6 Best Projectors You Can Buy For Under $150

Projectors are an excellent way to bring your presentations, movies, and other content from the screen to life. They also have a variety of uses in education.

These projectors can be used for home theater setups, or even as a stand-alone device that you can take with you anywhere. The technology is advancing at such a rapid pace these days, it’s hard to keep up with all of the new releases.

That being said, we’ve compiled the 6 best projectors you can buy for under $150 allowing them to easily find what they’re looking for. Let’s get started.

In A Hurry? Check Out Our Top Picks…

Top Recommended Projectors Under $150

Bigasuo 720P Projector

DBPower L22 Wifi 1080p Projector

Yaber V2 Wifi 1080p Projector

DBPower L21 Portable Video Projector

Vilinice 5000L Mini Bluetooth Portable Movie Projector

7500 Lumens Mini Movie Outdoor Projector

What To Consider When Buying A Projector Under $150

Types Of Projectors

DLP

DLP is the technology used in most home theater projectors today. It’s an affordable way to get high-definition video projection. It uses millions of microscopic mirrors that reflect light from one surface to another, then each tiny mirror is turned on or off as needed to create the image you see.

LCD

LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) is used in smaller projectors, typically for business presentations and PowerPoint viewing. The picture quality isn’t as sharp, but you don’t need to spend nearly as much to get a decent LCD projector.

Laser

Laser projectors use lasers (rather than bulbs) for ultra-bright projection with full HD resolution and natural color quality. They’re one of the most expensive options on the market today.

Short Throw

Short Throw projectors are more ideal for the living room or the office where you may not have a lot of space to get your projector. These projectors can be installed just 7-10 inches from the projection wall, and offer excellent resolution and colors.

Long Throw

Long-throw projectors are generally used in the home theater setting where the projector has to be installed just a little bit away from the screen, and can easily stretch 60 inches or more. These projectors offer excellent light output and sharpness with good color depth as well.

Mini Projector

Mini projectors are tiny versions of the traditional projector designed to be portable, allowing you to easily view your content everywhere. These mini projectors come in pico or pocket projector form factors and can fit inside a pocket or purse for ease of transport.

LED Projector

A LED projector is a new type of projector that uses an LED lamp in place of the usual mercury vapor, metal halide, or xenon bulbs. These projectors are often small and very light, making them ideal for mobile use on the go. They also don’t need to warm up like most traditional lamps used in other projectors do.

Bulb Projector

A bulb projector is a piece of equipment that projects animated and video images onto a screen or wall. It uses an incandescent light as the light source, similar to those found in traditional slide projectors.

Business Projector

A Business projector is a projector used for business presentations, to deliver content in a conference room or large meeting space. These projectors can either be placed on a table or mounted from the ceiling and they are often used to display PowerPoint presentations with a laptop computer.

Pico

A Pico Projector is typically very small, uses a LED or laser for illumination, and can display anywhere from VGA to WXGA resolution. They don’t offer as bright of a picture as some other projector types, but they’re easy to carry and simple to use

Projector Screens and their types

What is a Projection Screen?

A projection screen also called a movie screen or cinema screen is an opaque surface for projecting images from film projectors. They are generally either a painted white surface or a textured material such as Burlap stretched across a metal frame. In the movie theater, the screen is a surface onto which movies are projected and usually consists of either a white “acoustic” or “tab-tensioned” (pneumatic) pull-down screen.

A projection screen may also be used to project light into a container such as an open tent, display case, fishbowl, garage door opener storage compartment, or refrigerator. When the screen is painted white and the light source hits it, images can be projected onto it with high clarity.

Projection screens vary widely in their construction and material. The surface can be white (more common) or reflective (such as the silver-backed screen used with overhead projectors). Paint is also applied to the screen surface to enhance its reflectivity. Screens are usually made of vinyl or PVC and may use a variety of techniques to gain the most effective projection

Surface

The surface of the screen can be designed in many different ways. It can be textured, matte, semi-glossy, and even painted with a white (more common) or reflective material such as silver to help increase its reflectivity.

Types

The types of projection screens include front projection screens for home theater or business, portable models (such as pull-down screens), electric screens (with the option to the plugin), and inflatable screens.

Rear screen material

Projection screens can be crafted from a variety of materials. Most common are vinyl screens that are basically a white surface with small fabric to smooth out irregularities.

Others are made of more durable materials such as nylon or polyester. These materials have the advantage of being formed in very large sheets while still maintaining enough rigidity to maintain their flatness.

Other processes create projection screens from more specialized materials, including Balsa wood and various fabrics.

More Features To Look For

Brightness and Lumens

The brightness of a projection surface may be indicated by a single number or as a range. This is due to the fact that the amount of light output from any type of projector varies greatly depending on its light source, color wheel speeds, and other factors.

The manufacturer often specifies the screen’s brightness as “ANSI lumens” for home theater screens and “Color Lumens” for business projectors, also called Video. The ANSI lumen specifies the maximum brightness of a white area with high contrast images projected onto it, while Color Lumens specify the overall brightness with both black-and-white and colored content on the screen.

How Much Brightness Do I Need?

In the home theater market, black is usually preferred over white so a high contrast ratio is desired. In commercial projection, this is not as much of an issue as there are many different types of screens and projection technologies to choose from.

In general, using a screen with an ANSI lumen rating at least 1/3 higher than that of your projector is a good rule of thumb.

In some cases, especially with LED projectors, this can be less important as the brightness may vary depending on whether or not the content has a high contrast ratio. This allows for a single projector to achieve many different screen sizes and shapes with ease.

What happens if my projector doesn’t have enough lumens?

If you buy a projector that isn’t bright enough to fill the screen with your desired projection size, you’re getting much less than what you paid for. The majority of people use 1080p and 4K projectors which are pretty much the standard. This means your projector won’t be filling up all the pixels on the projector.

