Mini projectors: what the spec sheets don't tell you

Mini projectors are one of the most oversold categories in consumer electronics. Not because they are bad — a good one is a genuine pleasure — but because the numbers on the box are measured in ways designed to flatter.

We sell one. This is written so you buy it for the right reasons, or decide not to.

"Supports 4K" is not the same as being 4K

Almost every budget projector listing carries a resolution claim, and almost always there are two different numbers hiding in it.

Native resolution is how many pixels the projector can actually put on the wall. On affordable units this is usually 1280 × 720 or 1920 × 1080.

Supported resolution is what it will accept from your laptop or stick without refusing to play. A projector that "supports 4K" takes a 4K signal and then scales it down to whatever its native panel actually is.

Both facts can be printed truthfully on the same box, and the second is almost always in larger type. When you look at any listing — ours, Amazon's, anyone's — find the words native resolution. If a listing doesn't state one, assume 720p.

Lumens: ask which kind

Brightness is where the numbers get genuinely slippery, because there are two scales in circulation and they differ by roughly an order of magnitude.

ANSI lumens is the standardised measurement, taken across nine points of the image. It is the one worth trusting.

Then there are the unqualified "lumens" figures — sometimes called light source lumens or just left undefined — measured straight at the bulb rather than at the screen. This is how a projector arrives at a headline like 13,000 when its ANSI figure is a couple of hundred.

Rough guide for ANSI lumens:

• Under 200 — needs genuine darkness. Fine at night with the curtains shut.
• 200–500 — comfortable in a dim room after dark. This is where most portable units honestly sit.
• 1,000+ — starting to cope with some ambient light.
• 2,000+ — usable in a lit room, and no longer a small cheap projector.

If a listing gives you a huge number with no "ANSI" next to it, the honest translation is "this is a night-time projector".

How far back do you need to be?

This catches people out in small flats. A projector's throw ratio tells you the distance needed per unit of image width. A fairly typical 1.3:1 ratio means a two-metre-wide picture needs about 2.6 metres of clear space between lens and wall.

Before buying anything, measure the distance from where the projector would sit to the wall it would point at. Then check the listing's throw figures against it. A projector that needs four metres in a room with three is a return.

Keystone correction — the setting that squares up a skewed image when the projector isn't centred — helps with awkward positioning, but digital keystone works by throwing away pixels at the edges. Use it a little; don't rely on it.

The sound will disappoint you

Built-in speakers in anything this size are small, downward-firing and behind a cooling fan. They are fine for a YouTube video and poor for a film.

Assume from the start that you will pair a Bluetooth speaker, and the whole thing improves dramatically. Check for Bluetooth audio out specifically — some projectors only do Bluetooth in.

What they are genuinely good at

None of the above is a reason not to own one. It is a reason to own one for the right job:

• A big picture in a small room. A 100-inch image for the price of a 40-inch TV, and when it's off, the wall is just a wall. In a small living room that is a real argument.
• Outdoors. Films in the garden in summer are the single best use of a portable projector, and there is no TV equivalent.
• Renting. Nothing to mount, nothing to drill, packs into a drawer.
• Occasional use. Match day, a film night, a presentation. If it comes out once a month, the compromises barely register.

Where they lose is as a daily television: daytime viewing, casual background watching, anything in a bright room.

You don't need a screen

A smooth, matte, pale wall is a perfectly good surface, and better than a cheap creased screen. What a proper screen buys you is a little more brightness and contrast, and that matters most if your projector is on the dim end — which, if it is a small one, it is.

Magnolia walls tint the picture slightly warm. Pure white is better. Gloss paint is worse than matte, because it throws hotspots back at you.

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We stock the Veylo Cinema Mini Projector. It is a portable, night-time, big-picture projector of the kind described above — and the supplier's own images for it quote brightness and resolution figures in both of the ways this article warns about, which is exactly why the article exists. Check the native resolution and the ANSI figure before you buy anything in this category, from us or anyone else.