Over the past couple of years, one question has been nagging at home cinema nerds, myself included: are giant TVs going to kill off projectors?

There are good reasons to think they might: the average TV is currently capable of producing brighter highlights, deeper blacks and more vibrant colours than a typical projector; they tend to have more robust smart platforms and better gaming specifications; they don’t require the purchase and installation of a separate screen; and prices are coming down at a ridiculous rate.

But there’s a romanticism and cinematic authenticity to projection that a television can’t match, at least in the minds of many. And, while TVs are getting much larger, once you go over 100 inches, projection tends to be much more affordable.

It’s a thorny subject – one that my colleague Lewis Empson and I recently discussed on video.

You can watch that video below, but how does the projector industry itself feel about it? Are manufacturers worried that they are about to be rendered obsolete by their TV-producing brethren? We decided to ask them to find out.

If Sony, Optoma, Anker and Xgimi are worried, they certainly don’t seem it (we also reached out to BenQ, JVC and Epson, but didn’t hear back).

In fact, they all pointed to the unique qualities that projectors offer and TVs can’t match – and those qualities are thankfully much more quantifiable than “projectors make it feel like being in the cinema”.

Projectors don’t take over your room

A recurring theme in the responses was that projectors offer greater flexibility when it comes to how a room looks and functions:

“Projection continues to offer something televisions cannot easily replicate: a truly cinematic experience at 100, 120, 150 inches and beyond, without requiring a permanently dominant screen in the room,” says Optoma’s UK sales manager, James Fitzgerald.

“As homes become more multi-purpose and design-conscious, many consumers still value the ability to enjoy a large-screen experience when they want it while keeping their living spaces flexible and uncluttered,” he continues.

That’s a sentiment shared by Anker’s managing director for the UK, Ireland, Italy, Spain, and Portugal, Faraz Mehdi: “Projectors are compact in size, take up no wall space, and become ‘invisible’ once turned off.”

And Apollo Zhong, Xgimi’s Founder and CEO, concurs: “A 100-inch TV is still a large piece of furniture that takes up space all day, every day,” he says. “A projector gives you the same scale when you want it, but doesn’t permanently occupy your room when you don't.”

Unlike the other manufacturers we spoke to for this piece, Sony produces TVs as well as projectors, so it has a foot in both camps. Still, Adrian Bond, Sony Europe’s product marketing manager for home projector and Bravia, agrees with his contemporaries:

“A projector in hidden housing with a retractable projector screen is vastly more discreet and flexible in aesthetics than a monolithic super-large screen TV.”

Projectors offer more flexibility over where you watch

Unsurprisingly, given the lifestyle and portable models they produce, a couple of the manufacturers were keen to point out the flexibility that a projector can offer over a very large TV.

“Many of today’s projectors also offer a level of flexibility that televisions simply cannot match,” says Optoma’s James Fitzgerald, “with compact designs that can be moved easily from room to room, taken to different locations, or set up indoors and outdoors depending on the occasion.”

Anker’s Faraz Mehdi agrees: “They allow portability, being easily moved and used in various settings such as bedrooms, living rooms, and campsites, which TVs cannot offer.”

But it’s not just about portability, argues Sony’s Adrian Bond; there can be benefits for those building dedicated home cinema spaces, too.

“Transporting, manoeuvring and installing a 115-inch TV is far more challenging than hanging a projector and screen, especially for any premium install in a high-rise apartment building,” he says.

Projectors are simply more cinematic than TVs

While a lot of the answers to our questions had a clear practicality argument at their core, Sony’s Adrian Bond wanted to make the point that, in some ways at least, projectors are simply better than TVs.

According to him, “our projectors still offer a different, elevated and more precise experience for the discerning cinephile.”

“A 100-inch+ TV is an epic viewing experience for sure”, he continues, “Our new FWD-115XR95M2 will deliver exactly this. But for the fully immersive experience that engulfs the peripheral vision and has a wider angle, then dedicated home cinema projectors are superior.”

Of course, a suitably large TV screen at the appropriate distance will also fill your vision in the same way, but Bond says there are also changing aspect ratios to consider:

“A TV at 100+ inches will still be fixed in 16:9 aspect ratio due to its form factor,” he says. “To watch in CinemaScope, you will still incur the black bars at the top and bottom of your screen, whereas with a home cinema projector and screen, you can enjoy CinemaScope as intended, on purpose-built screens.”

He makes an excellent point about sound, too: “With premium micro-perforated or woven projector screens, super high-end centre speakers can be placed directly behind the screen, perfectly matching audio with the action/dialogue on screen.”

This is, of course, the sort of sound-from-picture experience that we’re all used to from the local cinema, but it’s very hard for TVs to replicate, thanks to their typically frame- and/or rear-mounted speakers.

As Bond points out, this is the philosophy behind the Acoustic Surface Audio technology of Sony’s OLED TVs, which feature actuators that vibrate the actual screen to make sound. As clever and effective as this solution is in some regards, though, and as good as Sony’s OLEDs tend to sound by prevailing TV standards, it’s not in the same league as having a large, properly calibrated, hi-fi-quality speaker handling centre-channel duties by firing directly through a quality perforated screen.

The final word (for now)

So, are projector manufacturers concerned about the rise of giant TVs? It certainly doesn’t sound like it.

As Xgimi’s Apollo Zhong says, “We don't really see larger TVs as a threat. If anything, they confirm that people want bigger and more immersive screens. We also don’t think it’s a zero-sum competition. TVs and projectors solve different problems.”

I’m not entirely convinced the industry can afford to be quite so relaxed, though.

As TVs get bigger and more affordable, the advantages of projection will inevitably become harder to sell. Modularity, as pioneered by solutions such as Samsung’s The Wall, could also help to overcome some of the practical challenges of installing a truly enormous TV.

For now, though, I am inclined to agree with Optoma’s James Fitzgerald when he says that “projection remains uniquely positioned to deliver scale, flexibility, portability and cinematic impact in ways other display technologies cannot.”

A retractable screen, a portable projector or a dedicated home cinema setup can offer flexibility that a giant TV simply can’t, while a properly designed projection system can deliver the sort of scale and immersion that remain, for now, prohibitively expensive to achieve with a conventional TV.

And then there’s that elusive sense of cinema.

Perhaps it’s the sheer size of the image, the way it fills your field of view, the beam of light travelling through the room before the picture is reflected back from the screen, or simply the ritual of settling down in a darkened room to watch a film. Whatever it is, projection has a particular magic that even the best TVs struggle to replicate.

But I keep coming back to one question: what happens if cinemas themselves move away from projection?

Samsung Onyx LED screens already offer a TV-like alternative in some cinemas. If that approach becomes more widespread, will we still associate projection with that special sense of cinema? Or will we eventually come to regard a wall-sized TV as just as cinematic?

I don’t know the answer. But while TVs continue to close the gap, I suspect the future of projection will depend on more than just how big an image it can produce.

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Projector brand Xgimi has added three RGB triple-laser models to its collection, promising to bring the “big-screen experience home without the need for a dedicated home cinema space”.

The Horizon 30 Series comprises the Horizon 30 Pro, 30 Max, and 30 Ultra Max. All of them offer 4K resolution and have a 120Hz refresh rate, with Xgimi claiming that the latter results in “smooth, natural motion”.

This follows on from Xgimi’s Horizon 20 Series which came out last year, but the China-based company says the new models will deliver an “upgraded viewing experience with vivid images in rooms with ambient light, greater depth in dark scenes, and smoother motion for fast-moving content”.

There is a Dual Intelligent Iris system built into each model, which Xgimi claims can adjust light output as scenes change. Like its predecessors, all three projectors also support Dolby Vision, HDR10+, HDR10, and HLG, plus IMAX Enhanced content.

On top of the projectors’ 4k/120Hz offerings, gamers will be pleased to hear that they support variable refresh rates (VRR), and auto low latency mode (ALLM) for "faster, more responsive play".

According to Xgimi, the models can project an image up to 300 inches, which should make for an immersive viewing experience.

There are a range of features built-in to make set-up easier, including optical zoom, lens shift, automatic keystone correction, and autofocus. There are also obstacle avoidance and screen alignment features on hand. This easy set-up is helped by each projector’s built-in stand, which you can tilt vertically and rotate horizontally if you need to adjust manually.

The 30 Ultra Max offers the highest claimed brightness of the bunch at 6000 ANSI lumens. Then the 30 Max comes in at 5300 lumens, and the 30 Pro claims to go up to 4800 lumens.

Google TV is on board, which gives you access to the usual streaming apps, including Netflix, Apple TV and Disney+. The projectors also come with their own built-in sound system, consisting of two 12W Harman Kardon speakers.

So, how much will the new range set you back? The most expensive of the bunch is the Horizon 30 Ultra Max, which comes in at £2799 / $3199 / around AU$5366. Next is the Horizon 30 Max, setting you back £2399 / $2699 / AU$4599. Finally, the 30 Pro will cost you £2099 / $2099 / around AU$4025.

We tested Xgimi's older Horizon 20 Max and gave it a solid four-star review in our test room, praising its extreme brightness and room-filling sound by projector standards. We said in our review that the black levels aren’t the best so, if the new models can fix this issue, we could be getting an even stronger entry to the market.

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Here is our review of the Xgimi Horizon 20 Max

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• Check out our best projectors buying guide

We've reviewed projectors in all shapes and sizes over the past couple of years, and there's one form factor that's taking the industry by storm as we speak.

The lifestyle projector – or you may have heard of them being referred to as coffee table projectors – is the hot home cinema topic at the moment, with manufacturers such as Epson, Xgimi and BenQ all launching cute cuboid projectors that can beam pictures north of 100-inches with ease.

They're essentially a full home cinema system in a box, offering picture, sound and (more often than not) streaming smarts, allowing users to plonk them onto their table and get stuck into their favourite movie, TV show or video game.

However, there's one particular model that we've been championing since the 2025 What Hi-Fi? Awards, and it comes from Hisense. The M2 Pro is a brilliant all-in-one system, delivering an Award-winning picture experience and a built-in smart platform that allows you to turn your living room into a fully-fledged home cinema.

We showered it with praise at its £1299 launch price last year, but Amazon's current Prime Big Deal Days sales mean that you can snag it for just £814.

The Hisense M2 Pro is capable of beaming an image up to 200 inches, with Hisense claiming a peak brightness figure of 1300 lumens. This should be plenty bright enough to combat ambient light in most living rooms, although our TV and AV Editor, Tom Parsons, found that it's not quite bright enough for outdoor viewing.

Considering that this projector requires power from a mains plug at all times, that's no great shame.

The projector is in its element indoors, however, as it offers a consistently crisp and colourful image that never extends beyond its own capabilities; a notable hurdle at which we've seen many other lifestyle projectors stumble.

It's very capable when it comes to retaining dark detail and punchy highlights alike, all thanks to its solid handling of contrast. We also find motion to be impressive, provided you switch it to the Film motion preset; our recommendation is to stick with Filmmaker Mode overall, as this takes care of the settings for you.

This projector also comes with a 10W 2.0 channel speaker system built in. While it will never match a proper surround sound system, or even a decent soundbar, the M2 Pro's speakers are handy to have in a pinch, and we even commended it on delivering "a surprising amount of sound volume for such a small package".

It prioritised dialogue during our testing, which is the most important aspect after all, making it perfectly usable for those who don't already have an external sound system to hook it up to.

Speaking of hooking things up to the projector, the M2 Pro sports a single HDMI socket, which doubles as HDMI eARC if you do plan on tying this into a wider home cinema system.

While that may seem stingy, it's enough to hook up a Nintendo Switch for a sport of Mario Kart, and with the built-in Vidaa smart system offering a wide array of streaming apps, we're willing to bet that most people will never get around to using that HDMI socket.

At £482 off its original price on Amazon, the M2 Pro is a convenient projector that doesn't skimp on picture performance. It's a hidden gem in the projector world, and one that I'm always eager to shout out when a sale arises.

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Read our full Hisense M2 Pro review

As well as our Hisense PX4 Pro review

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It's not Prime Day – or 'Prime Big Deal Days' – until Tuesday, but, as always, there's plenty of early discounts around.

One that caught our eye, however, was the AWOL Vision Aetherion Max, a five-star projector that has sneaked right to the top of our favourite ultra short throw (UST) projector list.

It's now £2569 at Amazon, which amounts to a rather generous £930 discount.

You'll have to be quick, though, as only a certain number of units are available at this price. At the time of writing, 20 per cent have already been claimed, so you might want to move fast to secure this top UST projector.

The AWOL Vision Aetherion Max may not be cheap by UST projector standards, but we think the performance more than makes up for this.

"The Aetherion Max’s picture quality isn’t just a big improvement over the already more than decent LTV-3500 that marks our only previous interaction with an AWOL Vision projector; it’s actually arguably the best picture quality we’ve ever seen from any UST projector," our AWOL Vision Aetherion Max review reads.

"What really tips the Aetherion Max into outstanding territory is how well its picture charms hold up in a dark room setting. Colours look even more vibrant, and brightness for both full-screen and peak highlight image elements looks fantastically intense."

The projector is wonderfully bright and contrast-rich even in ambient light, making it also practical for daytime use.

Its HDR Standard mode also somehow manages to deliver some of the deepest, most convincing blacks we’ve seen from any 3000-nit or brighter projector, all of which adds up to an endlessly watchable and immersive experience.

The Aetherion Max’s front-mounted speakers are also far better than those built into most projectors. They're loud enough to create a cinematic presence even in large rooms, and maintain impressive amounts of detail even at maximum volume.

The feature set is also impressive – there's a claimed 3300 lumens of brightness and an image size of up to 200 inches. There's also support for all four current HDR standards, including the premium HDR10+ and Dolby Vision formats.

There are also three HDMI ports that support VRR and reach a whopping 240Hz with Full HD (but not 4K) sources, so gamers are well catered for.

We're sure you've noticed the futuristic design, of which we are big fans. The remote control is also neatly designed, and AWOL Vision also sells its own 100- and 120-inch motorised floor-rising screens to go with your projector.

If you've got the funds but not the space, then the AWOL Vision Aetherion Max might well be for you. It's our favourite UST projector yet and can now be snapped up with a whopping £930 off at Amazon if you're quick enough.

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Read our Hisense PX4-Pro review

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When setting up an ultra-short throw (UST) projector, most of us are content with placing it on a simple cabinet. That can call for a fair bit of adjustment, though, and is often not the most aesthetically pleasing addition to a living room.

But there’s a new US-based brand offering a premium alternative. Cinèst’s Core Collection consists of the A1 and E1 luxury UST projector consoles, which the company claims are “engineered to keep your projector at its best – whichever UST you choose”.

Positioned inches away from your screen, the middle cabinet houses your UST projector. Cinèst says you can use it with basically any UST model. Once activated, the centre of the cabinet opens up like a reverse trapdoor using a motorised mechanism to project the image onto your screen.

You can then adjust the platform’s height or depth using the remote control to fit the screen. Once you have found the right position for your projector, the Core series remembers your preferred settings.

The side cabinets can be used to house the rest of your AV equipment, such as a 4K Blu-ray player or AV amplifier.

There’s also a built-in ventilation system, including perforated fabric panels which Cinèst says can keep the components cool without exposing them.

If you have lots of cables snaking around, then the cabinets include some rather nifty organisation features. There are six AC outlets and two USB-A ports built into the cabinets, as well as holes for the wires so they stay concealed.

It is made from premium-looking wood and both cabinets offer either black or brown finishes. While the E1 just comes with one sizing option (91 inches), the A1 is available in 103 and 118 inches.

The smaller cabinet will set you back £2300, while the larger comes in at an arresting £3450. That puts it on par with the five-star Hisense PX3-Pro UST projector, which we tested at £2499 / $3499 / AU$4499.

It’s far from accessible for the majority of homes, but its sleek look and innovative design should make it a luxury-feeling addition to your living room if you have the funds and the space.

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As I write this, testing is well underway for the 2026 What Hi-Fi? Awards, with a battle royale taking place between all sorts of hi-fi and home cinema equipment.

One of the ultra-short-throw (UST) projectors we reviewed for Awards consideration was the Hisense PX4 Pro. Now I can’t tell you if it has won an Award just yet, but I can reveal that it earned the full five stars from our rigorous testers.

I can also share that there is £100 cashback available, as well as a free Xbox Design Lab controller and a month of Game Pass included. Once you take off the cashback, that brings the price down to £2399 at AV.com.

You can claim the £100 cashback directly from Hisense from 27th November. Full Ts and Cs can be found here.

It's facing some tough competition now, but Hisense has long been a dominant force in the UST projector space. The Hisense PX3 Pro was even a What Hi-Fi? Award winner, so we had high hopes for its successor.

And we weren’t disappointed. Hisense has made several worthy improvements, offering deeper blacks, more colour volume and a holistically improved, more three-dimensional-looking image during a viewing of Civil War.

“The work Hisense has done improving its PX line over the past two years is immediately apparent, and the PX4 Pro leaves a strong impression,” our Hisense PX4 Pro review reads.

“Characters’ faces look more realistic, featuring more natural highlights and deeper shadows. As they move through a burning forest, the extra brightness helps the PX4 shine; the flames possess hues of red and orange that are entirely missing on the PX3.”

Sound is also solid given the PX4 Pro’s humble size. The little box throws audio around the room with impressive height effects that are missing from most USTs. It’s no match for a dedicated sound system, but impressive by UST projector standards.

As you can probably tell from the free controller and subscription, the PX4 Pro has quite the focus on gaming. Hisense has made a big deal of the 1080p/240Hz performance, with VRR and ALLM supported also. However, 4K/120Hz gaming is off the menu, as the two HDMI 2.1 sockets are limited to 60Hz at 4K resolution.

All four key HDR formats – Dolby Vision, HDR10+, HDR10 and HLG – are on board, as well as dedicated Filmmaker Mode, IMAX Enhanced certification and Active 3D content picture modes.

Hisense’s Vidaa OS comes loaded with nearly all the apps you need. Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV and Freely are all on board, with only the more specialist streamers missing.

We have a few minor quibbles, but the Hisense PX4 Pro sits in a gap between entry-level and flagship USTs and is a great choice for movie fans who can’t quite stretch their budget to the top tiers of the market. It’s even better value, of course, with £100 cashback at AV.com and a free Xbox controller.

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Best home cinema projectors: the best options tested by our home cinema experts

AI is, arguably, the world’s hottest technology topic, and it seems as though no one and nothing is safe from its omnipresent influence – not even Epson’s new projector range.

The projector stalwart has announced four new 4K home cinema projectors, headlined by a new AI-backed image-processing engine. It can adapt picture settings to the content you are watching, upscale lower-resolution video more efficiently, and improve contrast and motion.

Epson is making a considerable deal of including MediaTek’s MT9681 chipset, which reportedly supports up to 4K/120Hz video via HDMI 2.1. This chipset is also responsible for running the new AI features mentioned above.

The range is split down the middle with two affordable options – the EH-LS5000 and EH-LS6000 – and two higher-end projectors, the EH-LS7000 and EH-LS7500. Based on the name alone, these projectors appear to sit below the Award-winning EH-LS9000.

Starting with the cheaper duo, these projectors both utilise the company’s 3LCD technology, which utilises three liquid-crystal chips to split white light into red, blue and green beams, intended to enhance colour vibrancy and brightness. The EH-LS5000 and EH-LS6000 reportedly deliver peak brightness of 2500 lumens and 3400 lumens, respectively.

This works in tandem with Epson’s new LD Boost Technology, which can reportedly boost brightness by up to 12 per cent without increasing fan noise levels.

Furthermore, these projectors can beam an image up to a staggering 500 inches. Despite the huge screen size, Epson promises easy and flexible set-up options and easy interoperability with connected devices such as external sound systems and gaming consoles.

Moving up the range, the EH-LS7000 takes the brightness up to a claimed 3600 lumens, which Epson says is “ideal for premium media rooms and high-performance entertainment set-ups”.

The EH-LS7500, on the other hand, is billed as the company's “first short-throw professional home 4K projector with 3500 lumens”, which we interpret to mean that this is the company’s first short-throw unit to reach that brightness level. We have reached out to Epson for clarification.

Epson touts this projector’s biggest asset as its ability to beam a large, bright image from a compact form factor, making it ideal for multi-function rooms or even indoor golf simulators.

All four projectors feature HDR10 and HLG support, although Epson has made no reference to any of the available dynamic formats such as HDR10+ or Dolby Vision.

Matter smart home integration is also featured across the range. This will allow users to control their projector via one of the supported smart home protocols, and voice assistants will also be supported.

The new Epson projector range is launching across Europe this month; considering we are nearing the end of September, we assume that means we’ll see them hit shelves next week.

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Read our full Epson EH-LS9000 review

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Check out our picks for the best projectors

In theory, an ultra-short throw (UST) projector offers the simplest and most practical way to watch movies on a big screen at home.

You should be able to position an all-in-one projector right next to your screen (or wall) to deliver as big as a 200-plus-inch rich and detailed image, without having to worry about clutter in the middle of the room.

But achieving all that in practice can be another story.

Even though the initial setup is simpler than a long-throw model, there is still a fair bit of fiddling around that has to go into getting the picture ready for a movie night.

Each brand has its own way of doing things, whether that's manually moving the image to fit the screen correctly or using the accompanying app, it always seems to take longer than you might imagine.

Editor-in-chief Alastair Stevenson certainly found this was the case in his latest UST testing for the upcoming What Hi-Fi? Awards.

Another issue with UST projectors, that we've spotted time and time again, is how they portray black depth.

They can't match the blackness of an OLED or Mini-LED TV screen as they are beaming light onto a surface instead of controlling light with pixels. But I have noticed that UST projectors tend to overcompensate by boosting up the contrast levels, which does not solve the problem at all.

At IFA, however, I got the chance to see the two newest entries to the premium UST category – and it made me hopeful that we could be seeing a change.

Both Xgimi’s Aura 3 Max and AWOL’s LuxVision are 4K UST projectors, and they are each claiming to offer something new.

Xgimi’s entry claims to be the world’s first 4k/120Hz UST. It offers 5700 ISO lumens of peak brightness and a contrast ratio of up to 8,000:1.

The LuxVision model is also claiming its own world record. The brand says it is the first 4K/120Hz UST projector with optical shift.

With both models offering this high resolution and refresh rate, they should make for a smooth experience for hardcore gamers as well as movie fans.

AWOL's optical shift is of particular interest here, as this one-touch feature should let users precisely adjust image positioning without losing that 4K resolution.

I didn't get to see the team set up the projector using the function but, if this is really the case, then it should make for a much-needed upgrade on the majority of UST projector setups.

Both offer a screen size up to 200 inches, and Google TV is on board both models. In terms of sound, AWOL and Xgimi both feature built-in speakers that support Dolby Atmos.

I got to see both of the projectors during demonstrations and, although they were far from ideal testing conditions with background noise and bright lighting, it gave me a taste of what they can offer.

The Aura 3 Max was showing off its picture chops with footage of various animals ambling around their jungle habitat (a much-needed relaxation break in the flurry of IFA). As a red panda clung to a tree, the projector delivered the texture of its fur with impressive detail without looking unnatural.

Even the darker details in the panda’s face were portrayed with clarity and reasonable black depth. That made me hopeful about its performance with blacks, although we will have to get it into the test room to challenge it with more movie scenes.

The AWOL projector’s demonstration featured Blackpink’s Pink Venom music video, displaying the projector’s punchy colours. Despite not watching in a dark room, the LuxVision managed to produce an engaging and bright overall image that immediately caught the eye thanks to its claimed 6000 lumens of peak brightness.

Detail levels were good as well, as the crinkles of the singers’ jackets were clean and sharp.

We have to get both projectors into our test room to properly see how they perform, but this first look has made me excited about the future of the category with Xgimi's promising dark detail and AWOL's fuss-free setup.

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The Hisense PX4 Pro is a Swiss Army knife UST (ultra short throw) projector designed to work equally well as the beating heart of a proper home cinema as it is a casual lounge TV replacement or big-screen gaming display.

If that wasn’t enough to tempt you, it’s also the successor to a former What Hi-Fi? Award winner, the Hisense PX3 Pro, and comes loaded with a wealth of upgrades designed to improve peak brightness, colour accuracy and black level – all of which make it a very enticing piece of hardware for its target market.

The question is, with a barrage of fresh competition from the likes of Xgimi and AWOL, has Hisense done enough to retain its lead in the UST space? After running a UST battle royale in our viewing rooms, here’s what we found.

Price

The PX4 Pro launched at a price of £2499 / $3999 / AU$4499 and, by and large, that’s currently what you’ll pay for it. That’s the same price its predecessor, the PX3 Pro, launched at in the UK and Australia, but $500 higher in the US.

This pricing puts the PX4 Pro in a slightly awkward position in the UST market, with accomplished, five-star rivals costing not much more, and solid, slightly older alternatives costing quite a lot less.

Above it, you’ll find our current recommended UST, the five-star AWOL Vision Aetherion Max, which launched at a hefty £3499 / $4499 / AU$5999 but has recently dropped to £3199 / $3799 in the UK and US, respectively (the price in Australia is yet to change).

If you want to go even further, the Hisense L9Q UST that sits above it in the firm’s line is even more premium, costing £3999 / $5999 / AU$8995. Its other, untested, main rival, the newly launched Xgimi Aura 3 Max, is set to retail for $2399 (around £1775 / AU$3365).

For non-gamers, you can also buy the new, four-star, step-down Hisense PT1 for £1599 / $2199 / AU$2295, which shares common DNA with the PX4 Pro.

And, as a final spanner in the works, if you aren’t committed to getting a latest-generation UST, some stock of the PX3 Pro is still available, with most shops in the UK selling it for around £1599.

