The Best Projectors of 2026

The Hisense PX3-Pro is the projector to buy first if you want one box that covers picture, sound, and smart TV without extra cables. It is an ultra short throw laser projector that sits inches from the wall, throws a 100 to 120 inch image most living rooms can fit, and carries a 50W Harman Kardon speaker system loud enough to skip a soundbar for casual viewing. Hisense rates it at 3,000 ANSI lumens; ProjectorCentral’s lab measured 2,669 ANSI lumens in the brightest picture mode, 11% under the claim but still inside the 20% tolerance the ISO 21118 lumen standard allows. At $2,999.99 direct from Hisense, it scores highest of the four projectors below on our weighted rubric, just ahead of the XGIMI Horizon Ultra.

Buyers on a tight budget should start with the XGIMI Horizon Ultra, which XGIMI currently sells for $999 against its $1,699.99 list price and pairs Android TV with two 12W Harman Kardon speakers built in. Anyone who wants the brightest raw measured picture among the projectors under $3,000 here should look at the Anker Nebula X1 ($2,999.00): ProjectorCentral measured 2,588 ANSI lumens in its brightest accurate picture mode, ahead of the BenQ and XGIMI units in this guide. Sports and gaming fans who watch mostly after dark and do not mind adding an external streaming stick should consider the BenQ W2720i ($1,799.00 at Newegg), the only 4LED-lit projector on this list.

How we picked

We scored each projector on five weighted criteria: brightness and picture accuracy (30%), throw and setup (20%), built-in audio (10%), smart features (20%), and 3-year cost to own (20%).

For prices and specs, we read each brand’s own US store: XGIMI’s product page for the Horizon Ultra, Soundcore’s page for the Nebula X1, and Hisense’s shop for the PX3-Pro. BenQ’s own W2720i spec page does not display a live price, so we priced that unit at Newegg, an authorized US retailer, instead. For independent brightness measurements, we read ProjectorCentral’s lab reviews and spec pages for the W2720i, Nebula X1, and PX3-Pro, and Projector Reviews’ lab review of the Horizon Ultra; both outlets project each unit onto a calibrated screen and read the result with a light meter rather than repeating the brand’s number. We queried the CPSC recall database at saferproducts.gov for “projector” before ranking anything; it lists a 2026 recall for the BenQ GV31 portable projector over a lithium battery fire risk, a different model from the W2720i in this guide, so none of the four picks below are affected. These picks come from published specs and named third-party lab measurements, not from testing in our own lab. See how we score for the full method.

What to look for

• Treat the lumens on the box as a ceiling, not a promise. Every projector in this guide measured lower on an independent light meter than its marketing number: ProjectorCentral read the Hisense PX3-Pro at 2,669 ANSI lumens against a 3,000 ANSI lumen claim, an 11% gap, while Projector Reviews read the XGIMI Horizon Ultra at 1,199 ANSI lumens in its most color-accurate mode against a 2,300 ISO lumen claim, a much bigger gap.
• Match the throw ratio to your room, not the other way around. A throw ratio at or under 0.3:1, like the PX3-Pro’s 0.22:1, means the projector sits inches from the wall; a ratio of 1.0 to 1.5:1, like the other three projectors here, needs roughly 8 to 17 feet of room depth for a 100-inch image.
• Add up the built-in speaker wattage before you plan on skipping a soundbar. 10W total, like the BenQ W2720i’s dual 5W drivers, is fine for casual daytime viewing; 40W or more, like the Nebula X1’s paired 15W and 5W drivers or the PX3-Pro’s 50W Harman Kardon system, can fill a living room on its own.
• Check whether the smart platform is built in or a separate dongle. The Horizon Ultra, Nebula X1, and PX3-Pro all run their smart TV software from the same board as the projector; the W2720i ships its Android TV software on a separate QS02 puck that plugs into an HDMI port, which is one more remote and one more boot cycle.
• Ask how many hours a day you will actually run it. Our 3-year cost math below assumes 3 hours a day; double that to 6 hours a day and the electricity line for every projector here roughly doubles too, since none of these four use a replaceable lamp within a normal 3-year window.
• Search the recall list by product type before you buy. None of the four projectors in this guide were on the CPSC recall list as of Sep 16, 2026, though a different BenQ model, the GV31 portable, was recalled in July 2026 for a battery fire risk.

FAQ

Is ANSI lumens the same as ISO lumens?

Not exactly, though the two are meant to track closely. ANSI lumens is the older, more commonly independently measured brightness standard; ISO 21118, the standard XGIMI prints on the Horizon Ultra’s 2,300 ISO lumen rating, is a newer method that allows for a measurement tolerance of about 20% versus a comparable ANSI figure. Either way, treat the number on the box as a manufacturer claim until a named tester remeasures it, the way ProjectorCentral and Projector Reviews did for the four projectors in this guide.

Which of these projectors needs the least setup work?

The Hisense PX3-Pro. Its 0.22:1 throw ratio is an ultra short throw design, so the unit sits on a low console inches from the wall instead of needing a ceiling mount or a shelf 10 or more feet back, which is what the XGIMI Horizon Ultra, Anker Nebula X1, and BenQ W2720i all need for their 1.0-and-up throw ratios.

Do I need a special screen for an ultra short throw projector?

You can point the PX3-Pro at a plain wall, but Hisense’s own bundles pair it with an ambient light rejecting (ALR) screen, because UST light hits the screen at a steep angle that a standard white wall or screen scatters unevenly. Budget for that screen separately; it is not included in the $2,999.99 price we checked on Hisense’s store. For a side-by-side against flat-panel TVs instead, see our TVs and home theater guide.

Which projector is cheapest to run over 3 years?

The XGIMI Horizon Ultra, by our math: its $999 current price plus an estimated $167.54 in electricity over 3 years, at an assumed 3 hours a day and $0.17 per kWh, comes to about $1,166.54 total, the lowest of the four projectors here even before accounting for its discount off list price.

Are any of these projectors under recall?

No. We queried the CPSC recall database at saferproducts.gov for “projector” on Sep 16, 2026 and found one open recall relevant to a brand in this guide: the BenQ GV31 portable projector, recalled in July 2026 for a lithium battery fire and burn risk. That is a different model from the BenQ W2720i recommended here, and none of the four projectors in this guide appear on the recall list.