The Best Ultra Short Throw Projector Shootout for 2023

The Formovie Theater is no longer the new kid on the block. In fact, last year it became the king of the hill and has managed to defend its high ground by virtue of its exceptional contrast, black level, tone mapping and handling of HDR content among other areas of excellence.

It was a resounding top pick for this year’s judges with 5 out of 6 choosing it as their #1 pick and the 6th judge choosing it as #2. No other projector in this Showdown was selected by every single judge, let alone with consistent top placement.

This fact that this projector was the overwhelming favorite of the judges earns the Formovie Theater the top spot as the best ultra short throw projector for 2023.

While several other contestants have caught up to the Theater with its Dolby Vision support, it’s still one of the least expensive triple laser projectors out there and delivers a visual experience that surpasses that of units costing several times as much,

While its 41.9ms input lag time may not make it the top choice for competitive gamers, it is more than adequate for casual gaming and still was faster than several of the other models in the contest. For those of you yearning to enjoy 3D content, you will unfortunately need to look elsewhere.

Notably, this projector scored top rankings in every single category of the audio judging.

Based on its #1 ranking by our judges and low price point, we here at ProjectorScreen.com would absolutely still call this one of, if not the top value in the entire ultra short throw projector competition.

- Brian's Thoughts

The PX2-Pro has some very similar siblings in the Hisense family, the 100L9H / 120L9H. It was decided to only include the PX2-Pro since their L9H product can only be purchased with a Hisense bundled screen and that screen is different between the 100” and 120” sizes. 

This means that entering the L9H would result in a different experience for our judges than any consumer could expect to experience for themselves.

While the sibling units were not officially judged, we here at ProjectorScreen.com are confident that the rankings of the PX2-Pro by the judges can be extrapolated to those other units.

It clearly separated itself from the pack in terms of 24p motion handling with the highest score in the contest.

The new Hisense PX2-Pro offers vastly improved contrast, brighter output, Dolby Vision support and the Google OS featuring a built-in Netflix app, over its predecessor, the PX1-Pro which finished 4th in the 2022 LaserTV Showdown. 

These improvements certainly manifest themselves when you look at the judges ratings of this ultra short throw projector and its selection as the (tied for) #2 judges' choice.

- Brian's Thoughts

The Epson LS800, available in both black & white, has rapidly become one of the most popular projectors of the year due to its incredibly high brightness, short throw distance and low lag time.

It was the only LCD based projector in this year's Showdown and by virtue of how it is achieve its 4k resolution via shift, it did not provide the same level of sharpness and detail as its DLP counterparts, but more than made up for it in the eyes of the judges with its overall performance and feature set.

While not scoring top marks in any specific criteria in this competition, its overall great performance, high brightness, dynamic contrast and other attributes made the LS800 tie for 2nd place in the eyes of our judges.

This is absolutely a top contender to be put in any well lit environment.

- Brian's Thoughts

While Leica is a brand with a legacy for phenomenal optics with its camera lenses, it is a total newcomer to the projection space. While it is built upon last year’s Hisense L9G platform (manufactured for Leica by Hisense), the advantages that the Leica lens packaged inside brings to this last generation model was very apparent to our judges.

Its sharpness was undoubtedly superior to the rest of the USTs in this showdown and per the scorecard, was rated with top scores in all of the detail/sharpness criteria.

The Cine1 comes in 2, fixed focus sizes preset to 100” & 120”. It’s lack of variable focus and high price tag may not make it the right choice for many consumers, but for those of whom are more interested in sharpness than contrast and have an affinity towards the Leica brand, the Cine1 proved to be a heavy hitter in the minds of the judges.

- Brian's Thoughts

The Ultimea Thor T60 is a projector that I had just recently heard of and had never seen prior to the Showdown. 

In fact, it is the only projector in this year's competition that was not taken from retail stock and was entered as a manufacturer provided unit as it was still in it's crowdfunding stage at the time of the Showdown.

ProjectorCentral had decided to include it due to its extraordinary published specifications and significant interest and hype around it that has formed online.

It is the brightest triple laser projector available and boasts an advertised 4,000:1 contrast ratio, 3D support, Dolby Vision, a low lag time for gaming, a massive 200" maximum image and most impressively the widest color gamut of any UST projector - 120% of the BT.2020 color space!

While the Showdown did not measure most of their claims, the Thor T60's wide color gamut was very evident to our judges as it garnered the highest score in that category.

It also took top score in several other categories as well including Color Accuracy / Skin tone and SDR Day Mode contrast, to further give credence to its claims.

Unfortunately all of that brightness did make this projector the only one with a Mildly Distracting rating in both Laser Speckle & Rainbow Artifacts, but perhaps that is something that can be addressed in a future firmware update.

