Most of us can only dream of having a dedicated cinema room at home; a portable projector, though, is perhaps a more reasonable option to consider. How, though, do you find the right one for you?
Fear not – we've got you covered. Each of the projectors below is compact enough to be moved easily and frequently, with battery power meaning you can place them pretty much anywhere that’s convenient.
We've been reviewing projectors for decades in our dedicated test rooms, so we know when a product is worth recommending (and, just as importantly, we know which ones you should swerve).
Two of the most recent projectors to be put through their paces are the Optoma Photon Go and Samsung Premiere 5, both of which are portable UST entries to the market. Keep your eyes peeled to see if they make it onto this list after we have reviewed them.
Below you will find projector models that are ideal for moving around the house, taking into the garden for a pop-up movie night, or even for taking with you on the go for a weekend trip away.
All of the portable projectors in this guide have been fully reviewed by our team of experts. Each one has been assessed based on its design, features, performance and price, so you can be sure our recommendations are based on thorough testing.
The quick list
Best overall
A neat combination of brightness, portability and above-average sound quality make the Mars 3 Air our top pick.
Best for flexibility
With its rotating circular design and sturdy build, the GV31 is the perfect projector for horizontal viewing.
Best for portability
It’s not the brightest, but if you’re looking for a projector that will go in your pocket, Anker’s Nebula Capsule 3 fits the bill.
I am What Hi-Fi?’s TV and AV Editor and while I would love to have a full-fat home cinema projector set up in my house unfortunately real life makes that idea impossible. I do, however, have plenty of time (and space) for a portable projector, particularly on those days when the TV in my lounge doesn’t feel quite big enough. In this job you need to have high standards when it comes to picture and sound quality, so rest assured none of the projectors selected below would be there unless we felt they deserved it.
Best overall
Nothing tells you that a projector is portable like a built-in handle, but that’s not the only thing that Anker’s Nebula Mars 3 Air is good at, which is why it’s our favourite overall.
While it’s certainly a long way from being pocketable, the handle makes this thing incredibly easy to haul around your home, and it’s so well-built and nicely designed that it looks good in any room of the house.
Setting it up is simple, with the ‘Intelligent Environment Adaptation 3.0’ ensuring that the picture doesn’t come out looking stretched, warped or out of focus, and built-in apps from all the major streaming services ensuring that this really is as plonk-and-play as a projector can get.
Turn the power on and its 400 ANSI lumens mean you can push the screen size beyond the 70 inches that most other portable projectors max out at, but it’s the quality of the picture more than its size that really raises the Mars 3 Air above the rest. Everything looks sharp and detailed, with colours that are both saturated and subtle. Its HDR performance is superior, too, although it does also reveal the limits of the projector’s brightness.
With a pair of 8-watt speakers onboard, the audio performance is also a cut above. Soundtracks are expansive and well-rounded, with a solid bass presence to underpin everything without distorting. A bit more volume wouldn’t go amiss, but for its size the Mars 3 Air doesn’t disappoint on the audio front.
As an all-round package, then, the Anker’s weaknesses are far outweighed by its strengths – and in a chassis that itself weighs just 1.7kg.
Read the full Anker Nebula Mars 3 Air review
Best for flexibility
Not many modern homes have completely empty white walls onto which a movie can be projected, which can make using a projector a little tricky. That’s unless you choose to buy a BenQ GV31.
The wheel-shaped projector sits in a simple tabletop cradle, which allows you to tip the lens all the way back and beam the 1080p picture onto your ceiling if there are no walls available, making it ideal for bedroom use. Sure, you might have to work around a light fitting, but a large enough room should still have enough space for a decent-sized overhead screen.
Of course, that kind of positional flexibility would be of little use if the picture wasn’t up to much, but as long as you use the Living Room mode and stick to an image size of no more than 70 inches, you get a sharp and crisp picture with punchy, natural-looking colours and credible blacks. It’s not perfect – certain colours can look a little forced and motion isn’t always as smooth as it could be – but these are acceptable niggles considering the level of convenience on offer.
The shape of the GV31 also allows for 4W speakers to be built into each side, which, when paired with the 8W subwoofer chamber, deliver a large enough sound to fill a fairly large room. It’s crisp, clean and dynamic enough to cope with all aspects of a modern movie’s soundtrack, and while the deepest bass rumbles can cause some discomfort, it doesn’t happen as often as you might expect from something this size.
Its Android TV interface is missing a couple of streaming services, but with good physical and wireless connectivity (including AirPlay and Google Cast to overcome those absences), a battery that’ll last around three hours, and a footprint small enough to sit on a bedside table, the BenQ GV31 is about as flexible as portable projectors come.
Read the full BenQ GV31 review.
