If youre looking to take your movie nights, gaming sessions or even big sports games to a whole new level, a projector is a great investment. With projectors, youre not limited to a single screen size; you can expand the display to fit almost any wall or even set up a big screen outdoors for those summer movie nights under the stars. And if youre really looking to make the most of your space, a projector can even replace your TV, giving you that cinema-like experience right at home without a bulky screen taking up too much room.Whether youre setting it up in the living room, a dedicated home theater or taking it outside for an outdoor movie night, projectors add a ton of versatility and excitement. Plus, many projectors now come packed with features like high resolutions and vibrant colors, so youre not sacrificing quality for size. Table of contents Best UST projectors under $7,000 Best projectors under $6,000 Best UST projectors under $3,500 Best projector under $2,000 Best projectors under $1,000 Best budget portable projectors What to look for in a projector The technology: LCD and DLP projectors Projector FAQs Engadget's top picks As with previous updates, Im dividing projectors into ultra-short-throw and long-throw categories. As mentioned, ultra-short-throw models have rapidly established themselves in the market due to the extra performance and convenience, and all manufacturers sell at least a couple of models. Within the ultra-short-throw category, Well compare two price categories: under $7,000 and $3,500, with three projectors each. In the long-throw category, were again looking at projectors under $1,000, $2,000 and $6,000, with three products in each range. Finally, well take a look at the best portable projectors. Best UST projectors under $7,000 More ultra-short-throw projectors under $7,000 Epson EpiqVision Ultra LS500 If you need the brightest possible image, Epsons LCD-powered EpiqVision Ultra LS500 ($3,899) delivers. Its rated at up to 4,000 lumens, making it one of the brightest ultra-short-throw projectors in any price range. It also supports HDR modes in HDR10 and HLG and is sold with both 100-inch and 120-inch ALR screens, making the price effectively lower. The main drawback is that it only offers double the pixels of 1080p, rather than four times like competing DLP tech. It also offers a relatively weak 10-watt built-in speaker system. HiSense L9G This is HiSenses new $4,300 flagship UST that uses a tricolor laser to achieve high brightness (3,000 ANSI lumens) and an incredible 107 percent BT.2020 HDR coverage, topping even Samsungs formidable LSP9T. It has a powerful 40W Dolby Atmos sound system and built-in Android TV with Google Assistant and Alexa. Best of all, that price includes a 100-inch ALR Daylight screen, or for an extra $500, you can get it with a 120-inch ALR cinema screen. Best projectors under $6,000 More projectors under $6,000 Optoma UHZ65LV Optomas $6,000 UHZ65LV also uses a long-lasting laser light source to deliver a 5,000 lumen image, much brighter than any lamp-powered projector. It also delivers true 4K resolution up to 60p, thanks to the TI 0.66-inch DLP chip. The extra brightness and contrast make it ideal for HDR10 or HLG content. It also comes with desirable features for a long-throw laser projector, like a 1.6x zoom and vertical lens shift. LG CineBeam HU810PW 4K Speaking of long-throw laser projectors, LGs $3,000 CineBeam HU810PW is another excellent pick at a much lower price point. There are some compromises, as the laser light pushes out a lower 2,700 lumens (thats still a lot), and it has a smaller 0.47-inch DLP chip that delivers slightly lower perceived resolution. However, it has dual blue and green lasers which help it deliver accurate HDR colors with an excellent 97 percent DCI-P3 coverage. It also offers a 1.6x zoom with lens shift and an HDMI 2.1 port that allows for 4K at 60p with up to 12-bit color depth. It comes with LGs webOS, so it supports Amazon Prime, Netflix, Hulu and other streaming services without the need for a dongle. Sony VPL-VW295ES If youre looking for a true, native 4K projector, Sonys $4,500 VPL-VW295ES is the least costly option out there. Its by far the sharpest 4K projector in this roundup, thanks to Sonys proprietary 4K SXRD native DCI 4K (4,096 x 2,160) panels. It also delivers extremely accurate colors, with 100 percent DCI-P3 coverage and HDR10/HLG support. You also get niceties like a 2.06 zoom lens with powered zoom, lens shift and focus. The main drawback is a relatively dim 1,500 lumen brightness, but its a top pick if picture quality is paramount above all. Best UST projectors under $3,500 More ultra-short-throw projectors under $3,500 Optoma CinemaX P2 Optomas CinemaX P2 made our list last year, but its one of the best projectors now because the price has dropped considerably. It delivers 3,000 lumen brightness, impressive contrast ratio and accurate colors with 80 percent DCI-P3 coverage. Its not quite as sharp as the pricier projectors, as it uses TIs 0.47-inch rather than 0.66-inch DLP tech, though youll still get a near-4K image. The CinemaX P2 may also better match your living room decor, as it comes in white rather than dark grey like the P1. The 40-watt NuForce Dolby Digital 2.0 soundbar is one of the best on any ultra-short-throw projector, as well. On the downside, it does offer apps but theyre not as good as youll find on, say, Googles Chromecast. BenQ V7050i BenQs first UST laser projector