Acer's $5,000 Laser Gaming Projector Beams 120-Inch Picture

No monitor? No problem. With Acer’s new Predator Z850 laser gaming projector, you can turn any wall in your home into an ultra-wide gaming display. The Z850 is available now — at least for those willing to plunk down a hefty $4,999 for one.

The Z850 projects a 120-inch, 1920 x 720 ultra-wide screen, which should cover a good chunk of your wall and offers 50 percent more field of view than you’d get from a standard 16:9 display. The projector is built to work well in small spaces, as it can display the entirety of its 120-inch screen from as close as 18.5 inches from the wall.

Thanks to an advanced laser diode, Acer is promising up to 3,000 lumens of brightness and a 100,000:1 contrast ratio. If you want to cut the cord, you can add-in an optional Wireless-HD kit that lets you stream 1080p video to your wall.

Like the rest of Acer’s Predator line, the Z850 has an aggressive red-and-black design, with some sharp, irregular angles that make the top of the device look caved-in. There appear to be video controls on the top of the projector, with a plethora of video and audio inputs on the bottom.

The Z850’s ability to beam ultra-wide video to your wall could be fun for getting lost in cinematic games or enjoying some super-sized local multiplayer. However, at a hefty $4,999, I do wonder what type of gamer will go after it, especially with 4K gaming monitors available at a fraction of that cost. We hope to try out the Z850 for ourselves, so stay tuned.