Best Short Throw Projectors in 2019

Want to buy the best short throw projector, but the market's plurality makes you questioning? Click here to see the review of the best options in 2019.

Short throw projectors allow you to organize the viewing of broadcasts, where it is impossible to do with conventional projectors and are especially convenient when you need to organize it quickly without installation.

And here we want to share our thoughts with you on every particular product we decided to list in our Top.

Best Short Throw Projector Reviews

BenQ W1080ST - best short throw projector

BenQ W1080ST

I've tested BenQ W1080ST and this is probably one of the best short throw projector. I have to say that even in a small room, the projector provides a decent image size of 65 "from a distance of 1 m. In addition, with the projector W1080ST, you can not worry about the appearance of shadows on the screen.

During the daytime, the picture does get washed out, but that's to be expected. The only flaw I can find is the focus does not apply evenly. The middle of my picture will be sharp, but the sides will be slightly off. When I say slightly, I mean slightly. Normal people won't tell. I'm just very OCD, and I'm the type of person that will apply the test pattern every time before any viewing to make sure the sharpness is perfect.

Again, this is a very small issue. The 1080p looks great and plays games just fine. 3d looks great and just as good as the theater.

Pros

Short focus (allows you to get a large image from a short distance) - for me it was critical.
Lightweight.
There is no rainbow effect.
If the room is small and it is chilly in winter - it will not let you freeze.

Cons

Significantly more expensive than w1070 (they seem to differ only in focal length).
I have played with the focus and find that I cannot achieve an evenly focused image.
No Wi-Fi.

BenQ HT2150ST

Another pretender to be the best short throw projector on the market BenQ HT2150ST. This projector's picture quality is simply remarkable. I am highly critical of anything I purchase with my evaluation of electronics being especially stringent. Compared to the Optoma GT1080, the BenQ has better colors; equal or better black levels; less rainbow effect (abbreviated RBE); and better focus uniformity (perfect). Many people are concerned about the rainbow effect, so I am here to say that it is all but non-existent on the BenQ.

It didn't bother me much, but having now used the BenQ I feel spoiled. Quite literally the only way I can even observe the RBE is by putting up a high contrast scene like the grid test pattern and darting my eyes across the image. The black levels are as dark as or darker than my TV (Sony KDL W700B).

The final point of comparison in this category would be the focus uniformity. Here the BenQ takes the win with no question.

This resulted in me having to find a happy middle-ground between top-right corner focus and center picture focus. The BenQ immediately provided perfect focus without any chromatic aberration across the entire ~135" image. In short, the picture quality of this projector is remarkable.

Pros

The remote has all of the things that you use frequently.
It has many other settings on offer for the person who really wants to tinker with the projector.
It has the color correction option that adjusts the image based on the color of the surface you are projecting upon.

Cons

The black level could be better, and it could run a bit cooler. It is not plasma level or OLED level blacks, but it is most certainly as good as the high-end LED TVs.
Being a techie, it bothers me when any piece of technology runs hot. Perhaps this high heat is just inherent of traditional projector lamp technology, but it still bothers me.

Optoma UHD51A

I've tested this device and can name it as a top rated short throw projector. The first thing I notice is that it does have a fairly short throw and only a small degree of lens shift, so you will either have to ceiling-mount or coffee table mount. Focus is manual. No motorized "lens memory" features for fans of 2.35:1 constant image height setups. Shelf mounting at the back of the room is not likely to work in most installations.

This projector uses the 0.47" DLP chip with pixel-shifting. However, pixels do not appear to overlap when viewed up close - you can actually see the "screen door" effect if you put your face right up next to the screen. Unlike in the days of 720p projectors, no screen door effect is visible at normal viewing distances. Seeing the "screen door" up close is desirable - it means pixel-shifting DLP works and can reproduce a true 3840x2160 image, in which every pixel is individually distinguishable. It also means the optics of the lens are good enough to render high-resolution images.

Pros

Brightness is amazing.
It's flawless even on my bare wall. Crystal clear picture quality. The image doesn't distort at that width at all.
The native inbuilt speakers are good for beginners. However, you would want to hook up a sound system.

Cons

In a totally dark room, I wish the blacks were more. Even with HRD. They are good, but I wish it was darker on the darks.
It takes time to warm up.
Alexa connection is a hassle (Optoma's fault) their mobile app is terrible but managed to get it done. Not very useful, since I have Harmony.
Fire TV Cube doesn't recognize it when switching between regular 4k and HDR 4k. It takes a couple of seconds.

Epson Home Cinema LS100

This short throw projector took some time to figure out how to set it up (connections are well hidden; read the manual carefully) but once it was going, it was off to the races.

This is a legit home theater projector. That means for it to shine, you need to put it into a theater setting with low to no extraneous light and a high-quality screen to project on. Without these two things, don't spend the money because no projector will be as impressive as you're hoping. There are some easy how-tos on the internet on building a home theater screen that I'd recommend. Next, this isn't a conference room projector.

Pros

There's no white segments and no picture flicker. Secondly, the color and contrast are second-to-none.
It runs quietly, and if you're anything more than a couple of feet away, you won't ever hear it even with no audio playing.
It runs surprisingly warm. I figured it would be cooler since it's using a laser, but it generates a noticeable amount of heat around the unit.