is at the top end of the price scale at $3,500, but it offers some impressive capabilities. Light output is a bright 2,500 ANSI lumens and it delivers a full 98 percent DCI-P3 coverage for as good an HDR experience as you can get on a projector. You also get a Filmmaker Mode to see colors as the directors intended. Its powered by Android TV so you get all the streaming services and apps you want, along with apps, games and more. The downside is the lack of decent speakers, as it only offers dual 5-watt speakers with clear sound but limited bass. Epson EpiqVision Ultra LS300W If youre okay with 1080p projection, Epsons EpiqVision Ultra LS300W is a very interesting option because of the design, excellent sound, built-in Android TV and extreme 3,600 ANSI lumen brightness. That allows for a wide color gamut with no rainbow effect, excellent connectivity and very good sound without the need to buy a soundbar or surround sound system. Best of all, its priced at just $2,000, making it one of the cheaper short-throw projectors out there. Best projectors under $2,000 More projectors under $2,000 Optoma UHD38 For extra brightness and speed for gaming, the answer is Optomas all-new, $1,600 4K-capable UHD38. It cranks the lumens up to 4,000 and like the Viewsonic PX701-4K, offers 240Hz gaming at 1080p with one of the lowest latency figures weve seen yet in a projector at 4.2 milliseconds. Otherwise, you can do 4K 60 Hz gaming with 16.7 milliseconds of lag, which is very quick for 4K. Its optimized more for gaming than entertainment unlike BenQs HT3550i, but it can still handle HDR10 and HLG. It supports both zoom (albeit just 1.1x), but also vertical and horizontal lens shift. Epson Home Cinema 4010 4K Pro Epsons $2,000 Home Cinema 4010 4K Pro is the Cadillac of under-$2K home projectors thanks to features like 2,400 lumen brightness, dynamic iris, and motorized zoom (2.1x), focus and lens shift. This Epson projector delivers in picture quality too, covering 100 percent of the DCI-P3 color space in cinema mode with both HDR10 and HLG. It also offers near-4K quality using 1,920 x 1,080 LCD image chips with pixel shifting. The drawbacks are lack of support for 60Hz 4K due to the HDMI 1.4 ports. If you need that, want to pay a bit less and dont care about the motorized focus, Epsons $1,700 Home Cinema 3080 4K Pro is the way to go. It offers similar features like HDR10 and HLG, but supports 4K 60p thanks to the HDMI 2.0b ports. Theres no motorization and the zoom drops to 1.6x, but it supports generous tilt, shift and zoom ranges. Best projectors under $1,000 More projectors under $1,000 BenQ HT2050A For around $700, the BenQ HT2050A is still one of the best budget 1080p projectors. It delivers where it counts with the best contrast (ANSI 1,574:1) and color accuracy in its class, and is reasonably bright as well, with 2,200 lumens in "vivid" mode. On top of that, it comes with a 1.3x zoom and vertical lens shift option for maximum installation flexibility. The drawbacks include slightly excessive fan noise, rainbow effect and red-tinted 3D. Optoma HD146X If youre looking to spend a little less on a budget projector, the Optoma HD146X is your best option. Using DLP tech, it delivers 1080p at up to 3,600 lumens with excellent brightness, color accuracy, contrast and black levels. You also get decent (16.4-millisecond) input lag for gaming. The drawbacks are a single HDMI port, 1.1x optical zoom and poor built-in audio. Best budget portable projectors More budget portable projectors BenQ GS2 This $470 model is designed specifically for outdoor entertainment, so its battery-powered and splash and shock resistant making it your best bet for backyard movie nights or for watching sports events, camping and more. Its also one of the brightest portable projectors out there and has a battery life of up to three hours. This outdoor projector only delivers 720p resolution, but it does come with a streaming app in the form of Aptoide TV. Anker Nebula Solar HD This full HD projector has a pretty rich feature set considering the $600 price including a battery. This portable projector delivers 400 lumens for reasonably bright outdoor use, has a reasonably powerful 2x3W speaker system with Dolby Digital Plus, comes with Android TV and has a built-in stand for easy adjustment. What to look for in a projector Ultra-short-throw Since the last time we updated our guide, ultra-short-throw projectors have become the hot new category, offering several benefits. You can mount them close to the wall like a TV, with no need to run wires through the walls and ceiling, but still get an immersive image as large as 120 inches something thats impossible with a TV unless youre very rich. They use brighter lasers that never need to be replaced and because laser light is collimated, focusing is eliminated. Theyre also physically less awkward to install than a ceiling-mounted projector, though that doesnt mean installation is super easy. To get the perfect screen fit and alignment, you must place them an exact height and distance from your wall or screen. This can be quite a pain, as Ive discovered. You also need a perfectly flat wall or projector screen, because ultra-short-throw projectors beam up at an acute angle, so any imperfections will show as shadows. For that reason, you cant use a roll-down screen because they have slight ripples. For the best results, particularly with a lot of ambient light, you should use an ambient light-rejecting (ALR) screen. Those have small ridges that reflect light from below back to your eyes, but absorb any light (ie ambient light) that comes from above. For one of those, youll need to budget at least $450 and way up. Some projectors, including models from Epson and HiSense, come with ALR screens. Brightness and contrast Home theater projectors generally range in brightness between 2,000 to 4,000 lumens, but you'll need to take those figures with a grain of salt. Some models might actually hit 3,000 lumens or more, but cranking the lamp to that level will hurt the image quality and lifespan of your bulb. Also, some manufacturers tend to exaggerate maximum brightness. As a point of reference, many 4K flat panel TVs nowadays can hit 1,000 nits of brightness, but the brightest consumer projectors only display between 100 and 150 nits from the screen. Thats not as big a deal as it might seem, because projector images are much larger and meant to be used in dark rooms, where your eyes will automatically adjust to the light and brighten the image. Contrast is also substantially different on home theater projectors. Unlike OLED TVs, projectors dont allow for zero black levels because of ambient light, reflections and other reasons. You also cant have local dimming zones found on LED TVs for true blacks. Some projectors do have a dynamic iris to improve the contrast scene-by-scene, but those can often produce a pumping effect, with the image dimming or brightening in mid-scene. Elite Starling Mounting and fan noise A big advantage of regular long throw projectors is that you can mount the projector and screen on the ceiling, using zero space in your room. If you plan to do that, dont forget to budget for a mounting bracket and any necessary long cables, including extra power for Google's finicky Chromecast (though you could opt for a smart projector with built-in streaming apps instead). Also, keep in mind that it's easier to mount a lightweight home theater projector, and DLP models are usually lighter than those with LCD tech. Some projectors are noisier than others, and usually the more you spend, the less noise you get. Many of the new 4K DLP projectors, when operating in 4K mode, are particularly noisy. There's one other (cool) thing: if you have a portable projector or even one that is relatively easy to take down and put up, you can take it outside for magical night screenings under the stars. HDR and resolution As related to projectors, these things could each take up an entire article. In fact, they have for a deeper dive, take a look at Projector Centrals excellent takes on HDR and resolution. On the resolution front, only expensive projectors have native 4K resolution; indeed, most movie theaters still use 2K projectors for various reasons. However, there are many relatively inexpensive DLP projectors that use pixel-shifting to attain 4K resolution. That system emits each pixel four times while moving it to the correct position for a 4K image, all in less than 1/60th of a second. As such, it puts as many pixels on the screen in the same amount of time as a 4K native projector and visually, it performs nearly as well. On the other hand, Epson's LCD 4K enhanced projectors also have 1080p resolution, but the image is just shifted twice, not four times. So, those projectors are not 4K natively or otherwise, but do produce double the pixel count of a 1080p projector. If you really want a 4K native projector, youll have to pay: two of the cheapest ones are Sony's VPL-VW295ES ($5,000) and JVC's DLA-NX5 ($5,000). HDR is a very different animal on projectors compared to TVs. As mentioned, projectors cant produce anywhere close to the amount of light required (1,000 nits) to qualify as true HDR. Rather, they use a technique called tone-mapping to fit the entire HDR gamut into a lower brightness range. For that reason, among others, almost all projectors only support HDR10. Only one uses Dolby Vision (the Xiaomi Laser Cinema 2, only available officially in China), and just a couple of models work with Samsungs HDR10+ and those are Samsungs own Premiere 4K models. However, most support a wider 10-bit color gamut that allows for superior color reproduction. Optics If you're mounting a short- or long-throw projector between five and 25 feet, you might need to consider the zoom range and whether the projector has a lens shift option. A decent zoom range will make it easier to mount the projector where you want with the screen size that you want. If the projector has an auto focus feature, it will adjust the lens to create a sharper image by calculating the distance between your projector and the wall or screen. Lens shift, meanwhile, is used if the projector is mounted higher or lower relative to the screen than recommended by the manufacturer (or any horizontal distance off center). That creates a trapezoidal shaped image, but by dialing in some lens shift, you can optically square it up. Otherwise, you might have to use a "keystone correction," which digitally stretches or shrinks part of the image, resulting in noticeable distortion or pixel artifacts. Digital correction might not work in gaming modes either, for some projector models. Gaming If youre interested in a gaming projector, youll want to look up the refresh rate and input lag figures. Some new projectors from Viewsonic, Optoma and others offer up to 240 Hz 1080p refresh rates and input lag settings down to 4 or 5 milliseconds. When paired with a compatible