 I really like projectors. I much prefer a bigger image over that from a TV and there's something nice about the texture of a projected image to my eyes. Also I think TVs are kind of ugly. I have a really big wall in my living room and even if I put up a 70 inch TV it would still look small and kind of dinky. Now that a movie theater isn't really an option my friends have been asking me what kind of projector to get. So to help them but also myself I've been living with nine different projectors. After three months and a lot of movies I found the projector that's best suited for most situations. There are a lot of specs and choices to make when it comes to projectors but basically the important things are how easy is it to set up, audio, image quality and price. Currently there are five kinds of projectors that you can get for your home. DLP, LCD, LED, LCOS and laser. For this test I looked at DLP and LCD which are common for home projectors and also one laser projector ranging in price from $530 to $2,800. You can spend a lot more for high-end dedicated home theater projectors but for this test we kept the budget reasonable. Most of the models I tested max out at 1080p resolution but we do have a couple of 4k pics as well. DLP or digital light processing and LCD projectors are lamp based so the bald will eventually degrade but they're much more affordable. DLPs tend to be smaller and more portable and offer more contrast and blacker blacks while LCDs tend to have a sharper crisper image and appear brighter than DLPs even at a lower lumen count. Laser projectors are not lamp based. On average the laser lasts five times longer than the bulb in a DLP or LCD projector and unlike a lamp based projector where a bulb emits light through a color wheel to produce the image, laser projectors generate only the exact colors needed for an image. This efficiency makes for a much brighter image and very accurate colors and deep black levels in contrast. All this comes at a much higher cost. On average low-end laser projectors are around $2,000 although you can find some smaller ones for less. We also need to talk about the projected images surface. The surface you project on is important. You can use a wall, white is typically best, but a regular wall won't show off the projectors best self. Every tiny bump refracts light and creates small shadows so the image ultimately loses quality and brightness. You'll benefit a lot from getting a projector screen especially if you'll be watching with a little daylight. Projector screens brighten the image noticeably depending on what they're coded in. I used an inexpensive 80-inch Panaview pop-up screen. You can find a similar one for around a hundred bucks but it's still made for a better experience than just pointing the projector at my wall. And as for content every projector has an HDMI input so I was easily able to stream things by plugging in my Roku stick. You can also use a laptop, Apple TV, or whatever other device you use to stream video. Out of the nine projectors I tested the best overall, the one I'll be recommending to my friends, is the $899 Epson 2150. Epson may remind you of a school teacher's overhead projector but they make good projectors. The image is really great. It's big, it's bright, and its color is really pretty. The 2150 is an LCD projector which gives it a really crisp image. It's 1080 but the image is really good for what most people will want. It's only 2500 lumens which seems kind of low but again LCD makes a low lumen count seem brighter and more vibrant than a DLP projector would with the same lumens. You can watch this with some ambient daylight but definitely not broad daylight pouring in. And toggling to dynamic mode makes for the best daytime image. That's a great thing about Epson projectors. You can easily toggle between viewing modes and they're all great. At night if I was watching a movie I'd use cinema which looked great with dark blacks. I like how the modes are in the corner of the image not in the middle like most others blocking the content. Also the 10 watt speakers are loud. You likely won't need external speakers with this model. The fans are also loud though and it gets hot. I would avoid putting this right next to your head and honestly that's easier than it may seem because the Epson 2150 has automatic keystoning which feels like a magical feature. Keystoning is important. It allows you to straighten out the image so the projector doesn't need to be perfectly parallel with the wall. There's also really great manual knobs. Focus, zoom, lens shift, and keystone can all be done manually which is way easier than with digital controls. The zoom is also 1.6 times which is exceptional. Without moving the projector you can have an image that ranges anywhere from 80 inches diagonally across to 132 inches across. So if it's too bright in your room during the day you can make the image smaller to more efficiently use the lumens available. This zoom lens paired with all the other controls makes life way easier. If you move or if you end up putting the projector in a different room you'll be able to customize it to the new space very quickly. All in all the Epson 2150 just works well. It's easy, flexible, and offers a bright crisp image. If you're looking for a cheaper option then I recommend this projector. The Optoma HD 146x costs $549 and shares many of the same specs as the Epson 2150. It's 3600 lumens which is actually more than the Epson 2150 but it's a DLP projector so it appears darker and less vibrant. In bright mode the projector image is very green. It's kind of unusable but in vivid or cinema mode the image is great. Vivid mode is pretty bright. If you're viewing in the middle of the day you'll need to put shades down especially if you don't have a screen but it's not a bad experience and its contrast is good. In general I really like the way Optoma projectors look. They have a nice color and texture