Best Projectors of 2022 - Editor's Choice Awards (2024)

Welcome to our latest annual Editor's Choice Awards.

The Editor’s Choice Awards celebrate the best products of the year. These are the items we think stand head and shoulders above the rest. The criteria for being eligible are simple: it must be a product that has been reviewed by AVForums and it must currently be available as part of the official product range from a manufacturer and not discontinued before the end of 2022.

Here we present the best projectors available during 2022 across a number of price points and use cases.

Seen by many as the epitome of home cinema, projectors appeal to many enthusiasts who want a genuine recreation of the cinema experience, and the reflected image in a dark room goes a long way towards scratching that itch. However, the last few years have seen manufacturers producing more models which cater for brighter, family environments; expanding their features beyond just hardcore film viewing to encompass TV and gaming pastimes too. Categorised as Ultra Short Throw (UST) models due to their ability to sit extremely close to the screen/wall, they can produce images of sizes which often exceed even the largest of TVs and their falling prices and increasing availability means there are a number of models we were able to look at this year.

The past 12 months have seen some seriously rapid price erosion in the living room UST projector marketplace. So much so that despite Xgimi putting the cat among the UST pigeons with its aggressively priced Aura, it’s actually the heavily reduced Optoma CinemaX P2 that takes the Best Value UST projector crown.

... still more than good enough to look like an absolute steal at its new and improved price

The CinemaX P2 cost £3k when it first appeared but can now be had for just £1,699. Admittedly it’s taken more than a year to drop that low, meaning it’s not the most up to the minute model. It arguably delivered the most cinematic pictures in its class when it first appeared, though, as well as pushing boundaries with its three HDMI ports and built-in sound system. So, while it’s aged a little, especially when it comes to its best-ignored built in smart system, it’s still more than good enough to look like an absolute steal at its new and improved price.

While there are more spectacular UST performers out there, there’s no model we’ve enjoyed watching films on more than the LG HU715Q.

The all-round quality of the HU715Q’s pictures is consistently a joy to watch, with its sharpness, brightness and, best of all by UST projector standards, contrast all working together to create visuals that do a better job than any other UST projector of making you feel like you’re watching a huge TV rather than a projector.

... there’s no model we’ve enjoyed watching films on more than the LG HU715Q

The contrast controls also help the HU715Q feel like it’s delivering a more genuine high dynamic range experience than most of its peers - or all of its peers, actually, at anything close to its £2,500 price point.

Relatively easy set up, attractive looks and an excellent built-in smart TV system round off the HU715Q’s home cinema appeal.

No UST projector we’ve seen to date has really taken the gaming bull by the horns. None of them support the latest 4K at 120Hz or variable refresh rate gaming features like most premium TVs handle nowadays, and we’re also still waiting for a UST projector that gets input lag (the time a display takes to render picture data) down to the sort of gaming-friendly levels that TVs and a growing number of standard throw projectors are now managing.

The Xgimi Aura’s gaming talents [...] stood out from the UST crowd

The Xgimi Aura’s gaming talents, though, still stood out from the UST crowd. Its bright, crisp, clean and surprisingly well saturated images suit gaming well, and its just over £2k price is more affordable than some of its more video-focused rivals. Its input lag is on a par with the best current UST rivals at 56ms, its 60W Harman Kardon sound system delivers good immersion with today’s typically powerful game soundtracks, and most notably of all, its exceptionally clean motion handling copes unusually well with gaming’s fast pans and action.

Even though you can now buy one for not far off half its £6,999 launch price, the most premium of Samsung’s two Premiere UST home entertainment projectors, the LSP9T, is still every inch a premium proposition. Partly because its current £3,999 price remains relatively high by today’s UST standards, but mostly because of the hugely impressive specifications and features tucked inside its crisp white bodywork.

The LSP9T combines a high-end three laser arrangement (where each of the red, green and blue colour elements gets its own laser light source) with a unique optical arrangement to deliver a higher colour volume than any other UST projector yet - up to 147% of the DCI-P3 HDR colour spectrum.

... the projector really does deliver unprecedented colour richness and range

This colour claim isn’t just a ‘numbers game’ either; the projector really does deliver unprecedented colour richness and range, especially when it comes to reds.

Propelled by exceptionally high brightness, this intense colour saturation helps the LSP9T hold its own against ambient light, making it a great option for people whose living room doesn’t easily lend itself to the full black-out treatment.

The LSP9T seals its premium deal by carrying a Freeview HD tuner and the same comprehensive smart system found on Samsung’s TVs.

Hisense’s 100L9GTUK doesn’t actually want you to think of it as a projector at all. Instead, it’s sold as a ‘Laser TV’ - and it really does go further than any other UST projector to live up to this TV billing.

