Saw the review and it shows the new LCD's did step up in quality, to an equal footing or slightly better. I like the reviewer in the article, and it shows just how close the PQ of the 2 were with his comments.
I own a PE7700 and did not choose it because it had better PQ than the others I viewed, Sony,Sharp,BQ,Panasonic, all these projectors had great pictures and the differences were vary vary slight and subtle at best. The Sony had the best picture 6 months ago although slight it was, it did not fit my room design.
The AE900 looks to have the slight PQ advantage just like the Sony had, but without the screen door affect the Sony LCD had. The screen door was the deal killer on the Sony, my front row of seats were to close (room limitation) and the DLP gave my front row of seats a non SD picture. Since I designed my room from the ground up, and had room size limitation, I could not use the long lens of the AE and did not need the lens shift(would not use it) for it degrades PQ.
So even if I had the decision to make today the out come would be the same since the PQ is so close, the Benq's 3 year warranty would swing me in their favor with my room layout, just like it did 6 months ago.
I'm still scratching my head(marketing wise) as to why Panasonic does not charge a couple of hundred dollars more, and take away Benq's advantage in this area, or at the lease allow you to purchase an extended year or two, their by not hurting their low price leadership
Sorry for the book!!