The Hisense C1 is a 4k DLP laser projector. It's a standard throw projector with a fixed lens, but it has a digital zoom feature that allows it to project an image anywhere from 65" to 300". It's the first standard-throw projector from Hisense to implement a TriChroma triple laser engine, with a remarkably wide color gamut for HDR content and support for Dolby Vision, as well as two integrated 10W JBL speakers and Dolby Atmos support. Its all-in-one design is rounded out with built-in streaming apps through Vidaa OS, digital geometry correction features like auto keystone correction and obstacle avoidance, and a relatively portable design in case you want to move it from room to room.
Our Verdict
The Hisense C1 projector is a good choice for watching movies. The projector gets decently bright and has great native contrast, producing a crisp and pleasing image, though it's best suited for dark or light-controlled rooms. It also supports Dolby Vision HDR and has near-full coverage of the Rec. 2020 color gamut, making HDR content look vibrant. That said, SDR content can look oversaturated. Colors are quite accurate out of the box, though white balance issues can leave a reddish cast unless you calibrate it.
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Decently bright image, especially for dark rooms.
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Supports Dolby Vision.
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Very wide color gamut for HDR content.
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Great native contrast ratio, with punchy highlights and well-defined shadows.
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Not quite bright enough for rooms with ambient light.
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SDR content can look oversaturated.
- 7.6 Movies
- Updated May 21, 2024: Updated text throughout the review according to Test Bench 0.9, mainly in the Compared To Other Projectors and Contrast sections.
- Updated May 21, 2024: We've converted this review to Test Bench 0.9. We've overhauled our Contrast tests, as we now measure contrast at various average pixel levels (APL). You can see the full changelog here.
- Updated Feb 22, 2024: Review published.
- Updated Feb 21, 2024: Early access published.
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Differences Between Sizes And Variants
The Hisense C1 projector comes in one color: Prussian Blue. There are no other variants of this model.
Our unit was manufactured in June 2023; you can see the label here.
Compared To Other Projectors
The Hisense C1 is a good lifestyle projector for those seeking a relatively portable room-to-room projector to watch movies and TV shows. Though it's missing features like optical zoom or a gaming mode, it supports Dolby Vision, and its triple laser design produces vibrant colors and a fairly bright image. It's also relatively compact and has auto-adjustment features, making it a good fit for smaller spaces or room-to-room usage. However, as it doesn't have optical zoom, you'll ideally need to physically adjust its placement to get the best image for your screen. Still, it offers excellent value for those seeking an all-in-one home theater solution at this price point.
See our recommendations for the best projectors for home theater and the best home projectors. If you're looking for something more general, look up our list of the best projectors instead.
The Hisense C1 and the XGIMI HORIZON Ultra are both good all-in-one projectors with Dolby Vision support. The Hisense has better contrast overall and more vibrant colors, thanks to its triple laser design. On the other hand, the XGIMI gets notably brighter, so it's better for setups with ambient light, and its optical zoom gives you more flexibility with placement.
The Epson Home Cinema 3800 is better than the Hisense C1. The Epson has a more traditional design, while the Hisense is aimed at those who want an all-in-one projector; that is, it's more compact and has a smart OS for built-in streaming. The Epson gets much brighter, making it better suited to rooms with ambient lighting, and its optical zoom gives you more flexibility with placement. However, in a dedicated room where you can control its placement, the Hisense has much to offer, including a sharp, vibrant image and Dolby Vision support.
The Hisense C1 and the BenQ X3000i are both great lifestyle projectors, though the BenQ is better suited to gaming thanks to its low input lag gaming mode. The BenQ also gets brighter, making it a better fit for moderately lit rooms, while the Hisense's edge in its contrast makes it better suited for dark rooms. The BenQ's optical zoom also gives you more flexibility with placement. Conversely, the Hisense is better for HDR content, with a wide color gamut and Dolby Vision support.
The Hisense C1 is much better than the Samsung The Freestyle 2nd Gen, but they're in different product classes. The Samsung The Freestyle 2nd Gen is a small portable projector with a nifty tilting stand that lets you adjust the projection angle. The Hisense is a bigger product, although it's not huge, and like the Samsung, it comes with a full suite of image correction features, so it's not too much of a hassle to move around. Otherwise, the Hisense offers much better image quality due to its higher peak brightness, better contrast, and sharper image due to its pixel-shifting technology.
The BenQ HT4550i is better than the Hisense C1. It gets significantly brighter and displays more accurate colors, though the Hisense has better contrast, so it looks better in dark rooms. The optical zoom on the BenQ gives you more flexibility with placement, and ports like a 12V trigger make it more suitable for a dedicated home theater setup. That said, the Hisense may be a better-value option for those who just want an all-in-one solution.