Its biggest selling point is that it ships with a screen included in its £3,999 price. This isn’t just any old screen, either. It’s a 100-inch ambient light rejecting screen designed to suppress the impact of ambient light (even quite direct light sources coming from the sides or above the screen) on the screen’s images. The only thing the screen keenly reflects is the light coming from the triple-laser projector sat below it.

... as an added bonus Hisense will currently come and install the screen for you at no extra charge

This helps the 100L9GTUK get the maximum impact from the projector element’s impressive 3000 lumens of maximum light output, and as an added bonus Hisense will currently come and install the screen for you at no extra charge. No small thing given how tricky it can be to get the screen and projector set to precisely the right relative heights.

The 100L9GTUK completes its uniquely TV-like experience by carrying a Freeview HD tuner, a trio of HDMI ports and a well presented built-in streaming system.

The LG HU715Q is our all-round UST projector of the year for four simple reasons. First, it delivers the most all-round enjoyable and consistent video picture quality of any UST model we’ve seen. This holds impressively true, too, across the wide ranging set of TV-like picture presets it supports, and its pictures also adapt better than any rival to daylight and movie-night ‘black out’ room conditions.

...it delivers the most all-round enjoyable and consistent video picture quality of any UST model we’ve seen

It’s relatively easy to set up and use, essentially copying the menu structure and webOS smart features from LG’s TVs, and it’s got a decent built-in speaker system.

Finally, it delivers all of its home cinema and TV-like charms at a surprisingly affordable price for what’s on offer.

A replacement for the popular DLA-N5, the bulb based NP5 adds some newer features to the impressive Frame Adapt HDR technology such as two full-bandwidth 48Gbps HDMI 2.1 inputs with support for 4K/120 input signals and a low input lag of 36ms, meaning gamers can benefit from the terrific projected images too.

There are also fully motorised lens shift controls along with focus which allows switching aspect ratios for movie fans, something that is rare at this price point or lower. Moreover, it's a consistent system that hits the same saved points every time it is used.

While £7,500 is still a fairly large amount of coin, it is certainly a more attainable level for many more users than the BLU-Escent laser wielding NZ stablemates and the NP5 only really loses out on the longevity and convenience offered by the laser models plus the ultra high end optics of the NZ9 flagship. In most other regards you'll get the same sublime images. so don’t let the fact that the NP5 is a bulb-based projector get in the way of your final purchasing decision.

If you have the optimum room environment and conditions, the JVC will reward you with some of the best possible projected SDR and HDR images available at this price point.

The JVC DLA-NZ7 is the excellent starting point to the latest JVC laser line-up with full native 4K support from the three new D-ILA chips as well as new functionality for HDR10+ compatibility, making the NZ7 one of the few projectors to feature almost all the current HDR formats, as well as its own Frame Adapt dynamic tone mapping technology, which offers superb HDR content reproduction.

The addition of full bandwidth 48Gbps HDMI 2.1 inputs and 8K/e-shift provide future-proofing, with support for 8K/60Hz and 4K/120Hz which is ideal for those next-gen gamers who want big-screen thrills. For movie fans, it produces a cinematic sheen that others struggle to compete with and shines with deep blacks, excellent mid tones and peak highlight details courtesy of the tone mapping which brings out the very best in the image.

... sits in a class of its own

Ignore (if you can) the fact that £11,500 is the entry point to JVC's BLU-Escent laser-based models and accept that you'll have to get by on one kidney, because the NZ7 sits in a class of its own and delivers the kind of images that will make you glad you're a film fan.

As predicted, after a couple of quiet years, JVC has re-invigorated its home cinema projector line-up with the release of the BLU-Escent laser light sourced NZ series of models, which starts at £11,500 for the DLA-NZ7- the winner of this year’s Best Mid-Range Projector award - before accelerating through the pricing gears for the NZ8 (£15,800) and NZ9 (£25,000).

And recognising that not everyone will be able to avail themselves of a laser model, the company has provided the more affordable bulb based NP5 as an option for those that hanker after the quality and performance promised by these new thoroughbreds without flirting with bankruptcy.

But the real excitement is the fact that much like for the previous DLA-N5, N7 and NX9 models, improvements and additional functionality are likely to be forthcoming to coax the maximum potential from these projectors. Indeed, during the review process for the NZ7, a firmware update dropped for all the latest models which added Filmmaker Mode to the available picture presets plus two additional Frame Adapt picture modes, while the laser-based projectors received a new laser dynamic control mode. It’s this continued evolution which helps push JVC to the top of the tree for projector manufacturers.

It’s this continued evolution which helps push JVC to the top of the tree for projector manufacturers

While JVC can be justly proud of its legacy - it celebrated the 25th anniversary of its D-ILA technology this year - and of its talented stable of new home cinema projectors, we hope it will also continue to listen to its user base when improvements are requested.

But for now, it seems hard to see any other firm challenging JVC for the Best Projector Manufacturer crown, especially if it continues to plough this bountiful furrow.