Optoma has built a strong reputation in the projector market, offering a diverse range of projectors for both professional and home users, often praised for their outstanding brightness and rich contrast. The Optoma Wave 120SK is tailored for home entertainment, featuring laser technology, 4K resolution, 3,500 lumens of brightness, support for refresh rates up to 240Hz, low input lag for smooth gaming, and more. However, carrying a price tag of Rs 3,90,000, it’s a purchase that demands careful consideration.
In this Optoma Wave 120sk review, read on to learn what works and doesn’t work for the projector.
Table of Contents
Design
The Optoma Wave 120SK sports a classic projector design, with the lens positioned at the front to project images onto a wall or screen. The front panel also houses an IR sensor to receive signals from the included remote. While the remote may lack a premium feel, it performs its duties reliably. It’s backlit, making it easy to use in low-light environments, offers quick access to key functions such as switching HDMI inputs, adjusting colour settings, keystone correction, and more. Many of these controls are also available on the projector’s top panel, which means you don’t have to rely on the remote after the initial setup – a common trait among most projectors.
In addition to the buttons, the top panel of the Optoma Wave 120SK also features a manual focus ring, which I didn’t find much use for. The projector delivered impressively sharp visuals from its fixed position in my room. That said, the Wave 120SK does offer a digital zoom option, tucked away in the setup menu, which allows users to adjust the image size without physically repositioning the projector. Unfortunately, this feature isn’t especially practical, as it noticeably compromises image quality. Optoma seems to have missed a trick here by not including optical zoom – at least in this price range. Another area that could use refinement is the keystone correction. While it supports ±15 degrees of vertical and horizontal adjustment, the process feels unnecessarily cumbersome and time-consuming.
Moving on, the Optoma Wave 120SK features side ventilation grills and a built-in fan along the left spine. Additionally, a second fan on the rear chassis helps maintain optimal thermal conditions during extended gaming sessions or movie marathons. While the fans are generally quiet, they do ramp up noticeably under heavy loads, such as when the brightness is increased. Notably, the projector offers a ‘High Altitude’ mode, which is only to be utilised in low air density environments such as the mountains, as it boosts the fan speed to ensure proper cooling, albeit at the expense of increased noise. In cities, you are good to go with the normal mode.
The Optoma Wave 120SK also boasts a compact form factor. While the projector weighs 3.2kg, it is not challenging to carry it around from one room to the other. The device can be placed on a table—thanks to silicone stoppers which keep it firmly in place and can be rotated to facilitate alignment. Or you can mount it on the ceiling upside down. However, note that ceiling mounting requires a separate stand purchase.
Moreover, the Optoma Wave 120SK is built to endure. With its IP6X rating, the projector offers an airtight design that offers excellent protection against dust, ensuring long-term reliability and performance. The device even goes easier on the environment with 50 per cent PCR plastic for the chassis and 97 percent recyclable packaging.
Connectivity
The connectivity options on the Optoma Wave 120SK are fairly straightforward. It offers two HDMI 2.0 ports, both supporting 4K, with one port featuring eARC for high-quality audio passthrough. Additionally, a 3.5mm audio jack allows you to connect an external speaker—an essential consideration for a home theatre setup. There’s also a USB port with a 5V power output, which is handy since the projector lacks an operating system and requires an external streaming device to access your favourite OTT apps and more. An Ethernet port for wired connectivity and an RS323 port – useful for professionals and corporates – complete the setup.
Picture quality
The Optoma Wave 120SK is a short-throw laser projector, featuring DLP (Digital Light Processing) technology, capable of being placed relatively close to the screen or wall—though not as close as the Foremovie Theatre Premium (review). From a distance of just 70cm, it can project an image approximately 70 inches in size, leaving all the space in the room to move around. The projection size is adjustable, ranging from 36 inches to an impressive 300 inches.
Since it is a laser projector, the Wave 120SK has a higher lifespan than the UHP lamp and is more energy efficient. According to Optoma, the projector features energy-saver DualCore laser technology, which boasts a lifespan of at least 30,000 hours. You can also track total usage hours directly from the settings menu, which is handy for long-term maintenance.
Since it is not a smart projector and lacks Wi-Fi and app support, I mostly used the Optoma Wave 120SK with my PS5 plugged in to play games— and it didn’t disappoint. The projector offers vivid visuals and smooth, crisp motion that make fast-paced gameplay feel fluid and immersive. This could be attributed to the Wave 120SK’s strong gaming credentials, boasting an impressively low input lag of just 4.2ms at 1080p with a 240Hz refresh rate. If resolution matters to you, it can be notched up to 4K but the refresh rate drops to 60Hz while the input lag increases to a still-responsive 17ms. Furthermore, thanks to its DLP technology, the projector easily handles fast-moving content.
One small niggle, though — since there is no HDR10+ support, extra bright scenes can appear washed out, particularly in areas like the shooting practice arena in GTA V or the sun-drenched tracks in Dirt 5, where direct sunlight floods the frame. Be that as it may, the projector does support standard HDR and HLG content. The Wave 120SK also includes several picture presets, along with a dedicated Gaming mode that boosts contrast and enhances colours to help capture every detail on the screen. However, enabling Gaming mode automatically disables any digital zoom or keystone corrections you may have applied during setup, which is a bummer.
I also watched a few Harry Potter movies using a streaming device and was genuinely impressed by how well the Wave 120SK handled detail, colour reproduction, and contrast in 4K HDR, offering a near-cinematic visual experience. The experience can further be enhanced with a small tweak in the image brightness and sharpness from the settings menu, making the content appear more natural and well-balanced, with respectable skin tone fidelity and colour accuracy. Additionally, its 3,500-lumen brightness ensures content remains clear and vibrant, even in rooms with moderate ambient light.
Audio
The Optoma Wave 120SK features an integrated speaker, but for a truly satisfying audio experience, investing in an external speaker is still advisable. Like many home projectors, it falls short in the sound department—and the built-in 15W speaker doesn’t do much to defy that trend. Considering the projector supports screen sizes of up to 300 inches, the audio output feels noticeably underpowered, leaving much to be desired for immersive viewing.
The built-in speaker may be adequate for casual use in a bedroom setting and with 50 percent loudness.
Verdict
The Optoma Wave 120SK is a feature-packed home projector that delivers an impressive visual experience, particularly for gamers and cinephiles who prioritise sharpness, colour accuracy, and responsiveness. With 4K laser projection, up to 240Hz refresh rate support, low input lag, and a compact, dust-resistant build, it’s clearly designed for enthusiasts seeking high performance. However, at a steep price of Rs 3,90,000, it isn’t without its shortcomings—most notably the lack of optical zoom, underwhelming built-in audio, and limited smart features.
That said, if you’re after premium projection quality and already have an external speaker setup and streaming device in place, the Wave 120SK can deliver a stunning home cinema experience.
Editor’s rating: 7.5 / 10
Pros
- IP6X dust resistance & eco-conscious design
- Laser technology, 30,000 hours life-span
- Crisp 4K resolution with strong, accurate colours
- Impressively low input lag for gaming
Cons
- Priced on the higher side.
- Built-in speaker needs improvement