projection screen, you can expect an immersive experience from your game console on the big screen. However, some projectors designed more for home entertainment have very poor input lag and refresh rates at just 60 Hz. Portable projectors Finally, portable projectors have become popular enough to merit discussion this year. Theyre relatively cheap, compact and portable and can run on batteries making them ideal for entertainment outside or while camping. These outdoor projectors are not nearly as bright as others, of course, but are more designed for a fun night of entertainment under the stars. The technology: LCD and DLP projectors Here are the basics: Traditional projectors generally use two types of technology, LCD and DLP. Theyre fundamentally different systems, with their own advantages and drawbacks. The rise of ultra-short-throw projectors and brighter long-throw models, meanwhile, has been powered by falling prices in laser illumination technology. Lasers are a far better solution than lamps, because theyre brighter and last far longer up to 30,000 hours instead of 6,000. Thats essentially a lifetime of use (about 10 years). Most projector manufacturers now use DLPs, or digital light processing units, manufactured nearly exclusively by Texas Instruments (TI). The heart of the tech is an optical semiconductor called a digital micromirror device (DMD) that contains millions of aluminum mirrors. Those tilt either toward the light source (on) or away from it (off) at up to 5,000 times per second. Budget projectors like BenQs HT3550i use TIs 0.47-inch DMD, while higher end models, like the Samsung Premium LSP9T use the 0.66-inch chip. Both use mirrors that tilt by +12 and -12 degrees for white and black, but TI recently unveiled a new 0.47-inch 4K-capable DMD with +/-17 degrees of tilt, which should enhance both brightness and contrast. DLP projector makers include LG, Optoma, LG, BenQ and Panasonic. The benefits of the tech are portability (like Samsungs The Freestyle 180-degree projector), high contrast, less fringing and cheaper projectors, especially 4K and ultra-short-throw models. The biggest drawback is the rainbow effect, or bright red/blue/green artifacts that affect some viewers more than others. LCD tech, meanwhile, uses a prism to split a light source into red, green and blue beams. Those then pass through LCD displays containing the image and converge via another prism before passing through the projectors lens. Epson is the primary user of LCD tech, along with Sony, Sanyo and others. LCD projectors tend to be sharper, more efficient and more color accurate, but have lower contrast ratios and can experience image degradation over time. In general, theyre also more expensive. Projector FAQs Are 4K projectors better? Yes, because higher resolution is more noticeable on larger screens, so 4K is particularly useful with projectors since they beam images up to 200 inches in size. That being said, brightness and contrast are more important. Is a projector better than a TV? Projectors can provide a more immersive experience thanks to the large screen, but theyre not necessarily better. Since you usually have to dim the lights with a projector, TVs are superior for everyday use. Is 2000 lumens bright enough for a projector? Yes, 2000 lumens is easily bright enough, even with some ambient light in the room. However, the image will still be hard to see with the windows open on a bright day. Should I get a 4K or 1080p projector? That depends on your budget and needs. If your budget is below $1,000, look for a 1080p projector with the best brightness and contrast. Between $1,000-$2,000, youll need to weigh whether brightness or 4K resolution is most important. Above that, choose the brightest 4K projector you can afford. What are the best projectors in daylight? The best projectors in daylight are ultra short throw (UST) models, as they have the brightest and sharpest image. However, they generally cost more than $2,000. Do you need a screen for a better projector experience? Technically, you dont need a screen to use a projector any light-colored, smooth wall can work in a pinch. But if you want to get the most out of your projector, a screen can make a difference. Projector screens are designed to reflect light evenly and enhance contrast, so colors look more vibrant and the picture appears sharper. With a screen, youll notice darker blacks and brighter colors, which can give a real boost to your movie nights or gaming sessions. So while you can absolutely enjoy a projector without one, a screen can make the experience feel a bit more like your own personal theater. Should I buy a portable or home projector? It depends on how and where you plan to use it. If you want a projector you can easily move around, bring to friends houses or set up indoors or outdoors easily, a portable projector is a great choice. Theyre usually smaller, lightweight and often have built-in speakers and batteries, making them convenient for on-the-go use. On the other hand, if youre looking for a more permanent setup for a home theater or living room, a home projector might be the way to go. Home projectors tend to be more powerful, with higher resolution and brightness, which gives you that crisp, cinema-quality experience. Theyre ideal if you have a dedicated space and dont mind leaving it set up in one spot.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/home-theater/best-projectors-123004354.html?src=rss