Cons

For such a bright projector, the 120" screen size limit (some reviewers can get a good picture at 130") seems a little small.
Because the LS100 projects upward (or downward) rather than forward, the screen must be positioned about 2" (0.6m) past the base of the projector (that's 2 feet past the legs or mount point, not two feet from its projection lens).
Not 4k. Perhaps when 4K recording/mastering matures and screens become larger still, 4K will provide a noticeable upgrade.

Optoma GT1080Darbee

This unit also deserves to be among the best short throw projectors. It fits a very specific usage requirement: It needed to be ceiling mounted in front of a fan that I wasn't willing to move, leaving only about 4 feet between projector and screen. That yielded about an 80 - 84-inch picture depending on how I positioned the projector on the mount.

Once set up, the picture was big, bright, and sharp. In bright daylight, it's a tad on the dim side, but in a slightly or completely darkened room, I'd say it rivals any modern 1080p television in picture quality. It really is a game changer - perfect for viewing parties with groups, amazing with video games. Fan noise can be a slight distraction, especially if you have Dynamic Black mode on, which adjusts bulb brightness in real time and thus, the fan gets louder and quieter with it. Cranking up the volume alleviates that problem.

Speaking of sound, if you're using this for media, external speakers are a requirement. At max volume, the built-in speakers are still quiet, and low quality. That's typical for projectors, just something to keep in mind if you're pricing things out. I have it hooked up to a home theater system via HDMI.

Pros

This projector is able to make just over a couple of feet away.
Super easy to set up. Unbox it, put the batteries in the remote, plug the projector in, plug your computer/gaming system in, and turn the projector on.
The cooling fan is pretty quiet, and I can't even hear it when I turn on surround sound.

Cons

The Darbee setting casts a shadow to text on the screen, the higher you turn it up, the worse it gets. Yes, you can see some "pop" to the image quality with it on, its nominal at best.
When plugging in headphones the volume does not go low enough, pretty weird
Adding on to the above, the 3D picture disables all image adjustments like keystone correction.

ViewSonic PJD5553LWS

The short throw fits my purposes, which can be 2 ft. to 10 ft. This is perfect for almost any room.

I'll admit, I didn't really think too much about the resolution, which is 1024 x 768. The input/output jacks are a bit of a letdown. There are some old VGA monitor inputs, an HDMI input, and an RCA video in (but no RCA audio in which is kind of strange) There is mini-jack audio in and mini-jack audio out. For most purposes, I would say that the HDMI will work.

The speaker in the unit is decent for a projector. It's not bad on its own, but if you're going to show a movie to friends, you probably want to hook it up to another speaker.

One thing I wish I could adjust was the height of the unit in the back. I was projecting it on a wall and wanted to make the image come down. The front adjustments were all the way down, so my only option was to put a book under the back part of the unit to adjust the height of the picture.

Pros

From power-up to full brightness takes a couple of minutes (normal).
Great color saturation and the brightness is intense if you're coming from an older projector.
It works great even with low or dark conditions, in bright light, the visuals depend on the show being watched.

Cons

The only real surprise is the lack of built-in Wi-Fi.
The height adjustment legs are super flimsy. But I would imagine most people buying a ~$500 projector would invest the extra $15 for a ceiling mount, so this seems pretty irrelevant.

Buyers Guide

What is a short throw projector?

Short throw projectors visually differ from ordinary projectors by the large and convex front lenses of their lenses.

Such a projector is installed at a distance of 0.5 to 1.5 meters from the surface of the board. Ceiling or wall mount, which is often selected individually, allows you to install equipment directly above the surface on which the image will be projected. It is placed high and thus does not interfere with users to work and is protected from accidental damage.

What are the advantages of a short throw projector?

Probably, you saw how during the presentation, a person who needed to get closer to the screen partially covers the beam of the projector. This gives a tangible inconvenience to both the audience and the speaker because the bright light can temporarily blind him. And the reason is that the speaker (and sometimes the audience) is usually placed between the projector and the screen.

In practice, the most important thing is the use of short throw projectors - when you need from a short distance of 50-100 cm to get an image of 2.5 - 3 meters. Using a short throw projector is the only way to get a really large diagonal in a small room.

The advantages of short throw projectors become apparent immediately after switching on. They can be placed on the table near the screen itself, in front of the speaker and even more so in front of the audience. This eliminates the accidental overlap by someone of the luminous flux, as well as the desired "freedom of maneuver" during installation and configuration. In addition, reducing the distance from the projector to the screen reduces the scattering and reflection of light from the interior of the room, which contributes to increasing the brightness and contrast of the picture, i.e., in fact, provides a higher quality image.

Features to consider before buying a short throw projector

When choosing projection equipment should consider its resolution. To work with interactive whiteboards, models with XGA, WXGA, WUXGA or Full HD resolutions are suitable.

The first two resolutions are optimally suitable for the presentation and auxiliary teaching materials, since when watching videos for a long time, viewers may get tired of their eyes. Devices with HD-resolution are used for frequent demonstration of high-quality video, but redundant in the rest of the set of functions.

Models with XGA resolution are recommended to be used with 75 "(190.5 cm) - 78" diagonal boards (198.12 cm). When using short-focus projectors with boards of a larger diagonal, the projection distance must be increased to expose the entire interactive surface, which makes installation and use of projection equipment inconvenient. Devices with WXGA resolution are suitable for boards with a diagonal of 75 "-78", and for models with a diagonal of 93 "(236.22 cm) - 104" (264.16 cm).