5 Affordable Projectors To Consider Instead Of Buying A Bigger Television

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Many households rely solely on a smart TV as their home theater setup, while home theater enthusiasts tend to get more into building out a true viewing experience. For the former, easy access to streaming services and smart features like voice controls make a TV alone enough to gather around. For the latter, expansion through connectivity ports and an ensemble of peripheral equipment is required.

But a TV isn't the only piece of tech available to viewers, especially to those who may be looking for a bigger viewing experience. While long thought to be meant for only those looking to add a cinema-like experience to their home, projectors can be a quality alternative to simply upgrading to a larger TV. Many of the best projectors are more affordable than people realize, and there are even ways to make a cheap home projector look better.

While projectors have always offered larger viewing areas than TVs, they can now also come with built-in access to streaming services and plenty of connection ports for other equipment. Quality home theater projectors are available in the $1,000 price range, and with a little effort, even more affordable options can be found. We've done a lot of that digging and have handpicked some affordable projectors worth taking a look at in place of a bigger TV.

According to users, Epson sits near the top of the major projector brands. Its lineup can get a bit expensive, but the $433 Epson EpiqVision Flex CO-FH02 is a solid balance of quality and affordability. It's capable of projecting an image of up to 300 inches with a brightness of 3,000 lumens.

The projector uses the Android TV smart platform, so it includes access to streaming services like Netflix, Apple TV+, Hulu, HBO Max, Amazon Prime, and YouTube, among many others. Its smart features include voice search capabilities through Google Assistant. This can be used to track down content you're already familiar with, but also to seek out new movies and TV shows. The projector even comes with a remote control for the projector and a dedicated remote control for Android TV.

One drawback to the EpiqVision Flex is that it maxes out at Full HD 1080p resolution. This may be disappointing to home theater enthusiasts in search of a 4K projector option, but for viewers who aren't necessarily placing priority on resolution, reviewers at Amazon rave about the projector's brightness and overall image quality. The EpiqVision Flex CO-FH02 has received 74% favorable ratings at Amazon, and an even more affordable, lower-resolution model in the $330 Epson EpiqVision Flex CO-W01 is available as well.

One of the common mistakes people make when buying a projector is not paying attention to whether or not it supports 4K resolution. Staying within the Epson lineup, the Epson Lifestudio Pop Plus is a great 4K option. This will match most modern smart TVs, and the Lifestudio Pop Plus even comes with quality audio built in. It features a stereo system made by Bose, and while most home theater enthusiasts may want to lean into a bigger audio setup, those who don't already have one can get by with this project alone.

The Lifestudio Pop Plus is built on newer software from Google, as it features Google TV as its smart platform. This comes with built-in access to streaming services like Disney+, Netflix, and YouTube, as well as to many others. The Lifestudio Pop Plus is also compatible with the Epson Projection Studio app, giving users the ability to share their own videos through the projector. It can project a 150-inch image and reach a brightness of 700 lumens.

While the Epson Lifestudio Pop Plus does offer some value relative to other Epson projectors, the $537 price tag might be a little expensive for those focused solely on affordability. Amazon buyers give this projector an overall rating of 4.1 stars, with one 5-star reviewer even claiming it's the best budget 4K projector they've ever tested.

There are several Happrun projectors available at retailers like Best Buy and Amazon, but this Happrun 4K projector makes a great option for those focused solely on their budget. Best Buy prices it at $190 and the projector covers all of the essentials one may be looking for in a bigger TV. It has a maximum viewable screen size of 300 inches, and its minimum viewable screen size is 50 inches, so it can take the place of a smaller TV as well.

Despite this projector's budget pricing, it has some features found in much more expensive options. It projects natively in Full HD 1080p resolution, but it also has support for 4K, so it can still play 4K content, downsampling the higher resolution to 1080p as you watch. The 5W stereo speakers on the Happrun 4K projector support Dolby audio, but you might want to switch to a more robust audio setup for an immersive experience.

But there's always a catch with more budget-minded tech, and with the Happrun 4K projector, it's the brightness. It can only reach 200 lumens of brightness, making this a projector users will likely only be able to use in naturally dark rooms or rooms in which they can shut out sunlight. While it's only received five reviews at Best Buy to date, all of them are perfect 5-star reviews, with one purchaser expressing that they specifically preferred it over buying a new TV.

Getting back to native 4K projectors, the Ecosky U1 Pro is one of the best-reviewed such projectors at Amazon. It's received a 4.8-star overall rating, with one 5-star reviewer claiming it has a bigger and cleaner picture at a better price than a new TV, and with one 4-star reviewer noting the projector's "stunning" 4K video quality. This one outperforms from top to bottom some of the other options we've looked at, though it is on the higher end of the pricing spectrum, regularly going for $700. That said, it's available for $600 at the time of writing.

The brand claims the projector comes with a glass optical lens for clearer image quality. It features a liquid-air cooling system that prevents focus loss during longer viewing sessions as well as a native 4K chip that produces vibrant colors. The U1 Pro can even reach 1,700 ANSI lumens, so it's a projector that can be utilized in relatively brighter rooms as well, but dark rooms will always bring out the best of any projector.

The U1 Pro includes built-in 16W Hi-Fi speakers and a 600cc cavity for better bass. With ARC support, the projector can be connected to devices like soundbars, and with dual HDMI 2.1 ports and two USB ports, gaming consoles, streaming devices, and Blu-ray players can also be easily connected.

Another projector with great image quality and native 4K projection is the Optoma PK31 Photon Life. It comes with support for HDR 10, which provides more contrast and a little more punch to the imagery, but it also comes with some specs designed specifically for those who plan to do some gaming with the projector. According to the brand, the projector has an input lag of 4.6ms when playing back 1080p video at 240Hz, and a lag of just 16ms when playing back 4K video at 60Hz.

The 8.7 lb weight isn't the lightest, but it still makes the PK31 portable enough to be carried around. A 150-inch projected image is possible in areas where there's enough room for it, with the PK31 capable of reaching 900 lumens of brightness.

This projector is another model that can be priced on the more expensive end. But despite its $1,100 list price, the PK31 Photon Life sees massive discounts at Amazon quite frequently, and is typically available in the $399 to $750 price range. It also doesn't have any streaming services built in, though you can use its ports for connecting peripheral devices like streaming sticks, Blu-ray players, and gaming consoles. It has a 4.4-star overall rating but only a handful of reviews.

There are a number of cheap projectors on the market, but here we looked specifically at those that are affordable relative to purchasing a larger television. We looked at 65-inch TVs to determine a relative baseline. With smart TVs at this size starting in the $400 range, and with premium options running as high as $3,600, we decided on $1,000 as our price limit for this list and set out to find capable options that cost even less. That said, we also tried to include value-for-money models from the lower end of the price spectrum.

We have a lot of firsthand experience with home theater equipment and used that to narrow down the most capable options in this price range. We also leaned on customer reviews at both Amazon and Best Buy in order to determine which of these would perform best in place of a larger television.