Showdown and shootout events are becoming very popular these days both for TVs and for projectors. Put a bunch of high performance displays in a room, feed them with a variety of challenging test patterns and video clips and unleash a panel of professional judges to rate each display and pick a winner. Projector retailer ProjectorScreen.com and projector review site ProjectorCentral.com teamed up last week to do a two-part projector showdown. Part One, the “2023 Laser TV Showdown” pitted 10 popular UST projectors against each other to identify the current top performers. Details of that event (including the results) are available here: Best UST Projector of 2023 Revealed at Laser TV Showdown.
Part two followed with a competition between the top portable “lifestyle” projectors. These are projectors that are easier to carry, move around and set-up on a moment’s notice. They can temporarily turn your living room into a screening room or your backyard into an outdoor theater. Just add your favorite movie, TV show, sporting event or gaming console and a high quality screen and you’re good to go.
As with the UST Showdown, the lifestyle projector competition featured multiple clips, stills and test patterns each selected to highlight particular areas of picture performance like brightness, color saturation, color accuracy, contrast, and image uniformity.
Held on Thursday, October 26th at ProjectorScreen.com’s showroom in New Jersey, the 2023 Lifestyle Projector Showdown was emceed, organized and overseen by ProjectorCentral’s Editor-in-Chief Rob Sabin. Brian Gluck, CEO of ProjectorScreen.com, provided the test venue (the company’s NJ headquarters) as well as off-the-shelf samples of all projectors. To provide a level playing field, professional ISF Level III calibrator and Contributing Technical Editor for ProjectorCentral, Sammie Prescott, Jr. of AV ChromaCal, calibrated each projector for optimal image quality. Judges were selected from the A/V editorial and professional calibration communities.
2023 Lifestyle/Portable Projector Judges:
- Chris Eberle, professional ISF-trained display calibrator, display reviewer for Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity, display reviewer for Tom’s Hardware
- Andy Grimm, projector reviewer and contributor for Home Theater Review, display calibrator
- John Higgins, Managing Editor, Tech, at Reviewed, part of the USA Today Network, ISF-trained display calibrator
- Mark Henninger, Editor-in-Chief for Sound & Vision, former Managing Editor for Home Theater Review, former Editor-in-Chief for AVS Forum, THX-trained display calibrator
- Chris Majestic, owner of the popular YouTube channel Majestechs, a channel dedicated to high quality tech reviews and tutorials
- M. David Stone, long-time projector reviewer for PCMag.com, veteran contributor for ProjectorCentral
The lifestyle projectors lit up five identical 100-inch diagonal reference-quality matte white screens, provided by event sponsor Spectra Projection. Lights were left on for some of the viewing and turned off for the rest so judges would get to gauge their video performance under real world conditions.
The Contenders in the 2023 Portable/Lifestyle Projector Showdown (with MSRP)
- ForMovie X5 4K Laser Lifestyle/Portable Projector ($1,599)
- JMGO N1 Ultra 4K Triple Laser Portable Projector ($2,299)
- XGIMI Horizon Ultra 4K Hybrid Laser/LED Portable Projector ($1,699)
- Hisense Cube C1 4K Triple Laser Portable Projector ($1,999)
- BenQ X3100i 4K 4-LED Portable Projector ($2,299)
All projectors in the 2023 lifestyle projector showdown feature 4K resolution and a compact form factor and light-weight design so they’re easy to move from room to room, to a friend’s house, or even outside. They also include built in speakers, though we’d recommend pairing any of these with a powered soundbar, A/V receiver or PA speakers for best results, particularly if you plan to use the projector outside or in a very large room.
Unlike UST (Ultra Short Throw) projectors, these lifestyle/portable projectors cannot be placed close to the wall. They’re long throw projectors which means they need a bit of space from the wall in order to create a large image. These projectors are intended to be placed on a coffee table, tripod or cart in the middle or rear of the room which will lift them to a suitable height for viewing and give them enough distance to generate a 100-inch (or larger) image.
Generally speaking, the optics of these projectors are designed so that the bottom of the projector should line up with the bottom of the viewing screen. In case that’s not feasible, all of the projectors include some sort of keystone controls to adjust the image geometry if you need to project the image up higher than the projector itself. All of the models in this year’s competition can also be ceiling mounted for a more permanent installation. For the showdown, the projectors were all mounted on tripods adjusted to align each projector with the screen in order to minimize (or eliminate) any keystone adjustments.
