Our pick
BenQ HT2060
This projector produces a bright, rich-looking image with more accurate color than on most competitors. It’s easy to set up and quiet in operation, but it lacks features like Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.
The BenQ HT2060 stands above every projector we’ve tested in the $1,000-and-under price range because it gets the important things right in the picture-quality department and doesn’t have any major ergonomic annoyances to contend with. You can find projectors below $1,000 that offer good brightness or a solid black level or accurate color, but it’s rare to find all three in the same package. That’s what you get with the HT2060, along with a respectably robust speaker, a thorough connection panel, and a long-lasting LED light source that’s quiet in operation and won’t need to be replaced.
The projector’s 1.3x zoom, adjustable feet, and ability to vertically shift the lens makes it easier for you to position the image on your screen, and this model isn’t plagued by excessively loud fan noise. The fully backlit IR remote is easy to use in a dark room and offers lots of helpful buttons to adjust the image on the fly. The HT2060 has a 1080p HD resolution but supports the input of a 4K high dynamic range video signal, and it supports 3D playback.
The HT2060 lacks built-in streaming apps and Bluetooth support, but you can easily add those features by connecting a streaming stick to one of the two HDMI 2.0 inputs. The biggest potential drawback to this projector is that the single-DLP-chip design can produce a visible rainbow effect for some viewers, but most people either can’t see it or won’t be bothered by it.
Also great
BenQ HT2150ST
If you’re short on space, this short-throw projector can produce a 100-inch image from less than 5 feet away. But the picture quality isn’t quite as good as that of our top pick, and its lamp will need to be replaced over time.
Buying Options
*At the time of publishing, the price was $800.
If you’re building a home theater setup in a smaller room, you may need a projector with a short-throw lens so that you can place it much closer to your screen or wall and still get a large image. We like the BenQ HT2150ST for this purpose. This 1080p projector is very bright and easy to set up. Its colors aren’t as accurate as those of the non-short-throw HT2060, and the complex optics in its short-throw lens lead to a loss of sharpness around edges in the image, but it’s worth the compromise if you want a big image in a smaller space. The HT2150ST uses a traditional bulb instead of an LED light source, so it will dim over time and will need to be replaced.