Test Results
The Hisense C1 is billed as a "mini" projector, and though its boxy design isn't exactly compact, it is relatively portable and isn't too much of a hassle to move from one room to another. It's smaller and lighter than the BenQ X3000i and roughly similar in size and weight to the XGIMI HORIZON Ultra.
It has a range of automatic adjustment features, including auto keystone correction, autofocus, and digital zoom, making it fairly easy to move and set up in a new spot.
This is a DLP projector with a triple laser light source. Unlike a single laser projector, it uses three separate red, green, and blue lasers to produce its colors. Hisense rates it for over 25,000 hours of use, so you won't have to worry about the lasers dimming over time or needing replacement. The projector uses pixel shifting to display a 4k image, and though it isn't quite as sharp as a native 4k projector, it's the next best thing.
Unfortunately, it uses a fixed lens, making it a bit trickier to position correctly. However, it does have a digital zoom feature that lets you adjust the image to fit screens ranging from 65" to 300", as well as geometric adjustment features like keystone correction, though there's no lens shift feature.
The Hisense C1 has decent peak brightness. It's rated for 1600 ANSI lumens, though we measured closer to 1000 in our light-controlled testing setup. It isn't the brightest projector out there—it doesn't get nearly as bright as the XGIMI HORIZON Ultra, for instance—but it's still bright enough to look good in dark rooms. Thankfully, the brightness is also very uniform across the whole screen.
The Hisense Cube C1's contrast ratio is great. Highlights and shadows are well-defined, leading to a very pleasant viewing experience in darker rooms.
The Hisense C1 projector's color accuracy is okay out of the box. It displays colors quite accurately, likely helped by its triple laser design, and gamma follows the 2.2 target curve closely for the most part. However, its white balance is very off, and the color temperature is overly warm, so the image has a reddish tint.
After calibration, the color accuracy is significantly better. Colors are further improved, with only minor inaccuracies. White balance and color temperature are also much better. The projector includes 20-point white balance calibration, allowing for more precise fine-tuning.
The Hisense C1 has a very wide color gamut, with nearly full coverage of the Rec. 2020 color space, making it a good fit for HDR content. That said, its color gamut exceeds the Rec. 709 color space used in SDR content, which can result in oversaturated colors.
- Power supply
- Power cable
- Remote control
- 2x AAA batteries
- HDMI male-female adapter
- User documentation
This projector runs Hisense's VIDAA OS smart platform and has several pre-installed apps, including Netflix and other major streaming apps. You can also cast content from your phone.
It has two integrated 10W JBL speakers and even supports Dolby Atmos, though you won't get nearly the same immersion as you would with dedicated speakers.
There are two HDMI 2.0 ports, including one eARC port. The projector also has one USB 2.0 port and one USB 3.0 port. On top of that, there's an ethernet port, an optical digital audio out port, and a 3.5mm audio out. However, there's no 12V trigger port to automatically drop or retract a motorized screen when powering the projector on/off.
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Comments
Hisense C1: Main Discussion
Let us know why you want us to review the product here, or encourage others to vote for this product.
- 21010
Bought this projector. Great picture… maybe not as bright as lumen values indicate. Then again content also plays a part. Certainly a lot brighter than the Samsung Lifestyle I also have.
One major issue NOT talked about anywhere… and seems to be common to Hisense TVs as well. SPDIF output.
My partner has severe hearing loss. Misses out on all the great surround stuff ;( So we use subtitles on most content when available.
On our Samsung TV at home (and when traveling in friend’s homes or motels) we take a Phonak Bluetooth box. It plugs into the SPDIF output and streams sound to his hearing aids. Works great even if it isolates me from commenting during a show.
HISENSE DO NOT OUTPUT TO SPDIF AS WELL. It’s either onboard speakers in projector or tv, bluetooth OR SPDIF. Not also. As every other tv I’ve tried does.
It apparently used to work and then some software change and it never came back.
I talked to the Hisense Support team and they are disappointed and hope it gets reinstated.
My solution is to use a SPDIF optical splitter and send signal to his hearing box and the other to a soundbar. It’s not ideal as I lose some of the surround options for eARC full lossless surround.
But it works.
I have never read about this in any review so perhaps sites like this should test the output options and highlight issues with the software as poor hearing is already frustrating enough without adding complications like this.
I sincerely hope Hisense fix whatever licensing issues or software issues and get this working again.
