In this video we’re breaking down the five best 4k projectors in 2021. I’ve included options for every type of consumer. Whether you’re looking for a budget home theater projector, one that’s great for gaming or a projector with smart TV capabilities, I’ll have the product for you.
First up is a solid 4k projector for at-home viewing that’s especially well designed for watching live sports. The BenQ TK800M 4K UHD Home Theater Projector retails for around 1200 and delivers a sharp image with low latency for a smooth viewing experience no matter what you’re watching. This projector measures 10.7 by 13.9 by 5.3 inches and weighs 9.2 pounds.
All its buttons including power and menu are placed on the top side as well as the dials for zoom and focus adjustment for easy use. The 1.1 times zoom offers a range of throw distances from 2.2 meters for a 60-inch image up to 4 meters for a 120-inch image. The image has a high native contrast ratio of 10 000 to 1 ensuring that the image quality is sharp and giving it the best dark black levels in its class.
It’s also bright at 3 000 lumens of brightness so you can use the projector even during the day with some ambient light in the room. Image clarity and sharpness are enhanced by the 4k optimized lens array with seven elements in four groups with greater light penetration while projecting. The 4k image is produced by 8.3 million distinct pixels to render an image quality with a high level of detail. There’s also an auto vertical keystone correction function that helps you maintain the proper rectangular flat image from varied locations.
Latency is also kept low at 48 milliseconds for a smooth experience while playing games on consoles like PS5 Xbox series X, Nintendo switch and more. The low input lag also makes this a great projector for watching live sports and it has dedicated picture and sound modes for sports.
The audio is great too with a powerful 5-watt power speaker that delivers enhanced sound quality for elevated enjoyment including resonant bass and crisp sounds for vocals and commentating. The BenQ TK800M 4K UHD Home Theater Projector is the best budget 4k projector with low latency, clear audio and a deep contrast ratio making it a solid projector for enjoying sports and other entertainment at home.
If you want a projector design specifically for gaming the Optoma UHD38 delivers. The Optoma UHD38 is an amazing gaming projector that will give you a home cinema feel while playing your games. It has solid response times and ultra-fast refresh rates at a price of about fourteen hundred dollars. This 10.6 by 12.4 by 4.6-inch projector weighs 9.25 pounds and produces 8.3 million distinct addressable on-screen pixels giving you an incredibly detailed picture.
The 4k image lets you game in 60 hertz which is great for most gaming but if you’re playing online and want to get better performance you can lower the resolution to 1080p and maximize the refresh rate to 240hz.
The response time of the Optoma uhd38 is 4.2 milliseconds which is amazing for a projector. It also gets incredibly bright at 4 000 lumens of brightness for a clear picture that you can even use in daylight and a 15 000-hour lamp life.
The dynamic black technology also provides more depth to the image by smoothing the lamp output to create a high contrast ratio of 1 million to 1. Thanks to the stunning contrast bright scenes appear clear while dark scenes remain detailed, so you have an added advantage while spotting enemies.
Playing for extended amounts of time is also easier on your eyes when using a projector rather than a TV. TV screens produce harsh direct light causing eye strain for viewers, but projection screens reflect light for a more comfortable viewing experience.
On top of that ultra-detail technology ensures enhanced image sharpness while maintaining a high frame rate to deliver crystal clear pictures. The eight-segment color wheel also increases the color ratio for richer, more vivid cinematic image. You’ll also find two HDMI outputs plus one VGA output and the UHD38 also has the 40-degree keystone adjustment for easy setup in addition to 1.1 times zoom.
The Optoma UHD38 is the best 4k projector for gaming with fast response times and refresh rates. You get a deep rich picture quality that can remain sharp with some ambient lighting. This is an amazing projector if you want to break from your tv and immerse yourself in large screen gaming.
If you want a 4k projector that offers amazing value for the price, then the Epson Home Cinema 3800 could be for you. The Epson Home Cinema 3800 costs around 1700 and features excellent contrast handling, a balanced nuanced color palette and provides a lot of connectivity options to help you get the most from your projector. This compact projector measures 12.99 by 16.14 by 6.46 inches and weighs only 6 pounds.
It can project a 100-inch image from a minimum distance of about three meters and can either be placed on a desk or ceiling mounted. Adjustments are easy to make either with the buttons on the projector or by using the remote. The remote is especially nice since its backlit has shortcuts for most functions and feels premium for a pack in remote.
