projector that makes you stop thinking about settings and specs, and just sit down and watch something.

And at this level, that’s kind of the whole point.