Ever had a difficult new job or first date, then it turned out to be true love? That was my experience with the BenQ HT3550 projector. I faithfully followed the many possible connections, one-by-one, to no success, then bought myself a high-end ($15) HDMI cable, ignored the directions, and, Voila! A stunning image, nearly 20 feet wide, of anything I could run through my computer, phone or streaming stick: videos, games, national-release films, presentations, sporting events, Skyped conferences, digitized home movies, photo galleries, even those YouTube vids of cats doing things Mother Nature never intended cats to do. (I’d skip the Yule Log video at Christmas, someone might call the fire department.) Vivid, easy to set up (if you don’t read the directions) and small enough to leave on a bookshelf for anytime use. Go ahead and ditch plans for a huge-screen TV. You won’t need it.

With true 4K 8.3 million pixels,  both the BenQ HT3550 and BenQ TK850 home theater projectors are a color-savvy film-and-photography buff’s dream come true. (Some background for newcomers: the film industry has upgraded the color standard for film-making from Rec. 709 to DCI-P3, with richer and more lifelike colors.) Forget the technicalities, you don’t have to be an expert to see the difference between the HT3550/TK850 images and the models that follow the old Rec. 709 standards. Imagine the difference between seeing the desert with the naked eye, and through a polarized lens: everything is sharper, richer, more real with the new technology.

Having test-driven and loved the HT3550,  BenQ has come out with another, somewhat similar projector, the TK850. This new version, outwardly identical to the HT3550, does all the same things, just a little brighter. Is it newer? Yes. Is it better? Depends on where you’re watching.

The new TK850 is pitched as the choice for binge watchers, sports fans and the casual viewer, but the real choice lies in the owner’s own home theater space. The TK850 image is actually a little lighter and brighter than the HT3550, and on the surface, that might sound better. Practically speaking, the TK850 allows viewers to enjoy superior images in a brighter room, and it outshines (pardon the pun) the HT3550 in a partially-lighted environment, but it suffers a little color loss; in a dark room it won’t quite match the HT3550’s rich, vibrant color and impeccable, nuanced images. Using  the HT3550, the Joker or  Jurassic Park will scare the daylights out of you in a dark environment, but you haven’t lived until you’ve had an afternoon with defensive end JJ Watt or a life-sized bucking bull in your living room with the TK850. The difference between the two projectors is not dramatic, but it’s there. Honestly, I had to see two identical projected images side-by-side under two different lighting situations to see the difference, something you won’t be able to do in a store.

It all comes down to what you’re planning to do with the projector. If you typically turn off the lights and screen movies, binge-watch TV, and give formal presentations—especially with photographs—you’re going to want the HT3550. If you have the gang over for the Superbowl, throw kids’ birthday parties and deliver conference-room updates where your co-workers will be taking notes under ceiling lights, choose the TK850. If you do all of these, flip a coin—you can’t go wrong with either BenQ’s HT3550 or their new TK850.