Design

Hisense’s PX line of USTs has never been known for its subtlety. Because of Hisense's traditional focus on selling PX projectors’ gaming credentials as much as their home cinema prowess, they tend to have striking angular designs with big metal grilles and garish flourishes.

This largely remains the case with the PX4 Pro, which eschews the classy, understated design of the step-down PT1 in favour of an angular, eye-catching metal box with a curved, amphitheatre-shaped metal speaker grille on its top. One of our reviewers described it as “what would happen if architect Frank Gehry designed a UST”.

The only UST we’ve seen that’s more ostentatious is the step-up L9Q, which has the same design, but with gold/brass metal and a fake wood finish and a larger chassis.

Thankfully, there is a reason for the atypical grille; it houses the new 66-watt, 4.0.2-channel sound system, which features six integrated drivers that have been tuned by French audio brand Devialet – which is responsible for the Phantom line of high-end speakers. A step up (at least on paper) on the PX3’s Harman-tuned system.

Outside of its aesthetics, the UST is fairly by the numbers, measuring in at 54 x 29 x 14cm, which is just about compact enough to fit onto most stands, or even small cabinets, without much hassle.

The 0.2:1 throw ratio also means you can project a giant 100-120-inch diagonal image from less than a foot away from the screen (or wall, if you’re a philistine). If you have the space to place it a little further away (around 35in / 89cm), Hisense has also extended its max projection size to a staggering 200 inches – a 50-inch improvement on the PX3 Pro.

Weighing 8.3kg, the PX4 Pro is fairly easy to move, though its fiddly set-up process means we’d recommend leaving it in place once you’ve got it running.

This set-up process remains unchanged from previous Hisense USTs. You have to place it on the stand and then awkwardly adjust the height of the feet and the position of the projector to make the image fit your screen. The trouble is that after that, as with other Hisense USTs, the auto-correction process (which forces you to take a photo of an image and upload it onto a Hisense website) does not work.

A dozen attempts, more swears than we can count and the same failure message every time. Once again, our reviewers had to manually tweak the focus and projected screen dimensions to get usable results.

The remote remains functional and, thankfully, once again supports USB-C and solar charging. On the other hand, the remote is also a little long and button-heavy, and it’s still not backlit, making use in a dark room a little trickier. A more streamlined, modernised zapper would be welcome.

Features

The PX4 Pro doesn’t radically change the line’s core offering. As well as a big-screen 4K (via pixel shifting) home cinema experience, Hisense is once again making a big deal about the fact that its projector can deliver a 1080p/240Hz performance for gamers.

The only changes are that Hisense has added yet more features and tech designed to improve everything from colour accuracy to peak brightness, black level and light control.

For starters, though it runs on the same core RGB Triple Laser tech as its predecessor, the PX4 Pro features newer Digital Laser Engine 3.0 tech, which Hisense claims lets it deliver 3500 Lumens peak brightness. That’s 500 Lumens more than the PX3 Pro and 200 more than the AWOL Vision Aetherion Max.

A custom, seven-level adjustable iris lens system and “Hisense-exclusive” CineBlack Pro tech then work in tandem to boost black levels, colour accuracy and contrast. This is apparently the key reason it has a quoted 6500:1 contrast ratio. To put that in context, the PX3 Pro has an also-claimed 3000:1 contrast ratio.

The combination of technologies additionally helps the PX4 Pro deliver a quoted 118 per cent coverage of the demanding BT.2020 colour gamut favoured by creative professionals. So quite the upgrade all around – at least on paper.

The projector’s feature set remains excellent elsewhere, too. It supports Dolby Vision, HDR10+, HDR10 and HLG. If you’re turning your nose up, asking “what about Dolby Vision 2”, don’t – this is only just starting to roll out for TVs, and we’re yet to see it on any projector.

There is also a dedicated Filmmaker Mode, IMAX Enhanced certification and Active 3D content picture modes. IMAX is a nice touch, given its recent support by certain big-name directors and growing catalogue of supported content on Disney+.

We’re less convinced by Active 3D right now. If you haven’t heard of this, it’s a 3D TV technology that uses special DLP Link 3D glasses to create a 3D depth effect. The PX4 Pro doesn’t come with glasses bundled. To take advantage of the feature, you’ll need to invest in a pair. Prices vary depending on the make, ranging from £20-£60 per pair – though usually they come in bundles of two.

Given how well 3D, and its reliance on specialist glasses, went the first time around in the early noughties, we don’t yet see this 3D feature as anything to get too excited about at this point, but there are still those burning a candle for 3D, and with some 3D movies in their collections. To them, the PX4 Pro’s Active 3D support will be welcome.

The use of Hisense’s Vidaa OS, instead of Google TV, may put off some potential buyers, but the OS is more than good enough, coming loaded with nearly all the apps you need. These include Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV. In the UK, Freely is also supported, which means you can easily catch up on local UK shows and use it as a straight-up TV, should you so choose.

The only missing apps are specialist ones, including Shudder, Hidive, and GeForce Now. Not a deal breaker, but an annoyance if you’re a dedicated fan of the genres they cover, or a PC gamer.

Hisense has also loaded the PX4 Pro with two HDMI 2.1 inputs, just like the PX3 Pro before it, and there’s support for ALLM and VRR.

There are two HDMI 2.0 sockets, too, taking the total complement of HDMIs to four. The PX3 Pro had two HDMI 2.1 sockets and a single HDMI 2.0, so this is a handy upgrade for those with lots of sources.

Interestingly, the eARC socket is one of the HDMI 2.0 ports, so you don’t lose one of the valuable HDMI 2.1 ports should you choose to add a soundbar or AVR to your projector.

Our only word of warning is to gamers. Yes, the projector can do 1080p/240Hz if a powerful enough PC is connected. And yes, that is awesome for online gaming, where the higher framerate and very low input lag (in gaming mode) can make the difference between (virtual) life and death.

But, despite the presence of so-called HDMI 2.1 sockets, the PX4 Pro is limited to 60Hz at 4K resolution, so 4K/120Hz gaming is off the menu. This won’t be a huge deal to all gamers, but it is worth noting that USTs with support for native 4K/120Hz are beginning to appear.

Picture quality

So how does the PX4 Pro perform? Starting with our standard Civil War 4K Blu-ray, the projector is initially a little too bombastic. Colours are overbaked, and the motion smoothing makes every one of the characters look as though they’re floating.

Thankfully, it doesn’t take much to fix the issue. A few button pushes gets us into Filmmaker Mode, which fixes all of our motion issues. Colours are improved, too, but they’re still not quite perfect, being noticeably too warm. Eventually, with some back-and-forth experimentation, we settle on Filmmaker Mode with the Warm 2 colour profile, Dynamic Tone Mapping switched on and the motion setting on Film.

Once done, the work Hisense has done improving its PX line over the past two years is immediately apparent, and the PX4 Pro leaves a strong impression. Characters' faces look more realistic, featuring more natural highlights and deeper shadows. As they move through a burning forest, the extra brightness helps the PX4 shine; the flames possess hues of red and orange that are entirely missing on the PX3. Blacks are deeper, but retain much more detail, giving silhouetted trees in the woods a much more defined presence, and the entire scene an added element of three-dimensionality.

The improvements continue as we switch gears to our F1: The Movie disc. The PX4 Pro demonstrates a wonderful level of control, handling very bright elements over dark segments, with the fireworks raging over the race track offering a wonderfully crisp, controlled burn that makes the PX3 and most of the cheaper USTs we’ve tested look flat by comparison.

To our surprise, the jagged, slightly jerky motion handling we’ve come to expect from Hisense USTs is also gone. Instead, the cars weave and zoom forward with pleasing heft and smoothness, without ever feeling artificial. A big achievement for Hisense considering how past models have struggled here.

But as we continue watching, there are a few minor flies in the ointment. As the F1 scene continues, our reviewers wince in unison as the rainbow effect rears its ugly head more than once.

Moving to Sinners, a demanding test disc due to its incredibly warm mastering and dim presentation, the PX4’s picture looks slightly off. That’s partly because there’s very minor black crush, with parts of gangster Stack’s jawline and beard that are visible on the more premium AWOL Vision Aetherion Max showing as flat black. But it’s mainly the colours, which look both overbaked and overly yellow, giving characters a slightly jaundiced look.

The issue briefly appears again as we switch to Blade Runner 2049, where during the difficult, dim opening scene, the projector occasionally struggles with colours not looking quite right. Though it is intermittent and generally limited to dark scenes, sadly, we don’t find a way to fix it, with the cooler Standard and Cool colour profiles pushing too far in the other direction. To be clear, overall, it’s still far from a terrible performance, but it’s just not quite as finessed as that which you’ll experience one step up in the flagship UST space. Sometimes you get what you pay for.

The projector’s upscaling is also much improved, but still middling. Tasked with our SDR True Grit Blu-ray disc, the PX4 does a decent job with the opening dark snowy scene, with only a few artefacts creeping in. But as the film goes on, the spaghetti western-style grainy tone occasionally looks a bit fizzy.

Sound quality

Hisense has made impressive strides, for the most part, with the PX4 Pro’s audio.

Despite its humble size, the Devialet-tuned system manages to do a surprising job throwing audio around the room. A flight of jets don’t scream overhead during Civil War in quite the same way they do on a capable soundbar, but they come with a sense of height that’s missing from most rival USTs.

The movements of cars in F1: The Movie traverse effectively from left to right, and then forward with enough dynamic heft to make it fun to watch – albeit still not quite bone-rumbling enough to do it true cinematic justice.

Switching to Sinners, the system offers an unusual (for inbuilt speaker systems) sense of musicality, with the medley of tracks racing around the speakeasy having a rhythmic drive that makes you feel like you're being pulled forward with the camera to the beat of the music.

But it’s still far from perfect. The Devialet tuning frequently pushes too hard and overestimates its capabilities. During scene two of Blade Runner 2049, it all but falls apart, speaker rattle creeps in, and the booming synth – which is meant to exude a sense of doom – comes out as a loud, flabby warble that drowns out most of the mid and higher frequencies.

Transitioning to the interview scene, voices are nicely separated and projected, but they have a harsh character, with sibilant hisses and a hard edge to the dialogue.

Overall, this is still a very solid sound performance by prevailing UST standards, but images this cinematic demand equally cinematic sound, and we'd advise you to budget for a dedicated sound system if at all possible.

Verdict

The PX4 Pro is a worthy improvement to Hisense’s line of mid-tier UST projectors, offering deeper blacks, more colour volume and a holistically improved, more three-dimensional-looking image.

It also sits in a space between entry-level and flagship USTs, a currently underserved segment of the market. That makes it a great option for movie fans looking for a big-screen UST, who can’t quite stretch their budget to accommodate the five-star AWOL Vision Aetherion Max.

Our only quibbles are that its gaming features are slightly less impressive than they first appear, with 4K/120Hz being beyond the projector; and that it occasionally lacks finesse with its handling of colours, especially during dark scenes.

SCORES

• Picture 5
• Sound 4
• Features 4

MORE:

Read our review of the AWOL Vision Aetherion Max

Also consider the Hisense PT1

Read our Xgimi Aura 2 review

Best home cinema projectors: the best options tested by our home cinema experts

We’re in Awards season. That means one thing: a gruelling hi-fi and home cinema battle royale, which runs until we have crowned a champion in each of our Best Buy categories.

While we always review as a team, each Awards category has one lead tester; and this year, once again, one of my categories is ultra-short-throw (UST) projectors.

Did I get a pang of jealousy as our senior staff writer, Lewis Empson, pulled the surround sound packages card out of the hat we use to sort our testing plan (joking)? A bit, but truthfully I was also quite happy to take this category.

I have reviewed, or at least been one of the team testing, most of the recent USTs to pass through our test rooms, and I understand their appeal at a personal and professional level.

An ultra-short-throw projector is an impressive piece of equipment: a single-box beamer, usually with an inbuilt sound system, it can throw a giant home cinema picture while sitting right next to the screen or wall it’s projecting onto.

So in theory, you have a home cinema in a box that can stream an 80- or even 200-plus-inch screen into even the smallest of living spaces as long as the projection area is big enough.

Done right, it can be a very compelling option for people like me, who are forced to use their narrow home office or a spare bedroom as their hobby/home cinema room. I have a Hisense PX3 connected to a JBL Bar 1300 in my attic AV cave/office for this reason.

I chose this specific combination, because the PX3 supports high-refresh-rate gaming. And, despite my best efforts, my room can’t accommodate the proper 5.2 system I yearn for, so the JBL Bar 1300 soundbar system is a nice middle ground between a full system and a basic soundbar.

Back to this year’s UST shootout, and as I descended into the darkness and began running the contenders head to head, from the moment I plugged the first UST in, I had a sense of déjà vu, as two old issues immediately reared their ugly heads.

The first is that, despite the marketing suggesting that these are a plug-and-play, simple option for home cinema fans, there is nothing simple about setting up a UST projector.

For yet another year, the process, regardless of manufacturer, remains the same: place the unit on a stand by your intended projection surface; turn it on and then adjust the feet and distance to make the projected guide image fit roughly on it; then run the autocorrection process, or manually make the necessary tweaks.

Neither option is good for your zen.

The ‘autocorrection’ process asks you to take a photo of a projected grid, then upload it to a site owned by the company. From there, it’s meant to tweak the settings to perfect the image. Except it doesn’t.

I make a point to always try the autocorrection at least half a dozen times before giving up. That remained the case this year, and I still have a batting average of zero successful runs. At least some things in life are consistent…

That would be fine, were it not for the fact that the manual correction process is outright painful too. You have to try to optimise the angle and height of the UST using the adjustable feet first: it’s a process that is the home cinema equivalent of trying to get a three-seater, L-shaped sofa up a spiral staircase.

Then, to add insult to injury, you have to adjust the projection area using manual corner controls. And these, inevitably, seem hell-bent on never quite being finessed enough to make the image perfectly square.

As a final annoyance, even minor movements can undo all your hard work. So if you have playful pets or a curious toddler, guard the UST with your life, or be prepared to start the process all over again.

Ask any of the team, and they would, I hope, tell you that I am normally an even-tempered sort of fella – the type you’d probably see chilling at a Grateful Dead concert. But during this year’s testing, the combination of frustrations meant that, once again, Lewis was subjected to a tirade of grumbles that would make a sailor blush during the set-up process.

The second issue, thankfully, isn’t as infuriating. If anything, to be fair, it is actually less pronounced this year.

Still, as I moved to the picture-testing part of our shootout, the moment I put our first 4K Blu-ray into our reference player, I spotted some issues with the USTs’ black levels.

Of course, no projector can match the perfect blacks of an OLED TV and its pixel-level light control. A UST, like any projector, produces images by projecting light onto a surface. And, unless a clever new technology comes out that somehow miraculously changes this, it won’t ever be able to create perfect blacks.

But as I went through the list of this year’s contenders, they still seem to fall into two camps in their attempts to overcome this inherent weakness.

On one side, we have what I like to call the grey beards.

These are the USTs that have decided not to hide the weakness and accept they can’t deliver perfect blacks. This can be a blessing, or a curse depending on how the strategy is implemented. But generally the compromise here is that, while dark scenes can look a little washed out and flat, they retain a decent amount of dark detail.

Then there’s the “Just For UST” camp.

These are the models that, like some men of a certain age (mine), are obsessed with trying to hide their greys. USTs in this camp tend to crank their contrast, making films look like a Frank Miller comic, offering an added level of punch but at the expense of detail. I particularly hate this approach.

Despite steps in the right direction, with blacks on some of the units I tested going deeper than I have seen on past USTs, all of the models at least partially fell into one of these camps, and couldn't quite nail dark scenes as a result.

Which is why, for the third year running, I find myself typing this feature, offering a minor word of warning to potential UST buyers: these devices can be magical for their intended market, and they are improving every year, but they still have a couple of niggling flaws to overcome as a category, compared with both TVs and full-fat long-throw projectors.

So, think hard about whether a UST really is right for your specific circumstances before investing in one.

If ease of use is your main priority, a home cinema-in-a-box coffee-table projector may be a better fit. If you want a proper home cinema, there is nothing like a decent long-throw unit. And if you’re not so bothered about screen size and just want a quality home movie experience, there are excellent OLED TVs available at the same price as most USTs.

USTs are designed and marketed to a specific type of home cinema fan for a reason.

MORE:

These are the best projectors we have reviewed

We rank the best Dolby Atmos soundbars

Our picks of the best surround sound systems

From its compact rectangular shape and white finish, to its simple manual set-up tools and Android TV (rather than Google TV) smart system, there’s something a little old-school about the latest Acer projector to cross our test benches. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing, though.

In fact, it’s kind of refreshing to hang out with such a fuss-free, unpretentious projector – especially when that projector retains a more serious set of specifications than today’s portable projectors typically provide.

Add to this a couple of significant eco-friendly features in the shape of a nifty hybrid laser/LED lighting system and a chassis made from 50 per cent recycled plastics, and the unassuming-looking HL6810ATV has the potential to teach some of the new flash Harrys on the projector block a trick or two.

Price

At £1499 (around $2025 / AU$2825), the HL6810ATV sits at the affordable end of the 4K projector market. Take into account its built-in smarts, eco-friendly laser/LED hybrid lighting system, 240Hz refresh rate support and 4000 lumens of claimed peak brightness, and it has the potential to be a pretty serious bargain. Though, as we’ll see, you do have to accept a few compromises along the way.

Rivals for the HL6810ATV would be the Hisense PT1 if an ultra short throw projector would work for you, or Hisense’s What Hi-Fi? Award-winning M2 Pro if you’re looking for a more ‘lifestyle’ coffee table model with a convenience-focused design.

Design

The Acer HL6810ATV might not have the glamour or distinctiveness of many of today’s living room projectors, but it’s cute enough in its own throwback way.

Its small footprint and much lower stance than you get with the en vogue cubic designs currently dominating the living room projection market mean it scarcely makes any impact – positive or negative – on your decor, while its white finish is crisp and clean.

Its rounded-off corners give it a domesticated feel, and it’s nice to find it partnered with a remote control that also sports a white finish in harmony with the projector.

A full set of control buttons is provided on the HL6810ATV’s top edge for when you can’t find the remote, and a ‘window’ cut into the top edge above the lens barrel provides access to manual adjustments for zoom, focus and vertical optical image shifting.

Screw-down feet under the projector’s bottom edge help you get images in the right place on your wall or screen and, finally, the lens can be protected in transit by a little plastic lens cover attached by string to the projector’s underside.

Features

The Acer HL6810ATV is matter-of-factly described by Acer as a “4K UHD smart projector”, where the ‘smart’ bit refers to mini dongle-delivered Android TV support. Integrating a smart TV system proves right away that the HL6810ATV is aimed at the domestic rather than business market.

This position is backed up by such features as a Football Mode that exaggerates colours for more spectacular ‘big game’ nights, and gaming features that include support for 120Hz and 240Hz refresh rates and a Low Input Lag setting that gets input lag down to just 17ms at 60Hz. This lag pretty much halves each time as the projector moves through its 120Hz and 240Hz gears, too. These are all excellent numbers for a projector.

The HL6810ATV is built on a DLP optical system illuminated by hybrid laser and LED lighting. This relatively rare lighting approach has apparently been chosen by Acer because it delivers a longer lifespan (up to 30,000 hours is claimed if you stick with its Eco image setting) and uses less energy than other lighting systems.

The HL6810ATV adds playback of the HDR10 and HLG HDR formats to its 4K playback. There’s no support for the premium HDR10+ or Dolby Vision formats, with their extra scene-by-scene image data, but such support is relatively rare at this level, so that's no huge surprise.

Peak brightness from the HL6810ATV is claimed to be 4000 lumens, while contrast is claimed to be a very respectable 50,000:1. It’s highly unlikely you’ll experience either of these figures in the real world, but they’re still good numbers for the projector to build its picture performance on, hinting as they do at images capable of looking decent in both dark and bright room settings.

Also impressive for its money is how easy to set up the HL6810ATV is. The manual focus and zoom adjustment rings deliver a handy 1.3x level of zoom, while a little wheel adjustment above the lens and focus rings provides a degree of optical vertical image shift. There are options in the projector’s menus, too, to compensate for keystone errors and even the colour of your wall.

There’s no significant automated image set-up system of the sort we’re starting to see on many projectors, but given how many of those don’t work particularly well, we actually find the hands-on simplicity of the HL6810ATV’s all-manual picture set-up surprisingly welcome.

It helps on paper, too, that the HL6810ATV carries a built-in 10W speaker, to save you the trouble of having to find an external audio source wherever you’ve set the projector up. Though as we’ll get into later, this ostensibly helpful feature doesn’t quite pan out as hoped.

Being easy to set up adds weight to the HL6810ATV’s status as an unusually portable projector for anyone looking for a model that’s easy to move between different rooms or houses. Acer supplies a carry bag with the projector to further bolster its ‘go anywhere’ credentials.

The HL6810ATV’s connections include two HDMI ports (both 2.0b-specified, so there’s no support for 4K at any higher frame rates than 60Hz, or VRR); a 3.5mm mini jack audio output; an RS-232 control jack; and a 5V-out USB port that’s otherwise just for service use.

Unfortunately, we need to finish on a couple of significant limitations.

First, as well as being a bit buggy, the HL6810ATV’s Android TV smart system doesn’t carry any of the catch-up services for the main terrestrial UK broadcasters.

Second, while the Acer provides a pretty wide array of picture presets for SDR viewing, with HDR it frustratingly only offers a single preset mode, which you then have to manually adjust yourself in areas such as your preferred EOTF setting and Dynamic Black preference (there’s no true HDR tone mapping here, in case you were wondering).

Picture

The HL6810ATV can be really engaging to watch – so long as you’re not trying to do so in a bright room. It just isn’t bright enough with HDR or SDR, even in its brightest settings (which here means choosing the High setting of the ‘EOTF' feature), to punch through ambient light with enough conviction to keep colours looking bold, black levels looking solid and details looking defined. Quite where those 4000 claimed lumens have ended up is anyone’s guess.

While this lack of bright-room potency though will be enough to put off some buyers looking for an all-conditions all-rounder, the HL6810ATV is a more assured dark room watch than many projectors that try harder to punch through ambient light.

In particular, in a dark room, the projector delivers deeper and more convincing blacks and dark scenes than we had expected. This is particularly true if you use the Mid EOTF setting, which really does look startlingly cinematic for such a ‘casual’ projector.

Black levels are still decent, though, even if you switch the EOTF setting to High – which, in the end, you kind of have to, especially with HDR, if you want to stop significant amounts of faint detail in dark areas disappearing from view.

The High EOTF setting is also the only one where the HL6810ATV manages to give a sense that you’re watching HDR, as it enables the projector to deliver its highest ‘baseline’ HDR brightness level while still finding an extra gear to imbue the brightest HDR highlights with that sense of gleam and glimmer that’s so beyond what SDR can do.

The HL6810ATV handles colour very well for its money, too. Every now and then, a very bright shade, especially if it leans towards a secondary rather than primary colour, can become slightly washed out – as if the projector’s colour palette isn’t quite expansive enough to keep up with its brightness extremes (even though they’re not actually very extreme).

For the most part, though, colours look natural, nicely balanced against each other, and devoid of the sort of noise or lack of shading subtlety that can trouble some HDR displays (both TVs and projectors).

There’s no noise in dark parts of the picture either, and both HD and 4K sources look crisp and detailed without that detail being impaired by grittiness or moiré noise.

Judder, even with 24p movie sources, looks clean and natural enough to retain the clarity for most of the time as well, with only small movements of very detailed content sometimes looking a bit tweaky for a frame or two.

The HL6810ATV’s straightforward but natural and immersive presentation extends for the most part to its game performance. In fact, the relative starkness of graphics versus video sources makes them an even better fit for the projector’s engagingly no-nonsense approach.

The only rider is that for some reason graphics look noticeably coarser at 60Hz refresh rates than they do at 120Hz, even if the 60Hz images are 4K while the 120Hz images are (as they have to be) HD. Because of this, where the choice is available, we much prefer gaming at 1080p/120Hz than 4K/60Hz.

Sound

There isn’t really much to say here for the simple reason that there isn’t much sound to listen to. The speaker struggles to produce any volume worthy of the name, leaving the projector’s big, engaging pictures sounding like they’re being partnered with the audio equivalent of a peashooter.

There’s no bass, either, leaving action scenes sounding thin as well as quiet.

The only things stopping the sound from registering a single-star score, in fact, are the way the sound projects a little forward from the projector’s body to make it sound slightly more connected with the onscreen images, and the fact that dialogue always sounds surprisingly clear.

The reality is, though, that anyone wanting a sound experience that’s anywhere close to matching the impact of the HL6810ATV’s pictures is going to have to find some sort of external audio solution.

Verdict

The HL6810ATV’s lack of brightness limits its usage scenarios a little more than we’d like for a projector at this level. Its Android TV system is a bit dated, too.

You can always add a cheap HDMI streaming stick, though, and if you don’t mind using it in a pretty consistently dark environment and can pair it up easily enough with an external sound system, this Acer is actually surprisingly fun to use regardless of whether you’re watching a film or playing a game.

SCORES

• Picture 4
• Sound 2
• Features 3

MORE:

Read our Hisense M2 Pro review

Also give our BenQ TK705i review a look

And don't forget our Xgimi Horizon 20 Pro review

Our pick of the best projectors you can buy for every budget

It’s been a week since I was on the ground at IFA 2026 in Berlin, and there was a whole range of home cinema equipment that I got to see while at the huge convention.

But there’s one demo that I experienced on Xgimi’s stand that will not leave my head, and it involved a prototype 3D projector system.

