Best Projectors for Home Entertainment Right Now

Best Projectors for Home Entertainment Right Now

By Editorial Team | April 2026

A projector only works if you’ll actually use it, and that means setup has to be easy and the picture has to hold up when the lights aren’t perfectly off. The Cosmos 4K SE is the pick because it delivers 4K, Dolby Vision, Google TV, and automated alignment without turning movie night into a calibration session.

Our picks at a glance

Pick	Product	Price	Best for
Best overall	Cosmos 4K SE	£849.00	Living rooms, bedrooms, and occasional outdoor movie nights with mixed light
Best upgrade	XGIMI Horizon Ultra	£1,699	Buyers who want a brighter, more polished picture and can spend more
Best budget	Epson EpiqVision Mini EF22	£399	Smaller rooms and buyers who want a cheaper step into portable projection

Based on hands-on research, expert review consensus (RTings, Wirecutter, relevant subreddits), and current pricing.

Best overall: Cosmos 4K SE

Cosmos 4K SE — £849.00

This is the projector to buy if you want a big-screen setup that doesn’t punish you for moving it around. The 7.8 score is fair: it gets the essentials right, and it does it with less faff than most portable 4K projectors.

Why we picked it:

• 1,800 ANSI lumens is enough to stay usable in a room with some ambient light, so you are not forced into blackout conditions.
• Dolby Vision support is rare at this level and helps streamed films look better in highlights and shadow detail.
• The auto setup suite is the real win: autofocus, keystone correction, obstacle avoidance, screen fit, wall-colour adaptation, and ambient-light adaptation make room-to-room use much less annoying.

The trade-off: black levels are only average, so dark-room movie fans will spot the weaker contrast fast.

If you want the easy version of portable home cinema, buy the Cosmos 4K SE and move on with your life.

Best upgrade: XGIMI Horizon Ultra

XGIMI Horizon Ultra — £1,699

The extra money buys you a more accomplished picture with a brighter feel and a more stylish package. Trusted Reviews calls it a stronger all-round alternative to the Cosmos 4K SE, and that matches the usual upgrade logic here: pay more if you care about picture refinement as much as convenience.

Worth it if: you watch a lot in a semi-lit living room and want the step-up in image quality more than the Cosmos 4K SE’s better price-to-ease ratio.

Best budget pick: Epson EpiqVision Mini EF22

Epson EpiqVision Mini EF22 — £399

This is the cheaper answer if you want portable projection without paying for 4K. It is a 1080p projector, so you lose fine detail, but it still gives you a compact design, built-in Google TV, and strong enough brightness for casual viewing in a smaller space.

Worth it if: you mainly stream TV, don’t sit close, and would rather save nearly half the money than chase 4K pixels.

How we chose

We prioritised brightness, setup automation, smart TV support, and real-world contrast performance, because those are the things that decide whether a projector gets used. We also checked current expert consensus from PCMag, Wirecutter, CNET, Trusted Reviews, and TechRadar, then compared that with current pricing.

Frequently asked questions

Do you need a dark room for the Cosmos 4K SE? No, but it looks better with the lights down. It is bright enough for mixed lighting, yet the contrast is not strong enough to make dark scenes shine in a fully bright room.

Is £849 too much for a portable projector? Not if you value 4K, Dolby Vision, and the built-in setup features. If you just want a cheap big screen, 1080p projectors like the Epson EF22 will save you a lot of money.

Will it work for outdoor movie nights? Yes, provided you have mains power and do not expect daylight performance. It is portable in the “easy to move” sense, not the “battery-powered camping gadget” sense.