If you want a smart 4K laser projector: LG’s $2,500 HU710PW was close to becoming our budget pick in this guide, but a few concerns keep it from being an unqualified recommendation. On the positive side, this fully featured 4K DLP projector uses a hybrid laser/LED light source and has features like the WebOS streaming platform, AirPlay 2, LG’s Game Optimizer, and Bluetooth built in. The picture quality can be really good, but it takes some work to get the best performance out of this projector. For video enthusiasts who care about accuracy, we strongly recommend getting this one professionally calibrated to dial in the best color and contrast, which will add several hundred dollars to the cost. The black level is excellent, so movies can look rich, colorful, and detailed in a dark room—but the HU710PW is significantly dimmer than the Epson LS11000 and is best suited for use only in a fully light-controlled environment. HDR content consistently measured less bright than it should, despite the inclusion of an automatic tone-mapping function. There are three HDMI inputs (one with eARC to send audio to an external send system); one of them supports HDMI 2.1 features but only has a bandwidth of 24 Gbps, so it can’t receive a 4K 120 Hz signal. The built-in speaker can play quite loud but has a blaring, shouty quality to it, and we occasionally saw lip-sync issues, which you can adjust in the sound menu. These issues won’t matter if you’re sending audio to a sound system, though. More concerning is the light spill we saw coming off the lens, which cast a ring of light on the floor in front of our screen. The light wasn’t that distracting on the floor, but if you mount this projector upside down in a ceiling mount, it will be more noticeable above the screen (you could tape thick paper near the lens to fix this but, really, should you have to for $2,500). Also, the projector uses an external power supply housed in a very large brick that could be challenging to accommodate, especially for a ceiling installation. Overall, the HU710PW just isn’t as refined as the Epson LS11000 in many respects, but if you’re looking for a more affordable projector for use in a light-controlled space, it’s a solid choice.
