Hisense's latest 'Laser Cinema' model excels in terms of smart skill and usability, and delivers captivating 4K HDR visuals and solid sonics. Be prepared to tweak its presets, though.
Never a company to sit on its laurels, Samsung has now released a second-generation version of its portable Freestyle projector, building on its earlier success by including a host of useful and ingenious new features at a very competitive price...
It's been quiet on the projector front of late. Brands don't seem to be updating their ranges as often
as they used to – or else the updates are so small they're barely worth talking about. Yet while BenQ has taken four years to replace its highly regarded W2700i home cinema PJ, the new W2710i tested here is definitely not a small upgrade. 
Sony has dumped inefficient lamps and gone all-in on lasers for its projector lineup, with no fewer than five native 4K models using amplified light photons to generate their images. The top model – the VPL-GTZ380 – is a beast of a beamer that can generate a blinding 10,000 Lumens, but comes with an equally painful price tag of eighty grand. Naturally, the majority of home cinema owners will look at the other four – likely beginning with the entry-level VPL-XW5000ES, which is suggested can deliver 2,000 Lumens and sells for £5,999.
The projector marque is once again targeting bigscreen gamers, this time with a Full HD model with handy short-throw lens and 120Hz playback. John Archer plugs in
BenQ describes its TH690ST as the 'world's first short-throw 4LED console gaming projector'. While this description sums up its core appeal well, it only scrapes the surface of everything the unit has going for it.
Optoma's conventional 4K projector might lack the allure of its UST siblings, but a laser engine, flexible setup and punchy performance mean it's still a bright buy, says Steve May
We've seen projectors adopt a variety of form factors of late, from UST models to Samsung's novel portable Freestyle. Optoma's UHZ50 is a more traditional beamer, but it's no less exciting.
On the evidence of this UST PJ, John Archer feels newcomer Xgimi is ready to take on the AV big boys
Xgimi is the latest in a growing line of relatively new Chinese brands on a mission to shake up the home entertainment market – and if its new Aura ultra-short-throw projector is anything to go by, it'll soon find plenty of fans. Priced £2,399, this beamer feels like serious value for money.
LG's new UST laser projector is smart, compact and bright. Steve May, who is none of those things, takes a closer look
If you invite the neighbours to watch Turning Red on your new LG 'CineBeam' HU715Q projector, will they leave an envious shade of green? I reckon so. The Korean company's take on the (slowly) evolving 'laser TV' market is delightfully impressive.
The brand's latest affordable 4K HDR beamer is out to show John Archer exactly what the director intended
Projectors, for better or for worse, seem to be getting more and more specialised. There are dedicated education projectors, business projectors, gaming projectors and, of course, home cinema projectors. Happily for us, BenQ very clearly describes its new W1800 model as a home cinema projector – an assertion it backs up in a number of promising ways.
Hisense's latest attempt to turn a projector into a TV is its most compelling yet, reckons John Archer
If you're reading this magazine, you probably love a bigscreen viewing experience. You might even dream of either being able to afford a monster-sized 100in TV, or having somewhere to install a projector without messing up your day-to-day living space. And thanks to Hisense's latest Laser TV, the 100L9GTUK, you might have to dream no more. The appeal of this product is wickedly simple. It combines an ultra-short-throw laser projector, built-in 40W audio system and high reflectivity, 100in ambient light rejecting (ALR) screen to give you a TV-like experience at home cinema dimensions. It does this for £4,499, just a fraction of what a 100in TV would cost.
Samsung invents a whole new home entertainment category – and a young at heart John Archer is mostly here for it
Not content with unexpectedly returning to the premium projector fray last year with its The Premiere ultra-short-throw model (see HCC #318), Samsung has now decided, again out of the blue, to redefine our entire notion of what a projector even is. And it's to the Korean company's credit that, having lived with its new, out-of-left-field beamer, I'm quite smitten.
JVC upgrades its native 4K projectors by swapping lamps for lasers. Steve Withers trips the light fantastic
It wasn't a huge surprise when JVC announced its new NZ series of laser-powered projectors last autumn, but what did surprise was the full extent of the upgrade. These new beamers include all the features found on the previous generation, but add HDMI 2.1 inputs capable of handling 8K/60p and 4K/120p, an upgraded iteration of its 8K e-Shift technology (dubbed e-ShiftX), and support for HDR10+.
Video gaming is currently enjoying the sort of explosion in popularity that home cinema did in the 1980s. Sales of the latest Xbox Series X and PS5 consoles are truly mind-boggling (despite ongoing supply issues). It's no surprise, then, to see makers of traditionally AV gear suddenly falling over themselves to cater for the gaming market.
Sony's new high-end projector almost manages to persuade John Archer to part with £25,000
Thanks mainly to the 4K HDR experiences unlocked by its new X1 for Projector processing silicon, Sony has already wowed us with two of its current home cinema beamers, the mid-range VPL-VW590ES (see HCC #318) and step-up VPL-VW790ES (HCC #316). Can it complete the hat-trick with the high-end VPL-VW890ES? Or, put another way, is this £25,000 laser-powered behemoth really £12,000 'better' than the VW790ES?