And I really do mean "prototype": this isn't a product you can buy, but more of a Frankenstein’s monster combining various products.

There was quite a lot going on behind the scenes, so let’s break it down: Xgimi had two of its newly announced Titan Noir Ultra Max projectors set up side-by-side, each hooked up to the same laptop.

In front of each projector, Xgimi positioned a polarising filter. Essentially, one projector produced the image for the left eye, while the other handled the right. Once you put on the polarised passive glasses, the picture came together to create an incredible 3D experience.

Just one of these projectors will set you back £4799 (around $5000 / AU$9040), but the Titan Noir Ultra Max does boast some impressive specs.

Xgimi claims it delivers up to 8000 ISO lumens of peak brightness and a native contrast ratio of 12,000:1, for starters, and the brand says this results in an “impressive contrast performance for true cinematic depth”.

There are some promising specifications for gaming, too, with Xgimi claiming input lag of just 1ms, which seems preposterously low, but will need proper testing once we get a sample in for review. VRR and ALLM are also on board.

My demo wasn't about gaming, though; it was about 3D movies.

The team had the trailer from Avatar: Fire And Ash on a loop and, even though I had seen it countless times by the end, I was captivated by the video every time it played.

The sense of three-dimensionality was simply breathtaking. When the majestic flying Leonopteryx swooped into the frame, the creature’s wings and tail appeared to flick into the audience with a stunning sense of immersion.

Surrounding the winged animal were floating islands in the sky, and they came out of the frame like a pop-up book.

Instead of feeling limited to the screen on the demonstration room's wall, it really felt as though the picture reached far beyond the frame. I almost thought that if I reached my hand out I could brush the animal's wing.

During the blue-tinted nighttime water scenes, the picture looked detailed despite the movie's lower-light presentation. The bioluminescent spots on the skin of our blue protagonists stood out against the dark woodland instead of getting lost in the background, too.

The picture was bright and punchy as well, and this was in a reasonably well-lit environment. Imagine it in a blacked-out room. That all transported me away from the busy convention space to the world of Pandora in seconds, and it was really a sight to behold.

The sound was less impressive, with the projector's speakers struggling to cut through the bustling showroom floor. But that would obviously change in a more ideal environment, and you could hook up a separate sound system.

It's been a while since I have seen a projector brand, or really any brand at all, running a 3D movie demo. That's hardly surprising, considering that fewer and fewer movies are getting a 3D release.

But even though you won't find it on shelves anytime soon, Xgimi's experiment has still given me renewed curiosity about the world of 3D. Perhaps we gave up too easily, and perhaps it's not too late for a thrilling, three-dimensional renaissance.

MORE:

Check out the best projectors

These are the best soundbars on the market

And here's our review of the Horizon 20 Max

Xgimi has announced the Aura 3 series, which it claims is the world’s first 4K/120Hz UST projector lineup.

The series consists of two models: the flagship Aura 3 Max and the step-down Aura 3 Pro.

Both projectors will support 4K/120Hz gaming with VRR and ALLM, and they each boast an RGB Triple Laser light engine, a claimed 8000:1 native contrast ratio, and Dynamic Dual Iris Technology for "unprecedented contrast, depth and detail".

Xgimi claims a 200-inch maximum projection size, with a 120-inch image possible from just eight inches away from the wall.

There's also Google TV built in, as well as support for HDR in the HLG, HDR10, HDR10+ and Dolby Vision formats. The projector is IMAX Enhanced certified as well.

Rather surprisingly, two pairs of 3D glasses are included for any remaining 3D fans out there, while audio is supplied by an 80W Harman Kardon speaker system with Dolby Atmos support.

Xgimi claims the Aura 3 Max can deliver brightness of up to 5700 ISO lumens, while the Aura 3 Pro tops out at 4100 ISO lumens. Prices are $2399 (around £1775 / AU$3335) and $2199 (around £1626 / AU$3057), respectively.

UST projectors have generally had to compromise on refresh rates at 4K, so the Aura 3 series will be particularly appealing to gamers looking for a TV replacement.

The AURA 3 Series will launch on Kickstarter on October 20th in the US, with pre-orders now open from Xgimi directly. Customers can unlock an extra $200 off by placing a $50 deposit.

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Read our Xgimi Titan review

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Ultra short throw projectors: everything you need to know

A lifestyle projector needs to get the balance between performance and portability just right, and the Hisense C2 Ultra makes a pretty compelling case for itself.

Not only does it focus on convenience and is incredibly easy to set up, but it also delivers a bright, punchy 4K picture and outstanding built-in sound.

And now you can get all of that with a solid discount, too. The C2 Ultra is down to £1599 at Sevenoaks, a £200 drop from the £1799 price we tested it at only last week.

And there's more. You even get an Xbox Design Lab Controller and 1 month of Game Pass thrown in for free, so you can take advantage of the projector's many gaming features.

The Hisense C2 Ultra clearly has portability in mind, and this is reflected in the design. It's compact at 29 x 25 x 25cm (hwd), and even comes with a neat cloth carry bag.

Constantly moving a projector around can involve constant set-up adjustments, but Hisense makes this as smooth as possible. The C2 Ultra can rotate a full 360 degrees on its circular base, for starters, and its cradle design supports a generous 135 degrees of vertical tilt.

The Auto Magic AI Adjusting 2.0 system is also one of the most straightforward AI set-up systems we've seen, with a genuine plug-and-play experience that seldom needs any manual intervention.

The triple-laser DLP projector is rated to deliver up to 3000 lumens of brightness and claims to support huge image sizes of up to 300 inches. The larger you go, the more brightness you lose, though, and we found 100-150 inches to be the sweet spot.

The built-in Vidaa smart platform isn't quite as sophisticated as Google TV, but it does boast all the major domestic and international streaming services as well as Freely.

There's also support for all four HDR formats – including HDR10+ and Dolby Vision – a rarity for a projector, as well as an IMAX Enhanced picture preset.

Gaming features include ALLM, 240Hz refresh rate support, and a measured 34.4ms of input lag in Game mode with a 60Hz signal. Ideal for that bundled Xbox controller, then.

And it's not all features over performance – the picture the Hisense produces is still effortlessly watchable.

As our Hisense C2 Ultra review reads: "The C2 Ultra’s HDR images are bright, for starters, making full use of the available 3000 lumens to deliver images that look both excellently punchy in a dark environment, and strong enough to hold their own, retaining good colour saturation and solidity, even in fairly bright living room conditions."

Our only issue was a cloak of greyness in some uniformly dark scenes, and a moderate level of rainbow effect in bright highlights.

It's the sound that really impresses for a projector, however – the unusually powerful, 40W JBL sound system delivers a remarkable amount of bass, as well as a palpable sense of three-dimensionality for Dolby Atmos.

The Hisense C2 Ultra is absolutely stacked with features as well as being extremely user-friendly. Given how much you get for the price, this really is a bargain – and even more so with £200 at Sevenoaks.

MORE:

Read our BenQ W2720i review

Also read our BenQ TK705i review

Our pick of the best projectors across a range of prices

How to set up your projector and get the best picture

It’s easy to see why ultra short throw projectors have become so popular in recent years.

They can deliver bigger images and usually cost much less than the largest TVs, and do so while sat just inches from your screen, rather than having to squat in the middle of your living room.

It’s also easy to see why Hisense UST projectors in particular have done so well.

Hisense has more experience with them than most brands, which now typically pays off in superior performance levels, and it has the economies of scale to sell UST projectors more cheaply than most rivals.

Even by Hisense’s standards, though, the PT1 is quite the head turner, offering full tri-chroma (RGB) laser projection, built-in Vidaa smarts, a premium design and a potent integrated sound system for just £1599 in the UK.

Is this really Hisense’s biggest bargain to date, though, or does the price come with strings attached?

Price

The Hisense PT1’s £1599 / $2199 / AU$2500 price is aggressive for any UST projector, never mind one as well specified and richly featured as this one.

If your projector doesn’t need to be a UST model, Hisense has a strong ‘coffee table’ offering in the shape of the C2 Ultra, while BenQ’s Award-winning W2720i is a strong rival if you’re after a projector focused more on a dedicated home theatre approach.

Design

The PT1 doesn't stray too far from the conventional rectangular UST projector design, with speakers on the front edge and a lens slit on top. That's quite a contrast to models such as the futuristic AWOL Vision Aetherion Max and gleaming metallic Leica Cine 1.

It offers enough eye-catching refinement in its build quality and the crisp bronze metallic trim and side detailing, though, to look like it should cost more than it does.

Hisense’s love affair with UST projectors started with the notion that when partnered with a screen they could essentially replace the traditional TV set, so it’s no great surprise to find the PT1 shipping with pretty much the same long, sleekly finished and button-packed remote control you get with the brand’s latest premium TVs. It even has the same solar recharging panel at the bottom of its front edge, and a series of buttons for directly accessing various streaming apps.

Features

As a UST projector, the PT1 is capable of producing images as large as 150 inches when sat just inches from your wall. However, thanks to a slightly restrained claimed peak brightness of 2500 lumens (less than you get with Hisense’s cheaper PL2 UST model), you’re probably better off thinking of 120 inches or so as being the maximum image size this projector can stretch to while retaining the sort of punchy images you’ll likely want in today’s HDR world.

Talking of HDR, the PT1 joins other current Hisense laser projectors in supporting all four of the main HDR formats: HLG, HDR10, HDR10+ and Dolby Vision. Such comprehensive HDR support remains uncommon in the projector world, and it means the PT1 will always play the best version of any HDR content you feed it. It’s able to apply dynamic tone mapping to HDR10 content, too, in a bid to optimise such images to the projector’s capabilities.

The PT1 is capable of playing 4K images through its 2.07 million micro mirror DLP optical engine courtesy of Texas Instruments' XPR technology (a combination of pixel shifting and fast DLP mirror ‘flashing’), and its light comes from three separate lasers, one for each of the red, green and blue colour elements.

This is the most important way it differs from the cheaper PL2 model, which only uses single-element laser lighting, and it should enable the PT1 to produce a much wider colour range.

In fact, Hisense claims it can reproduce 110 per cent of the AV world’s most extreme (and actually rarely used) BT.2020 spectrum, making full coverage of the smaller DCI-P3 spectrum typically used in HDR mastering well within its reach.

The PT1 also carries an AI Colour mode that claims to fine-tune every frame to deliver, in Hisense’s words, “richer, more accurate colours that go beyond what typical displays can offer”.

The PT1's built-in smart system is the ninth generation of Hisense’s own Vidaa platform. While Vidaa might not be the most glamorous or ‘intelligent’ smart system on the market, it is straightforwardly organised and presented, making it relatively easy to use.

It also carries all the main global and UK apps, including the relatively new Freely UK platform that lets you livestream most of the UK’s terrestrial broadcaster channels rather than having to depend on an aerial to receive them. This is particularly handy given that the PT1 no longer sports the digital tuner input you used to get on Hisense’s earliest laser TV projectors.

Connections are still decent, though. They include three HDMI ports (two with ‘enhanced’ HDMI 2.1 gaming features), a USB-C port, an optical digital audio output, a headphone jack and a LAN port. There's also wi-fi and Bluetooth support, including Apple AirPlay.

Home theatre fans will be pleased to hear that the PT1’s available picture presets include both Filmmaker and IMAX Enhanced modes, while gamers will appreciate the projector’s support for 240Hz frame rates (at HD resolution), 4K resolution at 120Hz refresh rates, ALLM switching, and a reasonably speedy (for a projector) measured input lag of 37.1ms with 60Hz feeds in the default Game mode.

This input lag can be reduced, too, to 20.4ms if you activate the DLP Turbo feature in the picture menus. Activating DLP Turbo, though, switches off all your auto and manual keystone correction work – not ideal for us given the unexpected difficulties we experienced with getting the PT1’s provided auto keystone correction feature to get the edges of the images straight.

The relatively deep and substantial bodywork associated with UST projectors often helps them integrate substantial sound systems, and the PT1 sports an unusual 2.0.2 channel arrangement, where the two main front-firing speakers are partnered with a pair of up-firing units. Total amplification is 46 watts.

Picture quality

If you’re careful which settings you use, the PT1 is capable of delivering plenty of the impressively natural, balanced and refined pictures we’ve come to expect from Hisense UST projectors.

Provided you use its Filmmaker Mode or IMAX Enhanced presets with HDR10 footage, and the Dark Dolby Vision setting with Dolby Vision content, images enjoy a wonderfully no-nonsense and essentially glitch-free quality.

This is expertly built on a combination of remarkably deep and consistent blacks for such an affordable UST projector. There is excellent sharpness and texturing with both native 4K and upscaled HD sources; and eye-catchingly natural skin tones of the sort that elude so many other similarly affordable projectors.

Motion with 24p movie sources looks natural out of the box in the presets we’ve just recommended too, without the need to mess around with any motion compensation settings.

Both the Filmmaker Mode and IMAX Enhanced presets default to the Film option for the PT1’s Ultra Smooth Motion setting, confirming the sense we’ve got from other recent Hisense projectors that this Film setting is now one of the most cinematic movie motion presets in the projector world.

However, while the Filmmaker Mode, IMAX Enhanced and Dolby Vision Dark modes are endlessly watchable in pretty much fully blacked out rooms, they look a little dim and dull in any even half-bright living room environment.

This doesn’t matter, of course, if you’re looking for a projector to go into a dedicated home cinema room, but UST projectors such as the PT1 are typically positioned as lifestyle options, designed to cope with bright as well as dark room settings. So, while the PT1’s lack of brightness versus most UST projectors might actually serve its pictures well when it comes to their excellent black levels, they become a limitation if you’re looking for a UST projector to essentially take the place of a living room television. Don’t forget, either, that if you try to push the PT1’s pictures towards the biggest extremes of its claimed screen size range, the picture will shed significantly more brightness.

It’s perhaps telling that if you go into the PT1’s Screen Type menu, the only options available are Wide Angle ALR screen, High Gain ALR Screen 1, High Gain ALR Screen 2, and No Screen. There’s no option for a relatively neutral or negative gain screen of the sort a home cinema purist might prefer to use, perhaps acknowledging that the PT1’s limited brightness needs extra ‘help’ from whatever surface it’s being projected onto.

We were able to confirm that the PT1’s most accurate image modes do indeed benefit from a brightness boost when projected onto the 120-inch AWOL Vision Cinematic+ ALR Motorised floor-rising acoustic screen. However, the screen’s relatively high gain made dark scenes look a little less convincing in a dark room than they did on our usual almost-neutral-gain screen.

It also adds to the overall cost of the projector set-up, of course, as a good-quality ALR (Ambient Light Reflecting) screen is considerably more expensive than a regular neutral-gain screen.

Naturally, the PT1 has picture settings that can push the picture quite significantly harder in terms of brightness and colour saturation than the relatively accurate modes we’ve recommended so far. Using the HDR Standard, HDR Dynamic or, to a lesser extent, Dolby Vision Bright modes, however, has a really quite strange impact on the projector’s colour performance, with the tones that generally looked so balanced and authentic in Filmmaker Mode especially suddenly starting to take on some quite ‘off’ tones.

A kind of bluish green hue tends to dominate the overall tone of the HDR Standard setting, while skin sometimes takes on the sort of tones you only see in the real world with people who’ve spent way too long on a sun bed.

For example, the leaden skies over Los Angeles as Agent K heads to the old orphanage in Blade Runner 2049 take on a curious purple hue at times, and what should be subtle tonal differences become overstated, drawing too much attention to themselves by simply not looking subtle or authentic enough.

The brighter settings do create a more HDR feeling with HDR sources, including giving peak bright highlights impressive punch for a display technology that doesn’t have any local dimming processing to draw on. The overcooked nature of some of the colour tones is reduced a little by the natural desaturating effect of ambient light, too, if you’re in a non-blacked-out space.

Overall, though, we don’t find the Standard and Dynamic HDR10 settings and Dolby Vision Bright modes as truly engaging and immersive as we would have liked while using the projector in day-to-day living room conditions.

The PT1’s brighter presets also cause an increase in the rainbow effect, where the DLP projector engine causes stripes of pure red, green and blue to flit over stand-out bright objects, though it is far from the worst offender we’ve seen in this respect.

Sound quality

You certainly can’t accuse the PT1 of not trying to deliver a compelling audio performance to go with its king-sized pictures. In fact, if anything, it tries a bit too hard.

At first hearing, you’re immediately impressed by two striking audio achievements: loudness and the size of the soundstage. The speakers mounted on the projector’s front edge drive their sound forward with impressive power and volume, easily filling the gap between the projector and seating position with a potently expressed three-dimensional space.

The smaller up-firing speakers built into the PT1’s top are a little less well-rounded, but they deliver a palpable sense of height and plenty of subtle placement details within the resulting vertical wall of sound. Cooling fan noise, meanwhile, is noticeable by its absence, even during the quietest movie scenes.

Lower mid-range sounds are rich and rounded, too. The projector can even deliver enough bass to give big movie moments a level of heft and scale not found on most integrated TV and projector sound systems.

The only problem is that this bass doesn’t know when to stop, sometimes trying so enthusiastically to reproduce the movie world’s most foundation-troubling low-frequency sounds that the speakers either collapse in on themselves, so that the overall sound becomes swallowed and muted, or succumb to distracting crackles and buzzes.

Deep male voices can sound a bit thick and dominant, too, though we can finish on the good note the audio mostly deserves by adding that voices sound connected with the action on the screen, rather than as if they’re coming from the speakers below.

Verdict

The Hisense PT1 is yet another highly competent projector from Hisense. In its most accurate, dark room-friendly picture settings, in fact, it’s rather more than competent, delivering excellent images for its money, with outstanding black levels and natural colours.

Its relative lack of brightness compared with many of today’s UST projectors, though, together with some colour issues when using its brightest picture settings, make the PT1 less of a dark room/bright room all-rounder than people looking for the convenience of a UST projector might want it to be.

SCORES

• Picture 4
• Sound 4
• Features 4

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Read our review of the Hisense C2 Ultra

Also consider the BenQ W2720i

Read our Hisense PL2 review

Best projectors: the best options tested by our home cinema experts

Whether you’re after an eye-catchingly designed projector ‘cube', an ultra-short-throw projector you can leave on a sideboard, a serious home theatre projector or a design-led ultra-portable model, Hisense has got you covered.

In fact, as the many strong reviews the brand has received from us in recent years prove, Hisense hasn’t just got most of your potential projector needs covered; it’s got them nailed.

Not surprisingly, then, we have high hopes for the brand’s C2 Ultra model – despite its obvious focus on design and convenience.

Price

Value is usually a strong area for Hisense, and the C2 Ultra is no exception. Its £1799 / $2300 / AU$3495 pricing is aggressively low (particularly in the UK) for a projector that provides such specifications as 4K support, triple laser lighting, an integrated smart system, Dolby Vision support and 3000 lumens of peak brightness to go with its eye-catching lifestyle design.

There is some stiff competition around this projector's price, though, including BenQ’s Award-winning W2720i home theatre projector or, if you want something that maintains the C2 Ultra’s more portable, lifestyle design approach, BenQ’s TK705i or Epson’s significantly cheaper EF-72.

Design

The C2 Ultra’s compact (29 x 25 x 25cm) form employs one of the ‘cradle’ designs that have become all the rage these days, where the projector rests within a pair of support arms that allow the main body to tilt up or down to help you to get images to the right height on your wall/screen.

The projector also rotates around on its circular base to easily adapt to any tricky angles your room might present you with, and that base rather niftily carries a fairly large up-firing speaker on its top edge.

The C2 Ultra is finished in an appealing gunmetal grey colour, and boasts a neat combination of smooth matte, high gloss and grilled finishes over various parts of the main projector body’s ‘slightly squashed cube’ shape.

Unusually for a cradle-style projector, the C2 Ultra can be mounted onto an optional thin pole floorstand or ceiling mount bracket if you’re not happy just sitting it on a coffee table.

The C2 Ultra’s provided remote control features a nice finish, backlit buttons and an ergonomic layout that includes buttons for direct access to some of the world’s most popular integrated streaming apps. There’s also a mic button on offer, indicating that you can control aspects of the projector by talking to it courtesy of Hisense’s own ‘Vidaa Voice’ system or built-in Alexa support.

Features

The C2 Ultra is a 4K-capable DLP projector illuminated by a triple laser lighting system.

We should qualify the 4K claim by saying that, as ever with DLP projectors, it’s not ‘true’ 4K to the extent that it features a full 4096x2160 or 3840x2160 count of digital mirror devices on its image control chip. The combination of pixel shifting and rapid mirror ‘flashing’ created by Texas Instruments’ XPR system, though, creates a 4K effect from DLP projectors such as the C2 Ultra that’s actually been approved as genuine 4K by the influential Consumer Technology Association in the US.

The C2 Ultra’s laser lighting is rated to deliver up to 3000 lumens of brightness – a high number for such a portable projector, and one that raises the possibility of the projector genuinely holding its own against quite high levels of ambient light.

This brightness is also important to Hisense’s claims that the C2 Ultra can support images as big as 300 inches across – though because the larger you go, the more brightness you lose, we argue 100-150 inches will give you more satisfying results from an all-round image impact perspective.

Hisense also claims that the C2 Ultra can reproduce more than 100 per cent of the AV world’s most extreme BT.2020 HDR colour spectrum. Experience suggests such claims are optimistic in the real world, but Hisense quoting it at least points to a projector that is likely to deliver most if not all of the narrower DCI-P3 colour spectrum used for most of today’s HDR mastering.

The C2 Ultra’s small shape and cradled design make it a particularly portable projector, easily moved to different rooms or houses. It even ships with a neat cloth carry bag.

It builds on its portability, too, by being just about as easy a projector to set up as we’ve seen. It can rotate through a full 360 degrees on its circular base, for starters, and it supports a generous 135 degrees of vertical tilt to help you get the image in the right place.

Obviously, the sort of angles created by rotating and tilting projectors can cause distortions to the shape of the image on your wall/screen. Here again, though, Hisense has got you covered with its Auto Magic AI Adjusting 2.0 system.

Despite its awkward name, this combination of auto keystone correction, auto focus, auto obstacle avoidance, intelligent wall colour adaptation and intelligent eye protection works remarkably well and extremely consistently, contributing to a genuine plug-and-play experience that seldom needs any manual intervention to improve on its results.

The C2 Ultra even carries a 0.9-1.5:1 optical zoom system to help it adapt to a wide range of room sizes and room layouts. That’s more zoom range than you would typically expect to get with this sort of projector.

Most lifestyle projectors these days provide some sort of AI set-up system, of course. But the C2 Ultra’s system just works out of the box more straightforwardly than most.

The C2 Ultra’s connections comprise two HDMI ports (one with eARC support), an optical audio output, two USB 3.0 ports, a headphone socket, and ethernet, plus Bluetooth 5.3 and Wi-Fi 6e wireless connections.

The wi-fi connectivity feeds the built-in Vidaa smart platform. This isn’t as sophisticated or visually attractive as the popular Google TV system many projectors use, but it’s easy to follow and is strong on native streaming app support.

Netflix, BBC iPlayer, ITVX, All 4, My 5, Now TV, Disney+, Prime Video, YouTube, Apple TV, Paramount+, and HBO Max apps are all present, and a firmware update has now also added support in the UK for Freely, through which you can live-stream many of the UK’s terrestrial broadcast services rather than having to use a traditional aerial system.

The C2 Ultra supports HDR video, as we’d expect of pretty much any proper home entertainment projector these days, but it doesn’t stop at the usual HDR10 and HLG formats – it also supports both the HDR10+ and Dolby Vision formats.

Finding one of these premium HDR formats on a projector at this level is still quite rare, so finding both on the C2 Ultra is excellent. Basically, it means the C2 Ultra will always play the best version of any source you present it with.

The playback flexibility doesn’t end there, either. The C2 Ultra has also earned IMAX Enhanced certification, and carries an IMAX Enhanced picture preset, while Hisense’s other usual punchy HDR Standard and HDR Day picture presets are also joined by a Filmmaker Mode calibrated to try and deliver pictures that get as close as the projector can manage to current mastering standards, for that ‘as the director intended’ feel.

There’s also support for 3D if you sort yourself out with a pair of DLP-Link 3D glasses, and an official ‘Designed For Xbox’ badge in the C2 Ultra’s marketing points to some unusually advanced gaming support. Confirmed features include ALLM switching when gaming sources are detected, 240Hz refresh rate support, and a measured 34.4ms of input lag in Game mode with a 60Hz signal.

You can get this down to 17.6ms if you call in a DLP Turbo Mode option, at the expense of some of the projector’s auto image correction tools.

A dedicated Gaming menu and information screen comes up if you hit the menu button with a game source running into the projector, and hooking up an Xbox Series X confirms 4K/120Hz support with HDR and VRR. Excellent.

One last feature in the C2 Ultra’s impressive feature locker for its money is a JBL-designed/tuned 40W sound system comprising 2 x 10W amplification and a 20W bass speaker cleverly built into the projector’s chunky circular desktop base.

Hisense’s materials on the projector suggest this sound system only supports DTS Virtual:X 3D audio, but Dolby Atmos also plays fine during our tests. Quite a lot better than ‘fine’, actually, but we’ll come back to that later.

Picture quality

As well as being fantastically easy to set up, the Hisense C2 Ultra’s pictures are effortlessly watchable. Hisense appears to have been doing living room projectors for long enough now to have forged a great feel for the sort of picture elements that most immediately warm viewers to a particular model’s cause.

The C2 Ultra’s HDR images are bright, for starters, making full use of the available 3000 lumens to deliver images that look both excellently punchy in a dark environment, and strong enough to hold their own, retaining good colour saturation and solidity, even in fairly bright living room conditions.

