PCtidningen.se awarded the projector 8.4 and said:

A really good projector that is unusually bright. Modern technology at a reasonable price.

Darbee is a special image enhancement technology that offers better sharpness, but also higher contrast and more speed in the colours. How the technology works, I do not know, but it reminds a little of how Photoshop can improve the sharpness by reinforcing all edges around objects in the subject with filters.

It is absolutely possible to use the GT1080Darbee for gaming. With a response time of 16 milliseconds, it reacts faster than other projectors, usually around 25 milliseconds.

“Optoma has positioned the GT1080Darbee in two segments. On the one hand it demonstrates the home cinema suitability by an improved color management and on the other hand,the gaming scene with optimized settings. A successful balancing act by Optoma GT1080Darbee.”

The Optoma beamer uses the DARBEE Visual Presence image enhancer tech to give you a more detailed picture, despite it still only being presented with a 1080p resolution.

But that’s not the impressive thing about this projector - it’s the unbelievably short distance it needs to be able to produce a genuinely enormous picture.

But what about gaming? It’s frickin’ glorious. Big-screen gaming is the canine’s danglies, especially if you’re playing something arcadey, like GTA or FIFA. But when your eyeballs are filled with your favourite games, writ large on the side of your house, it’s hard not to get a little goose-pimply over how good it feels to plumb your PC into a quality projector

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“...it is a unique projector in the world of projectors precisely because it focuses on providing superior quality when used for gaming”

“For film projection, the extremely small design distance can be a great addition. You can easily project the movie in the bedroom, no matter how small the room is, because from a distance of about half a meter you have a pretty big and generous image”

“Sound volume is pretty good for cameras up to 35mp and clarity is impressive.”

“All I can say is that if the scoring system had more than 5 stars, I would definitely have been forced to offer them.”

“I will give it 5 stars, but just like at school. With congratulations!”

"100 inch picture from just 1 metre away from the wall? AND a 16ms response time. We're sold."

“The GT1080Darbee is a quality piece of hardware and it shows in every way possible. A flawless picture and low input lag combined with the short throw lens make for an unmissable piece of kit.”

“it’s an ultra short throw projector, which means at a distance of just over a metre away from the screen or wall, you’ll be able to project a 100 inch image.”

“its integrated DarbeeVision image enhancement technology, which uses ‘neuro-biologic algorithms’ to enhance the image.  It’s the same tech used in the Optoma HD28DSE and it works brilliantly, giving the projector’s 1080p image considerably more presence than it would otherwise have.

That, combined with a 3,00-lumen brightness, which means it’s usable even in a bright living room and at a price that undercuts its rival by nearly £100, mean it’s our favourite gaming projector”

“With its gaming-friendly focus and Darbee processing, the GT1080Darbee is a pretty unique proposition for its price. And since both of its core attractions prove to be anything but a gimmick, it really does look like a bargain.”

“The Optoma GT1080Darbee is a great projector, combining strong gaming and movie credentials for what is, under the circumstances, a very attractive price.”

"If you’re looking for a projector to game on, the Optoma GT1080Darbee would be our first pick. The colour and detail is simply incredible, creating lush, rich environments on a screen bigger than almost any TV available. The short throw allows it to be used in almost any room. You don’t have to have a huge theatre room specially designed for it. Just chuck it on your coffee table, plug it in, and enjoy a gaming experience that all your friends will be jealous of."

“After activating the projector, the projected image appears very quickly. Minutes of waiting to see the picture, as you know it from other models, is spared. Under optimal conditions the Full-HD resolution looks great and the sound quality is surprisingly good.”

Test rating: Good

"The new reference of gaming projectors with record input lag"

What we like:
Video processing Darbee
Bright image
Very good colorimetry and grey scale
Good fluidity
Input lag record   
 
“The GT1080Darbee is a very nice surprise in short throw lens projector segment"

“Optoma has put the GT1080Darbee on two tracks, on the one hand demonstrating its cinema capability by an improved colour management, but at the same time it also serves the gaming scene with appropriate optimized settings. A successful balancing act and it even comes with a comparatively low noise level.”

“Optoma offers a preview mode to compare the image with and without Darbee. I like the split-screen display better, because it shows the picture before and after Darbee for easy comparison.”

+ Very good colour reproduction

+ Simple optimizing via Darbee

Test rating: Excellent 1.3