BenQ SmartEco vs Eco Mode? Maximizes Your Projector’s Power Saving Capabilities

SmartEco is an intelligent Energy-saving picture mode designed to adapt the projector's lamp power usage based on the content of each frame projected. Using image sensing technology and a smart algorithm, the mode allows the projector to continually adjust to the content of a video, ensuring the ideal brightness and contrast levels for each scene.

For instance, when projecting a bright scene, such as a daytime outdoor scene, or a slide with a brighter background, the projector sets its lamp at full power to match the brightness level of the image. conversely, when the video or slide features a dimmer scene or a dark graphic, the projector automatically lowers the brightness to a more suitable power-saving level.

By fluctuating the lamp's brightness levels between 30% to 10% depending on the scene, the SmartEco mode can reduce power usage by up to 70% compared to the normal picture mode, without sacrificing image quality. overall, SmartEco's dynamic energy-saving feature ensures that businesses can reduce power consumption and extend the projector bulb's lifespan while maintaining high-quality visuals.

NOTE: The power consumption numbers used throughout this article may vary depending on the specifications of each projector and the bulbs used.

Although users may understand how BenQ's SmartEco picture mode works, they may still wonder how it differs from the traditional energy-saving Eco modes found in many projectors. The main difference is that normal Eco modes typically reduce the projector's light source power levels by 20 to 30% across the board, regardless of the content being projected. This means that the lamp remains at 70 to 80% power in both dark and bright scenes, leading to complaints about the image being too dark when the Eco mode is enabled.

In contrast, SmartEco mode adjusts the lamp power levels dynamically, dropping down to as low as 30% for dark scenes while boosting back to full power during bright scenes. This dynamic adjustment results in two main advantages over normal Eco modes. Firstly, by allowing the lamp power to drop to levels below the 70 to 80% range of normal Eco modes, SmartEco can achieve a higher degree of energy-saving. Secondly, by enabling a return to full lamp power during bright scenes, SmartEco ensures that image quality and brightness remain optimal when needed, avoiding the issue of a dark projected image that often arises with Eco modes.

Despite the advantages SmartEco has over traditional Eco modes, there are still various scenarios where switching the projector to its normal Eco mode is preferable from an energy-saving perspective. This is because, with the blanket decrease in lamp power that a normal Eco mode entails, the user is guaranteed a 20 to 30% decrease in power consumption (with an equivalent increase in the bulb’s lifespan), while with SmartEco the amount of energy-saving varies since the power consumption of the lamp floats between 30 to 100% depending on the content of the projected image.

Thus, in extreme cases where the projector needs to consistently project bright images, the use of SmartEco might result in negligible, or possibly zero, energy-saving benefits. With this in mind, there are a couple of general guidelines that the user should consider in regard to which type of power-saving mode suits them. For content that features brighter images and/or video, Eco mode will produce dimmer images than SmartEco but will save more energy, for content that features darker images and/or video, SmartEco will produce dimmer images than Eco mode but save more energy. The user can then weigh the tradeoffs for each scenario and make the decision that works best for them.