The C2 Ultra is even able to deliver bright highlights of HDR images with enough potency to almost have you believing it must be using a local dimming system somehow – even though this is, of course, not something current home projection technology can do.

Pictures are sharp and clean enough to look and feel like real 4K too, and the sharpness holds up well when there’s motion in the frame. Judder levels with 24p movie content feel strikingly natural rather than exaggerated or inconsistent.

Colour tones look nicely balanced and full of subtlety, too, helping 4K images deliver that three-dimensional feel that’s only fully unlocked by displays that are capable of a good combination of colour blending, contrast and clean, natural motion.

Black levels are only respectable rather than great, but for much of the time this relatively average part of the C2 Ultra’s performance is ‘hidden’ by the intensity and brightness of the rest of the images. It’s only uniformly dark scenes that suddenly reveal quite a cloak of greyness hanging over proceedings – especially if you’re using the projector’s Dolby Vision Bright, HDR Day or HDR Standard settings. You can also sometimes see a bit more detail in these elevated black areas than the content creators really intended you to.

The Dolby Vision Dark and HDR10 Filmmaker Modes improve on the excessive detail flaw without taking things so far that subtle details start to be crushed out of the image, but these modes are significantly less punchy than their brighter siblings, and the level of greyness lying over proceedings feels more or less the same. It’s just not offset by as much brightness as you get in the lighter HDR presets.

We also spot moderate levels of DLP projection’s rainbow effect over stand-out bright highlights, and while colours look well balanced, they can start to look slightly pallid in the brightest HDR images when using the projector’s relatively bright settings.

The brightest modes can also reduce the 3D effect that’s such a strong attraction with the Dolby Vision Dark and Filmmaker Mode settings.

Unless, however, you’re particularly susceptible to seeing the DLP projector rainbow effect (which a few people are), there’s nothing wrong enough or limited enough about the C2 Ultra’s pictures to prevent it from being consistently great fun to watch by class standards.

Yes, it sacrifices a little insight in the darkest and brightest scenes in its mostly highly successful quest to deliver as easy an ‘out of the box’ experience as we’ve come across in the projector world. But the overall picture results are still seriously easy on the eye for a projector that also has so many features and so much flexibility to offer.

Sound quality

The C2 Ultra’s clever integration of an unusually powerful three-speaker sound system pays off brilliantly. The volume and depth of bass delivered by that large up-firing woofer built into the projector’s base, for starters, are remarkable for such an affordable projector. It’s able to vary both the frequency response and volume of the bass it puts out better than the vast majority of TVs and pretty much all projectors, too.

The C2 Ultra builds on its strong bass foundations with similarly remarkable amounts of power and expressiveness for its midrange, too. It can get seriously loud without becoming muddy or congested, combining its raw power with strong levels of detail, without anything sounding too bright, clipped, thin or harsh.

The C2 Ultra even manages to deliver a palpable sense of three-dimensionality to its Dolby Atmos presentation, casting a soundstage that has genuine depth, height and width – and into which effects and scores are placed with excellent precision and dynamism.

As the cherry on the cake, the C2 Ultra not only delivers voices with a lovely rounded quality and great sense of context, but also ensures they’re projected, along with much of the rest of the sound, towards your screen, so that dialogue doesn’t sound as disconnected from the onscreen action as projector sound usually does.

The only problem with the C2 Ultra’s sound is that, while its woofer works brilliantly for the vast majority of the time, it can get caught out by the movie world’s most extreme and sustained low-frequency moments, suddenly succumbing to quite distracting amounts of crackling, whooping and phutting. It helps at such moments if you haven’t got the volume set much higher than its 60 level, but there’s no way of completely avoiding the occasional bass kerfuffle.

It’s also worth mentioning that even at its best, the integrated sound system isn’t a patch on the sound you would get from a decent soundbar, let alone a dedicated home cinema set-up, but that’s to be expected.

Verdict

The C2 Ultra isn’t perfect, but no lifestyle projector packed with so much flexibility and so many features at this price was ever going to be.

Even so, its rather grey dark scenes and rainbow effect issues cost it a mark in the context of the improved picture quality you can get from one or two less flexible rivals – especially the BenQ W2720i.

If its flexibility and features – especially its strong gaming support – sound like just what you need, though, you’ll likely be pretty amazed that such a user-friendly projector can also perform so well.

SCORES

• Picture 4
• Sound 5
• Features 5

MORE:

Read our review of the BenQ W2720i

Also consider the BenQ TK705i

Best projectors: the best options tested by our home cinema experts

The Titan is a clear sign of how ambitious Xgimi is now getting with its projection range, despite the company still being a relative newcomer.

It combines the brand’s established taste for innovation and pushing projector boundaries with features clearly aimed at serious home cinema fans – a combination neatly summed up by Xgimi itself, variously describing the Titan as "Commercial Grade" and capable of delivering “true home theatre in any living room”.

Headline features such as a 5000-Lumen 4K laser optical system, unusually large 0.78 DLP imaging device and proprietary brightness-enhancing lens are certainly promising, but can the Titan really live up to the hype?

Price

The Xgimi Titan costs £3499 in the UK and $3999 in the US at the time of writing. That’s certainly not shockingly expensive for a projector apparently targeted at serious home cinema enthusiasts that boasts, as we’ll see, a pretty extreme set of features and specifications. But it is quite expensive by Xgimi standards, raising a high level of expectation for its performance given how well some more affordable Xgimi projectors have performed in recent years.

In Australia, meanwhile, the Titan costs an even more serious AU$9999.

Rivals in the same price ballpark include the excellent recently reviewed AWOL Vision Aetherion Max UST projector, and the What Hi-Fi? Award-winning, dedicated home theatre Epson EH-LS9000 model.

Design

The Titan is a robustly built and striking-looking projector. Its basic rectangular shape isn’t particularly out there, but it’s reasonably compact for such a highly specified model; boasts an unusual but effective mixture of a slightly rubbery top edge, smooth plastic grilled sides and front felt finishes; and the lens features a striking red highlight running around its outer edge.

Most eye-catchingly of all, the projector ships with four elongated mounting legs that attach diagonally out from each underside corner, making the projector look like it’s sitting in some kind of cradle. We’re a bit torn on both the usefulness and aesthetic appeal of these feet, honestly, but they’re well made and certainly help the Titan stand out from the crowd.

High wall/ceiling and floor mount options (the latter of which essentially adds a long pole to the stand) are also available for an extra £350 each.

The remote control shipped with the Titan combines sleek silver metallic and smooth black plastic design elements with elegant button backlighting and a logical layout to attractive and ergonomic effect.

Features

While the Titan’s design does a good job of establishing it as a premium model, it’s the features that really set our hopes high. Particularly striking are its high claimed peak brightness of 5000 lumens, delivered by a dual laser light engine; a monster claimed dynamic contrast ratio of 5,000,000:1; claimed coverage of a seriously high 150 per cent of the DCI-P3 colour spectrum used in most of today’s HDR mastering; and support for all of the main four HDR formats, including Dolby Vision and HDR10+.

As a logo under the lens confirms, the Titan has also earned IMAX Enhanced certification, meaning its picture quality has been deemed capable of doing justice to the special IMAX Enhanced video mastering system.

The projector is also sold as 4K capable. As ever with domestic DLP projectors, this 4K resolution isn’t truly native, depending on Texas Instruments’ XPR system of pixel shifting and ‘double flashing’ to achieve a 4K effect. This 4K effect has been deemed a true 4K experience by the independent Consumer Technology Association, however, and we’ve seen many 4K DLP projectors now deliver pictures that really do appear dense and crisp enough to feel like 4K.

The Titan actually claims an extra 4K advantage over other consumer DLP projectors, too, by using a 0.78-inch imaging chip rather than the 0.47- or 0.66-inch chips commonly used in DLP projectors. This should greatly improve the light efficiency and controllability of all the tiny mirrors mounted onto the DLP DMD device, as well as enhance pixel separation, resulting in potentially more native contrast and a generally more stable, detailed and consistent image.

Xgimi has introduced a couple of promising new proprietary features for the Titan, too. First, its complex multi-element lens design has been specially created by Xgimi to enable more of the light the projector is capable of producing to actually arrive on your screen. Second, the Titan carries Xgimi’s first self-developed 4K-grade AI image processor, the Xgimi X1.

The Titan supports full HD 3D playback if you pair it with optional active shutter 3D glasses, while among its picture presets is a Filmmaker Mode to provide a one-button way of getting the projector to produce pictures designed to get as close as the projector can to the image standards and values typically used in the content creation world.

When it comes to gaming, our resident Xbox Series X confirms that the Titan’s HDMI ports can’t handle frame rates higher than 60Hz at 4K resolution, even with the HDMIs set to Enhanced mode. It does at least hold on to HDR in 4K/60Hz mode, though, and can be set to handle 120Hz at 1080p resolution if you activate the high frame rate feature in the projector’s dedicated Game onscreen menus. Choosing this higher frame rate seems to come at the expense of HDR, though, and there’s no support at any frame rate for VRR.

There is support for ALLM, though, where the projector can automatically switch into its best game settings when a game source is detected. This best game set-up reduces input lag to 32.3ms.

While the Titan doesn’t feature one of the sophisticated fully automated picture set-up systems that increasingly many living room projectors do, it does feature auto focus and auto keystone correction, and the motorised lens system features both more extensive and more finely tuned adjustments than most. Optical zoom is available across a 1.2-1.8x range, and the image can be shifted left, right, up or down over a +/- 100 per cent vertical range and +/- 40 per cent horizontal range.

Xgimi claims the Titan’s 5000 lumens of brightness can drive a screen as large as 250 inches, and it has an integrated 2 x 12W sound system. The projector also supports playback of DTS-HD, DTS Virtual X and Dolby Atmos in the Dolby Digital+ format.

The Titan’s connections are decent for a premium projector. It might have been nice if there were more than two HDMI ports, and if those supported HDMI 2.1 bandwidths, but these are backed up by two USB ports (one USB 3.0 and one USB 2.0), analogue and optical digital audio outputs, plus Ethernet and RS-232C ports for integrating the projector into a wider home control network.

When it comes to integrated smart TV features, finally, the Titan leans towards the dedicated home theatre room projector market by not actually having any. The only thing it offers that’s remotely along those lines is a built-in media player that can handle AV files played from USB drives.

Picture quality

First impressions of the Xgimi Titan are really spectacular. With native 4K HDR content, you instantly feel the impact of both its extreme 5000 lumens of brightness and the extra detail and clarity that we assume is down to the projector’s use of the new 0.78-inch DLP DMD chip.

The brightness is particularly useful to the side of the Titan’s personality focused on living room use, helping it punch its images through even summertime levels of ambient light with enough colour saturation and contrast to leave them not just watchable but actually enjoyable.

The Titan’s colours don’t push into levels of saturation, vibrancy and volumes that some other recent premium projectors we’ve tested have achieved, but we rarely feel as if the colour on offer is struggling to reach the levels required by even the most vibrant content we feed it.

The Titan’s image really does look 4K. There’s a purity and naturalism to its reproduction of fine details and textures as well as a general sense of immediacy and real-life density to its images that’s a notch above anything we’ve seen from the vast majority of other DLP projectors.

This helps to create a strong sense of depth, and the clarity is delivered so effortlessly that the viewing experience feels incredibly natural and immersive. At least when the source content is playing to the projector’s strengths with images that are bright, colour-rich, clean and detailed.

The naturalism extends to superbly natural management of grain and appealingly natural-looking judder with 24p movies if you call in the lowest setting of the projector’s motion processing options. Perhaps because of the image’s high brightness, judder feels slightly too pronounced in its ‘native’ form with no processing applied.

The Titan adapts itself to HD SDR content very nicely, too, retaining good shading and colour balance/naturalism despite evidently being designed with HDR in mind.

The Titan also adapts its images well in many ways between its key Standard and Filmmaker Mode presets. The Standard mode is your go-to for bright rooms, but is also mostly a solid option for a dark-room film night if you prefer punchier images to the more accurate ones delivered by the Filmmaker Mode.

The Filmmaker Mode, though, while significantly dimmer, flatter and actually quite a bit softer than the Standard mode, does deliver that creative intent ‘feel’ that home cinema fans will be familiar with.

There are a trio of areas, though, where the Titan’s pictures fall short of the generally high standards it sets elsewhere.

First and worst, its black levels are underwhelming for a projector that sells itself as delivering home theatre in all room conditions. This isn’t a big problem in relatively bright rooms, but home cinema fans who like to really black out their rooms for serious movie nights will at least sometimes be distracted by the greyness that creeps into dark scenes. Especially as the greyness is actually most noticeable in the projector’s most ‘cinematic’ picture presets due to these not aggressively using the projector’s Dynamic Black Level feature.

This feature auto-adjusts the projector’s light output based on constant analysis of the source image, and it really can substantially enhance black reproduction. Unfortunately, though, the Low setting for the Dynamic Black Feature causes lots of subtle image detail to disappear into the darkness, leaving the picture looking hollow and flat, while its medium and high settings can cause the image to look a bit unstable during high contrast shots as the projector becomes a bit hyperactive with its workings.

For us, the Titan’s Dolby Vision Dark mode delivers the best out-of-the-box option for dark room viewing – though this still isn’t as perfect for black levels as we’d have hoped. Plus it relies on the projector receiving a Dolby Vision source, of course.

You could improve the black levels by using a low-gain (0.5 or so) screen, and reducing the projector’s brightness setting also helps a bit – though this obviously reduces the impact of the potent HDR effect that’s arguably the Titan’s biggest selling point.

The Titan’s DLP images also reveal a little rainbow effect during shots that contain stand-out bright objects. This issue is, to be fair, less aggressive than we might have expected with such a bright projector, but it’s definitely there – even to people like us who only consider ourselves to be moderately susceptible to seeing it (sensitivity to the rainbow effect varies from person to person).

The third picture issue is that the so-called Performance mode, where performance appears to mean driving every aspect of the picture to the outer extremes of the projector’s capabilities, is one of the weirdest and most unwatchable picture presets we’ve ever seen.

Yes, it’s bright. Arguably the brightest picture we’ve seen from any projector costing under five figures, in fact. But colours look absolutely bizarre in this mode – about as far from natural and balanced as you could imagine in your wildest AV fever dream – while the projector’s Dynamic Tone Mapping seems to lose the plot pretty much entirely, delivering picture extremes with so little thought for balance and consistency that you’d swear different elements of each frame must have been mastered at different times by different people on different mastering monitors.

The Performance mode also suddenly escalates the Titan’s running noise from practically (and brilliantly) non-existent to a level that’ll have you thinking you must have left the fan oven in the kitchen on.

Of course, you don’t have to choose the Performance mode, thankfully. And in its key Standard, Dolby Vision Dark, IMAX Enhanced and Filmmaker Mode modes, the Titan is capable of delivering generally very enjoyable pictures – especially if, contrary to typical ‘home theatre projector’ practice, you leave a little light in your room.

Sound quality

The Titan’s built-in speakers give good TV sound systems a run for their money. The projector can go as loud as a good-sounding TV, for instance, without starting to sound strained. The speakers project their sound well, too, including towards the distant screen, substantially reducing that eternal projector audio problem where the sound doesn’t seem to be attached to the pictures.

The midrange is rich and full, and the speakers are sensitive enough even under quite heavy pressure to retain great levels of detail and clarity. Even when they’re dealing with shrill treble or heavy beats. The midrange is also able to expand very effectively as escalating action or horror scenes grow in density, layering and volume, avoiding that common integrated TV/projector audio system issue of the sound falling away just when it should be entering full-throated mode.

However, while bass is typically convincing, Hollywood’s deepest bass moments can catch the Titan out a little, with prolonged rumbles sometimes sounding rather coarse against the quite hi-fi feel of the rest of the sound. A faint crackling effect can creep into the most extreme bass sounds, too.

More broadly, while the Titan sounds good overall by projector standards, its audio is a long way from a suitable match for the epic scale of the pictures it produces. A dedicated home cinema system really is the only way to go here.

Verdict

The Titan has enough swagger in both its hardware and software to compellingly back up Xgimi’s latest bid to be taken seriously as a potential home theatre rather than simply ‘living room’ projector brand. Much of the DNA required to get home cinephile hearts thumping is present and correct, and its pictures can look incredible at times.

In the end, though, the Titan perhaps pushes its ‘True Home Cinema anywhere’ bid a bit too far, leaning slightly too hard into the sort of picture abilities required for the ‘storefront displays or digital signage’ applications Xgimi also claims the Titan can support, rather than dedicating itself hook, line and sinker to the home cinema world.

SCORES

• Picture 4
• Sound 4
• Features 4

MORE:

Read our review of the AWOL Vision Aetherion Max

Also consider the Epson EH-LS9000

Best projectors: the best options tested by our home cinema experts

Choosing between the best projectors isn’t always as simple as picking the model with the highest star rating. Your room, viewing habits and preferred content can all determine which projector will ultimately give you the better experience. We mention all this, because it’s particularly true of the Sony VPL-XW5000ES and Optoma UHZ78LV – two fine projectors worthy of your attention.

The Sony is a native 4K projector built primarily for serious movie watching in a darkened home cinema, while the Optoma combines much greater claimed brightness with broader HDR support, 4K/120Hz gaming and more accommodating installation features.

We’ve thoroughly reviewed both projectors in our dedicated testing rooms, assessing their design, features and picture performance using our established testing process. As a result, you can rest assured that by the time you’ve read everything below, you’ll know precisely which one deserves that coveted spot at the heart of your home entertainment setup.

Sony VPL-XW5000ES vs Optoma UHZ78LV tech specs comparison

Sony VPL-XW5000ES vs Optoma UHZ78LV: price

The Sony VPL-XW5000ES launched in 2022 at £5999 / $5998 / AU$9990, while the newer Optoma UHZ78LV landed in the UK at the same £5999 price (it’s not due to be sold in the US and hasn’t yet made it to Australia).

The Sony has, at the time of writing, reached a price as low as £4249 in the UK. The Optoma, in contrast, currently costs full price. That gives the Sony a clear value advantage at the time of writing – though it’s only one part of the puzzle…

** Winner: Sony VPL-XW5000ES **

Sony VPL-XW5000ES vs Optoma UHZ78LV: design

Neither projector is compact, but the Optoma packages its considerable brightness into a surprisingly manageable chassis. It’s lower and shallower than the Sony, although it’s also a little wider. The Optoma weighs 11.5kg, so is lighter than the Sony too, which should make handling it during installation somewhat easier.

Its design is functional rather than beautiful. The blocky black chassis looks serious and suitably premium, but lacks the Sony’s more distinctive sculpting. That might not matter once the projector has been ceiling-mounted or otherwise placed out of sight, but a little more ambition in the design would still be great to see.

As if to prove that point, the Sony has a much more characterful design, with a pronounced, angled, roof-like top and a choice of black or white finishes. It also runs impressively quietly, even when working hard with HDR material, thanks to its effective cooling system.

The Optoma is similarly unintrusive in operation. Optoma claims a maximum noise level of 28dB, and we found that it remained impressively quiet even in its brightest modes.

Overall, both feel like substantial, purpose-built home cinema projectors. For us, the Sony is more visually distinctive, but design is subjective, and far from the most important factor of a projector to consider…

** Winner: Draw **

Sony VPL-XW5000ES vs Optoma UHZ78LV: features

The Optoma’s headline feature is its claimed peak brightness of 5000 lumens. That comfortably trounces the Sony’s 2000-lumen rating and helps the UHZ78LV produce a punchy, colourful picture even when there is a significant amount of ambient light in the room.

Its triple RGB laser system is also claimed to cover 98 per cent of the DCI-P3 colour space and 96 per cent of BT.2020 without requiring a brightness-reducing colour filter. Sony’s Triluminos Pro colour engine, meanwhile, is claimed to cover 95 per cent of DCI-P3.

The Sony counters with its native 3840 x 2160 SXRD imaging chips. The Optoma uses pixel shifting to produce the 8.3 million pixels required for a 4K image and meets the Consumer Technology Association’s definition of 4K, but it can’t match the innate crispness and solidity of a genuine native 4K system.

Sony’s X1 Ultimate processor, meanwhile, further strengthens its picture credentials. Its features include Reality Creation, object-based resolution enhancement, object-based HDR remastering and the Dynamic HDR Enhancer, which identifies bright highlights and boosts their intensity without adversely affecting other elements of the picture.

Having said that, the Optoma offers substantially broader format support. It handles HDR10, HLG, HDR10+ and Dolby Vision, while the Sony is limited to HDR10 and HLG. Dolby Vision is still rare among projectors and proves to be a meaningful advantage for the Optoma, rather than merely another logo on its specification sheet.

Optoma’s projector is also better equipped for gaming. Its three HDMI inputs comprise two HDMI 2.0 sockets and one HDMI 2.1 connection, with the latter supporting 4K signals at 120Hz. We measured input lag at 34.9ms in Low Latency mode and 18.1ms in Ultra Low Latency mode using a 60Hz signal.

The Sony’s two 18Gbps HDMI 2.0 inputs top out at 4K/60Hz, although it can accept 1080p at 120Hz. Its input lag was measured at 21ms with a 4K/60Hz signal and 13ms at 1080p/120Hz with its fast-response feature engaged.

Installation is another significant advantage for the Optoma. It offers motorised focus, zoom and lens shift, alongside a 1.6x zoom and a throw ratio of 1.25:1 to 2:1. The Sony’s zoom, focus and lens-shift controls are all manual, and we found its lens-shift wheels particularly loose and imprecise. Its lack of motorisation also means there is no lens-memory function.

Overall, Sony’s native 4K system and exceptional processing are hugely important, but the Optoma is brighter, supports more HDR formats, is easier to install, and offers 4K/120Hz gaming. Unsurprisingly, it wins this round fairly convincingly.

** Winner: Optoma UHZ78LV **

Sony VPL-XW5000ES vs Optoma UHZ78LV: picture quality

The Optoma’s brightness isn’t merely impressive on paper. In rooms with ambient light, it produces a bold, vibrant picture that retains far more colour and impact than most dedicated home cinema projectors.

Bright highlights have terrific intensity, while the combination of strong colours and deep shadows gives large-scale images a tangible sense of depth. During the battle for Washington DC in Civil War, blazing light sources and darker areas combine to create an arresting, cinematic image. It’s impressively crisp, too. Fine facial textures, environmental details and subtle lighting effects are reproduced cleanly, without the picture immediately appearing over-sharpened.

The Optoma also offers HDR, Filmmaker Mode and IMAX Enhanced presets for standard HDR material. We prefer IMAX Enhanced for viewing in a dark room, despite its initially darker and softer appearance, but the projector never entirely abandons its taste for spectacle.

Colours can look slightly more saturated and skin tones warmer than they should, while the overall picture sometimes feels as though it is pushing for impact rather than settling into complete neutrality.

Dolby Vision improves matters considerably. Dolby Vision Dark introduces a more restrained balance, while Dolby Vision Bright combines extra punch with impressive control and is our preferred mode overall, even in a darkened room. Dolby Vision Cinema works well in ambient light, although we recommend disabling its default motion processing.

The Optoma’s compromises become more apparent with SDR. Its Cinema mode is too bright and vivid for authentic dark-room viewing, while Reference looks somewhat cool and green. Careful adjustment produces a much better picture, but there remains a slight sheen and vivaciousness that doesn’t always suit the material.

Its single-chip DLP design can also produce occasional rainbow artefacts, particularly when bright objects appear against dark backgrounds. Motion is generally handled well, but there are rare traces of unwanted smoothing even with motion processing disabled.

In contrast, Sony’s offering delivers a fundamentally different kind of picture. It lacks the Optoma’s searing brightness, but in a dark room, its images are more natural, nuanced and authentically cinematic.

Black levels are excellent, with dark scenes appearing deep and neutrally toned. Sony’s Dynamic HDR Enhancer also gives bright highlights impressive impact without compromising the rest of the image, although its High setting can clip detail and is best avoided. We found the Middle setting offered the most satisfying balance.

Native 4K material looks exceptionally detailed, dense and three-dimensional as well. The combination of Sony’s SXRD panels, Reality Creation processing and Digital Focus Optimiser produces a solidity and natural crispness that the pixel-shifting Optoma can’t quite match. Upscaled HD material is excellent, too.

Motion is another major strength. Sony’s True Cinema setting gently reduces the distracting judder associated with 24fps content without introducing the excessively smooth appearance or processing artefacts found on many rivals.

Colours are beautifully balanced, controlled and nuanced, too, giving the Sony a sense of authenticity that the Optoma achieves only intermittently. There are rare occasions when the Sony struggles with very dark scenes containing extremely bright highlights, but these moments are uncommon and don’t significantly undermine its performance.

Overall, the Optoma is the stronger performer in a room with ambient light and can look superb with Dolby Vision material. For critical movie viewing in a dark room, however, the Sony offers superior sharpness, motion, colour accuracy and overall authenticity.

** Winner: Sony VPL-XW5000ES **

Sony VPL-XW5000ES vs Optoma UHZ78LV: verdict

This comparison is closer and more nuanced than the projectors’ respective five-star and four-star ratings might initially suggest.

The Optoma UHZ78LV has some significant advantages. It is vastly brighter, supports Dolby Vision and HDR10+, accepts 4K/120Hz signals and is considerably easier to install thanks to its motorised lens controls. In a room that can’t be fully darkened, it’s likely to be the more satisfying projector.

It’s also a hugely entertaining performer. Its pictures are bold, vibrant and packed with impact, while Dolby Vision helps it achieve a more controlled and authentic balance than it generally manages with HDR10 or SDR.