Most of the projectors in the competition include a smart TV streaming platform built-in which can be used in the United States except the ForMovie X5, the current version of which is designed for the Chinese market. For US buyers, the ForMovie X5 projector comes with an Amazon FireTV Stick Max included in the box for video and audio streaming apps. A global version of the ForMovie X5 is expected to be shown at CES 2024 and will be available for sale in the United States next year. The JMGO, BenQ and XGIMI projectors use Android TV for their streaming platform. Hisense uses its in-house Vidaa streaming platform with access to all the top streaming services. For those who care about 3D, the BenQ X3100i, JMGO N1 Ultra and XGIMI Horizon Ultra support 3D content via DLP-Link active 3D glasses.
In terms of imaging technology, all projectors in the competition use DLP imaging chips lit up by lasers, LED lights or both. The ForMovie projector features a single laser+phosphor light source, the JMGO and Hisense projectors each use three lasers, the BenQ projector uses 4 LED lights and the XGIMI projector uses a hybrid laser/LED light source.
Judges Being Judgey
All five projectors were set up in the same room and over the course of several hours, all were fed identical test patterns, stills and video clips. Judges evaluated each projector in both dark and bright room conditions and rated each projector for its performance in each picture category.
The Results
Unlike the UST competition, where there was a clear winner, the portable/lifestyle competition produced two winners: a tie for first place between the Formovie X5 and the BenQ X3100i. Interestingly, these were the least expensive (Formovie) and most expensive (BenQ) in the competition. The XGIMI Horizon Ultra finished in third place, the Hisense C1 in fourth and the JMGO N1 Ultra in fifth. Scores were much closer than in the UST competition and each projector had clear strengths. And while the Formovie and BenQ were picked as the favorites by two judges each, the HiSense and XGIMI were each picked by one judge as their favorite.
The Formovie X5 took top scores for contrast and black level tests as well as UHD detail while the BenQ X3100i had the top score for detail in SDR day mode viewing. The XGIMI Horizon Ultra earned the highest scores for color accuracy in all categories and tied the BenQ in SDR day mode detail/sharpness, but its lower contrast and black level scores made it suffer by comparison to the top finishers. The Hisense C1 did well in detail tests but lagged the leaders in both color accuracy and contrast. The JMGO N1 Ultra performed well in contrast and wide color gamut testing, but also lagged the others slightly in color accuracy.
As far as the sound quality, event emcee and organizer Rob Sabin tested all five of the projectors with a variety of material and found that all of them performed well overall, particularly considering their compact size. His favorites for sound quality were the XGIMI Horizon Ultra with its Harman Kardon sound system and the Hisense C1 with sound powered by JBL. Let’s hope Hisense deploys some of that JBL goodness in their UST projectors because those units definitely need some sonic help.
Rob liked the sound of the XGIMI’s DTS Virtual:X mode for improving the spatiality of the sound from movies and music. And he was particularly impressed that the Hisense offered a headphone/line output that allowed the projector to be plugged into a separate powered subwoofer to take the sound quality up an additional notch. You can read more about his thoughts on the sound quality of all projectors in the competition in his full 2023 Laser TV and Lifestyle Projector Showdown coverage.
The Bottom Line
Portable/Lifestyle projectors offer a nice option for those who want to be able to take their big screen movie viewing, sports watching or gaming sessions from room to room, outside or even to a friend’s house. In addition to video performance, which is pretty close among these five competitors, a prospective buyer should consider other elements of ergonomics and performance including sound quality, usability and streaming options.
The current version of the Formovie X5 is designed for the Chinese market so it has a Chinese OS and a streaming platform that doesn’t work in the United States. While the projector does come with an Amazon FireTV Stick 4K Max in the box for streaming, using a separate streaming device on a portable projector can be a bit awkward. If that’s a concern, then you might want to wait until next year for the global version.
For gamers, the BenQ and XGIMI projectors offer the lowest input lag scores, which matters if you’re a hard core fan of first person shooter games. And if you need to compensate for bright ambient lighting, the BenQ’s 3300 ANSI Lumens peak brightness rating is hard to beat in a portable projector. Any of these projectors will provide a high quality 4K huge screen viewing experience. We’d recommend that prospective buyers use the scorecard to inform your own purchasing decisions based on your specific picture preferences, use cases and viewing habits.
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