When the news broke last week that Sony is about to stop selling its awesome projectors in various parts of Europe, including the UK, my first thought was, 'what rubbish news!'
My second thought, though, was whether the at-that-point unannounced Bravia Projector 7, which I had been lucky enough to see in action at Sony's Tokyo HQ in February, would be exempt.
Alas, it is not.
While Sony isn't explicitly stating it, it seems that the supplier of a component (or components) in its projectors has fallen foul of the EU's sanctions on Russia and Belarus, which means the brand can no longer sell said projectors in the EU or UK.
While it's a new model, it seems that the Bravia Projector 7 is also affected. That's a great shame, as I was deeply impressed by the new model when I saw it in action.
Somewhat surprisingly, given its official VPL-XW5100ES model number, the Bravia Projector 7 is not the replacement for the excellent VPL-XW5000ES. Instead, it will sit just above it in the Sony projector range.
Nevertheless, it was the XW5000 against which the Bravia Projector 7 was demonstrated, and the new model was clearly more vibrant, sharper and capable of producing a greater sense of depth.
Sony claims that the Projector 7 can go 200 lumens brighter than the XW5000 and, when combined with more-advanced tone mapping, that results in better defined and more detailed bright highlights, such as the setting sun in the 4000-nit movie Alpha, and more impressive contrast, which Sony demonstrated with a clip from The Greatest Showman.
Sony is aiming to beat the JVC DLA-NZ7 with the Bravia Projector 7, so it also demonstrated those two models side by side. As we have come to expect from Sony's projectors, the Projector 7 looked sharper, more solid and more three-dimensional, but it also looked more vibrant in terms of colours.
While it is never wise to draw conclusions from a manufacturer-orchestrated demonstration, the Bravia Projector 7 definitely looked better to my eyes than its XW5000ES sibling and the JVC DLA-NZ7.
All of which makes it only more disappointing that those living in the UK and EU won't be able to buy one.
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