We missed the inclusion of an HDMI eARC port but everything else worked like a charm and more importantly…looked charming. There was impressive sharpness from edge to edge, the colours were punchy without being overcooked and the motion was smooth enough to not make us sick in the stomach. Keeping it in the HDR and HDR Sim mode worked well for all types of content we played through it, with Reference mode just adding a greenish-warm hue to the picture, even though it claims to be closest to the “director’s intent” and syncs everything to the Rec.709 colour gamut. Guns & Gulaabs on Netflix was portrayed with the natural colour palette it deserves with the correct earth and skin tones, proving that though the L1 is diminutive in size, it punches far above its class. Its 2500 lumens never made it feel like it lacked vibrancy in colour fidelity even with some amount of ambient light and the final contrast levels will certainly depend on the surface you project it on. Comparing it to a 100in LED or an 85in OLED TV will definitely bring up the topic of weak blacks, but you can’t win every battle and chances are, you won’t miss the absolute blackness once any bright content is being played back. The value for money is represented by its picture size mitigates some of the weaknesses in relation to a typical high-end television. It may look like a lifestyle product, but it does have the chops to do justice in a movie lovers den too.
Gaming is supported by the inclusion of Game mode and Smooth motion, both aiming to improve input lag time and FPS. As with most of these UST projectors with an external dongle, you may need to shuffle between two different remote controls if you like tweaking your picture settings often. The button feel isn’t the most reassuring on the main unit’s remote and although backlit, it does look very 90’s. Similarly, the front-firing speaker set-up doesn’t really complement the larger-than-life picture but is merely a “fill” speaker for late-night sports or news watching.