For a traditional dedicated home cinema setup, though, the Sony VPL-XW5000ES remains the better projector. Its native 4K system produces sharper and more solid images, while its superior motion handling, balanced colours and greater subtlety create a more convincing representation of the filmmaker’s intent.

At the time of this comparison, the Sony is also significantly cheaper in the UK. It’s officially available in the US, where the Optoma isn’t due to be sold, while Australian pricing for the Optoma has yet to be confirmed. Yes, Sony’s manual lens controls, limited HDR support and lack of 4K/120Hz are frustrating, but once it is installed and a film begins, its picture quality outweighs those shortcomings.

So choose the Optoma if you regularly watch with bright ambient light, need Dolby Vision, or want 4K/120Hz gaming. For the most authentic and accomplished movie performance in a dark room, though, the Sony retains its well-deserved crown.

** Overall winner: Sony VPL-XW5000ES **

For a projector to be worth a £10,000+ price tag, it has to be pretty good.

Luckily, the Sony Bravia Projector 8 is indeed good. Not just good, but brilliant – its exceptional contrast, sharp details and two HDMI 2.1 sockets earned it not just five stars but a What Hi-Fi? Award too.

There's also a huge price drop to match the huge price. You can get the Projector 8 for £11,499 at Richer Sounds, saving you a whopping £4500 from our test price.

Is that still gut-wrenchingly expensive? Yes, but if you have pockets deep enough, it's a projector that's absolutely worth the money. Bear in mind you'll have to be a Richer Sounds VIP member to get this deal, but it's absolutely free to sign up.

The Sony Bravia Projector 8 is not the most expensive projector we've reviewed – the Sony Bravia Projector 9 costs twice as much – but it was our high-end projector choice at the most recent What Hi-Fi? Awards.

The Projector 8 is more compact and lighter than its main competitors, such as the JVC DLA-NZ800, weighing just 14kg (as opposed to JVC's 23kg) and measuring 21 x 46 x 52cm.

It also comes with an incredibly functional remote, featuring shortcut buttons to access crucial settings such as lens adjustments and picture modes, as well as a backlight for operating the projector in dark home cinema rooms.

One of the big draws of the Bravia Projector 8 is the Bravia XR processor. It comes with a whole host of clever technology, including XR Dynamic Tone Mapping, XR Deep Black, XR Triluminous Pro, XR Clear Image and Motionflow, which together help expand colour volume and enhance the accuracy of the laser output.

Its two HDMI 2.1 sockets also support 4K/120Hz signals with Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM), which will please PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and gaming PC owners. Sony also claims an input lag of 12ms with 4K/120Hz sources too, making it ideal for fast-paced multiplayer games.

And the all-important picture quality? Mesmerising, with excellent black levels for a projector and expert contrast handling.

"Firing up Oppenheimer, we’re immediately struck by how crisp and detailed the picture appears," our Sony Bravia Projector 8 review reads. "Sony’s penchant for delivering effective three-dimensional-looking images is clearly on show, with a panning shot of a watchtower in the New Mexico desert looking particularly striking."

The Sony Bravia Projector 8 certainly isn't cheap, but it is a blockbuster projector that will make an excellent centrepiece of any home cinema. Now available with a £4500 saving at Richer Sounds.

MORE:

Read our review of the JVC DLA-NZ800

Also consider the Sony VPL-XW7000ES

Best projectors: budget, 4K and ultra-short-throw

The Hisense PX4-Pro ultra short throw (UST) projector finally goes on sale next month, and we have some exciting new details to report.

As the successor to the Award-winning PX3-Pro, this is an eagerly awaited projector. Even more so considering it was first announced back on Christmas Eve 2025.

Now we can confirm that the PX4-Pro will have audio tuned by high-end hi-fi supremo Devialet.

This isn't the first collaboration between the two firms. They previously worked together on Hisense’s L9Q triple-laser ultra short throw (UST) projector, which cost $6000. But the PX4-Pro is much more affordable, having the same £2499 / AU$4499 price tag as its predecessor (the US price has increased by $500 to $3999.

The PX3-Pro featured Harman Kardon speakers. Like the PX3-Pro, the new model has Dolby Atmos to create a more immersive sound.

The audio was one of the few weak points of the PX3-Pro – we found it “flat and not suitably immersive”. Hopefully Hisense has fixed this with the Devialet partnership.

The PX4-Pro more than doubles its predecessor’s contrast ratio, to 6500:1, and ups the brightness from 3000 Lumens to 3500 Lumens.

It also offers IMAX Enhanced and FreeSync Premium. And it carries on its predecessor’s ‘designed for Xbox’ certification and again features the VIDAA operating system with support for all the major streaming apps.

The PX4-Pro is out now in the US, and comes to the UK in September. We’ll have a full review ready asap, so stay tuned to see if it can top its Award-winning predecessor.

MORE:

Read our Hisense PX3-Pro review

The best projectors around

Ultra short throw projectors: everything you need to know

While we have zero trouble spruiking the benefits of the best TVs to enjoy movies and TV shows for a more cinematic experience only a projector will do.

Of course, the more you spend the more cinema-like experience you'll achieve, but if your budget is limited, the Xgimi Vibe One is a mighty-fine choice. It's the cheapest projector we've ever tested, and it's now cheaper still thanks to a 29% discount at Amazon — now AU$427.49.

Amazon has already slashed the price to AU$474.99, and at the time of publishing there's the option to apply an extra 10% saving at the checkout, which you absolutely should do.

Despite the low price, you get an awful lot of projector for your money. We did find we needed to adjust the sharpness and contrast levels from their out-the-box settings when we tested the dinky projector, but once that was done, we were wholly satisfied with the image it projected.

As our reviewer Robyn Quick said in their review, "we unearthed a more natural image that portrays the green trees around an army staging post with more balanced, yet still striking, colours", once those settings were tweaked.

The Vibe One also proved capable with darker content: "In the opening of Alien: Romulus, as a ship floats through the depths of space, the projector presents the dark abyss with an impressively deep black by budget projector standards."

What's perhaps most impressive about the Xgimi Vibe One is that it holds up well in bright conditions, making it a versatile option for daytime use too, not just movie nights curled up on the sofa.

As for specs, the Vibe One doesn't support 4K content, instead topping out at a native resolution of 1080p. It can project an image up to 150 inches in size, with a claimed 250 ISO lumens of brightness.

A single HDMI port means you can connect external source devices such as a Blu-ray player or games console, while Google TV provides native access to Netflix, Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video, and Disney+.

Coming in at 1.4kg on the scales, you should have little trouble putting the Vibe One in a bag to take with you wherever you want to go. Do note though that we found that the projector only offered just under an hour of battery life in Standard brightness mode. If you plan to use the Vibe One outside, you'll likely want to consider an extension cable so you can watch a full movie uninterrupted.

You'll need to temper your expectations where sound is concerned, as the 3W speakers are reasonably loud but lack impact and detail. Fortunately, you can wirelessly connect to a Bluetooth speaker to handle sound duties.

The Xgimi Vibe One delivers a surprisingly detailed and cinematic image that outperforms expectations at this price. While its battery life is limited and the built-in audio falls short, it remains outstanding value for a projector — portable or not.

We are currently entering our third heatwave of the year, and like us, we are sure you’re doing what you can to get through it. If that involves taking your evening movie viewing outside once the temperature is slightly cooler, then we have just the deal for you.

The Xgimi Mogo 4 received four stars in our review, and has now dropped to just £379 at Amazon. That’s a discount of £130, or 26 per cent – a hot deal for the hot weather.

Xgimi Mogo 4 deal: save £130

The Xgimi Mogo 4 is a dinky little thing, about the size of a water bottle. The projector folds out from the stand, and packs the Google TV platform. That means you get Netflix, Apple TV, Prime Video, ITVX and Disney+, but not Channel 4 On Demand or BBC iPlayer, which are sizeable omissions.

You can access those missing apps using Google Cast, but that’s considerably less convenient than native app support.

Bluetooth and wi-fi come as standard, while HDR support is limited to HDR10. There are a host of different picture presets to choose from, as well as the ability to tweak your own.

It can’t match a dedicated home cinema projector – and we wouldn’t expect it to – but the picture quality is still impressive. Tree branches are crisp against the background, and black levels impressively deep. Vibrancy can be a bit heavy-handed at times, but that’s to compensate for outdoor viewing conditions – though it is something to note if you will use it indoors as well.

Still, for £379 at Amazon, the Xgimi Mogo 4 is a great buy, and one of the better ways to survive a heatwave.

MORE:

Check out the best portable projectors

Read our full Xgimi Mogo 4 review

Also consider the Anker Nebula Mars 3 Air

It's Home Cinema Week here at What Hi-Fi?, and to celebrate we've had a bevvy of themed reviews on speaker packages, AV receivers and more.

One of the most notable of those, however, might be the AWOL Vision Aetherion Max projector, now reduced to £3199 at Amazon.

It may not be cheap by UST standards, but considering the specifications involved and the overall performance, it really is a bit of a bargain.

And given how overall impressive it is, from its design to its features to the all-important picture and sound quality, it's sneaked right to the top of our list of UST favourites.

If you had any doubts about the abilities of the AWOL Vision Aetherion Max, here's a snippet from our recent review.

"The Aetherion Max’s picture quality isn’t just a big improvement over the already more than decent LTV-3500 that marks our only previous interaction with an AWOL Vision projector; it’s actually arguably the best picture quality we’ve ever seen from any UST projector. Or, at least, a UST projector selling for anything like as little as the Aetherion Max does," our AWOL Vision Aetherion Max review reads.

The projector is fantastically bright and contrast-rich even in ambient light, but it's in dark rooms that the Aetherion Max really shows how outstanding it is. Colours look even more vibrant, but crucially remain natural, balanced and full of subtle nuances and blends.

Its HDR Standard mode also somehow manages to deliver some of the deepest, most convincing blacks we’ve seen from any 3000-nit or brighter projector, all of which adds up to an endlessly watchable and immersive experience.

The Aetherion Max’s front-mounted speakers, too, are far better than you get built into most projectors, getting loud enough to create a cinematic presence even in large rooms but still retaining detail at high volumes. More bass than most projectors achieve is also on offer, though this does result in some straining under pressure.

Not to be outdone, the feature set is just as impressive. Its DLP optics are illuminated by a triple laser lighting system, for starters, with a claimed 3300 lumens of brightness and an image size of up to 200 inches.

Gamers are extremely well supported, with three HDMI ports that support VRR and reach 240Hz with Full HD (but not 4K) sources.

There's also support for all four current HDR standards, including the premium HDR10+ and Dolby Vision formats, a rarity in the projector world.

Given just how much is packed into the AWOL Vision Aetherion Max and how well it performs, its £3499 launch price was a bit of a miracle. And now our favourite UST is even cheaper, with a £300 discount at Amazon.

MORE:

Read our review of the Leica Cine 1

Also consider the BenQ W4100i

Read our Hisense PX3-Pro review

AWOL Vision might have only been around for six years (the blink of an eye by AV standards), but it’s already managed to cram an awful lot of progress into its short life.

As early as 2024, the brand was impressing us – without quite blowing our minds – with its LTV-3500 Pro ultra short throw model. And now, just two years later, the brand has massively upped the ante with the Aetherion Max.

This is another UST model, but the similarities with the LTV-3500 Pro pretty much end there. From its design through to its features and, most importantly, its picture and sound quality, it truly elevates AWOL Vision into the big leagues – all for a fraction of the price of its predecessor.

Price

Its steep price was arguably the Achilles heel of the LTV-3500 Pro, so it’s great to find the Aetherion Max selling for thousands of pounds (or dollars) less than that model – despite boasting a better design and an improved set of specifications and features.

There are, of course, UST models out there that cost much less than the Aetherion Max’s £3499 / $4499 / AU$6299 asking price – including the excellent Hisense PX3-Pro, which is now being discounted to as little as £1599 at some UK retailers.

If you’re able to afford £3499 for a projector, though, the Aetherion Max not only comfortably earns its extra cost but actually ends up feeling like a bargain.

Design

The Aetherion Max looks like a cross between an alien spaceship and a Robot Wars winner – in a good way.

At heart, it’s the usual UST projector low-slung rectangular shape with a recessed slit in the top where the light gets out, but that core design is embellished with a lovely metallic silver finish, a Battlestar Galactica Cylon-like blue illuminated strip running across the front edge that also sports a fetchingly designed speaker grille, and a host of false corners and angled panels that all catch the light differently, creating a strikingly futuristic, exaggerated 3D effect.

Eye-catching though the Aetherion Max is, its UST design means it’s still far less impactful on your room than a king-sized TV would be. We strongly suggest that such a premium projector be partnered with a good quality screen, but you can make this ‘disappear’ when you’re not watching it if you go for a retractable model that can roll back into its housing when you’re not using it.

As if by commercial magic, AWOL Vision actually sells its own impressive 100- and 120-inch ambient light rejecting motorised floor rising screens, with some dealers offering aggressively priced projector-plus-rising-screen package deals.

Having been sent a 120-inch screen with our Aetherion Max test sample, we can confirm that these are remarkably well built and effective screens for their money. They help images look substantially punchier and richer in bright rooms, while the screen’s black level performance holds up startlingly well in dark room set-ups too.

AV purists should note, though, that AWOL Vision’s screens use a 1.3 gain level, which is slightly higher than the neutral or 1.0 figures usually recommended for accurate dark room viewing.

The Aetherion Max is joined by a neatly designed remote control, complete with attractive and tactile metallic highlight elements, a clean and ergonomic button layout, and effective backlighting.

Features

AWOL Vision has equipped the Aetherion Max with a seriously impressive collection of facts and figures for its price.

Its DLP optics are illuminated by a triple laser lighting system, for starters, and this optical system is claimed to pump out both 3300 lumens of brightness and a colour range capable of covering the full BT.2020 spectrum.

That colour range is seldom really relevant to today’s content, though, which typically works within the smaller DCI-P3 range. Needless to say, 100 per cent coverage of the DCI-P3 gamut is promised, too.

A 7-level iris and an advanced black level enhancer algorithm are provided to try and maintain good contrast despite how bright the projector is, while owners of 3D Blu-ray discs will be pleased to hear that AWOL Vision’s latest projector supports 3D playback.

The Aetherion Max’s lens arrangement features so-called Sapphire glass elements that are made using an ultra-low dispersion design for enhanced sharpness, and coated with a Rare Earth material using a premium ‘planetary’ ultra-even coating process that’s claimed to boost light transmission, contrast and colour accuracy.

Backing up these hardware features is a PixelLock software solution that works to prevent pixel drift, where projected images can gradually lose focus over time due to changes in the projector’s optics or lens.

Unlike many of today’s ultra short throw and ‘lifestyle’ projectors, the Aetherion Max doesn’t carry a sophisticated automatic image installation system. The set-up features provided, though, are extensive and calibrated finely enough to make it possible to achieve perfect focus, geometry and corner-to-corner sharpness without having to work too hard.

The Aetherion Max joins the recently reviewed Valerion VisionMaster Pro 2 in sporting a new anti-rainbow effect technology. This manipulates the image’s refresh rate to reduce DLP projectors’ potential for red, green and blue stripes to flit over stand-out bright objects. The Aetherion Max’s Anti-RBE system works for 3D as well as 2D.

Gamers are extremely well supported by the Aetherion Max. Its HDMI ports support VRR and can stretch to 240Hz with Full HD (but not 4K) sources. We measure input lag at an excellent 9.7ms with 1080p/60Hz sources when the projector is set to its Game/PC preset, which drops to only just over 3ms at 240Hz.

These are fantastic results for a projector – though we should add that the refresh rate increases slightly to 12.0ms if you activate the projector’s AMD FreeSync VRR feature, and also increases to 15ms with 60Hz content if you forget to turn off the high frame rate feature you strangely have to manually activate to unlock higher frame rates.

The Aetherion Max carries three HDMIs – one more than many of its competitors – along with a USB-C DisplayPort you can use for connecting tablets or laptops, an S/PDIF digital audio output, an RS-232C control port, and a 3.5mm AV input.

ALLM support means the projector can automatically switch to its Game mode when a game source is detected, and its low-latency mode remains in play when you’re playing in Dolby Vision.

The only significant gaming limitation seems to be that using the AMD FreeSync version of VRR causes the Xbox Series X to default down to Full HD and SDR rather than 4K HDR.

We mentioned Dolby Vision HDR back there, but impressively the Aetherion Max also supports the rival HDR10+ format which, like Dolby Vision, passes extra signal information compatible displays can use to deliver more accurate picture results.

It’s still unusual for a projector to support even one of these advanced HDR formats, never mind both, so the Aetherion Max deserves major props for being able to play the best version of any content you feed it.

In fact, it even carries IMAX Enhanced certification, meaning it’s been deemed capable of getting the best from IMAX’s special mastering system.

As we’d expect to find with a UST projector, the Aetherion Max carries a built-in smart system. And as usual with projectors, that smart system comes courtesy of Google TV, accompanied by AirPlay 2, Chromecast and Miracast content sharing capabilities. As usual, though, the use of Google TV means there’s no BBC iPlayer support.

The Aetherion Max’s built-in sound system, finally, is impressively able to handle both the premium Dolby Atmos and DTS:X formats – and it does so with much more power at its disposal than your average projector. The two 25W full-range drivers and a pair of tweeters are driven by 25 and 20 watts of amplification, respectively.

Picture quality

The Aetherion Max’s picture quality isn’t just a big improvement over the already more than decent LTV-3500 that marks our only previous interaction with an AWOL Vision projector; it’s actually arguably the best picture quality we’ve ever seen from any UST projector. Or, at least, a UST projector selling for anything like as little as the Aetherion Max does.

Looking at it first in the relatively dynamic and bold presets (HDR Standard and Dolby Vision Bright) that showcase its more extreme capabilities, the projector delivers a fantastically vibrant, bright but also contrast-rich image that punches confidently through daytime living room levels of ambient light.

This is especially true if you’re using the optional AWOL Vision ALR screen mentioned earlier, but it still out-punches most UST rivals even using an essentially neutral screen.

While this bright room capability is likely to be very welcome to anyone in the market for a specifically UST projector, what really tips the Aetherion Max into outstanding territory is how well its picture charms hold up in a dark room setting. Colours look even more vibrant, and brightness for both full-screen and peak highlight image elements looks fantastically intense.

Crucially, though, the enhanced intensity the AWOL Vision delivers in dark rooms isn’t just eye-catching; it’s also endlessly watchable and immersive thanks to the way colours still look natural, balanced and full of subtle nuances and blends despite their vibrancy; the way the brightness doesn’t lead colours to start looking washed out; and the way the projector’s black colours and dark scenes still look compelling and convincing despite the brightness and colour punch they’re appearing alongside.

We need to dwell on this black level point more. After all, unlike premium TVs, the Aetherion Max doesn’t have any true hardware-based local light controls to draw on. Yet its image management is so impressive in its HDR Standard mode that it somehow manages to deliver some of the deepest, most convincing blacks we’ve seen from any 3000-nit or brighter projector, despite its price being far from outrageous by premium projector standards.

These impressive black levels are achieved naturally enough, too, to ensure the Aetherion Max can render stand-out bright objects without either dimming them down to maintain consistent black levels, or black levels slipping into heavy greyness to accommodate the bright object’s intensity.

As well as helping dark images look convincing, this sort of contrast consistency really helps you get lost in what you’re watching – something that should always be the ultimate goal of any display, regardless of how eye-poppingly extreme its on-paper specifications might be.

AWOL Vision’s HDR tone mapping is remarkably good for such an affordable high-spec projector. It consistently shows an excellent knack for delivering an unusually bold HDR image experience by projector standards without leaving the image looking strained or full of distracting over-exaggerations or imbalances.

While the Aetherion Max’s Standard mode imagery is so alluring that it may well become the only setting most households need, we’re very happy to discover that AWOL Vision’s projector seals its status as our UST projector of choice by also managing to turn its hand to accurate dark-room playback.

Whether you’re using the HDR Filmmaker Mode or Dolby Vision Dark settings, the projector does an excellent job of reining in its more extreme tendencies to deliver images that track creators’ intent without looking remotely lifeless and flat like they can on all too many rival projectors running in similar picture modes.

Images still look quite bright by projector Filmmaker Mode standards, for starters, and black levels look, if anything, slightly deeper without crushing out subtle shadow detailing or exposing noise in near-dark areas.

Colours still look balanced and nuanced too, even if saturations are slightly toned down for the most part, and detail levels are high without starting to look forensic or overly gritty.

Skin tones look even more nuanced and believable than they do in the HDR Standard and Dolby Vision Bright modes too, while motion avoids looking excessively juddery even with 24p sources without any potentially distracting side effects from the available multi-strength motion processing.

The Aetherion Max carries all the tools needed for a full ISF calibration if you’re willing to spend money to optimise the projector’s performance for your specific surroundings. AWOL Vision has shown such a fine understanding of both HDR and SDR images with its Filmmaker Mode and Dolby Vision Dark settings, though, that we really don’t think many owners will feel the need to go the extra ISF mile.

That’s not to say, though, that the Aetherion Max is perfect or doesn’t benefit from any intervention. For instance, bright highlights of HDR images can clip (lose shading and colour subtleties) quite strongly in Filmmaker Mode unless you turn off the Enhance Black Level feature. Yet doing that can cause black levels to look a little greyer.

The anti-rainbow-effect technology can cause the projector to output an extra whining sound, and at the time of writing is applied automatically to many of the projector’s presets. If the noise bothers you, you may find you need to turn to a setting that doesn’t have the feature active – so it’s handy that these settings tend to be the most movie night-friendly options.

Strangely, the Anti-RBE processing doesn’t seem as effective here as it did on the Valerion VisionMaster Pro Max. It does reduce the rainbow effect, but not as much – something that people who are particularly prone to seeing rainbowing might want to take note of.

The Dolby Vision Bright mode can generate a hint of shimmering effect over bright picture expanses, as well as introducing a mild green undertone to the image. This green undertone all but disappears in Dolby Vision Dark mode, though, helping it become one of our favourite out-of-the-box Dolby Vision projection options.

Even with its FreeSync VRR resolution and HDR limitation, the Aetherion Max is a fabulous big-screen gaming display.

It really is remarkably responsive for a projector, rivalling the best TVs for how quickly it seems to react to your controller or keyboard inputs. Its gaming images look crisp, punchy and vibrant, too, especially at the higher frame rates the projector can seamlessly handle.

Pro gamers may struggle with the time it takes to move their eyes around images as big as those the Aetherion Max is designed to deliver, but the projector’s silicon, at least, won’t cost such gamers many precious milliseconds of response time.

AWOL Vision provided a couple of pairs of its own DLP Link 3D glasses with the Aetherion Max – and we are mostly glad it did.

Early impressions of this projector had suggested that its 3D pictures might suffer from major crosstalk (ghosting) problems, but such issues seem to have been almost completely resolved with our sample. Its 3D images look impressively detailed and clean, in fact, with practically no crosstalk interference at all.

Judder can be a little distracting during 3D action scenes, but there isn’t any major flickering to worry about, and 3D images look brighter, more naturally coloured and richer in contrast – including excellent black levels – than they do on many 3D-capable rivals.

Sound quality

The Aetherion Max’s front-mounted speakers (where our description of front refers to the side of the projector that faces out into the room) are predictably far better than those you get built into most projectors.

They can get loud enough to create a cinematic presence in even quite large rooms, for starters, and they’re able to maintain impressive amounts of detail in a good movie mix even at near max volume levels.

More bass than many projectors can achieve is on hand to provide action movies with a good sense of weight and scale, and there’s enough headroom in the projector’s mid-range to allow the sound to shift up through a convincing number of gears as action and horror movie set pieces build to a climax.

Dialogue is usually clean without standing out too much from the rest of the mix, and expansive soundtracks are thrown clear of the projector very effectively, creating a soundstage so big it makes you forget that it’s being produced from the diminutive form of a UST projector.

There are a few limitations to its audio efforts, though.

Bass can become slightly strained and huffy under severe pressure, as well as sometimes struggling for timing with deep rhythmical/percussive effects.

Deep male voices can occasionally sound a little hummy/electronic too, and dialogue generally can sound as if it’s coming from below your screen, rather than being raised to the level of the onscreen action.

Finally, very high-pitched sounds can hit your ears a bit harshly at high volumes.

While these niggles explain why we’ve only given the Aetherion Max a score of four for sound, though, as we said at the start of this section, it still sounds much more immersive and cinematic than your average projector.

Verdict

While the AWOL Vision Aetherion Max isn’t cheap by today’s UST projector standards, it delivers a combination of specification and performance that ultimately makes it look like a bargain.

In fact, with the projector’s design, features, specs and picture and sound quality all given appropriate weight alongside its price, it’s sneaked right to the top of our current UST projector chart.

SCORES

• Picture 5
• Sound 4
• Features 4

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It's Home Cinema Week here at What Hi-Fi?, and it seems as if Epson is joining in the celebratory spirit.

The Epson EH-TW7000, one of the Japanese brand's entry-level 4K projectors, was already affordable at launch – and has just hit a new low of £799 at Amazon.

That's an incredible price for any 4K projector, but particularly impressive for one with the picture quality of the five-star Epson EH-TW7000.

Let's get this out of the way first – to achieve this price Epson has not included a smart platform or built-in speakers, meaning almost all we have to judge is the picture performance.

However, the picture quality alone was enough to blow us away.

"We play Venom on 4K Blu-ray and this projector explodes into life from the start, with some excellent HDR handling and dark detail in the opening shuttle crash scene," our Epson EH-TW7000 review reads. "The light levels run from the dark forest shadows to the extreme brightness of the floodlights. Despite this range, the tone of the scene is expertly controlled."

