If you were to do a montage of any What Hi-Fi? reviewer’s life, you would see a lot of footage of us in windowless rooms sitting on a sofa, staring at a screen or in front of a hi-fi rack.
For me specifically, around the 2022-2026 period, that would include lengthy segments of me humping and dumping USTs on and off our test benches, as I ran our yearly Awards shootout for the UST category.
Editor’s Note: If anyone uses the footage at my wake, don’t include the audio. As fellow UST tester Lewis Empson knows, my language gets a little salty when setting them up.
A wasted life? Maybe. But it didn’t stop me from doing it again this year. And after doing so, if you’re thinking about buying an ultra short throw projector (UST), either as a TV replacement or a home cinema in a box, I have good and bad news.
Things are getting better
Regular readers will remember USTs have long been the subject of my regular AV reviewer rants-at-sky monologues. But for What Hi-Fi? newbies, the short version is that these projectors suffer from three common issues.
The first is their black level. Projectors, by their nature, can’t match the perfect blacks of OLEDs. That’s because they create images by projecting light onto a surface, rather than charging individual pixels. Unless a really clever new technology comes out that can project individual pixels, or do some other clever trick I haven’t thought of, that’s not going to change.
But USTs have especially struggled with them, generally falling into one of two camps. The first, being dominated by the likes of Xgimi, tries to hide the inherent greyness of the blacks by cranking the contrast. This is my least favourite approach, as it cuts swathes of dark detail out of the picture.
The second, and in my mind better, camp accepts the compromise, letting the blacks remain slightly grey, in order to retain dark detail. Yes, it’s not as punchy, but at least you get to see what the director shot, which is the more important thing, in my humble opinion.
Older UST models, including former Award-winners, such as the now-retired Hisense PX3 Pro, also tend to favour razzamatazz over authenticity, cranking colour temperatures and volumes a smidgeon too far.
Thankfully, this year, I can confirm strides have been made addressing both issues.
Two key examples come to mind from this year’s group test, proving that point. First, the Award-winning AWOL Vision Aetherion Max (pictured above); second, the five-star Hisense PX4 Pro.
Running the two head-to-head with past Award winners, five-star rivals and competing USTs sent in for Awards consideration, the difference between the two newer models and their predecessors was immediately apparent.
Starting with the PX4 Pro, the moment we powered it up, the difference in blacks between it and the PX3 Pro was apparent. We said as much in our review, where we reported:
“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. [Civil War] 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.”
Then, on the AWOL, things continued to improve, with colours, black level and everything in between combining to deliver the best experience we’ve had with a UST, period. Hence its Award and our verdict:
"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.”
But things still aren’t perfect
The issue is that while things are getting better, the USTs still aren’t “perfect”, and there’s one big elephant in the room: their price.
UST projectors as a category rely on a lot of clever tech to let them deliver such big pictures, with tiny throw distances – many today can deliver a 120-inch picture, standing less than a foot away from the surface they’re projecting onto.
And on top of that, their focus on delivering everything in one box, including a Dolby Atmos sound system, means they come with premium price tags.
For people who really want the short throw distance above all else, that makes sense. But it makes them a harder sell for the mass market when you consider what you could get for the same price.
Take, for example, the Hisense L9Q, which I’m currently reviewing. In isolation, it’s a fun, engaging unit. But it costs £3999 ($5999 / AU$8995).
For only a fraction more, you could get a full-fat home cinema set-up built around the stellar Epson EH-LS9000 and Wharfedale DX-3 HCP. Yes, you’d have to dip into four-star territory for the AVR and limit yourself to an Amazon Fire TV stick for the source, but still, that’s a lot of cash for just the one box.
Equally, the PX4 Pro, which is the cheapest UST we’ve reviewed to earn a five-star recommendation, costs £2499 ($3999 / AU$4499). You could get a 65-inch LG C6 and a Sonos Arc Ultra for only £100 more right now.
This is a problem, as it puts the UST category in an awkward position. OLED TVs, especially five-star models like the C6, offer better picture quality than the PX4 Pro. The same is true when comparing the Arc Ultra to the UST’s inbuilt Atmos system.
And, having run them one after another, I can confirm that a proper 5.1 surround sound and long-throw delivers a more immersive experience than any UST I've reviewed.
So, while I’m happy to report the category is improving, I’d still only recommend it to a very specific type of home cinema fan.
You’ve been warned.
MORE:
These are the best OLED TVs we’ve tested
We rank the best surround sound systems
Our picks of the best projectors
