BenQ AK900ST vs AK800ST: Which One Fits Your Simulator Room

For most home sim rooms, we would buy the BenQ AK800ST. It costs $3,999, which is $2,000 less than the AK900ST, it hangs in the exact same spot as the AK700ST we already sell the most of, and it is bright enough for a garage. The AK900ST is the better projector, but most of what the extra $2,000 buys is lens shift, motorized zoom and 1,000 more lumens, and it has to hang farther back in the room.

BenQ announced both on October 1, 2026. Every launch story so far repeats the spec sheet. None of them tell you where the projector ends up on your ceiling, how close it sits to your head and your launch monitor, or how your ceiling height changes all of it. That is what this guide is for.

What is the difference between the AK900ST and AK800ST?

Both are true 4K laser projectors made for golf, and they share more than the price gap suggests. Here is where they split.

AK700ST AK800ST AK900ST

Our price $2,899 $3,999 $5,999

Brightness 4,000 lumens 5,000 lumens 6,000 lumens

Throw ratio 0.69 to 0.83 0.69 to 0.83 0.81 to 0.89

Zoom 1.2x 1.2x 1.1x, motorized

Lens shift None, fixed offset None, fixed 102.5% offset 60% vertical, 23% horizontal

Input lag at 4K 60Hz 33.4 ms 18.1 ms 18.1 ms

Power draw, typical Not listed 285 watts 348 watts

Built in audio Not listed 10 W speaker 10 W speaker plus 10 W woofer

Weight 7.5 lb 13 lb 22.5 lb

Specs are from BenQ's published spec sheets and product pages. Prices are ours as of this writing.

The row that matters most for your room is the throw ratio. The AK800ST shares its throw ratio, zoom and offset with the AK700ST. If your room already works for an AK700ST, it works for an AK800ST, mounted in the same place. The AK900ST is a different story.

What you get with either one

Past brightness and the lens, the two share almost everything BenQ added this year. Both have:

Golf Mode 2.0. An AI video processing chip tunes color and texture on every frame, so fairway mowing patterns and the grain on the green look like the real course.

97% of Rec. 709 color and 3,000,000:1 contrast. The pin stays visible from the tee box, and grass looks like grass instead of a flat green.

Auto Screen Fit 2.0 with Smart Warping. A built in camera reads your impact screen's shape, size and curve and fits a distortion free picture to it in seconds. Smart Warping adds control points to make curved screens easier to fine tune.

Ambient light adjustment. The same camera watches the room light and adjusts color and saturation to match.

Golf…