- 32120
Hi! Unfortunately we don’t test input lag numbers on projectors yet. Still the Hisense C1 isn’t marketed as a gaming projector, and it doesn’t have a dedicated Game Mode, which is typically required for low input lag. If you’re primarily looking for a gaming projector in that price range consider products such as the BenQ TK700STi, Optoma UHD35 or the ViewSonic PX701-4K, all of which have dedicated high refresh modes for gaming. We’re also currently planning on expanding our suite of projector tests to include gaming tests, so stay tuned for that in the next few months. Thanks for the question!
Thanks for the reply!
- 21010
What’s the input lag of the c1? Is it good for gaming?
Hi! Unfortunately we don’t test input lag numbers on projectors yet. Still the Hisense C1 isn’t marketed as a gaming projector, and it doesn’t have a dedicated Game Mode, which is typically required for low input lag. If you’re primarily looking for a gaming projector in that price range consider products such as the BenQ TK700STi, Optoma UHD35 or the ViewSonic PX701-4K, all of which have dedicated high refresh modes for gaming. We’re also currently planning on expanding our suite of projector tests to include gaming tests, so stay tuned for that in the next few months. Thanks for the question!
- 21010
What’s the input lag of the c1? Is it good for gaming?
- 21010
Thank you for this useful review! I’ve bought a Hisense C1 projector this week. It is a very nice device with a nice design and beautiful picture. I am concerned about the operating noise though. The normal noise level is not instrusive, but after a minutes or two of operation, the projector switches to a highter fan speed causing louder operation. Then, after spinning faster for 10-15 second, it goes back to normal speed. Then, after 15-20 second of operation the fan speeds up again. I have a cool, shady bedroom, so the ambient temperature cannot be a problem. I read / watched many reviews before the purchase, but none of mentioned this sort of fan operation. Is it normal? I enclose a link for a video where I demonstrate the problem: https://e.pcloud.link/publink/show?code=XZ7HzTZuWQxt5ee97hS3ltB74K5YbJFK7wX Did you observe the same with your test unit or I was lucky to have a faulty one? The laser strength is set to maximum (10) as you suggested. Thank you for your kind reply in advance.
I have this beamer now for 5 days and I can confirm that I am experiencing the same as you. I thought it had to do with eco, normal or dynamic mode but the cooling fans remain erratic. Either it is a factory defect that some specimens have or it is with all C1 beamers.
- 32120
Thank you for this useful review! I’ve bought a Hisense C1 projector this week. It is a very nice device with a nice design and beautiful picture. I am concerned about the operating noise though. The normal noise level is not instrusive, but after a minutes or two of operation, the projector switches to a highter fan speed causing louder operation. Then, after spinning faster for 10-15 second, it goes back to normal speed. Then, after 15-20 second of operation the fan speeds up again. I have a cool, shady bedroom, so the ambient temperature cannot be a problem. I read / watched many reviews before the purchase, but none of mentioned this sort of fan operation. Is it normal? I enclose a link for a video where I demonstrate the problem: https://e.pcloud.link/publink/show?code=XZ7HzTZuWQxt5ee97hS3ltB74K5YbJFK7wX Did you observe the same with your test unit or I was lucky to have a faulty one? The laser strength is set to maximum (10) as you suggested. Thank you for your kind reply in advance.
Hi woodpaul,
Thanks for taking the time to reach out with your question!
It’s not something we’ve specifically noticed during our testing of the Hisense C1. We don’t assess noise levels at the moment but I did check up with my colleague from the testing department who reviewed the C1 and he didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary. It could get relatively loud at time, like many of the projectors we’ve tested so far.
In general, we find that many projectors can get quite noisy during operation, which is distracting if there is no audio being output at the same time. We unfortunately don’t evaluate this using a sound meter yet. It’s something we’d like to test for in a future projector test bench update.
- 21010
Thank you for this useful review!
I’ve bought a Hisense C1 projector this week. It is a very nice device with a nice design and beautiful picture.
I am concerned about the operating noise though. The normal noise level is not instrusive, but after a minutes or two of operation, the projector switches to a highter fan speed causing louder operation. Then, after spinning faster for 10-15 second, it goes back to normal speed. Then, after 15-20 second of operation the fan speeds up again.
I have a cool, shady bedroom, so the ambient temperature cannot be a problem. I read / watched many reviews before the purchase, but none of mentioned this sort of fan operation.
Is it normal? I enclose a link for a video where I demonstrate the problem: https://e.pcloud.link/publink/show?code=XZ7HzTZuWQxt5ee97hS3ltB74K5YbJFK7wX
Did you observe the same with your test unit or I was lucky to have a faulty one?
The laser strength is set to maximum (10) as you suggested.
Thank you for your kind reply in advance.
Update: Updated text throughout the review according to Test Bench 0.9, mainly in the Compared To Other Projectors and Contrast sections.