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Within the mix are also some ultra short throw projectors. These can project a big, clear image onto a wall from a very short distance away, making them ideal for space saving set ups or for those wanting to avoid wall- or ceiling-mounting their projector. Chances are good that you’ll want to place your projector behind your main seating or on the ceiling. If that’s the case, you’ll need an extra-long HDMI cable to connect your projector to a video source. We do often recommend that you budget for a speaker when shopping for a projector, as although many options here include on-board speakers, they are invariably pretty poor. Similarly, while some projectors do now feature built-in streaming platforms, they're often a bit patchy in terms of performance and app selection, so it's often worth keeping some cash aside for a dedicated streamer. How we test projectors
Lens shift: Occasionally, you’ll need to adjust your projector’s image to make sure the picture isn’t crooked or change the height of the picture. Lens shift is a feature that allows you to adjust the lens and screen placement without physically adjusting the projector. This is a huge convenience because manual lens adjustments can be clunky and imprecise. With its clean, punchy and solid image, the Hisense PL1 is a gem at this price. Undercutting many of its UST rivals and even its own Hisense siblings, it's a TV alternative that actually lives up to its promise. You’d be hard-pressed to find a 100-inch TV for this price, let alone one that features such a punchy and crisp image. While we wish it had a couple more HDMI ports, it’s a compromise we’re willing to make, as its picture performance more than makes up for it. Sources used for our testing include 4K Blu-ray and streaming services, and Xbox One X and PlayStation 5 gaming consoles. We also use test patterns from the Spears & Munsil Ultra HD Benchmark disc and standalone pattern generators to measure performance factors such as peak brightness. The latest updates to this guide to the best 4K projectors Prices valid in stores (all including VAT) until close of business on 28th November 2023. (Some of these web prices are cheaper than in-store, so please mention that you've seen these offers online.) It might be a bit on the pricey side, but there’s no denying it: the Anker Nebula Capsule II is the king of portable projectors.
After resolution and technology, the most important consideration is your room and how you’re going to set up and connect the projector. Here, you need to consider throw distance (how far you place the projector from the screen for a given screen size), optical zoom and lens shift capabilities, all of which will have an impact on projector placement. We test the best 4K projectors in real-world conditions, viewing with both room lighting on and lights off to get a sense of how well the projector performs under a range of conditions. All of our viewing is done using a projection screen, either a matt white material or an ambient light-rejecting screen in the case of ultra short throw projectors. First, resolution. If you’re looking for a projector to watch movies, then make sure the model you buy is Full HD (with a resolution of 1,920 x 1,080). You will come across plenty of cheaper office or portable projectors, but they’ll have limited resolutions of 800 x 600, 800 x 480, 1,280 x 720 or 1,024 x 768. As such, they might be fine for showing PowerPoint slides or streaming Netflix in the garden, but for sports, games and home cinema use, you really need to be able to watch 1080p content at the native resolution. Make Full HD your minimum spec. DLP projectors do have a downside, though. As most display colours sequentially use a spinning, segmented colour wheel (there’s the odd exception to this rule), they suffer from what’s called the “rainbow effect”, where small areas of the image appear to splinter into small rainbows when you shift your gaze from one side of the screen to the other. Some people are less sensitive to this than others, though, so if you haven’t experienced a DLP projector, make sure you get a demo before spending your money.
Elsewhere, this device is stuffed with features. Naturally, you can plug in your video source via HDMI and use it like a normal projector, but there are multiple other ways to access video. You can connect a USB flash drive or hard disk and play files directly.What’s more, the auto-focus and auto-keystone correction features mean you don’t need to spend hours tinkering to get a high-quality image; a real plus with a projector that might not be set-up permanently. Meanwhile, the built-in 15W audio system gives you sound that’s good enough for casual entertainment, if a little brash and shouty if you turn the volume up too high. The NZ8 is undoubtedly expensive, but the pricing of JVC’s new line-up is intended to reflect the comparative cost of 4K laser projectors from Sony. Interestingly the NZ8 currently has no direct competitor, so if you want uncompromising performance, peerless HDR tone mapping, comprehensive features and a high degree of future-proofing performance, this remarkable projector is in a class of its own. BenQ GS50: The GS50 is roughly the same size as the Xgimi Halo Plus, and is also 1080p and has a built-in battery. You can even use it as a Bluetooth speaker. However, it's dimmer than the Xgimi Halo Plus for similar money. Read our BenQ GS50 review. We test using a wide range of content from 4K Blu-rays, to streaming services, video games and standard definition DVDs to make sure all kinds of content are put through these projectors. This helps us find the strengths and weaknesses of each projector. As good as its picture performance is, the projector stumbles in a couple of places. Its attempts to adjust brightness on a shot-by-shot basis for some content can mean its overcorrecting in a way that makes the lighting quite jarring. Its motion smoothing can also be trouble as it helps reduce panning judder sometimes but introduces some glaring motion artifacts for everything else on screen. Fortunately, the Hisense L9G has a ton of available settings to adjust these features and many more, effectively letting users dial in the display however they like.
