Turn Your Living Room Into a Home Cinema With a 4K Smart Projector
Turn your living room into a home cinema with a smart projector. Choose from a variety of screen sizes and ANSI lumens to suit your space and needs.
True 4K models feature 8.2 million pixels without using upscaled technology. Other smart features include 1.6x zoom, auto focus, and auto keystone.
LED or Laser Light Sources
There are two essential elements to consider when selecting a projector: imaging technology and light source. The imaging technology determines how well the image will look, while the light source essentially gives the projector its brightness.
Some smart projectors feature an LED light source, while others use lasers. Both have their advantages and disadvantages. For example, LEDs have an excellent lifespan and can last up to 20,000 hours. This significantly reduces maintenance requirements and overall cost. However, lasers can offer even higher brightness and superior color saturation.
When shopping for a smart projector, it’s important to choose one that has the features you need. For instance, if you want to stream content from your smartphone or tablet, look for one that supports screen mirroring. Some also have a voice command function, which lets you turn on your projector with just a few words.
If you want the best possible picture quality, consider opting for a 4k projector with Dolby Vision support. This technology provides industry-leading display color and brightness, along with a high level of detail in shadow areas. It’s an excellent choice for watching movies in a dark room, and it also works with other HDR formats such as HLG and HDR10. The Hisense C1 is a good example of a 4K projector that supports Dolby Vision.
Smart Home Theater Features
Whether you’re hosting a business presentation that’s pin-sharp, immersing yourself in a video game with every detail revealed, or turning your living room into a personal movie theatre with visuals that rival commercial cinemas, smart home theater projectors offer transformative experiences. These optical marvels throw a crisp image onto a wall, white sheet, or dedicated projection screen using advanced light-through lens and laser technology.
In addition to delivering high-resolution images, most of our picks support HDR, a newer imaging standard that adds more nuanced colors and better contrast to movies, TV shows, and games. The Hisense C1 is a9s LCD projector one of the first portable 4K projectors to support Dolby Vision, which promises even more nuanced colors and improved shadow detail than HDR. In our tests, it also delivered good color accuracy and contrast, as well as low-enough black levels to make dark scenes truly dramatic.
Many of our picks also feature built-in speakers that deliver rich, detailed sound with plenty of range to fill a large space. Others offer HDMI ports that let you connect to external sound systems for a more immersive experience. Some also use a cable standard called HDBaseT to carry audio, video, Ethernet, controls, and power over a single long-distance cable. This lets you position your projector in any room and adjust the image size as needed.
Smart Connectivity
Unlike traditional projectors that need to be wired for connections, smart home theater home theater projector projects can connect wirelessly to external devices. This makes it easier for you to stream content from your smartphone, tablet or laptop. Some models also support voice control, allowing you to interact with the projector through your voice.
Moreover, some of the smart projectors have advanced display features that can make your home cinema experience even more enjoyable. These features include auto focus and keystone correction which are important for getting a smooth display on your screen. They can also detect the ambient light and automatically adjust the image brightness to suit your room lighting.
Other smart features that you should look for in a projector include wireless connectivity, built-in apps and long-lasting LED or laser light sources. These features can make your projector more convenient to use and easy to set up. You can find a wide selection of these devices on the market, with some offering a portable design and lamp-free technology.
One of the best smart projectors is the Epson HC 2350, which offers an excellent combination of low cost and high performance. Its three-LCD design makes it the lowest-cost model at this writing that can reliably produce the neutral colors and deep blacks that make movies so engaging. It also supports Dolby Vision and HDR10, both of which are more advanced than plain old SDR. In our testing, it had superb contrast and brightness, impressive color accuracy, and detailed shadow details.
Smart Control
While traditional projectors are bulky and lack several connectivity ports, smart 4K projectors boast a wide array of in-built features to make the home theater experience more enjoyable. These include wireless connections, inbuilt apps, long-lasting LED or laser light source, and easy user interface which enables simple setup. Some even come with auto focus and keystone correction to render a perfect display.
The XGIMI HORIZON Pro is one of the best smart projectors with amazing color display. It has a native 4K resolution of 3840×2160 with about 8.2 million pixels and a brightness of 5000 lumens. It also has a powerful built-in speaker and comes with an HDMI port to connect external devices. This model also has a keystone correction feature that corrects the image distortions caused by the screen’s edges.
This model is also capable of supporting Dolby Vision and HDR10. It provides excellent color accuracy, contrast, and shadow detail, as well as a low-enough black level to retain dramatic impact in dark scenes.
Unlike previous generations of projectors, which were often loud and clunky, this one has no fan noise, so you can enjoy your movie, TV shows or sports events in peace. It uses a three-LCD design for superb image quality and won’t show the rainbow artifacts that plague single-chip DLP models. Moreover, it has a comprehensive control interface that’s accessible through a single remote.