Best projectors for 2025, tried and tested for at home cinemas and gaming

Anker’s newest flagship 4K projector packs a reported 3,500 lumens of brightness, making it suitable for almost every environment, regardless of the lighting conditions.

It’s crammed with premium features, including a robust retractable handle, built-in touch-sensitive controls and liquid cooling for quiet operation.

Impressively, its spatial adaptation AI scans the projection surface and automatically sets up the best image with its motorised gimbal, making it great for lugging between rooms or the occasional movie night outside. However, its heft and bulk mean you don’t want to travel long haul with it.

It’s no slouch in image performance either, with a super vibrant and bright picture that offers deep levels of contrast. Nebula projectors also do surprisingly well in the sound department, and the X1 offers pleasingly punchy yet clear audio. However, it doesn’t come cheap, particularly when rivals offer slightly superior picture quality.

The adorably styled L2 looks like it’s been plucked straight out of a Pixar sci-fi feature, with its cute robot head and single-lens eye. There’s also a lens cap for protection, though it was fairly loose on my unit and came away too easily. That said, it’s a very light unit with a vertical hinge for easy manual adjustment.

For the price, you’re getting a solid low-end 1080p projector. Granted, its contrast and colour gamut fall quite short of others on this list, but for casual viewing, it does the job. Autofocus and auto keystone are also bundled into its no-fills UI, which is a nice surprise. Its overall sound is passable, though mid-range notes sometimes lack clarity.

Sadly, I found this projector’s brightness struggled against even ambient light, but considering the wallet-friendly price, it’s an absolute steal and a worthy model for a spare room or student room.

The Valerion visionmaster pro2’s chrome ribs and smooth, premium styling are sure to be conversation starters. Due to its hefty weight, you’re unlikely to want to move it around regularly, but it features a standard tripod mount for versatile installation.

The system benefits from autofocus and auto keystone, while the 0.9-1.5:1 optical zoom and kickstand make setting up between different rooms easier.

Outstandingly for a relative newcomer, image quality rivals premium home cinema setups, with superb levels of contrast and images that pop off the screen with a wide colour gamut. In dark scenes, like those in The Matrix, the dark colours it delivers are impressive, thanks to its dynamically adjusting laser. Brightness is also great, with the visionmaster pro2 faring well even in daylit rooms. The audio performance isn’t quite on par with its visuals, but it’s robust and punchy enough.

Premium projectors don’t usually cater to gamers, but the W500i looks to buck this trend. This 4K HDR model from BenQ yields refresh rates of 120Hz at 1440p or even 240Hz at 1080p.

It shows too, with even graphically intense games like Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and Astrobot running smoothly and responsively, with no screen tearing or motion blur. Plus, the low input lag translates to highly responsive gameplay in twitchy, fast-paced FPS or driving games. Image quality is also commendable, with smooth detail and a decent colour output, though true cinephiles might want to plump for a brighter model.

It’s a short-throw projector only, so you’ll need to be fairly prescriptive about your placement, but the manual 1.2x zoom and focus help. The W500i also has a good sound performance, even if the bass is a little lacking.

While it won’t outshine its class-leading rivals, the W500i offers decent value and excellent gaming credentials.

This 4K UST lifestyle projector from the Korean tech giant is designed to sit right next to your wall and project huge images of up to 130 inches. And while the pricetag might make you wince, know that it oozes quality and class with its wide speaker-grille design and curvy white lines.

Image performance is in keeping with its looks. It has a bright and luscious screen that’s colour accurate, and details are extremely sharp and well defined. Its 3,450 lumens are also great against rooms with a fair bit of daylight. Plus, there’s AI upscaling to crank up the quality on SD content.

Audiophiles will have no qualms with Samsung’s heavy-hitting sound — its 40W Dolby Atmos up-firing speakers filled the room with sound, creating an impressive soundstage that brings a cinema experience to proceedings. Plus, its SolarCell remote utilises voice control and can charge via light. Clever stuff.

The MoGo 4 Laser’s genius lies in its design, with one end of this wine cooler-size projector serving as the power button, lens cap and adjustable stand. Pull it out, and the unit automatically turns on. You can then place it on any surface and rotate it 360 degrees to project the image where you want it.

The internal battery is good for around 2.5 hours of viewing, making this a projector that offers decent portability. It won’t last for the extended editions of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, but it’s enough juice for most movies. There are even four filters that magnetically snap to the lens, offering ambient mood lighting for your space.

Despite it being a 1080p beamer, image performance surprisingly holds up well, with vibrant colour, smooth motion and great overall contrast, even if colour accuracy is slightly off and needs retweaking. Plus, with 550 lumens of brightness, it’s best suited to darker rooms with the blinds down. But while the onboard Harman Kardon speakers offer decent clarity, they lack the power of bigger rivals, particularly during outdoor showings.