Then there are portable projectors, which are ideal of taking on the go or using outside to create a grab-and-go cinema experience. They might not match up with the performance of dedicated home cinema projectors – the fact that none have made our list should tell you that – but you're paying for the experience and versatility here. You can't beat an open-air cinema experience under the starry night sky after all. The Mars 3 is arguably the most practical portable projector ever made. Thanks to a chunky form factor that makes it look a little like an old-fashioned, high-powered torch, a massive 185Wh built-in battery and weatherproofing, it’s good for movie shows both indoors and outdoors. Smart auto-adjusted features can get you a sharp, well-focused image in just about any situation, and it even has integrated streaming and impressive, meaty sound. You can head off-grid and still watch movies for a little over five hours. However, if you’re a gamer and you want to play on the biggest screen possible, there aren’t many better ways to do it than on this potent projector. The specified 2,200 lumens brightness might not be as high as some other models in our best projectors guide, but the exceptional brightness control of the Horizon Pro mitigates this, ensuring that light lands where it needs to, and that even daytime viewing affords decent visibility. For the best experience, of course, you’ll want to close the curtains or save your movie plans for the evening, and bright, direct sunlight will banish portions of the image, but the Horizon Pro still fares better than most. But some of today's projectors, particularly UST models, are as capable and connected as any smart TV, with many models running Anroid TV or another TV OS and offering streaming apps from big-name services such as Prime Video or Disney+ pre-installed. All you need to do is log in with your account details and you can use the app just as you would on a TV.
A capable 4K projector – but don't count on HD
The room needs to be a bit on the dim side but not dark for it to give a decent picture. We are using it now on a wall instead of the TV. Projectors tend to be pricier for comparative resolutions or HDR support, especially dynamic HDR – with Samsung The Premiere and the JVC DLA-NZ8 being the only existing beamers with HDR10+. While there’s no onboard battery, you can power it from a USB-C power bank with USB PD. What’s more, this projector optimises itself, taking care of keystoning and focus for you, although you can tweak all the settings (and maybe turn the rather aggressive motion interpolation settings down). Want home cinema everywhere on your own terms and without the usual hassle? The M2 is in a different class.
The laser light module used for this creates crisp images, though it does ramp up the price from a non-laser long-throw model, or even regular 'short throw' which sits somewhere between the two.
Better still, the picture and sound are excellent. There isn’t enough brightness for use during daylight hours, but at night you get a crisp 1080p picture with punchy colours and even a hint of HDR. The DLP chip inside covers 79% of the DCI-P3 colour gamut, which is actually better than some full-sized projectors. Meanwhile, the sound is the best we’ve heard from such a small projector, with plenty of weight at the low-end and crystal-clear highs. Perhaps opt for the Viewsonic M2, if you want a brighter image, but otherwise the MoGo 2 Pro is the mid-range portable projector to beat. The LS12000 is a beefy (we’re talking 50 pounds) projector with a 3LCD system inside. It provides powerful color and white light output, strong contrast, and no artifacts we could detect during our testing. Its immaculate picture doesn’t struggle to overcome bright lighting conditions, but when we turn out all the ambient light, it steps up to simply blow us away. Nearly all projectors have some form of correction to sort this out. The best portable projectors do it automatically, so you can spend less time setting up your screen and projector and more time enjoying what you want to watch. The same goes for auto-focus features, although most models have a manual slider or wheel. What about sound?
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