There are two HDMI ports on the back as well as USB 2.0 ports for source material. The 20-watt internal speaker gives good sound reproduction right out of the projector. Bluetooth is for audio out only but it’s great for connecting to wireless speakers for a more immersive sound stage or even headphones. The precision lens utilizes a multi-element precision glass structure for outstanding image clarity and edge to edge focus uniformity along with precision vertical and horizontal axis lens shift adjustment.
The contrast ratio is 100 000 to 1 showing detail even with dark tones and providing bright highlights. Pixel shifting technology precisely controls three individual high definition lcd chips to parallel process millions of pixels to produce the 4k image. At 3 000 lumens the bulb is bright enough to handle ambient light without appearing washed out. Another feature is that this projector offers support for high performance active 3d glasses to faithfully reproduce all the source 3d information to maximize the visual effect of 3d movies.
You can also game at 60 frames per second on all the latest consoles and devices with game worlds brought to life thanks to the wide range of compatible color formats. The Epson Home Cinema 3800 is the best 4k projector for the money with a bright bulb precision lens and support for 3d making it an excellent value that the whole family can enjoy.
Anyone looking to set up a series home theater should put the Epson Home Cinema 5050UB at the top of their list to consider. The Epson Home Cinema 5050UB has an excellent contrast ratio for deep dark shadows and bright popping highlights and a motorized lens with horizontal and vertical lens shift plus ample room for a price of about three thousand dollars.
This projector measures 17.7 by 20.4 by 7.5 inches and weighs 24.7 pounds. It’s designed with advanced three lcd technology that displays 100 of the RGB color signal for every frame. This allows for outstanding color gamut while maintaining excellent brightness.
To achieve an amazing 4k resolution the 5050 uses the same advanced pixel shifting technology as the Epson 3800 for an exceptionally sharp 4k visual experience. Full 10-bit hdr3 color processing accepts 100 of the HDR source information to faithfully reproduce HDR content for an exceptional visual performance.
There’s also onboard digital image processing with 12-bit analog-to-digital video processing for real-time smooth tonal transitions eliminating banding, blocking and other compression artifacts from disrupting the visual performance. Images are projected at a brightness of 2600 lumens making the picture pop in a home theater setting. Epson ultra-black technology is a proprietary compensation filter that controls the polarization of light this allows the 5050 to suppress any stray light within the signal producing an outstanding dynamic contrast ratio of one million to one.
Another great feature is the motorized lens that offers 96.3 percent vertical and 47.1 percent horizontal movement which should be enough to let the 5050 fit in just about any home. There’s also a significant motorized zoom of 2.1 times and the lens is also capable of precision HDR adjustment providing real-time HDR curve adjustment for 16 steps of control to fine-tune the HDR performance.
The Epson Home Cinema 5050UB is the best overall 4k projector with a highly adjustable lens, deep contrast ratio and real-time image processing. Cinephiles will be happy to be able to watch movies the way they were meant to be seen from the comfort of their home.
Finally, if you want to go all out on a 4k projector then the Samsung The Premiere LSP9T is a fantastic choice. At a price of about 6 500 the Samsung The Premiere LSP9T is an amazing living room projector that works in light and dark environments, has outstanding sound and packs a full TV style smart system.
This projector measures 14.4 by 21.7 by 5 inches and weighs 25.35 pounds and is an ultra-short throw projector that casts an image onto a wall above it instead of in front of it which makes setup easy. Its gloss white finish looks and feels premium and is offset nicely by the gray fabric that sits over the speakers. At work is a laser with 2800 lumens of brightness that provides 4k and HDR picture quality standards.
Brightness and color volume are both exceptional thanks to an innovative new laser light source design. This is a projector that handles HDR content wealth despite that content being designed for TV rather than projection technologies. The premier’s 4k images are dense and cinematic free of visible image structure even at its 130-inch maximum image size.
There are three HDMI’s and an RF input that carries a fully functioning digital tv tuner and there’s also an ethernet port and a USB port. Like new Samsung TVs this projector has the same full online smart TV system Tizen OS. Newer Galaxy Phones can connect to the projector for streaming just by tapping the phone against the projector and there’s also built-in Bluetooth headphone support. Samsung’s Bixby system also lets you use voice commands, and you can connect Alexa and Google Assistant devices too.
The built-in sound system is impressive with a large area of sound that resonates through the room rather than seeming to come from just the speakers. Dialogue comes through clearly and the position of the audio does an amazing job of matching the action. The Samsung The Premiere LSP9Tis the best splurge 4k projector with an abundance of features including voice assistant and smart TV capabilities making this a projector that can replace your TV for big screen home theater experience.