Detail is brilliant for this price point, capturing subtle textures and skin details, while colours are controlled yet dynamic.

Set-up is simple by projector standards, and there's plenty of lens flexibility to boot.

While there's no smart platform, there are two HDMI ports, so you can easily add one of the best Blu-ray players or streaming sticks. There are also two USB 2.0 sockets, as well as the option to send out audio via Bluetooth or a 3.5mm cable.

If you thought a 4K projector was out of your price range, you might want to think again. The Epson EH-TW7000 is an affordable 4K projector done right, stripping out features so all of your hard-earned cash goes towards picture quality – all for £799 at Amazon.

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Hisense has clearly decided that it’s time to capitalise on its huge success in the lifestyle projector world by launching a shiny, new no-holds-barred flagship model.

Boasting 6000 lumens of brightness, a triple laser lighting system, liquid cooling, a built-in Devialet sound system, an all-glass lens and support for every HDR format in town, the XR10 certainly makes all the right flagship noises.

But can Hisense marshal all these expensive pieces into a class-leading performance?

Price

With Hisense usually found successfully plying its trade in the mid-range lifestyle projector arena, the £5999 / $6000 / AU$9995 price of the XR10 really is a major step up for the brand.

In fact, it will doubtless be a step too far for many home cinema-loving households, and even raises the question of whether a projector that seems from the outside at least to have been designed more as a ‘lifestyle’ model than a serious home theatre machine really makes sense at such a price.

As we’re about to explain, though, we think the XR10 makes all kinds of sense, even at its very high price.

Design

The XR10’s design is nuts in all the best ways. For starters, it ships in a beautifully designed, built-to-measure real leather carry case complete with wheels and an extendable handle that looks like Hisense thinks you’re going to love the projector so much you’ll want to take it on holiday with you.

The projector’s spectacular bodywork, meanwhile, is actually transparent in some places, so that you can marvel at some of the cool things going on under the projector’s hood.

A huge lens aperture sits within a bold bronze-coloured metallic square on one side of the projector’s front, while the left side houses two vertical stripes, one recessed, one not, housing sensors that the projector can use to help it deliver a more effective automatic set-up system.

The projector’s left, right and top edges are finished in the same bronzy colour as the area around the lens housing, while the projector’s shape resembles a larger (and much heavier) version of the sort of roughly cubic designs we’ve started to see dominating the living room projector market in recent times.

The top plate sports a beautifully designed round dial-style volume adjustment, as well as a large ambient light sensor the projector can use to optimise its picture performance to different room conditions.

That volume control, along with the grilles built into the XR10’s left and right edges, reflects the fact that the XR10 carries a built-in sound system deemed powerful enough to enable the projector to be used as a standalone wireless speaker if you so desire.

The various finishes to different sides and even within the front edge of the XR10 ought, by all rights, to make its design look a bit of a mess. Actually, though, it all comes together remarkably well in a vaguely cyberpunk kind of way.

Features

The XR10 is mostly specced to kill.

Its 6000 claimed lumens of laser-delivered peak brightness is huge by serious projector standards, for starters. That’s easily enough to punch through quite a bit of ambient light if that’s what you want it to do; drive a particularly big screen (Hisense claims 300 inches); and/or potentially handle HDR sources better than most projectors can.

Brightness alone can actually be anything but a friend to projector picture quality, though, so it’s impressive to see Hisense backing this brightness up with a healthy claimed native contrast performance of 6000:1. This jumps, too, to a very impressive claimed 60,000:1 courtesy of the projector’s premium lens iris system. As ever, though, the proof of the pudding will be in the eating.

Hisense has gone the extra mile, too, to avoid the sort of rowdy cooling-fan noise you might normally expect to hear from a 6000-lumen projector by integrating liquid (water) cooling into the XR10’s chassis. This is the first time, we believe, that such cooling has been used in an albeit premium living room projector.

Another big justification for the XR10’s price is its use of an all-glass, 16-element lens system that Hisense claims will deliver better light transmission and temperature stability than a plastic system could, resulting in more brightness/contrast and more consistent 4K sharpness.

The colour coverage claimed for the XR10’s laser lighting/DLP optical system is huge too: up to 110 per cent of the massive BT2020 colour space. That’s well beyond the DCI-P3 colour system used for most HDR mastering.

Talking of HDR, the XR10 is one of a very rare breed in the projector world that’s capable of playing all four of the AV world’s main HDR formats: HDR10, HLG, HDR10+ and Dolby Vision. It’s even received IMAX Enhanced certification, meaning it has been deemed capable of doing justice to the special IMAX mastering system (which focuses on creating a noiseless look to the image). Basically, the XR10 will take in the best version of any content you feed it.

For all their advantages, setting up premium projectors can often be a pain. Hisense couldn’t have worked harder to simplify the physical aspect of set-up, though. The XR10 carries an industry-first four-8MP-camera and dual Time-of-flight (TOF) intelligent sensing set-up that it can use to correct image size, keystone and focus without you having to lift a finger. Plus, that ambient sensor we mentioned earlier can tie its readings into the calculations of a ‘Smart AI’ auto-adjustment system so that images can auto-adjust to compensate for changing room conditions.

As well as all its sensors and AI brainpower, the XR10 carries an exceptionally wide-ranging 0.84-2.0x optical zoom and bags of vertical and horizontal image shifting. It’s therefore able to (auto) adapt itself to a seriously wide range of different room sizes and layouts – and is also capable of delivering a 100-inch image from a throw distance of just 1.86m.

As we’ve come to expect from today’s lifestyle projectors, the XR10 carries a built-in smart system so that you can stream video without the need for any external sources. Rather than the Google TV system found in most projectors, though, the XR10 turns to Hisense’s own VIDAA system. This is good news, as it’s straightforward and stable to use, and it carries all of the streaming services the vast majority of households will need, including the BBC iPlayer app that’s almost always absent from Google TV systems.

The XR10 is, of course, a 4K projector. It doesn’t have a full 3840x2160 count of digital mirror devices (DMDs) that would be needed for a ‘true’ 4K experience, though. Instead, it features Texas Instruments’ XPR technology to create a 4K image from a lower DMD count using pixel-shifting. The Consumer Technology Association in the US deems the resulting images to be true 4K, though, and as we’ll see, it’s hard to disagree with that stance based on the XR10’s real-life 4K performance.

The XR10’s connections impressively comprise three HDMI ports (one 2.0, two 2.1), three USBs, an optical digital audio output, a headphone jack, an Ethernet port, and the now-expected wi-fi and Bluetooth wireless options. Apple AirPlay 2 is included in the projector’s wireless content sharing options, too.

There is one connection disappointment, though, as we couldn’t manage to get even the two HDMI 2.1 ports to handle 4K content at 120Hz from our Xbox Series X. 120Hz is possible at 1440p resolutions with the HDMI ports set to Enhance Mode Pro, but there’s no VRR support in this set-up, and nor can the projector sustain HDR gaming at any refresh rate above 60Hz.

One last premium aspect of the XR10 is its audio. Not only does it carry a 2.1 speaker system that includes a dedicated bass driver and supports DTS: Virtual X playback, but this speaker system has been tuned by acclaimed audio brand Devialet, picking up on a relationship Hisense previously forged for the speaker systems of its high-end TVs.

Picture

We’ve consistently referred to the XR10 so far as a ‘lifestyle’ or 'living room' projector, based chiefly on its appearance and convenient set-up features. It’s worth reflecting before we get into its performance, though, on the fact that Hisense describes the XR10 as being “built for cinephiles who want the big-screen theatre experience without sacrificing design, flexibility or fidelity”.

In other words, Hisense is backing the XR10 to be good enough to satisfy proper home cinema enthusiasts as well as the more casual projection market. And we’re happy to report that it’s absolutely right.

Particularly spectacular and key to its success is its ability to deliver both extreme levels of brightness and some of the deepest, most convincing blacks the HDR projection world has to offer.

Using any of the XR10’s relatively aggressive picture presets, bright HDR images are absolutely radiant, punching through even high levels of ambient light if you’re watching the projector in a regular daytime living room environment. In a dark room, meanwhile, this brightness can be used to deliver HDR with levels of intensity that we’ve only witnessed a handful of times before – mostly on ultra-high-end laser theatre projectors costing way more than the XR10.

Dark room viewing makes it obvious just how good the XR10 is with dark scenes and, even more impressively, scenes that contain a mix of light and dark elements. Provided you’re careful with the settings you use (more on this later), the XR10 can not only deliver dark imagery with much less greyness around than most, if not all, very bright, HDR-friendly projectors, but it also manages to retain all the faint shadow details you want to see if dark scenes are to feel consistent in depth with bright scenes. There’s little if any ‘black crush’ to worry about here.

Even better, the XR10 doesn’t just retain detail in the darkest image areas; it also retains excellent colour tones and saturations in such light-limited areas, avoiding the widespread tendency in both the projector and TV worlds for dark images to become desaturated.

The XR10’s colour performance is more obviously spectacular, of course, with very bright HDR images. Rather than the brightest highlights of HDR pictures starting to look thin or washed out, the XR10’s colour volume just keeps expanding as it’s fed more light.

Colour volumes push into places, in fact, that we haven’t seen before, beyond, perhaps, a couple of Xgimi models. Crucially, though, the XR10 does a substantially better job than those admittedly more affordable Xgimi rivals of making even the most vibrant colours across almost all of its picture presets look balanced and surprisingly natural. Or, at least, extremely believable.

To put it another way, while the XR10 is proud to show off what it can do, it only does so on a foundation of immersive consistency and a constant connection to the source material.

Despite the extreme vibrancy, brightness and contrast of which the XR10 is capable, as you’d hope of such an expensive and ambitious projector, it also cares about the little things in AV life. Its 4K pictures look fanatically detailed and densely textured, for instance – and this is down as much to the almost infinite subtlety of its colour rendition as it is to raw sharpness. The sharpness feels natural rather than forced or processed even in the projector’s most aggressive settings, and motion is handled without smearing or resolution loss.

If you find judder a touch obvious with 24p content, especially during bright scenes, the projector’s Film motion processing option does a pretty smart job of reducing judder without the results devolving into the dreaded soap opera effect.

While many will find it hard to resist the fantastic dynamism and richness of the XR10’s relatively aggressive image presets, film fans who want to see images that look as their creators wanted them to look can rest assured that their needs are catered for brilliantly, too, by the projector’s Filmmaker Mode preset.

This removes a big chunk of the brightness that is one of the XR10’s strengths. But the resulting images look natural, beautifully balanced, full of subtlety and still just excellently watchable despite Filmmaker Mode turning off many of its picture enhancement technologies.

If there’s an issue with the default Filmmaker Mode, it’s that black levels look a bit grey without any of the projector’s contrast enhancement tools in play. Simply setting the projector’s manual iris setting to its ‘One’ level, though, immediately improves black levels, at the expense of a just slightly cooler look to the image.

Aside from some DLP rainbow striping with very extreme contrast content, this set-up suggestion leads us to arguably the XR10’s one major image flaw. Namely, you need to be prepared to tinker with a few of the projector’s settings to get the best from it. It’s not quite the simple 'unbox, switch on and instantly relax deal' you might have been hoping for.

For instance, while the Dolby Vision Bright preset the XR10 defaults to with Dolby Vision content delivers great contrast for such a bright projector, it pushes some colours too strongly. Greens are over-dominant and skin tones look too ripe. The core colour temperature can also fluctuate within a shot if there are significant light level variations to cope with, and you can sometimes see the projector’s dynamic iris system doing its work too obviously.

Setting the manual iris setting to level 1 helps balance colours and eliminates the fluctuating colour tone, but suddenly sees green tones taking on a strangely brownish hue. Fortunately, there’s an easy solution to this one that simply involves switching to the Dolby Vision Dark preset. This instantly fixes colour balance/consistency issues, delivers natural blacks and skin tones and, if you set the iris feature to ‘0’, leaves the image looking totally stable.

The XR10’s complex iris options include a few presets alongside the multi-step Manual mode. Cinema 1 delivers a nicely judged combination of brightness and contrast, but leaves you having to hit the colour calibration tools to try and stop skin tones and red colours looking too pink, and can also cause some noticeable fluctuations in brightness from the dynamic iris. Cinema 2 delivers some of the best black levels we’ve seen from any projector, but at the expense of huge amounts of the brightness that’s so enjoyable a part of the XR10’s usual picture make-up. Only in a fully blacked-out room is this setting even worth considering, and even then, maybe only the most die-hard accuracy enthusiasts will find the dimness tolerable.

In the end, even where the XR10 offers pre-programmed attempts to provide helpful out-of-the-box feature presets, we ultimately end up reverting to manual intervention via the all-important manual iris setting. A setting which, for better or worse, is kept outside of the picture settings encompassed by the projector’s defined picture presets, so that whatever lens setting you choose applies across every preset for every source until you go back in and change it again.

There are other bits of tinkering we’d recommend too, including turning the sharpness setting to zero but leaving a separate Super Resolution feature active, and braving the projector’s more in-depth colour and white-balance controls, too, if you dare.

The bottom line, though, is that for the most part, making the effort to spend just a few minutes fine-tuning images when you first get the XR10 rewards you with what can be absolutely spectacular but also thoughtful and subtle results. Results capable of adapting, moreover, to pretty much any room shape or ambient light condition.

It’s important to add, too, that the projector responds excellently without manual intervention to the extra picture information provided by the HDR10+ format, making us wish more projectors would adopt this alternative/rival to the Dolby Vision system.

Maybe even more importantly, the XR10’s out-of-the-box dynamic tone mapping system with basic HDR10 content is outstanding. The way it maps the available image data of core HDR10 sources to the projector’s capabilities so that they look dynamic and punchy without succumbing to clipping, unevenness, black crush or colour imbalances is superb, and actually requires less manual intervention than you’d usually expect with most HDR projectors.

The XR10’s automated hardware image correction features work brilliantly, too. So while some of its presets could be better, it’s also actually more helpful than most rivals in other areas of usability and set-up.

One last strength of the XR10 to mention is how incredibly quietly it runs for such a monumentally bright projector. The liquid cooling system Hisense has taken considerable trouble to integrate into the projector proves well worth the effort.

Sound

The XR10’s speakers are capable of pumping out levels of volume and dynamic range that shame many premium TVs. Even at just 50 per cent of its maximum volume, it’s loud enough to satisfy even a quite large room.

Trebles reach high peaks without sounding brittle or warbly, even at high volumes, while at the other end, bass reaches remarkably deep without falling prey to dropouts or crackles, or causing the projector’s metal bodywork to start buzzing. This helps low frequencies avoid sounding overly dominant or distracting, despite how present and deep they are. Similarly, the XR10’s ability to produce high levels of detail in a film or TV mix doesn’t leave busy soundtracks sounding too forensic or ambient effects too bright.

Voices are clean and well-rounded too. The only issue is that they sound a bit trapped inside the projector’s bodywork compared with the rest of the sound mix, which means they also sound rather dislocated from the onscreen action on the other side of the room, and sometimes rather decontextualised from the rest of the soundstage.

Verdict

While it might be the XR10’s startling, beautifully built design that first catches your eye, Hisense’s new showcase projector ultimately justifies its premium price tag with its combination of a startlingly powerful sound system and the best picture quality we’ve seen from any lifestyle or, more accurately, lifestyle/home theatre crossover projector before.

As statements of intent go, it’s hard to see how the XR10 could have served Hisense much better.

SCORES

• Picture 5
• Sound 4
• Features 4

MORE:

Read our review of the Leica Cine 1

Also consider the Sony Bravia Projector 7

Read our BenQ W4100i

Best projectors: the best options tested by our home cinema experts

The latest projector to enter our test room is not quite like anything we have seen before. It’s the “world’s first mobile theatre system”, sporting four Dolby Atmos satellite speakers that are housed in the projector’s body.

It can also deliver a 4K picture, with a claimed brightness of up to 3500 ISO lumens. You can push the screen size as big as 300 inches, and it is built around a DLP optical system illuminated by a triple-laser lighting system.

That is all wrapped up in a package weighing a rather hefty 33kg with a set of wheels on the bottom.

That all means that, in theory, you should be able to take everything you need for a movie night in an all-in-one system. It doesn’t come cheap, and will set you back £4499 / $4999 / AU$8999.

Does it deliver on its promises? After we reviewed the product in our test room, it became clear that there are two aspects in which the X1 Pro excels, and two that hold it back from greatness. Let’s dig into it.

Nifty speaker design

The 7.1.4-channel speaker system is arguably the most exciting element of the projector. Each of the four satellite speakers can be placed around the space. They offer a compact yet practical build, with the fronts measuring 8 cm across and the rears coming in at 6 cm wide.

They also include little stands on the bottom with a rubber foot that folds out, making for a sturdy base. On top of that, you can charge them when they are inside the projector, or you can use their individual USB ports to give them some juice.

There’s also a subwoofer inside the projector’s body, which features two drive units, each measuring 13cm in diameter.

It’s a first to see such an elaborate speaker set-up for a portable projector in our test room, and is a draw if you are looking for an entire home cinema system in a box.

Rich, punchy picture

As well as the clever sound and speaker design, the X1 Pro delivers a punchy image performance that makes for pleasant viewing.

When watching Thunderbolts, we note in our review: “The villain’s brightly coloured costume stands out against the background, which makes for an engaging experience.”

Edges of characters and items are crisp and clean, and there is little noise in textures, contributing to an overall picture that feels sharp without tipping into being over-etched. It could do with an extra level of detail considering the price point, but it is still clear enough to see strands of hair and creases in clothes.

When we move to a brighter environment than our dark test room, a fair bit of detail and punch is lost, of course. But this set-up would be watchable with a bright movie when watching outside with the sun still up.

But image looks unsubtle

While it delivers an engaging image, the X1 Pro is not the most subtle of projectors. Its colours look a little over-emphasised, and they verge on unnatural. This becomes clear when watching Civil War as an army chopper lands on lush grass, where the foliage appears a tad too vivid to look realistic.

There is also an issue with the projector’s black depth. During Sinners as Michael B Jordan’s Stack has a terse conversation in a low-lit barn, we found that it “delivers the dark background with a fair bit of banding that verges on grey at points”.

Shadow detail leaves a lot to be desired when it comes to darker skin tones, and it is hard to make out the subtle differences in textures in these areas.

Disappointing sound performance

Unfortunately, while we like the compact speaker design, the sound performance itself rather lets the package down.

The sound is certainly more room-filling than the majority of portable projectors that come with built-in speakers, but we expect a more immersive performance from the 7.1.4-channel system.

With its Dolby Atmos presentation, the system lacks the immersive height and width effects to immerse us truly in the film. And there’s not a huge sense of precision around the space, with obvious gaps in the soundfield.

The bass performance is also underwhelming. Instead of packing a meaty weight, it lands with a rather flat softness. In our review when watching Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings, we say: “Punches should sound deep and impactful, but they lack the powerful drive necessary to convey the right level of force.”

The X1 Pro’s portable, innovative design and punchy picture are not to be dismissed. But the high price tag and lacklustre audio mean that it seems more sensible to invest in a separate projector and sound system to get the best performance from both.

MORE:

Here’s our full review of the Nebula X1 Pro

Check out the best projectors

These are the best portable projectors

Projector brand Xgimi has been on a roll with a continuous stream of new models flooding the shelves in the last year. And there are two more joining their ranks.

The new Elfin Flip Laser and flagship Elfin Flip 4K claim to build on the existing Elfin series to deliver “a significant upgrade in both optical performance and audio experience”.

Both projectors offer a claimed maximum brightness of 1600 ISO lumens and use an RGB triple laser light source. Unsurprisingly, the flagship model offers 4K resolution compared to the Flip Laser’s 1080p.

For gamers, the 4K model also offers VRR and ALLM support. However, like most projectors, it only runs at 1080p@120Hz. 4K is still locked to 60Hz.

The design looks practically identical to the predecessor, featuring a “book-sized” foldable build that can be tucked away when not in use. “Pick it up, place it, and the picture is ready” is Xgimi’s mantra here.

Both projectors come with Google TV built-in, which gives you access to a range of streaming platforms including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV and Netflix. In terms of sound, the models are equipped with a 7W Harmon Kardon tuned speaker with Dolby Audio support, which will supposedly “eliminate the need for external audio equipment”.

There is a range of features designed to make setup easier as well, including auto-keystone, auto-focus and obstacle avoidance.

The Elfin Flip 4K is priced at £869 / $999, and the Elfin Flip Laser comes in cheaper at £689 / $799.

That puts the flagship against the likes of the Award-winning Hisense M2 Pro, which is currently available for around £870. The five-star Hisense model will certainly prove tough competition for Xgimi’s latest bombshell, thanks to its bright picture and easy setup.

Still, the Elfin’s more portable design and promising picture specifications could challenge the current champion.

MORE:

These are the best portable projectors

And check out the best projectors

This is our review of the Xgimi MoGo 4

If you don’t want to bother with the fuss and decision-making of choosing a projector and sound system to pair together for your premium home cinema system, then there has not been a whole lot available on the market.

But the Nebula X1 Pro is trying to plug that gap.

It combines a 4K projector with four detachable Dolby Atmos speakers to deliver the “world's first mobile theatre system”. That’s all put together into a package on wheels, which makes carting it around easier.

On paper, this is a tempting proposition but, in this case, the combination of execution and price doesn’t quite add up.

Price

If you want to get your hands on this unique projector system, then you will have to pay the rather premium sum of £4499 / $4999 / AU$8999.

That’s a pretty big step-up in price from its more modest sibling – the Nebula X1, which we tested at £2200 / $2999. This is a more compact 4K projector to which we awarded four stars for its punchy picture and rich sound. It features a built-in sound system, although you can add Nebula’s two optional wireless speakers, which create a wider soundfield. That differs from the more elaborate sound system of the X1 Pro.

Design

The X1 Pro is quite a special-looking beast, resembling a suitcase-robot hybrid that could easily feature in a Philip K. Dick novel.

It is 76cm tall and weighs a hefty 33kg, but Anker makes its transportation easier with some clever additions. These include an extendable handle and two sturdy wheels to carry the projector around as if you are off to the airport. There are also two handles on the chassis if you need to carry the X1 Pro up the stairs.

There is no built-in battery, so keep in mind that you will need to keep the projector connected to the mains wherever you want to use it. The two-metre power cable is retractable from a cove at the bottom of the projector, so there’s a fair bit of flexibility.

At the top, there’s a handy lid that stores the back-lit remote control and a pair of karaoke microphones, should you wish to show off your pipes. On the remote, you will find buttons for volume, power, settings, the home menu and auto image adjustment. There is a handy back-lit panel on the top of the lid of the projector, which gives you access to many of these features as well.

Arguably, the most exciting aspect of the Nebula projector is its speaker design. There are four detachable speakers hidden inside the X1 Pro’s body, each with a durable black plastic grille.

All of the speakers feature retractable little stands with rubber feet to keep them stable, and they are all simple to set up. There is also a subwoofer built into the projector itself.

Features

But what are the speakers packing under their sleek-looking exteriors? The front speakers have two forward-facing, one side-firing and one up-firing driver each. That differs slightly from the rears, which include one forward-facing and one up-firing driver per speaker.

The subwoofer features two drive units, each measuring 13cm in diameter.

This sound system has Dolby Atmos support. FlexWave, Soundcore's proprietary spatial audio calibration technology, is also included. The brand claims this “uses sensors, spatial algorithms, and auto EQ calibration” to “intelligently adjust to your room's acoustics”.

When setting up the projector, you will be prompted to calibrate your speakers. This takes less than five minutes, as the speakers play a range of test frequencies and a music sample to get the best spatial soundfield.

There’s a neat nook for physical connectivity, consisting of one HDMI with eARC support and three USB ports. Inside is a small light to help with navigation in the dark, which is a handy addition.

As well as the remote and panel, you can control the projector with the Nebula Connect app. This lets you adjust the picture and sound settings, image correction, switch app input, and you can cast from another device. We do not find ourselves reaching for the app much during testing, though, as the remote control and top panel offer much of its functionality.

In terms of screen set-up, there is a selection of shortcuts that make the whole process pretty simple. That includes auto-focus, keystone correction and wall-colour adaptation (useful if you are projecting on a non-white surface). We find that selecting Spatial Adaptation analyses our dedicated screen most effectively, and adjusts focus and sizing all in one.

The projector offers a claimed maximum brightness of 3500 ANSI lumens, and you can push the screen size as big as 300 inches. It is built around a DLP optical system illuminated by a triple laser lighting system.

The X1 Pro can play 4K sources and high dynamic range in the HDR10, HLG and Dolby Vision formats, but it only supports up to 4K@60Hz video playback, which will be a bit of a shame for gamers.

There are ten picture modes to choose from, but we go with NebulaMaster when using a 4K Blu-ray as, once tweaked (details below), it delivers the best balance between detail and brightness.

The choice of picture modes changes when we go to streaming – we find that Movie is the best choice in this case thanks to its natural-looking motion and colourful image.

Picture quality

When we boot up the projector in NebulaMaster picture mode for the first time, we are met with overexuberant colours and smoothed textures that make for a distracting viewing experience.

But after knocking the saturation and sharpness down, and turning up the brightness a little, we are left with a more pleasing overall image that is engaging and punchy. The colours are still on the exaggerated side, but they are eye-catching and give the picture a burst of energy.

When watching Thunderbolts, as the rag-tag team face up against Sentry, the villain’s brightly coloured costume stands out against the background, which makes for an engaging experience. The rest of the picture follows this colourful portrayal, with the blue skyline and amber-lit bar area giving the background a lively look.

The edges of characters and items are crisp and clean, and there is little noise in textures, contributing to an overall picture that feels sharp without tipping into being over-etched.