Best for portability
With dimensions that are not dissimilar to a pint glass, the Anker Nebula Capsule 3 is by far the best choice if portability is top of your wishlist. It’s so compact it’ll even fit into some coat pockets (you might need another one for the remote) although at 950g it won’t exactly go unnoticed.
Keep the Capsule 3’s size in mind when forming your expectations and its performance won’t disappoint you either. While its Full HD picture is crisp and sharp, with rich colours and a good level of contrast (as long as you avoid the HDR mode), its 200 nits of brightness means you need a pretty dark environment for it to be properly watchable, and you can forget about getting a decent picture much beyond 70 inches.
It’s a similar story with the sound. There’s only an 8-watt mono speaker built-in, but it does a decent job of projecting in all directions with enough poise and power to be entertaining, even if it can’t quite fill an entire room.
When we originally reviewed this projector we also criticised its high price, but it has since dropped considerably. It’s still not cheap, and for just a little more money you can get something more capable, but with its excellent portability and ease of use there’s enough here to give the Capsule 3 a qualified thumbs up.
Read the full Anker Nebula Capsule 3 review
Also consider
Epson EF-12: Epson’s compact EF-12 needs to be plugged into the mains to work, which limits its positioning a little more than the models above, but it has a way with contrast and shading that's beyond the reach of most portable projectors, and the Yamaha-tuned 10-watt sound system is streets ahead of others, too. One to consider if portability is important but not paramount.
Samsung The Freestyle: The first-gen model of Samsung’s awkwardly named The Freestyle impressed us with its practical design and bright, colourful picture, but it has since been succeeded by an almost identical second-gen version that we’ve been unable to test as yet. The first-gen one is still available (just about) but with the newer model only costing a fraction more, you’re probably better off waiting for our full review.
How to choose a portable projector
The first thing to do when shopping for a portable projector is to manage your expectations. The technology isn’t yet at the point that it can compete with a TV for picture quality. But you can’t get a 120-inch television for much less than £2000 yet, and even if you could it would take up much more space.
What a portable projector does get you is flexibility and that’s probably the main thing that should inform your purchase. All of our choices above are battery powered, but some are more portable than others. Do you want a projector that’s just easy to move around the house, or one so small you can throw it in a bag to use in an Airbnb on weekends away?
The size won’t just affect how easy it is to move your projector from A to B. If a projector fits in the palm of your hand, it will not be particularly bright nor kick out top-notch detail, so consider that before taking the plunge. You will need a very dark room to get the best out of any of the projectors above and if you’re planning to use one outside in the summer, the brighter it can go the better.
With their TV-like interfaces and wireless connectivity, portable projectors can be used without needing to plug in an external source, but you’ll want to check if it has all the ports you might require just in case. The same goes for audio. Will the projector’s built-in speakers be enough, or will you want to connect a separate sound system?
There will always be some compromises to make when it comes to buying a portable projector, you just need to ensure you make the ones you’re happy with.
How we test portable projectors
Testing a projector usually involves lots of careful setup and many hours in one of our dedicated testing rooms, but portable projectors are a slightly different proposition.
These are, first and foremost, lifestyle products. If you’re interested in buying one it’s precisely because you don’t have the space at home to accommodate a standard projector, so while we will use our state-of-the-art testing facilities to see what a portable projector is capable of in perfect conditions, a lot of the testing process takes place in more normal day-to-day surroundings.
Having gone through the initial setup and calibration process, noting which streaming services and codecs are natively supported, we will use the projector in various lighting conditions and with a range of types of content, making sure to try out all available picture and audio modes and tweaking settings until we’re happy we’ve seen what it’s capable of.
Every product we test is compared to its immediate rivals, a process that allows us to determine which ones are the very best and put together lists like this one. All of our verdicts are reached after consultation involving the entire reviews team. This helps to ensure all products are reviewed consistently and no individual preferences are allowed to creep in.
You can read more about how we test and review products on What Hi-Fi? here
FAQ
How bright does a portable projector need to be?
This depends entirely on where you plan to use it but the brighter the better. As a general rule, the more portable a projector is, the less bright it’s likely to be and vice versa. That’s true of the 200-lumen Anker Nebula Capsule 3 above, which requires very dark conditions to perform at its best, but it is the most pocket-friendly option on the list. Aim for 400 lumens or above for more leeway when it comes to lighting conditions.
Why is Samsung’s The Freestyle projector not on the list?
It’s a good question, and we have included it in the Also Consider section because we gave The Freestyle four stars when we reviewed it in 2023, but it’s since been succeeded by a second-generation model and Samsung is yet to send us one to test. So while we stand by that four-star review we wouldn’t fully recommend buying one until we’ve had the chance to review the newer version.
Recent updates
- February 2025: Added the Anker Nebula Mars 3 Air, BenQ GV31, and Anker Nebula Capsule 3, updated sections on how to choose the best portable projector for you and also how we test them.