Considering its strong performance in this year's Showdown, it's relatively high price tag is certainly warranted in my opinion and if the final production units perform at this same caliber, the Thor T60 is a great option for a well lit environment.

- Brian's Thoughts

The Nexigo Aurora Pro was a relative last minute addition to the Showdown and ProjectorCentral had decided to enter it based on the significant amount of buzz that it had created via its crowdfunding campaign and chatter in various forums.

We did already have a demo unit provided to us by Nexigo, however in sticking with the theme of only using retail units when available, we did end up purchasing one from Nexigo and had it shipped directly to the calibrator in preparation for the event.

Prior to performing any calibrations, he checks all projectors for any firmware updates. Unfortunately in this instance and at that time, there was no over the air (OTA) firmware pushed to this unit and we were not notified by Nexigo of a new firmware available and provided with that until after the Aurora Pro had already been received, calibrated and on its way back to the showdown. 

The firmware updates from Nexigo are now pushed OTA and anyone who purchases a retail unit will be able to update immediately upon setup.

This is important because the firmware update for this unit has a positive impact on its overall image quality performance and in my opinion, am pretty certain that it would have scored more highly in the eyes of the judges.

I do not believe that the Aurora Pro as entered in this contest is necessarily indicative of the performance one would experience at the time of reading these results and I am personally committed to making a more in-depth analysis of this projector and its performance against the winners of the 2023 Laser TV Showdown and will publish our review and findings on our blog in the near future.

With supporting 3D, Dolby Vision and having a low lag time, the Aurora Pro is a projector to absolutely keep your eyes on and the fact that Nexigo is rapidly pushing our firmware enhancements is very encouraging and a testament to my belief that by the time I am able to do my followup comparison we may be looking at a much stronger performer.

- Brian's Thoughts

The Hisense PL1 is the first variable focus, single laser UST projector from Hisense. Just like its triple-laser counterpart, the PX2-Pro, this projector has fixed-focus, bundled siblings - the 100L5H & 120L5H. The PL1 was selected because the L5H products can only be purchased with a Hisense bundled screen and that screen is different between the 100” and 120” sizes. This means that entering the L5H would result in a different experience for our judges than any consumer could expect to experience for themselves.

While the sibling units were not officially judged, we here at ProjectorScreen.com are confident that the rankings of the PX2-Pro by the judges can be extrapolated to those other units.

As a single laser projector, the PL1 was destined to have a tough time competing in this UST shootout against the triple laser light source found on most of its competitors. While it had the obvious color gamut disadvantage, it still hung tough and when you factor in its lower price tag, it still proves to be a solid value overall despite not having the highest marks in any particular criteria.

This projector is best suited in environments with lower levels of ambient light and is an easy recommendation for us to give for those looking for a solid, economical option for more dedicated viewing spaces, especially with its Dolby Vision support.

The built in Netflix app is also a nice bonus and not found on many of the USTs in the Showdown.

- Brian's Thoughts

While the Formovie C3 entered in the 2023 LaserTV Showdown is available to purchase at retail, it is not the true final product intended for the USA Market. This "Global" edition is expected to arrive early in 2024 and comes with a slew of enhanced features that really would have benefited the C3 in this competition.

With its current FengOS operating system, the Color Management System (CMS) controls were lacking and the projector was not able to be as nearly dialed in from a calibration perspective as its "Global" sibling, the Formovie Theater.

Despite its measured native contrast ratio being among the highest of all entrants, that was not manifested in what the judges saw during the competition.

From my own personal experience, seeing the difference between what the FengOS version of the Theater is capable of compared to the vastly superior Global version, I have no doubt that when the C3 Global edition is released it will be a much more formidable projector.

It's strong audio performance and lowest price tag of all the projectors still makes it an attractive option to many, however you will need an external video/streaming device for use in the USA until the Global edition is released.

- Brian's Thoughts

This event was the first public display of the BenQ V5000i here in the USA and unfortunately was not met with much fanfare.

This came at quite a surprise to me as in the 2022 LaserTV Showdown, BenQ's entrant the V7050i won first place in the single laser round. Had they not discontinued that model, it is quite possible that it would have had a strong showing again this year as well.

While it's successor the V5000i does support 3D and has a low lag time making it great for gamers, its limited image size that caps out at 100" really limits its adoptability for those looking for a big screen experience.

It is also physically the largest projector out of the entire competition which may create challenges for many in terms of placing it in their living space.

While this jack of all trades was not deemed to be a master of one, it did score relatively well in color accuracy - something that BenQ is well regarded for.

- Brian's Thoughts