Nebula’s 4K model does not unearth as much detail as we would hope for at this level, but it is still good enough to see the creases in Sentry’s clothes and strands of his hair.

The projector shows off its impressive motion-handling skills with F1 The Movie. This is after adjusting the MEMC (Motion Estimation and Motion Compensation) setting from medium to low, as the default setting results in an unnatural smoothness. With the adjustment, cars zoom around the track with minimal judder and a good sense of authenticity.

However, the projector struggles to portray darker skin tones with the same level of detail as lighter ones. As plucky F1 driver Joshua talks to his cousin, the shadows across the latter's face block out a fair amount of detail, so it is nearly impossible to make out the distinction between his chin and beard.

This issue extends to the projector’s black depth, and is further illustrated by Sinners. As Michael B Jordan’s Stack has a tense conversation in a low-lit barn, the X1 Pro delivers the dark background with a fair bit of banding that verges on grey at points.

We do the majority of our testing with the lights off in our dark test room, which lets the projector deliver a bright and clean overall image. To see how it performs in other scenarios, we turn the lights up slightly from our usual dark testing conditions.

As with most home cinema projectors, contrast suffers, and detail is lost. Continuing with Sinners, for instance, it is hard to differentiate faces as the characters venture outside the barn, which makes for a less immersive overall experience.

Even when we turn the lights up higher, though, it's not unwatchable, and the colours are still reasonably punchy, though diminished a little. You do lose the finest details and the sense of three-dimensionality, but it would still be serviceable for a bright movie.

Overall, the X1 Pro’s picture is likeable and engaging, but it could do with a touch more detail and subtlety. By general standards, it’s a solid performer, but for the price, we know that better is available.

Sound quality

The Nebula X1 Pro’s sound set-up is packing some impressive features by projector standards, so we feel hopeful when we get it in our test room.

There are three sound modes to choose from: Movie, Outdoors, and Music. After a good deal of testing, we opt for the first option as it delivers the best balance between precision and scale.

The sound is certainly more room-filling than most projectors that have built-in speakers, but it is ultimately let down by a lack of precision and dynamics.

Vocals are clear and easy to make out from the rest of the sound, but there is not much expression or subtle inflexion in individual voices.

While watching Sinners, as Sammie calls the spirits with the power of his singing, his voice is at the forefront of the sound, but it lacks the emotion that we have heard with rival systems. His voice should come in tentatively but grow stronger as the scene goes on, but the X1 Pro does not convey this level of subtlety.

There’s also not a great sense of precision as the different voices and instruments chime in. The sound should fill the room and the space between the speakers, but it's obvious where it's emanating from instead of coming from all angles.

When watching Top Gun: Maverick, Tom Cruise’s titular character challenges his cohort of cadets to some aerial contests. As the jet flies up into the sky, we get some sense of height, but it does not extend much further than the middle of the projector screen.

It feels more like there are tall columns of sound coming from the speakers rather than the dome of sound we are looking for with a Dolby Atmos product. You can turn off Nebula’s FlexWave surround sound technology, but this makes the sound feel smaller and less precise, so we opt to keep it on, despite its limitations.

The system doesn’t create a cohesive soundfield with any great skill, and we note gaps even when we’ve taken care over speaker positioning. There is a configuration where the front speakers can be left in the main projector body, almost like a soundbar, but, as expected, this reduces the level of scale and width.

Dynamics are not the strongest, either. As the jet prepares to take off, there is not much of a build-up between the initial rumble of the engine and the crescendo of the plane in flight.

The X1 Pro’s bass also fails to pack a meaty weight, instead landing with a rather flat softness. When watching Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings, our hero faces off against a monstrous soul-sucking dragon. Punches should sound deep and impactful, but they lack the powerful drive necessary to convey the right level of force.

It doesn't help that the subwoofer is built into the projector’s body, which means we cannot tune or position it differently without moving the projector itself.

Verdict

The Nebula X1 Pro’s clever design is certainly an intriguing novelty, and its crisp picture performance delivers a reasonable balance between punchiness and clarity. It would be even better if there were greater subtlety in the rendition of colours, though.

But its audio makes for an underwhelming experience, lacking the necessary insight, dynamic expression and surround capability to convince. It’s fussy to set up, too.

However, the biggest issue here is the price. At this level, it would seem more sensible to invest in a separate projector and sound system to get the best performance from both.

SCORES

• Picture 4
• Sound 2
• Features 4

MORE:

Read our review of the Nebula X1

Read our Epson EH-LS9000 review

Best projectors: the best options tested by our home cinema experts

Every projector is a product of compromise. Top-tier 4K projectors can deliver excellent detail and black levels, but usually lack a built-in sound system and cannot be easily moved around.

And outdoor projectors make their compromise clear more than any other projector category, as they must carefully handle the balance between convenience and performance.

With the FIFA World Cup in full swing, more people are looking for ways to watch the winning kick on a big screen from the comfort of their gardens. But no outdoor projector has ever offered the perfect delicate equilibrium between each aspect. I’ve tested my fair share of portable projectors so far and, although nothing has achieved the ideal balance yet, I'm always keeping my eye out for a model that could change all that

So what exactly does the perfect outdoor projector offer?

Portability

To take your projector into the garden and even on the road, it needs to be easy to carry around. Otherwise, you will end up lugging a heavy piece of kit around, which doesn’t make for a practical or fun alternative to watching on your TV screen.

We’ve seen some pretty neat designs in terms of portability that certainly tick this box. Take the Xgimi Mogo 4, for instance, which is a can-shaped projector that weighs just 1.3kg and is only 21cm tall.

You can pull out the main body from the sturdy plastic stand when you want to use it, and its small footprint makes it a great example of the portability I’m looking for in an outdoor projector.

There’s a remote that hangs from the stand that gives you access to the basic controls, such as volume and settings, if you don't want to rely on the larger remote that is also available. It is far from the only model to offer this kind of flexibility, but it's a great example of true portability in the category.

Most outdoor projectors these days also come with platforms such as Google TV, which give you access to the usual streaming suspects, including Netflix, Apple TV and Amazon Prime Video. That makes accessing your favourite TV shows and films simple, although some platforms lack World Cup essentials such as BBC iPlayer and ITVX. You can work around this by casting from another device, at least.

A long-lasting built-in battery

If a projector is small and portable, though, then it understandably must make some sacrifices in other areas. One of the biggest of these is the lack of a built-in battery. Many projectors claim to be portable but, if they don't have a battery, then you are limited to placing it where you can get access to the mains.

Some projectors let you connect a power bank to extend their battery life a little, but that depends on the model's capabilities.

And even if your projector offers a built-in battery, it is often only just enough to watch a few episodes. The Xgimi Vibe One is a small, compact model with a built-in battery, but the brand claims it offers a maximum of 1.2 hours of juice until you need to plug it in. That number is only if you are using the projector in the Eco mode, however. In Standard mode, the battery gave us just under an hour of AV action, which will only give you one half of a World Cup match.

In an ideal world, a projector's built-in battery would be able to last entire game or movie without conking out.

Bright, punchy picture

Of course, the picture needs to be a strong performer in various lighting environments. You might start watching a game at 5pm, where the sun is still blazing during these scorching summer months.

That means you need a projector that can deliver a punchy image that can withstand bright viewing conditions. So far, I have not come across a compact model that can deliver the perfect level of detail, black depth and colour.

Ultimately, that is one of the sacrifices that must be made for the projector to be portable and compact, as there is less room for more comprehensive features. If such a model existed that could expertly balance picture performance and size, it would have a prime spot in our test room.

Immersive sound

Finally, the perfect outdoor projector delivers engaging and precise sound that makes every viewing experience even more immersive.

The closest we have come to this dream is with the Nebula X1 – a 4K projector with a 2.1-channel configuration. We say in our review that the projector's "audio makes it stand out from the crowd, as it is rare we have found a projector that can pack such a punch in terms of bass."

Plus, vocals are clear and relatively emotive, delivering a rich overall sound. This is an outlier in the outdoor projector world, as most of the built-in speakers don't manage much dispersion of sound or punch.

The most recent projector to enter our test room promises to tick every one of these boxes (bar the built-in battery). The Soundcore Nebula X1 Pro claims to be the "world's first mobile theatre system", presenting as an all-in-one package on wheels. Yep, actual wheels. It features four detachable speakers to place around your space, a 4K picture that goes up to a claimed 3500 ANSI lumens of brightness, and a clever design.

We are yet to publish our full review but, suffice to say, the Nebula projector has not managed to claim the crown as the perfect outdoor model.

I never actually expect to find a perfect outdoor projector because – as I said at the start – all of them are a product of compromise. Still, I'm excited to see how close we can get.

MORE:

These are the best outdoor projectors

And here are the best projectors

Check out the best soundbars

If you have been looking for a way to bring the big-screen experience to your home, countless projectors and large TVs claim to deliver just that. And, with Amazon Prime Day now in full swing, plenty of different brands are offering tempting discounts across a range of products.

But which models will get you the best large screen, all while saving you some of your hard-earned cash? We have found two products to fit that particular bill – that will deliver an immersive screen size and have similar price tags. Each offers something different, but both can bring the big-screen experience to your home.

A super-sized TCL TV

First up, the gigantic 98-inch TCL C7K is a king-sized 4K TV at a jaw-droppingly low price. The five-star set would usually cost a respectable £2399, but Prime Day has seen this crash to a remarkable £1999 at Currys. Don’t get us wrong, that is still a lot of money. But for the sheer size and quality of the TV, this is a bargain price.

You get 3000 nits of brightness controlled with 2000 dimming zones, plus TCL’s Halo Control features, which aim to reduce the effect of backlight blooming. This is aided by an anti-glare film that reduces reflections.

It received a What Hi-Fi? Award last year, thanks to its spectacular brightness and colour, as well as its excellent gaming specifications. The dimensions of the TV alone are enough to blow your socks off, as we say in our review: “We’ve seen a few 98-100-inch TVs now, but the raw cinematic impact of seeing our favourite test movies and TV shows writ so large across our field of view never seems to grow old.”

The brightness is intense, especially at this size, with small HDR highlights looking every bit as dazzling as on pricier TVs. TCL’s Halo Control also does a stellar job of suppressing any unwanted blooms of light emerging.

In terms of sound, the TV offers a 6.2.2-channel system designed by Bang & Olufsen. It is detailed and clear, and never becomes overstated, harsh or brittle. It does, however, lack the levels of bass and immersion that a decent, dedicated Dolby Atmos soundbar would provide.

It’s very well equipped for gamers, with VRR, ALLM, and a 144Hz refresh rate. You get a full complement of HDR format support, but only two HDMI 2.1 ports.

Of course, a 98-inch screen will take up a fair bit of room in your home. If you don't have the space to accommodate, the option below might be a better fit for you.

And a more compact projector from BenQ

TCL’s super-sized TV is certainly a large beast to behold, but it is simply not a realistic addition to many people's homes. It measures 218cm wide, which is quite a challenge if you are working with a compact space. There is the option to wall-hang, but of course you need to have a wall capable of supporting its 55kg weight.

If that won’t work for you, there’s another way to get the big-screen experience. The BenQ W2720i is a 4K projector that holds the crown as the best mid-range model in our best projectors guide. The price for the What Hi-Fi? Award-winning projector has dropped from £1999 to £1799 at Richer Sounds, saving you a reasonable £200.

It offers a more compact option than the TCL C7K, as it measures 14 x 42 x 31cm (hwd) and weighs just 6.5kg. You can push the screen size up to a claimed 300 inches, which knocks the 98-inch TV out of the park.

When we reviewed the projector, we were met with a clean, detailed picture that still looked natural. We say in our review: “So crisp, detailed, pristine and full of texture and density are the W2720i’s pictures that they really do look 4K, even if pushed to prodigious image sizes.”

The Award-winner's connections go further than those of most projectors, by including three HDMIs, one of which provides ARC support for passing sound out to a connected AVR or soundbar, and one of which supports 4K/120Hz.

There are some limitations to consider with a projector compared with a TV. Any projector that costs less than £10,000 will struggle to produce deep black levels, especially compared with a Mini LED such as the C7K. The W2720i is still a great performer in this area when compared with rival projectors, but the TCL TV does a better job at recreating proper black depth.

You will also have to deal with a weaker picture performance in any sort of ambient light compared with a TV screen.

But the BenQ’s smaller footprint and impressive specifications may well suit your home cinema set-up better. It depends on which big-screen experience works best for you, but these stellar bargains on both products are worth looking into.

MORE:

These are the best projectors out there

Check out the best TVs we have reviewed

And this is our full review of the 98-inch TCL C7K

It’s going to be quite the day for the UK tomorrow.

Not only are England taking on Ghana in the FIFA World Cup for their second group stage match, but temperatures are set to jump to a scorching 34 degrees.

All of which makes for a perfect opportunity to watch the game in the garden. And one of our top portable projectors just got a discount: the Xgimi Vibe One is now only £179 at Amazon.

Only Prime members can access this price, but next-day delivery is included, so you can be sure the Xgimi projector arrives in time for the big game. You’ll have to be quick, though, so you don’t miss the next-day delivery cutoff!

The Xgimi Vibe One is one of the cheapest projectors we have tested, but don’t let that put you off – the mini marvel offers a detailed, natural-looking picture for the money as we saw during a viewing of Civil War.

“This naturalness is present in the rendering of faces, too,” our Xgimi Vibe One review reads. “As the shaken journalists attempt to collect themselves in the car after a particularly traumatic experience, the projector digs up the smaller details in their faces despite the dark interior. Skin tones also appear balanced and natural, without fading into the background or looking over-vibrant.”

Motion handling is surprisingly natural, too, which should bless World Cup matches with smooth, realistic movement.

We made sure to test the Vibe One outside, of course, and did find that it struggles in bright sunlight. It should be fine for the 9pm kickoff, though, and will of course always work indoors.

Wherever you choose to watch, the Vibe One can project an image of up to a whopping 150 inches. It has a native resolution of 1080p, with a claimed 250 ISO lumens of brightness.

The built-in Google TV provides access to Netflix, Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video, and Disney+. The all-important BBC iPlayer is missing, however, but you can cast from your phone or plug in a streaming device into the HDMI port.

It’s also worth noting that the battery life only reaches a maximum of 1.2 hours in Eco mode, but this can be remedied with an extension lead or a half-time recharge. At just 1.4kg, the Vibe One is extremely portable and can easily be carried around should you wish to change location.

The Xgimi Vibe One has some limitations given its low price tag; but, for £179 at Amazon, it delivers a picture far more detailed and cinematic than you might expect. If you’re after a cheap, last-minute projector for the World Cup that is reliable on the picture front, then the Vibe One is a great choice at this price.

If your budget extends a bit further, then consider these alternate options that we have reviewed and recommend:

MORE:

Amazon Prime Day 2026 Live Q&A: personalised hi-fi and home cinema buying advice, direct from our experts

Read our review of the Xgimi Mogo 4

Also consider the Wanbo Vali 1

With the World Cup and some surprisingly good weather upon us, there's been quite the interest in portable projectors that can be taken outside.

The problem is finding a good portable projector – Amazon's sales are often flooded with cheap outdoor projectors, but you'll want to invest your hard-earned cash into one that gives you the AV quality, battery life and easy setup fit enough for the beautiful game.

Well, we have good news. There's a portable projector in the early Prime Day sale that we've tried and tested ourselves, and can vouch for as an outdoor projector we recommend. In fact, the Anker Nebula Mars 3 Air is our favourite outdoor and portable projector – and it's currently on offer for £339 at Amazon.

That's the lowest price we've seen for the Mars 3 Air, though bear in mind that you'll have to be a Prime member to access this deal.

If you're looking for a quick, easy, fuss-free setup to minimise chances of missing a match, then it's hard to look past the Anker Nebula Mars 3 Air.

With a built-in battery, speakers and wi-fi, it’s entirely self-contained, so once you’ve got it in position, there’s no need to add any other kit to get it up and running – just fire up the Google TV operating system and away you go. It’ll even automatically adjust the picture to make sure everything looks as it should.

The handle makes it easy enough to carry around, and it's well-built enough and nicely designed that it'll look good in any room of the house.

The maximum picture size is 150 inches, but we find the Mars 3 Air loses some of its brightness at full size. We recommend an image size of between 70 inches and 90 inches for the best balance of brightness and scale.

And the all-important picture? A step above the rest at this size and price.

"For starters, we’re really struck by how sharp and detailed everything looks," our Anker Nebula Mars 3 Air review reads. "Despite the projector using (like all portable models) a fairly small lens aperture, every pixel and texture of a good HD source is faithfully rendered, adding up to a really dense, smooth, cinematic finish to the picture with little evidence of visible pixel structure."

Audio performance is also a cut above, with the pair of 8-watt speakers producing an expansive and well-rounded soundstage with a solid bass presence. We'd love a bit more volume, but the Mars 3 Air doesn't disappoint on the audio front.

There's also a built-in battery rated for 2.5 hours of mains-free playback. This will depend on your brightness and volume settings, of course, but this should be plenty long enough for a World Cup game.

As a World Cup projector, the Anker Nebula Mars 3 Air is compact, feature-packed and bright enough to be used outside. It's also much more affordable now, thanks to a £211 discount at Amazon for Prime members.

MORE:

Read our Anker Nebula Mars 3 Air review

And these are the best portable projectors you can currently buy

You might also want one of the best soundbars to go with it

The World Cup has long been a great excuse to upgrade your TV.

But what if you wanted to go big? As in really big?

Well for that, you'll want to go for a projector. And we've got just the one. The Nebula X1 is now down to £1519 for Amazon Prime members, which is easily the lowest price we've seen.

The 4K projector can reach a claimed picture size of 300 inches and is portable enough to take into the garden for World Cup matches outside – you'll just need an extension cable long enough.

The Nebula X1 has earned a spot amongst our best outdoor projectors, and while expensive, it makes up for it with some impressive specs.

The triple-laser X1 projector boasts 4K resolution, a claimed 3500 ANSI lumens of brightness and, of course, a claimed image up to 300 inches in size. So it's much better equipped for less-than-ideal viewing conditions than a lot of cheaper models, especially in ambient light.

While it's primarily designed for indoor use with a constant mains power connection required, it is portable enough to carry around and comes with a handle. It also helps that it's super easy to set up, thanks to Nebula's AI Spatial Adaptation auto set-up that includes real-time autofocus, keystone correction, ambient light adaptation and wall colour adaptation.

With an optical engine and lens array that tilts up to 25 degrees, the X1 is also quite flexible with placement, able to go on a projector stand, table, the floor or other spot.

And the all-important picture performance?

"In terms of colour, the X1 keeps the picture vibrant and engaging," our Nebula X1 review reads. "With the Antarctica episode of Seven Worlds, One Planet on 4K Blu-ray, the gentoo penguins preparing to dive into the ocean are detailed and vivid. Their bright red beaks and fluffy feathers look tangible and textured."

We did notice that the image was a tad too sharp, but this can be easily remedied by reducing the Sharpness setting by a few points.

Where the X1 really stands out from the crowd, however, is the audio. The 2.1 speaker configuration is rich and detailed by projector standards, and in a rare case for projectors, it packs a punch in terms of bass.

When it comes to streaming, the built-in Google TV comes with Netflix pre-installed and the option to download Channel 4, Disney+, YouTube, Apple TV, Netflix, ITVX, Amazon Prime Video and more. There's no BBC iPlayer, but you can still cast those World Cup matches from your phone.

For an entry-level 4K projector that can also be used to watch World Cup matches under the stars, the Nebula X1 is a great contender. Especially now it's £681 off at Amazon for Prime members.

MORE:

Also consider the BenQ X3100i

Check out the best outdoor projectors: top models reviewed and rated

And take a look at the best projectors: the best options tested by our home cinema experts

I love watching sport outside.

I think it's at least partly thanks to fond memories of watching football matches in pub gardens, cold beer in hand, sun on my back, perhaps a bowl of chips within arm's reach. Glorious.

These days, my pub garden visits are a little less frequent, so ahead of the World Cup I decided to try to bring the experience home. My plan was simple: set up a projector in the garden, fire up the BBQ and spend the summer watching football under the open sky.

What could possibly go wrong?

Quite a lot, as it turns out.

Before we begin, I should point out that while I've spent almost 20 years reviewing TVs, projectors and home cinema kit, I have exactly zero experience of building an outdoor cinema. I also approached this project with a level of wanton optimism that, in hindsight, was entirely unsupported by evidence.

Still, if nothing else, my mistakes might help you avoid making the same ones.

Mistake 1: assuming an indoor projector would work outside before dark

The first challenge was deciding what to use as a display.

The windows for three rooms of our house face the garden, which limits the available wall space. After some negotiations with my equally football-obsessed wife, it was agreed that a projector screen could temporarily be hung across the dining room windows.

A projector seemed the obvious answer. After all, I wanted the biggest image possible, and no TV I can afford stretches to 150 inches.

While a portable projector might seem the natural choice, most battery-powered models aren't especially bright and often won't last through an entire football match. Since I was going to need mains power anyway, I borrowed the Hisense M2 Pro from our review stockroom.

It's a five-star projector, it's relatively compact, and it supports both BBC iPlayer and ITVX – a surprisingly rare combination in projector land and an essential one for World Cup duty in the UK.

So far, so sensible.

Then came Friday evening. Canada versus Bosnia and Herzegovina. Kick-off at 8pm.

At around 6pm, I wheeled the projector into position using some spare sections of hi-fi rack, ran an extension cable across the garden and powered everything up.

And... nothing.

Well, not quite nothing. The projector was clearly producing light, but there was no discernible image on the screen.

I moved the projector closer.

Nothing.

Closer still.

Nothing.

Eventually, with the projector just inches from the screen, a tiny image emerged from the gloom.

At this point, I began to suspect that projecting onto a giant screen outdoors before sunset might not have been my finest idea.

To be clear, this wasn't blazing Mediterranean sunshine. It was an overcast British evening on the opposite side of the house to the sun. Yet even that proved too much for a projector rated at 1300 ANSI lumens.

The lesson? A projector that looks bright indoors can look surprisingly dim outside.

Mistake 2: buying the cheapest 150-inch screen I could find

Perhaps I should have mentioned the screen.

Wanting something easy to put up, take down and store, I ordered a portable 150-inch projector screen from Amazon for the princely sum of £36.

It had excellent reviews.

It also turned out to be little more than a stretchy white sheet with a black border.

In hindsight, perhaps "buy the cheapest giant screen available and hope for the best" wasn't the sort of rigorous testing methodology that has sustained my career for almost two decades.

The biggest problem, I think, was that the screen had no backing. I hadn't considered this when ordering, but once it was hanging in front of our dining room windows, I could immediately see the issue: light was passing straight through it.

Thankfully, the screen was at least easy to install. With the help of some included ropes, a couple of conveniently positioned hanging basket brackets and my long-suffering wife, it was up in a matter of minutes.

Unfortunately, being easy to hang is only one of the qualities you want in a projector screen.

Mistake 3: forgetting that darkness and warmth rarely arrive together in Britain

I left the projector running while I finished cremating dinner on the BBQ and hoped conditions would improve.

By the 8pm kick-off, the picture was technically watchable, but only just, so we ended up watching the first half indoors.

By half-time, though, it was a different story.

As darkness fell, the image suddenly looked pretty decent.

The projector had enough light output after all, but only when the sun stopped competing with it.

At this point, I was even able to move the M2 Pro further back, create a much larger image and enjoy a picture that was genuinely impressive considering the circumstances.

The projector automatically re-focused itself each time I moved it, too, which was very handy.

At last, I had the something approaching the outdoor football experience I'd been aiming for.

There was just one problem.

It was absolutely freezing – hence the blanket-covered child in the photo above.

After about 10 minutes, common sense prevailed and we headed back inside.

What I'd do differently

The good news is that most of the problems were self-inflicted.

For starters, I picked the wrong projector.

The Hisense M2 Pro is an excellent lifestyle projector that's plenty bright enough for indoor use. It was never designed for outdoor use, which is an entirely different challenge, and I should never have expected it to work in daylight, regardless of the overcast skies.

Clearly, something much brighter is required. Perhaps the 3500 ANSI lumen-rated BenQ TK705i or Nebula X1 Pro might fare better.

I also need a better screen. At the very least, one with a black backing to prevent light passing through it. An ambient light rejecting (ALR) screen would be better still, though those tend to cost considerably more and are often designed for permanent or semi-permanent installation, which isn't where I am with this project.

Finally, I hadn't considered comfort enough. The irony of outdoor football viewing in the UK is that the picture often improves just as the temperature drops to unpleasantly nippy levels.

So yes, this first attempt was largely a failure, and, at 10pm last night, I was ready to abandon the whole idea.

This morning, though, I found myself browsing projector screens again, and I'm already planning phase two, which will probably involve a better screen, a fire pit and the considerably brighter Nebula X1 Pro – which, handily, we currently have in for review.

If that doesn't work, I may have to accept that the answer isn't a projector at all, but an outdoor TV.

Unfortunately, outdoor TVs are eye-wateringly expensive, particularly at the sort of size I'm aiming for.

Which means there's every chance I'll end up exactly where I started: watching the World Cup indoors and wondering why I thought I knew better than the British weather.

MORE:

Here are the best outdoor projectors you can currently buy

And these are the best projectors in general

We've built an awesome playlist that features a local artist from every World Cup 2026 host city

If you want to watch movies on the big screen without forking out thousands for a TV bigger than 85 inches, a coffee table projector can be a tempting proposition. That’s because they can offer a large screen size paired with an easy-to-carry design that gives added flexibility.

The Soundcore Nebula P1 is the latest model to enter the villa, offering a portable build and boasting promising tech specifications. And there’s an intriguing sound addition that is a unique proposition when it comes to the coffee table projector market.