and although the HD 146x isn't quite as nice as Optoma's higher-end projectors the image still looks good but it doesn't get as crisp as the Epson 2150, partly because it's DLP not LCD. The HD 146x also lacks an audio quality. Its 3 watt speaker is unsurprisingly not loud but the fan is loud. At maximum volume you can still hear the fan if the projector is near your head. It's manageable though if this is gonna be for your bedroom the speakers will be fine but if you're trying to do a movie night with friends or you've got loud street noise I'd recommend speakers which you can hook up through a 3.5 millimeter audio output. Also it only has a 1.1x zoom lens which is pretty minimal so it's hard to make the image really big in my apartment. At 11 feet away the image is about a hundred inches which is big but I wish it could get even bigger. If you're looking for a projector with better image quality and have a larger budget go with the Vava. This should come as no surprise because the Vava is the most expensive that I tested by over $1,000 and it's the only one of the bunch that is a laser projector. It's $2,800 which is a lot more than the Epson 2150 but what you get is brightness. The Vava is 6,000 lumens which means you can watch it with a good amount of daylight and no screen but it still helped to pull my shades down. Its contrast ratio is 1,500,000 to 1 which makes it extremely crisp and rich. The image quality is closest to that from a TV but since it's a projector I think it's nicer to look at. The other thing that makes it kind of a TV is the fact that it's an ultra short throw projector. It goes basically right up against the wall unlike traditional projectors which are mounted behind you. I personally don't like this setup but it comes down to preference. It's also huge and heavy. It's not ugly but it just takes up a lot of space. Also the maximum image is only 150 inches diagonally across and for that it needs to be about 10 inches from the wall which means it's kind of awkwardly encroaching on prime living room real estate. It's definitely sharper and brighter when it's closer to the wall about five inches from it but the image is then only about 80 inches. It projects 4k and the speakers are really really good. The Vava definitely wins the best speaker award too, exponentially. Inside is a full 60 watt Harman Kardon soundbar. I found myself playing music and turning off the screen a lot which is a nice feature that most projectors don't have. But it heats up the room noticeably. There were a few other things I also didn't like about it. It took me a long time to set it up. It connects to the internet, downloads software, and since it's connected to the internet every time I turn it on it asks me to update. I don't need it to connect to the internet there's no point especially since there's barely any useful apps other than YouTube on it. Also all the settings are digital including the focus which I find way hard to know if it's accurate and this is hugely annoying. The image bends a little on the sides. It was really hard to get it perfect which just shouldn't be the case for a $2,800 device. So even though the image is technically the best one I wouldn't spring for this unless you really don't want to get a TV but basically want a TV. If you're looking for a comparably good and bright image that'll cost you a thousand dollars less I recommend Optima's UHD 52 ALV. It costs $1,789 and it also projects 4k with over 8 million pixels. At 3500 lumens it's just over half of what Vava claims but it doesn't feel that dim. It's still bright and there are different viewing modes while the Vava only has bright and standard. Like with the HD 146x the bright mode on the UHD 52 ALV has a strong green tint. But cinema mode on this 4k projector is honestly beautiful. The color is just so pretty I almost feel like I'm watching film. It gives everything a gold almost 70s filter which I think is in part because of its color space. The projector uses rec. 2020 or BT. 2020 which can produce more colors than the previous rec. 709 that basically all of these other projectors use. Using the menus can be a chore but once it's set the image stays good when you make it bigger too and it can get large up to about 300 inches double the Vava. There's a manual 1.3 times zoom adjustment so from about 11 feet away it can get an image as small as 80 inches diagonally all the way up to 100 inches. There's also a manual lens shift so you can raise or lower the projection. Audio isn't bad either there are two 5 watt speakers it can get loud enough but it's a bit empty sounding with not a lot of bass. The projector fans are very quiet and you can easily plug in speakers but it's not totally necessary. Last but not least if you want a really big image or if your space is a lot smaller then you should get a short throw projector. The BenQ TH671ST costs $750 and allows you to project a 100 inch image from a little less than five feet away. Its image is sharp even when it's so big but the colors specifically the darks are muddy. It's 3000 lumens which isn't very bright so if you're trying to get a bigger image like 200 inches you'll definitely need darkness. The audio is surprisingly loud for only having one 5 watt speaker. If you have a small dark room this projector is great for it. There are so so many projectors out there but ultimately you just want to get one that you enjoy using. If you're looking for a projector that's really easy to use has great image quality and pretty good audio quality and isn't too too expensive you can't go wrong with the $899 Epson 2150. Thanks so much for watching a stranger talk about projectors for over 12 minutes. If there's a projector that you really like that I didn't mention please let me know in the comments. I love projectors I'd love to hear about it. Also if you're interested in buying any of the projectors I talked about check out the links in our description below.