While a TV used to be a staple of every home, nowadays many people are choosing to pick up the best projector instead due to the many benefits over a television they provide.
Projectors are more space-conscious and affordable, and they can provide you with huge display areas compared to TVs. With newer projectors also offering 4K resolutions and HDR, you don't need to lose out on quality when you're enjoying movies and TV shows too.
In this guide, we’ve picked our favorite projectors for all kinds of uses: portable ones and short throw ones, ones with smart TV features and ones that you can proudly display in your living area without anyone thinking you’ve nicked it from the local school’s AV trolley.
From the affordable and portable to the absolutely immense, these projectors are all great buys.
Many projectors have clearly been designed for use in boardrooms, not front rooms, but the Optoma is a projector made primarily for home cinema. It’s a good-looking thing and because it’s an ultra-short throw model it can sit at the base of a wall rather than halfway across the room. Think of it as a real alternative to a large TV, but with a bigger display area.
The single-chip DLP has a laser light engine and produces gorgeous HDR images at 3,000 ANSI lumens, although as with other projectors there’s a visible difference between projector HDR and OLED TV HDR: the latter’s blacks are much blacker. And it’s worth noting that the stated HLG support only applies to playback via USB. Nevertheless, this is a really strong projector that produces excellent images and surprisingly good sound too.
This BenQ projector has been designed specifically for gamers and delivers 4K at up to 60Hz with a relatively low 16ms input lag. Input lag is the delay between something being sent to the projector and it being projected and 16ms is low for a projector — the Optoma at number one in this list has a dedicated gaming mode but that still has 50ms lag. But it’s not close to the performance of a dedicated gaming monitor, which typically comes with input lag that’s lower than 3ms. It’s not going to be an issue for most kinds of games, but if you absolutely need to have the lowest lag possible then you’d be better off with a gaming monitor.
The rest of the package here is very impressive, with Android TV built-in, an impressive 4K UHD HDR picture and presets that make a big difference to games that were made dark on the understanding they’d be played on monitors, not projected on walls. The BenQ does a good job of boosting contrast so you can actually see what’s going on in even the dankest dungeon.
This is an excellent all-rounder with true 4K, HDR and 3000 lumens brightness. It supports HDR Pro and HLG, it has a dedicated sports mode to enhance the on-screen action – this projector is actively marketed towards sports fans — and it comes with stacks of Best Buy awards from the likes of our sister site Techradar. It lacks some of the features you’d find on a similarly priced TV — there aren’t any streaming apps on board and while there’s HDR, like other projectors there’s no HDR10+ or Dolby Vision. It’s also short throw rather than ultra-short throw, so you can’t tuck it away at the base of a wall when you’re using it, but that 3,000 lumens power does bring a lot of light.
The ViewSonic M2 is a very portable and very powerful full HD projector and comes with Harman Kardon audio and a very nice-looking metalling bronze case. You can run it off a power bank via USB-C (it needs to be 45W or more) for completely plug-free operation, and it’s compatible with computers, consoles and Bluetooth streaming. While it isn’t 4K the HDR and colour reproduction is extremely impressive, and it can throw a 100-inch image onto the wall from just 2.7 metres away. And you don’t have to sit it exactly in the centre of your room: the M2 has H/V keystone and corner settings to compensate for placing it at an angle.
This is a really good projector, and while it’s marketed as a portable solution it’s a pretty good option to keep in one place too. If you don’t need 4K and can live with the relative lack of brightness it’s definitely worth considering before you look at more expensive options.
If you’re looking for a stunning 4K movie projector, this BenQ could be just the job: the W5700 and its silvery sibling the WS5700S another HDR Pro / HDR 10 model and it offers 100% DCI-P3/Rec.709 giving the most faithful color reproduction. It’s fitted with a very high-quality 11-element lens array for pin-sharp 4K, and there is built-in ISF (Imaging Science Foundation) ccc calibration to customize the image settings for any room conditions. You can also set presets for day and nighttime viewing. It’s not the most attractive-looking unit we’ve ever seen but then again, you don’t buy a projector to stare at its case — and if you want to see your movies just as their cinematographers intended, this BenQ can help you do just that.
With 4K, HDR 10 dynamic tone mapping and a screen size of up to 140 inches, this projector offers impressive image quality — although at 1,500 lumens it isn’t as bright as some of the other projectors here. Colors are strong, vivid and don’t suffer from the discoloration that can sometimes affect projected images. Additionally, the LED here is four channels rather than the usual three to better adjust contrast and color tone. There’s also built-in webOS 4.5 so you can use your LG projector just like an LG smart TV.
The Cinebeam’s price is often significantly lower than its RRP so it’s a very good idea to shop around for the best deals on this one.