This audio offering makes this projector stand out from the crowd, but as we’ll see, it is ultimately let down in another key category.

Price

The Soundcore Nebula P1 launched at £700 / $800 / AU$1300, placing it in the mid-range lifestyle projector category. We have already seen some limited deals, which have dropped the price to around £595 in the UK, for example.

At a similar level is the Xgimi MoGo 4, a portable projector that is currently available for about £499 in the UK, although it launched at the slightly higher price of £509 / $499 / AU$1399. We gave this model a solid four stars for its punchy picture and compact design, and it features in our best portable projectors guide.

It’s worth noting that the MoGo 4 is not aiming at the same market as the Nebula model. The Xgimi projector has a built-in battery, unlike the Nebula P1, but it lacks separate speakers.

Design

Those separate speakers really make the P1 stand out from the crowd. The two wireless speakers sit on top of the projector and are secured by a magnetic connection and a cute lock switch on the projector’s body. You can charge the pair from here, or separately via their USB-C ports.

The speakers are lightweight and easy to carry, sporting a sleek grey finish with two rounded corners.

You can place them around your space “wherever you see fit”, as the brand claims when you are prompted to set them up. In our test room, we place the speakers on either side of the projector to achieve a degree of spaciousness and stereo separation, facing towards our seating.

There is no Dolby Atmos support, but they offer Dolby Audio to create 2.0-channel sound.

The projector itself feels practical and sturdy. There is a flexible cloth handle that makes it easy to carry around, especially as the complete package weighs only 2.4kg. You can tilt the body up to 130 degrees towards your screen or wall, and the body acts as a stand, which makes set-up simple.

The included remote control has a sleek, premium feel. You can use this to control power and volume, access auto-focus and streaming platform shortcuts.

Features

On the back of the projector, you will find an HDMI eARC port that supports up to 4K at 60Hz. You will also find a USB-A port and a 3.5mm aux jack if you want to connect your headphones.

As we mentioned, the P1 doesn’t have a built-in battery, but you can run it from a portable power supply via the USB-C port: Anker, Soundcore's parent company, sells specific chargers in a bundle on its website, or you can use a non-official one as long as it has a minimum power output of 100W.

Anker claims that its official 737 Power Bank delivers “one hour of continuous use” with the speakers attached to the body and the brightness set to full. That is, of course, not long enough for a full movie or even a football match, so we feel it’s best to think of the P1 as a compact mains-based projector, rather than a true portable one.

The P1 can output an image up to 180 inches in size, and it has a 1080p resolution and HDR10 support.

Nebula claims the projector can produce up to 650 ANSI lumens of brightness, which is brighter than its Xgimi MoGo 4 rival, which comes in at 450 ANSI lumens.

It also uses the Google TV operating system, giving you access to streaming apps such as Apple TV, Prime Video, Channel 4 and Netflix. There is no BBC iPlayer, although you can cast it from your phone as a workaround.

There is a range of smart features to help you get your picture looking straight. That includes auto-focus and auto-keystone, but you can also do this manually if you need to fine-tune. Once you have set up your projector, you can save settings into presets if you repeatedly use it in the same location.

You can also employ Nebula’s own “Vision Fit” tech to set up your screen. This is used via the Nebula Connect app, from which you take a photo of the surface where you’d like to project the image, and the projector will use it to optimise the results. It’s a neat idea in theory, but it is rather time-consuming, and we find ourselves sticking with the more traditional settings.

The app gives you much of the same functionality as the remote control, but you can also access more detailed picture and sound settings.

Picture

When we first switch on the P1 in the default 'Nebulamaster' picture setting in our dark test room, we are greeted with an overly vivid and unpleasant image. We kick off with Sinners on Blu-ray as Sammie drives up to his father’s church, where his movements look exaggerated and too smooth, so he bobs around in the car like a giddy child on a seesaw.

Once we change to Movie mode and turn the MEMC (Motion Estimation and Motion Compensation) setting to low, motion looks much more natural and lacks distracting judder. Sammie enters the frame with a little bit of a bounce, but feels more grounded than in the default setting.

We also knock the sharpness and saturation settings down a few notches. With these adjustments, the picture is much more balanced. In Sinners, as the sun peers out from the clouds at the start of an ominous morning, the projector delivers a relatively natural-looking image, but the colours lack the degree of pop required to deliver a genuinely punchy picture. Instead, you get a slightly flat overall look. The shining sun, for instance, lacks the vibrancy to break through the rest of the picture.

Switching to No Time To Die on Blu-ray, as Daniel Craig’s Bond has a near miss with an explosive device, his skin tone also lacks much natural warmth, instead looking a little pale and unnatural. His features look overetched as well (even with the projector’s Sharpness setting dropped down to zero), exaggerating wrinkles and bumps to a clearly unrealistic degree.

This is a wider issue with the P1 – especially when it comes to wide scenery shots. In the sweeping footage of the Italian town, the projector exaggerates the outlines of the trees and bricks in the buildings. This makes the image look too busy, and in fact means the whole picture verges on grainy instead of clean and clear.

Shadow detail is not the strongest, either. In Civil War, as the journalist protagonists recover from a traumatic event, young photographer Jessie sits with her legs hanging out of a parked van. It is hard to distinguish the interior from her dark hair in the shadows. There is a differentiation between the inside and the outside of the van, but it does not go as dark as rivals.

Despite its claimed 650 lumens, the P1's brightness is underwhelming and lacks the punch we expect. When we test the projector in a lit room, the P1 is still usable, but it isn't impressive, and it loses some shadow detail and colour.

We compare the Nebula model with the Xgimi MoGo 4. Both projectors accept movies in HDR, and the P1 is certainly the better performer in this format. It looks less overcooked compared with the MoGo 4, and keeps the image more balanced overall.

When we switch back to SDR content, the MoGo 4 delivers an image with both deeper blacks and punchier highlights, resulting in a more three-dimensional overall picture that immediately grabs the eye.

While the Nebula P1 offers a reasonably balanced picture and performs acceptably in brighter environments, its lack of punch and brightness holds it back, and in picture terms it can't match the cheaper MoGo 4.

Sound

The P1’s speakers, each powered by 10W of amplification, really are the stars of the show. They deliver clean, engaging sound that adds much-needed energy to movies and TV shows.

In Civil War, as an army chopper takes off, each swing of the rotor blade is portrayed with an impactful punch that elevates the tension of the scene. The wide soundfield is impressive, too; the chopper moves from one side of the screen to another, giving a real sense of breadth.

Dialogue is also clear and emotive. Vocals take centre stage, as they should, but not at the expense of the rest of the mix.

The performance of the speakers will depend at least somewhat on where you can put them in your space, especially if you are outside, and they’re certainly not on a par with the best dedicated Bluetooth speakers, but compared with the speaker systems of most portable and lifestyle projectors, they’re a massive improvement.

Verdict

With the best sound we have heard from a coffee table projector at this price, the Soundcore Nebula P1 certainly offers something new. And its clever, compact design makes for a practical and flexible proposition.

It's a shame the picture performance isn't at the same level, but if you don't mind sacrificing some quality there in the name of much better sound, this is a compelling choice.

SCORES

• Picture 3
• Sound 5
• Design 4

MORE:

Read our review of the Xgimi MoGo 4

Also consider the Hisense M2 Pro

Read our Anker Nebula Mars 3 Air review

Best projectors: the best options tested by our home cinema experts

Calling all home cinema enthusiasts who want a discounted projector with ultra-portable credentials. Right now, the four-star Anker Nebula Mars 3 Air is on sale for just $420 at Amazon.

The 30% discount sees the small all-in-one, battery-powered projector drop to an all-time record low, down $179 from its $599 list price. Suffice to say, that’s a great deal.

This is also one of the best outdoor projectors, so why not draw up that list of friends, select a shortlist of films, and create a cinema night to rival all others?

The Anker Nebula Mars 3 Air comes with a built-in battery, speakers and wi-fi, meaning it’s pretty much as easy a setup as you’re going to get.

And, as far as portable projectors go, the picture you then get from the Anker Nebula Mars Air 3 is mighty impressive. In our full review, our expert testers say: “The Mars 3 Air’s pictures comfortably outgun those of most portable rivals in pretty much every department.

“For starters, we’re really struck by how sharp and detailed everything looks. Despite the projector using (like all portable models) a fairly small lens aperture, every pixel and texture of a good HD source is faithfully rendered, adding up to a really dense, smooth, cinematic finish to the picture with little evidence of visible pixel structure. Even when you push the image to beyond 100 inches.”

Its maximum picture size is a massive 150 inches, but we find that projecting to this full size means you lose too much brightness. For us, an image size of between 70 and 90 inches brings the best balance of brightness and scale.

And, picture aside, the Mars Air 3 is also pretty nice to look at all by itself. With a slick design and comfortable carry strap attached to its top edge, it’s easy to move around even if it is weightier than many ultra-portable projectors.

It compensates for being that little bit heavier by providing fuss-free, easy to set-up movie/TV nights. It has a built-in Google TV operating system that is packed with all the popular video-streaming apps, including Netflix, Prime Video, Apple TV+ and Disney+. It also has an HDMI input, a USB port and Bluetooth for connecting other sources.

In terms of sonic performance, the Mars 3 Air has built-in speakers that our testers praise: “Not surprisingly, given how small they are, most portable projectors sound pretty horrible – if they even have any built-in sound at all. The Mars 3 Air’s 2 x 8W speaker set-up, though, bucks this trend in handy fashion.”

One important feature of a truly portable projector is its battery life. For the Mars 3 Air, you’re looking at 2.5 hours of mains-free movie playback (depending on how bright you set your picture and how loud you run your speakers).

So, if you’re looking for a projector that is affordable, compact, feature-packed, and just about bright enough to be used outside, the Mars Air 3 is one heck of a pick.

And right now, it’s down in price to just $420 at Amazon. But hurry: this mobile movie marvel is on a limited-time deal, so it won’t be sticking around for long!

MORE:

Read our Anker Nebula Mars 3 Air review

And these are the best portable projectors you can currently buy

You might also want one of the best soundbars to go with it

The recommended entry-level projector in our best projectors guide is the Hisense M2 Pro; but that model seems to be out of stock everywhere I checked.

If you need an affordable 4K projector right now, then, we suggest the Epson EH-TW7100. It is discounted right now down to just £999 at Amazon and Peter Tyson.

It’s also not far behind the Hisense in terms of performance, as evidenced by our five-star rating. We also gave it a What Hi-Fi? Award, which is far from easy to achieve. Get it now for a record-low price.

The Epson EH-TW7100 is a brilliantly well-judged and affordable 4K projector and our expert testers said as much when they carried out their exacting review.

While it’s a shade pricier than an entry-level device, securing it for £999 at Amazon makes it a whole lot more enticing.

With excellent contrast, a balanced, nuanced colour palette and good connectivity options, it’s a solid option for most people.

It’s easy to set up and install, as well as producing a picture that emulates that of the cinema – exactly what you want to hear when shopping for a projector.

And fortunately, you don’t have to tinker with any settings to get a great image right from the get-go. All the preset modes are well judged, and the colours are balanced with naturally smooth motion.

You’ll be able to project a 100 inch image from between 2.95 and 4.77m away from the screen, and the unit can be ceiling, rear-rack or desktop mounted.

The EH-TW1700 has Bluetooth for audio-out to a soundbar or wireless speakers, which is a really useful and impressive feature. To go with that it also has sufficient HDMI and powered USB ports.

All this led us to say in our review: “That performance, combined with its luminance, connectivity options, flexibility and the available accessories, all add up to a superb family projector that will make an excellent addition to almost any home. You won’t find better in this class.”

Which is why we are particularly happy to recommend it at its current price of £999.

MORE:

Read our full Epson EH-TW7100 review

Check out the best projectors: budget, 4K and ultra-short-throw

Plus, the best outdoor projectors: top models reviewed and rated

It’s unmistakably another Leica: the Cine Compact 1 is marked out by its solid aluminium Bauhaus-style housing, while Leica starts bringing the glass right from the clear frontage and outer lens.

So this is projector number three from the Leica Smart Projection division, again leveraging the camera-maker’s special abilities with glass and lens manufacture. And the new model brings a new affordable entry point to the luxury line.

This is a smaller projector than the award-winning Leica Cine Play 1, and it is also far more affordable than either previous model at AU$2990. The Cine Play 1 is AU$5990, while the ultra-short-throw Cine 1 Cinema TV has recently been price-reduced in Australia from AU$13,990 to $7990.

This new sub-AU$3000 smart mini projector much resembles the larger Cine Play 1, but it is significantly smaller at 209 x 226 x 193mm, while promising output of up to 1700 lumens (the specs note this is in ‘Ultra’ mode, so standard use may be slightly lower) and to support projection sizes of up to 220 inches.

Inside the projector, Leica’s optical system includes a Leica Summicron zoom lens with aspherical elements, optimising the output of a 0.47-inch pico DMD and triple RGB lasers to promise pixel-shifted 4K images which further benefit from the secret sauce of the company’s proprietary LIO (Leica Image Optimization). Dolby Vision and HDR10+ are onboard to display such High Dynamic Range material to its maximum ability.

It has smart set-up features: zoom, autofocus, keystone correction and intelligent screen framing are set up automatically wherever you may choose to throw the image from the projector’s integrated “360° rotation system”, which Leica notes makes the projector a particularly straightforward solution for everyday use.

It has built-in sources as well as connections for external devices; crucially there is the VIDAA operating system onboard to access streaming services like Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon Prime, while we believe VIDAA now has all Australian catch-up services and Foxtel apps also running (we will check this when we review this projector in upcoming weeks).

The Leica Cine Compact 1 also has one HDMI input, which also has eARC so could be used to take streaming sound to an external audio system, should you wish to expand on the built-in stereo speaker system; there is no optical or analogue audio output available. There’s a USB-A slot, presumably for file replay, along with screen sharing via Wi-Fi, and audio streaming available via Bluetooth or Apple AirPlay.

One inclusion which may attract a particular sub-set of movie fans: there’s a 3D Mode here, compatible with DLP Link active shutter 3D glasses.

And while a screen is always best for best performance, Leica has optimised the Cine Compact 1 for real-world scenarios including projection on walls or ceilings, even in gardens or on terraces.

The mini projector comes with an eco-friendly transport case; there’s an optional Leica stand available, while the integrated tripod thread enables the projector to be mounted on the ceiling.

Leica is, of course, known to consumers primarily as a high-end camera maker, but in fact has multiple arms: it began in the German town of Wetzlar in the 1860s when a talented engineer called Ernst Leitz made initially telescopes and subsequently microscopes, before his son, Ernst Leitz II, famously committed the company to building Oskar Barnack’s revolutionary compact camera, with its idea of using 35mm cinema film, soon to become the standard for still photography.

So right from the offset, it was image quality which drove the company, and older readers may recall how Leitz/Leica home slide projectors were once the gold standard for home projection of still images (Leica’s first projector was released in 1926). So the company’s now three-strong smart projector range is extending their imaging expertise back into home projection after a few decades absence.

The Leica Cine Compact 1 will be available for demonstration in Leica Stores Sydney, Melbourne and Chadstone, and in authorised Leica Cine dealers.

• See all our Australian reviews from Sound+Image and Australian Hi-Fi magazines

The FIFA World Cup is fast approaching on the 11 June, and that means the football fans among you are likely looking for the best way to experience one of the biggest sports events of the year.

If you are hunting for a way to watch the first kick on the big screen, then you may have considered a portable or coffee table projector. Both categories have the advantage of being compact enough to carry from room to room easily, all while boasting a larger screen size than the average TV. The only difference is that a portable projector features a built-in battery, whereas a coffee table model does not.

But which projector is the best choice for you? We have hand-picked three projector models that cater to slightly different needs, so there is something for everyone.

Whether it's portability or picture quality at the forefront of your mind, we have got you covered.

Best cheap

It’s fair to say that when we first had the Wanbo Vali 1 in our test room, we were not expecting greatness from the affordable model. That’s because it launched at a jaw-droppingly low price (£270 / $279 / AU$499) and is available even cheaper right now in the UK at Amazon for £229.

Despite its low cost, the Wanbo model exceeded our expectations. It’s not the perfect projector, but it delivers a natural and enjoyable picture.

We say in our review that, when watching Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes: “During the opening minutes, as our ape protagonists swing through the green undergrowth and out into the open trees, the projector portrays a surprisingly balanced image that neither jumps out as overly vibrant nor dull.”

The built-in speakers are not quite as impressive, but they still deliver clear dialogue. For the World Cup commentary and crowd atmosphere, we recommend using a separate speaker for the best experience.

You can tilt the body up to 200 degrees, so the image can be projected onto a screen, ceiling or the wall (we strongly recommend investing in a screen to get the best picture quality from the hardware). It offers a maximum screen size of 180 inches as well.

There is no built-in battery on board, so you will need to have access to the mains. In terms of streaming, it comes with Android TV built-in (more on that later). The projector itself is easy to carry around, weighing about 2.8kg. It also sports a white, rounded body and large single lens which makes for a practical-looking design.

If you are looking for a projector to deliver a big-screen experience on a budget, the Wanbo Vali 1 is a great option.

Best portable

For those looking to take their viewing experience on the go, the Xgimi MoGo 4 offers a portable design that is also worth your time.

It comes with a built-in battery and claims to offer up to 2.5 hours of battery life. That figure is only applicable for Eco mode, which reduces the picture’s brightness, so it is not ideal for outdoor viewing.

That means it offers a fair bit of wire-free usability without being connected to the mains. You can project an image up to 120 inches without warping the picture, and auto-keystone and auto-focus features make for easy set-up.

In terms of design, the Xgimi projector is incredibly compact. It measures 21 x 10 x 10cm (hwd), which is about the same as a large water bottle. That makes it easy to pop into a bag if you are on the move. Google TV comes built-in, and getting the projector up and running takes a matter of minutes.

There is a small remote that hangs off the body of the projector so that you don’t have to keep track of multiple components. This remote keeps things extremely minimal with just controls for volume, a D-pad to navigate the menu and a back button. You can also use the more comprehensive separate remote which offers more navigation features.

While it is more expensive than the Wanbo model, the MoGo 4 is still a budget-friendly projector, coming in at £509 / $499.

But how does it actually perform? When we had it in our test room, the Xgimi MoGo 4 offered a sharp and punchy picture. While its vibrancy can be a little heavy-handed at times and motion can appear smeary, the overall image is easy to watch and keeps a fairly natural balance.

Best entry-level 4K

If your budget can stretch a bit wider, then there’s an Award-winning 4K projector model that is ideal for your sports needs. Enter the Hisense M2 Pro, which scored a five-star review when we had it in our test room.

It is currently available for £899 / $1299, which is a fair bit more expensive than the above models. But that is justified by its 4K resolution (via pixel shifting) and more premium-feeling design.

The M2 Pro sports a silver box-shaped body with a spherical glass lens at its front and speakers at its sides. A hinged stand is bolted to its bottom, which makes it easy to adjust the angle of the image. There's also a common thread adapter in the base, which opens up the possibility of mounting the projector to the ceiling.

As with the Xgimi model, you will find Google TV built in to give you access to a selection of streaming services. You can push the screen up to 200 inches, and auto-keystone and auto-focus are available.

In terms of its picture performance, we call it "one of the best performers we’ve seen in its class" in our review. That is thanks to its sharp image, warm skin tones and well-handled dark detail.

Its 2.0 in-built speaker system offers enough clarity and separation to keep voices and background noise separate enough for comfortable viewing, but loses composure with more intense, busy audio.

Despite this, the Hisense is a brilliant 4K projector that takes both movies and sports matches to the next level.

The streaming conundrum

While all of the projectors on this list (and the majority of those in the portable or coffee table market) come with a smart platform built-in, there are some extra considerations that must be made when it comes to watching the World Cup.

In the UK, all of the matches will be split between BBC iPlayer and ITVX. If you are looking for 4K coverage, the BBC says it will be selected matches in UHD but we don't know exactly how many that will entail.

If you are based in the US, you can watch platforms such as Fox Sports and YouTube TV.

Each streaming platform has slightly different offerings when it comes to native app support. Google TV, for instance, tends not to include BBC iPlayer, but ITVX is usually available. This differs with individual models, but it has been our experience with the models on this list.

Luckily, there are ways to get around this, such as casting from your phone or laptop. This will let you watch the content on the big screen, but it comes with its own issues, such as high latency. That means you could hear the screams or groans of your neighbours before you see the ball hit the back of the net.

Another option is to use a streaming stick with support for the missing apps. Our best budget recommendation currently goes to the Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max (2nd Generation), which offers a wide range of streaming support, including ITVX and BBC iPlayer. You can currently snag the streamer for £70 at Argos in the UK.

There is the even cheaper Amazon Fire Stick HD which retails at £40 at Amazon, but we have yet to review this. If its performance is anything like its more premium sibling, however, then it has the potential to be a worthy choice.

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These are the best projectors on the market

Check out the best streaming devices

Here is our review of the Hisense M2 Pro

If you want to level up your home cinema set-up for movies, TV shows, or the upcoming FIFA World Cup, then you may be looking at investing in one of the best projectors. If you're working on a budget though, I've just found a sneaky deal that will save you some serious money.

Right now, Samsung's The Freestyle 2nd Gen can be yours for just £297 at Richer Sounds, a whopping £600 saving and the lowest price we've ever seen it drop to. But, there are a couple of things you need to do.

Firstly, you'll need to enter code 'RSTV50' at checkout to secure a discount. Then, as this is a cashback deal, you'll have to pay the £349 before claiming 15 per cent (£52.35) back directly from Samsung. Full T&Cs can be found here.

We're yet to get Samsung's The Freestyle 2nd Gen into our testing rooms, but we were lucky enough to get hands-on at its launch event. And what we enjoyed in the four-star original Samsung The Freestyle, we found to be present again, along with a couple of new surprises.

And while we haven't made a definitive verdict, we still had plenty to say from our time with the newest model. Firstly, the 2nd Gen is pretty much identical in design, with its compact build, cylindrical body and podium-style base helping it stand out from rivals.

The spec sheet offers more of the same, with a 1920 x 1080 resolution, alongside support for HDR10+ and HLG. It uses an LED light source, with a claimed 30,000-hour life span, and a claimed peak brightness of 230 ANSI lumens. The built-in speaker capable of 360-degree sound that featured in the original is back, as well as Samsung’s extremely clever auto keystone feature.

While physical connectivity options are limited to micro HDMI (although the connector does support HDMI ARC), The Freestyle excels in what it offers in terms of simplicity and portability with smart features and gaming abilities all built-in.

One of those new abilities is access to Samsung's Gaming Hub, meaning you can play Xbox games using an Xbox Game Pass subscription directly through it.

Plus, you've got access to Samsung's Tizen OS, which can be found on its TVs, giving you multiple streaming services including Netflix, Prime Video and Disney+, all of which are reached via dedicated hot keys on the remote control.

Visually, it was hard to get a clear impression of the 2nd Gen in the bright exhibition space we saw it in, but our expert tester said: "There appeared to be decent detail to the picture, with solid enough colours and good definition and detail on faces and clothing. One of the areas we criticised the original for was the below-par black levels, but it was impossible to really get an idea of this in an exhibition environment."

If you're looking for an entertaining projector that'll suit your movie watching and World Cup needs, the Samsung The Freestyle 2nd Gen is an incredibly entertaining option, especially at this knockdown price, just £297 at Richer Sounds.

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Read our hands on with Samsung The Freestyle 2nd Gen

Or, check out our full Samsung The Freestyle review

And here's the best projectors: budget, 4K and ultra-short-throw

American brand Roku has launched its first range of projectors in the UK: the Sharp H272 and the Aurzen D1R.

As their names suggest, the models are launching with two respective hardware partners to “combine advanced projection technology with Roku’s intuitive operating system”.

Richard Halton, Country Manager at Roku UK, claims the projectors are, “bringing the seamless streaming experience Roku users know and love to an exciting new form factor – making big-screen entertainment more accessible than ever”.

The 1080p projectors include Roku’s full app library, including Netflix, Disney+, BBC iPlayer, and HBO Max. The two have also been designed to work when projecting the image onto a screen or wall (we highly recommend the former for the best picture quality).

The Sharp model claims to go up to 120 inches, while the Aurzen entry is a little smaller with a maximum screen size of 100 inches.

The Aurzen D1R is the brighter of the two, offering 280 ANSI lumens, compared to the Sharp H272’s 200 ANSI lumens. These are both on the lower end of the scale, so they will likely perform best in a dark room.

The D1R also has the on-paper edge when it comes to sound, offering two speakers driven by 5W of amplification, which beats the Sharp’s 3W offering. Both come with Dolby Audio, but, unsurprisingly for a budget model, there is no Dolby Atmos on the cards.

There are a few smart features included with both models, which should make setting them up a little easier. These include auto-keystone and auto-focus.

Bluetooth and HDMI connectivity are available, so you could pair wireless speakers, a soundbar, or a subwoofer for “an enhanced home theatre experience.”

You can also access Apple AirPlay support for streaming music, videos, photos, podcasts, and games from Apple devices.

Their designs look fairly similar, with both sporting a white rectangular body with rounded edges.

We don’t have pricing yet, but both will launch in June. With their brightness specifications and streaming offerings, Roku seem to have its sights set on the likes of the Xgimi Vibe One (£219 / $269 / AU$599) projector.

When we reviewed the Vibe One in our test room, we praised its compact design and natural-looking image, which ultimately earned it a solid four-star rating. We'll wait to see the projectors in our test room before giving a verdict, but they could be a strong entry in the budget projector market.

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