In a standard movie theater, you’ll notice shadows along the sides of the wall. If you take your projector back to where it came from, these shadows will become more prominent. Shadows are not part of the picture; they are what you see when there aren’t enough pixels to fill up all parts of the space.

People who enjoy watching movies in their homes sometimes install projectors so they can experience their favorite flicks as if they were at the cinema. But you really need a high-quality projector and screen to do it right. If your theater is dark, you’ll notice these shadows even more prominently.

And this isn’t just a problem when watching movies. Games and TV shows suffer from the same fate, so don’t think this won’t affect you if you only want to watch football on Sundays.

Resolution

A projector’s native resolution is the number of pixels it can display. The higher this number, the better your images will appear and be viewed from farther away – which means you’ll have less trouble filling up that screen with all those juicy details.

Higher resolutions are especially important for home theater projectors because viewers sit closer to them than they do other screens; higher pixel count allows people more room in their living rooms without any individual pixels being visible as dots or lines sketching out an image on top of another one underneath creating what looks like double exposure photography where objects cast two shadows each time light shines through reflecting off surfaces.

Projectors support a variety of video resolutions, including 4K Ultra HD for stunning visuals and shows. The following are the primarily supported formats. Resolution ranges from 480p to 720p and 1080p for standard-definition viewing, with 4K UHD available for amazingly sharp movies and programs.

Projectors are an excellent way to project your favorite photos, videos, and more. The quality of the image will depend on what resolution you want for each situation – if it’s a movie then 1080p is needed while higher resolutions like 4K might be better suited as shared laptop screens or television sets with friends who have newer laptops but still need high-resolution graphics during gameplay time sessions.

Contrast Ratio

One of the most important features to look for in a projector is the contrast ratio. This tells you how deep and dark your blacks will be, as well as what shade or color range your picture can display properly on screen due to its ability to show shadow detail that’s really visible without any other distracting light sources around it.

HDR

HDR (high dynamic range) is the new technology that filmmakers are using to create much more contrast in their images. The amount of detail in highlights, mid tones, and shadows has increased significantly in modern movies. The last decade has made a huge difference in how well filmmakers can capture the full range of color, brightness, and darkness in real life, but until recently there wasn’t a way to display that on-screen without losing detail in some areas.

Lamp Life

Another very important spec to look for is the lamp life. This tells you how long your projector lamps will last before you need to replace them. The more hours on a lamp, the longer it should last and the cheaper it’s going to be for you in the long run.

Connectivity

The projectors can be connected to different devices. The most common types of connections are:

• HDMI – best for connecting to a digital device with a high-definition video output
• VGA – A 15 pin cable with a standard connector for a PC monitor, works on newer laptop models as well.
• USB – for USB type projectors without an external power source, mainly used in mobile presentation
• Audio – connects the projector to the computer’s audio input for sound output.
• Wired Connectivity – better than wireless as it has no signal interference and provides a secure, reliable connection.
• Wireless Connectivity – the use of radio signals to connect devices without cables. It is very common for business and educational professional projectors. The challenge with wireless connectivity is that there can be some issues with signal loss or interference, especially in mid-sized

Chipset

In the world of digital projection technology, there are three main types of chipsets; DLP, LCD, and LCoS. All produce fantastic images but each one has attributes it does better than the others. We often get asked which chipset is best – all have their advantages depending on what you’re looking for in your projector.

Frequently Asked Projector Questions

Can you watch Netflix on a projector?

By connecting a compatible device to the projector via an HDMI connection or WiFi, Netflix can be viewed on most contemporary projectors.

Can a Projector Be Used In Daylight?

While it’s not feasible to sit comfortably in the sun with a projector screen, there are certain techniques for employing a projector during the day that you should know. To find a projector with at least 2,500 lumens or lux of projector lamp brightness, and to discover a shadier location to set up your projector.

How Many Lumens Do I Need For An Outdoor Projector?

It’s best if the projector lamp on an outdoor projector has at least 2,500 lumens or lux of brightness.

How Do I Know What Size Projector Screen To Buy?

Projector screens are available in a variety of sizes. The size you need depends on your particular projector and its aspect ratio, so it’s best to start there before deciding if fixed or retractable frames will work for you better down the line.

What Is The Difference Between a Projector and a Television?

A projector uses an image as its source of light, while television has an *interior* light source. The modern television screen works by “flooding” it with electrons that glow in response to the voltage applied to them; this produces much less-defined imagery than that of a projector.

What Is The Difference Between An LCD and DLP Projector?

These two technologies are not interchangeable, but you will likely hear people using them as if they were. This is mostly due to the fact that DLP projectors usually come with a technology called “Digital Light Processing” (DLP) that allows them to project an image by directing the reflection of light off of a surface.

What Is the Difference Between 800×600, 1024×768, 1280×1024, and 1920×1080?

These are all resolution numbers for projectors and TVs. The first two numbers refer to width and height, while the last two numbers refer to width and height and also pixels. For example, 1024×768 indicates that the projector’s resolution is 1024 pixels wide and 768 pixels high for a total of 786,432 pixels.

How Long Does A Projector Lamp Last?

Lamps for projectors have a range of durations, depending on the materials and construction. The difference can be as high as 6,000 to 30,000+ hours of viewing time. 6,000 hours of watching time equates to approximately three years and four months of continuous viewing.

If you do the math, four hours of content per day for more than three years is possible. Projector lamps with the most lasting are expected to endure over a decade.

It is critical, however, to look after these parts as well as the entire device. The projector should not be dropped or impacted against a wall, and dust must be cleaned regularly. With regular upkeep and switching off the equipment when it is not in use, you can significantly extend the lamp’s life.

Last update on 2023-05-30